Christopher Lochhead Follow Your Different™

Over the last three years or so, we’ve all been through one of the craziest most challenging times in modern history. On today’s episode, we have a conversation with Liz Hoffman on how we can take stock of what just happened, and how we can master ourselves during a time of Crisis. Liz Hoffman is a legendary author and journalist. She used to be a senior reporter at The Wall Street Journal, and now she’s a business and finance editor at the new startup called Semafor.com. She’s got a riveting new book out that I really enjoyed, called Crash Landing: The Inside Story of how the world’s biggest companies survived an economy on the brink. We’ll discuss more about this new book and much more in today’s Follow Your Different, so stay tuned. You’re listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let’s go. Liz Hoffman on the early days of the pandemic, and how we are today Liz and Christopher discuss the emotional impact of the pandemic’s early days, which they regard as a global trauma. She then talks about how the emotional pitch of those days helped her set the emotional tone of her book’s characters. Christopher reflects on the dramatic changes in the world since then, as well as his sense of loss for lost time and loved ones. Liz agrees and mentions a recent article on the pandemic’s delayed reckoning with global trauma. They then talk about the bumpy re-entry into the world and the pandemic’s lingering effects, of whether we are post-pandemic or not. Liz Hoffman on the ending that never came Liz and Chris discussed how they, like many others, had hoped for a clear endpoint to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that it had remained elusive. And for Liz, there was an added layer of it as a reporter, looking for a conclusion to her work, but it never came. Christopher mentioned how both parties were hoping for a Hollywood-style ending, but the emergence of the Omicron variant dashed those hopes. Liz Hoffman believes that, as humans, people prefer clarity and closure, but the pandemic has been a long-term experience that defies easy categorization. The pacing of Liz’s pandemic book reflects this, as it begins with a frenzy before settling into a long and uncertain funk. What legendary leaders do in times of crisis Christopher then asks Liz for insight on how leaders can rise to the occasion rather than crumble under pressure. Liz believes that making a large number of decisions quickly and efficiently, without over-analyzing, can be beneficial. She cites the CEO of Hilton, who pulled their credit lines from banks in early March and received $2 billion to get them through the crisis. Liz emphasizes the importance of making decisions early and anticipating what will happen next, rather than getting bogged down in lengthy decision-making processes. She also points out that leaders should never run a multinational corporation on instinct alone, yet there is frequently unnecessary “process fat” in corporate decision-making that can be trimmed off. To hear more from Liz Hoffman and how to master yourself in times of crisis, download and listen to this episode. Bio Liz Hoffman is the business and finance editor at Semafor. Previously, she was a senior reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she covered financial markets, corporate dealmaking, and the machinations of Wall Street. A native of central Pennsylvania, Hoffman graduated from Tufts University and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Links Connect with Liz Hoffman! Semafor | Twitter | LinkedIn | Crash Landing We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

How do you take a startup, or really any game-changing idea, from conception to launch and success in the new native digital world? And how do we connect and celebrate with our colleagues in this new native digital world? Our guest Doug Camplejohn, has given a lot of thought to both of those questions. Doug Camplejohn is the founder and CEO of Airspeed. And it has been remarkable to see how Doug and his team has stayed true to a true north vision to solving a problem that matters, but at the same time be super flexible in both thinking, product development, and marketing. With over two decades of experience in the tech industry, Doug has held leadership roles at some of the world’s most innovative companies, including LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Salesforce. Pay special attention to Doug’s wisdom about why the questions, “are you having fun?” and “do you care if you get fired?” are such powerful questions, and how they can affect a person’s business decision-making. You’re listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let’s go. Doug Camplejohn on how to create a Startup The conversation starts with Doug sharing his approach to creating a startup. Doug explains that entrepreneurs are constantly looking for patterns and problems to solve, and he keeps a “suck list” of bad things and ideas that stick with him. He believes in being firm on the vision but loose on the details, and that good ideas don’t die but instead become something he can devote the next decade of his life to pursuing. Doug further explains that he and his team at Airspeed started with a clear goal in mind: to make employees feel more connected and celebrated, even if the details of how they got there changed along the way. The Trap of following the “Perfect Plan” The importance of having a clear problem direction rather than being solely focused on a product vision is further addressed by Christopher and Doug. They discuss how some entrepreneurs can become obsessed with a particular product idea and then struggle to pivot when it fails. Doug also believes in solving a problem that is personally meaningful and resonates with others, rather than chasing after the latest hot technology. He maintains that if the problem statement is genuine and resonates with people, the solution and approach to solving it can be flexible and evolve over time. Product Direction vs Problem Direction They then talk about the importance of having a problem direction rather than a product direction. They discuss how many entrepreneurs become too obsessed with a product vision and then realize they need to pivot one day. Because there are other factors to consider, from the top to the bottom of the organization. Finding a problem that is personally meaningful to the entrepreneur and resonates with others, according to Doug, is critical. They also discuss the difficulty of changing product direction and how it affects morale. Doug believes that taking a balanced approach, planning ahead of time, and breaking it down into smaller chunks, can help with flexibility and adaptation while still maintaining a clear vision. To hear more from Doug Camplejohn and how one could create a legendary startup from the ground up, download and listen to this episode. Bio Doug Camplejohn is an accomplished tech executive, entrepreneur, and startup advisor with over two decades of experience in the industry. He is the Founder and CEO of Airspeed, a platform designed to connect and celebrate employees digitally. Prior to founding Airspeed, Doug held several leadership roles at innovative tech companies such as LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Salesforce. At LinkedIn, he was the Vice President of Product Management for Sales Solutions, where he led the development of LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator product. Doug also worked at Salesforce as an EVP and GM of Sales Cloud. Doug is also an active investor and advisor to several early-stage startups, including Metadata.io, a B2B demand generation platform. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and has been featured in various publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and TechCrunch. Doug attended Carnegie Mellon University. He is passionate about leveraging technology to drive innovation and improve people’s lives, which is reflected in his work at Airspeed. Links Connect with Doug Camplejohn! Airspeed | LinkedIn | Twitter We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

In good times and bad, every drop of revenue matters. Without it, none of us even has a business. On this episode, we have a riveting conversation about the past, present, and future of revenue operations with Andy Byrne – the entrepreneur, CEO, and category designer of revenue operations. Andy Byrne is the CEO of Clari, and is known widely in the industry as the prime minister of revenue. And right now, Clari is doing an extraordinary thing, and has become the category King in revenue operations. Pay special attention to Andy’s insights into how boards and investors are now starting to focus on revenue governance. As you listen to Andy, you’ll also be getting a masterclass in how a CEO can be an evangelist for their company, and their category. You’re listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let’s go. Andy Byrne on being the CEO of a Red-hot Company The discussion begins with Andy being asked about his experience as co-founder and CEO of a successful startup, particularly over the last three unusual years. Andy expresses excitement about the impact his company has made, including the creation of a new job category called Revenue Operations, which is now the fastest growing and most lucrative job in the industry in the United States. He also mentions how proud he is that their platform has managed over $1 trillion in assets. He believes they are only getting started and will have a significant impact on the world. How Revenue Operations and the rise of AI Andy describes how he and his team saw an opportunity in developing an enterprise system to manage the revenue business process from beginning to end. They saw revenue as more than just an outcome, but as a critical business process in need of a dedicated system. He is pleased with the effect their company has had on the lives of many people, particularly revenue-critical employees, and believes that this is only the beginning. With regard to AI, Andy is excited about the potential of machine learning and artificial intelligence to make a meaningful impact, citing an example of their system accurately predicting a healthcare life sciences company’s $1.6 billion quarter within hours of being turned on. The Problem with the Three-Headed Hydra Andy then chimes in on importance of revenue and the challenges that companies face when using antiquated revenue management systems. He re-emphasizes that revenue is a business process, and it is the most important process in a company. Unfortunately, many businesses continue to rely on the three-headed Hydra: CRM, Excel, and BI, resulting in revenue leaks, reporting leaks, and inaccurate forecasting. Christopher shares his experience working with businesses that face unexpected deals in the final days of the quarter, which can be problematic if the company’s forecasting is inaccurate. Andy agrees and stresses that using these subpar systems increases risk and should put a stop to investor interest in that stock. To hear more from Andy Byrne and how to avoid revenue leaks in your business, download and listen to this episode. Bio Andy Byrne brings over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, business development and management to his position as CEO of Clari. Clari is the category leader in the Revenue Software Platform market, with over $1 trillion in revenue under management. Prior to Clari, Andy was part of the founding executive team at Clearwell Systems, which he helped grow from pre-product & pre-revenue in 2005 to $100 million run rate until its acquisition by Symantec (SYMC) in Q2 2011. Prior to joining Clearwell, Andy co-founded Timestock, Inc., which was acquired by Computer Associates (CA) via the acquisition of Wily Technology. Timestock delivered world-class enterprise application management solutions to large fortune 500 corporations. Before Timestock, Andy was VP of Marketing at Desana Systems. Prior to Desana, Andy was VP of Product Management at Lucent Technologies. Andy came to Lucent Technologies via the acquisition of VitalSigns Software. He has also held sales, marketing & management roles at Bay Networks and at MiLAN Technologies, which was later acquired by Digi International. Andy holds a BS in Economics from the University of Nevada and received his MBA with honors from San Jose State University. Links Connect with Andy Byrne! Clari website | Clari Revenue Leak Assessment | LinkedIn | Twitter We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

Over the recent past, we’ve all been through one of the craziest, most challenging times in modern history. simultaneously, we’ve had to negotiate all of these things, inside of the context of dealing with our personal lives, our businesses, our careers, and any life challenges that we may have had along the way. So we thought that it would be great to welcome back the legendary Amy Morin, for some much needed group psychotherapy. In less than a decade, Amy Morin has become one of America’s most popular psychotherapists. She’s just got that special quality. Amy is a person who is radically human, incredibly smart, empathetic, and surprisingly, approachable. Maybe that’s why we think she’s become America’s top or one of the top Psychotherapist and a multi-time Bestselling Author. Her new book is out, and it’s called 13 things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do Workbook. So in this episode, we dive into all that and find out ways to tactically bolster our own mental strength as we go along. You’re listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let’s go. A Quick Update on Amy Morin Amy has been a guest before in Follow Your Different, and since then she has written new things and accomplished so much more. While Amy has many years of experience and success as a psychotherapist and writer, she quickly found herself with new inspiration and multiple inputs when Covid struck the world. Given the mental strain of worrying about a pandemic, the additional factor of having to stay home and people being exposed to a plethora of terrible news on TV, as well as the helplessness of being unable to do anything, did a number on everyone. Amy realized that she was in a unique position of having the knowledge to assist and a way to share that knowledge through her podcasts and later, in print. As a result, she has written a few works on how to deal with mentally demanding situations and stress, and she recently released a workbook on how to boost one’s mental strength. Mental Health Podcast or Therapy? Amy shares that sometimes, their mental health podcast turns into an impromptu psychotherapy session – not just for the guest, but as well as the listeners who are going through the same situation in their own ways. When asked about the difference between podcasting and her psychotherapy sessions, Amy admits that there are times that those two seem to blur together, yet she thinks it is important to keep a distinction. Sometimes, the therapist in me wants to respond one way, and then I’m like, but there’s people listening. So you need to respond in another way. So I’m always very aware of that, like, ‘Oh, am I gonna respond to this a little bit differently. And I want to be empathetic’. But at the same time, I didn’t want to open up a can of worms for somebody who forgets that this is a podcast. I don’t want to ever make it seem like we’re getting them to open up in a way to then take advantage of them.” – Amy Morin The importance of having a healthy amount of Not-Give-A-Shit Attitude We then talk about what it is like to have a public following, and how having a healthy amount of no-give-a-shit attitude helps wonders with their own mental health. Amy agrees with this, and shares that she recently did a podcast about the topic of bad mental health advice you might be getting in social media. She had wanted to explore the topic more, and even go so much as contact those who posted the now-viral meme “advice”. But she didn’t go through with it in the end. At the end of the day, all she’d gain is a migraine from arguing with people who don’t care. She would rather focus on her own inner peace and work on other topics for her own podcast. To hear more from Amy Morin and how to bolster your mental strength to take on the world, download and listen to this episode. Bio Amy Morin is a licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, and a lecturer at Northeastern University. She’s been dubbed the “self-help guru of the moment,” by The Guardian and Forbes refers to her as a “thought leadership star.” Her knowledge of mental strength stems far beyond her professional experience. She’s experienced a series of losses in her personal life that gave her first-hand insight into the strategies that build resilience. In 2013, her article 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do was read by over 30 million people around the world. Her best-selling book, also called, 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, is being translated into 25 languages. Her newest book, “13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don’t Do: Raising Self-Assured Children and Training Their Brains for a Life of Happiness, Meaning, and Success” is a sensation. Amy’s advice has been featured by a number of media outlets, including: Parenting,

All of us want the best healthcare for our families, our communities, and our country. But Legacy approaches and technologies in the United States often stop our healthcare heroes from being able to deliver the legendary care they want to deliver. So let us have a dialogue about this and much more with our guest, Dr. Ashwini Zenooz. Dr. Ashwini Zenooz is a radiologist who became the chief medical officer of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. She then joined the technology industry, and became the chief medical officer at Salesforce.com. Dr. Ash is now the CEO of Commure, a venture-backed startup on a mission to produce a breakthrough in digital health. Her achievements thus far have been incredible, and we hope that her personal story will inspire you. You’re listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let’s go. Dr. Ashwini Zenooz on the current state of COVID The conversation starts of with a question for Dr. Ash on the current state of COVID, particularly if we are past the crisis part of it. Dr. Ash responds that there’s still a lot of things to look into, as COVID has not only affected our healthcare, but different parts of society and fields as well. “I would say it’s yet to be seen. I think it’s not just the healthcare part. There’s a lot of other implications from the pandemic that were seeping into with the economy. There’s a lot of stuff that’s happening around us that’s related or as a result of the pandemic. So it’s yet to be seen. But yeah, I would say that at least the crisis is over.” – Dr. Ashwini Zenooz On how the US fared in the COVID pandemic As much as it hurts to say, Dr. Ash shares that there were things that the US could have done better on. She thinks its partly because we try to “reinvent the wheel” every time there’s an epidemic or pandemic. As a society, we have had a lot of ways to learn how to properly respond and mitigate the damages, yet we tend to commit the same mistakes over and over again once it happens. What’s even more frustrating from a healthcare standpoint is our lack of concern for future occurrences. When a major healthcare issue is resolved, it appears that no one is interested in researching how to prevent the next case, or what to do if the next one would be on a larger scale than the one before. It’s like we only care to look back once the current one is already at our doorstep. Dr. Ashwini Zenooz on masks and vaccines On the topic of preventive measure, Dr. Ash was asked about what she thought about wearing masks and taking the vaccine. For mask-wearing, Dr. Ash shares that for her, it is a personal choice. Even if airlines and public spaces don’t require you to wear them anymore, she opts to wear them because she wants to. For her, having that extra precaution for a little inconvenience is not a big deal, but she wouldn’t be offended if she sees someone not wearing one in a public place. For vaccines, her thoughts as a layperson or a simple mom is that there would be more documentation or data available to the public on the tests that were done that passed the approval of the FDA, and have someone who can explain it to the general public. This avoids confusion and misinformation from spreading out, and less hesitation for asking assistance when someone eventually decides to finally get their vaccines. To hear more from Dr. Ashwini Zenooz and the future of American healthcare, download and listen to this episode. Bio Ashwini Zenooz, M.D. Dr. Ashwini Zenooz is the CEO of Commure, a venture-backed technology company dedicated to building a health ecosystem rooted in collaborative care and connected innovation. Prior to Commure, Dr. Zenooz was Chief Medical Officer at Salesforce. Dr. Zenooz was also the Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) overseeing the national EHR modernization program, where she was responsible for organizational change management, business process redesign, and implementation of a new digital health platform. She has also held senior policy development and operational roles including serving as Deputy for VA Health Policy and Services, Legislative Health Policy Fellow with U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Committee Staff on U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, and Chief of Imaging Services. Dr. Zenooz graduated with summa cum laude distinction in undergraduate studies and received an MD in the Medical Honors Program at the University of Florida. She completed radiology residency at Henry Ford Health System and an Abdominal Imaging fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Zenooz is board certified in radiology and continues to practice medicine today. Links Connect with Dr. Ashwini Zenooz! Commure | LinkedIn | Twitter We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! C

Almost everybody wants to design a legendary life and make a difference, but it can be harder than it sounds. On this episode, you’ll get a very different conversation about designing a life with meaningful work that works for you. And who better to have this conversation than with our guest, Ollie Henderson. Ollie Henderson is an entrepreneur, CEO, and bestselling author of the book called “The Work/Life Flywheel”. He is a great guy, and we really get into a heartfelt conversation about how we can all design the legendary life for ourselves. By the end of this episode, we hope you’ll have some new tools for living your life, your way. You’re listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let’s go. Ollie Henderson on Work/Life Balance The conversation starts off with the two agreeing on how much they “love” work/life balance. Ollie responds that he had kept a few choice words in the book that his editor would rather not have, but it was important to the point Ollie was making. That being said, Ollie shares that his issue with Work/Life balance is just a term people used to oversimply a supposedly complex matter in our lives, mostly due to laziness and have something easy to adhere to, like a schedule or a task to do. “I think the thing about work life balance is that it’s a lazy feeling that we all have. It’s something we think we should adhere to. Like, ‘yeah, we should all have better work life balance’, and it kind of makes sense. It has the best intentions, but it’s frankly, wrong. It doesn’t make sense.” – Ollie Henderson Work vs Life Another thing that Ollie pointed out is that the semantics of the word is also all wrong. Work/Life Balance conjures up the image of you pitting up Work versus Life; that you cannot have both at the same time, and that one of them is better than the other. “I think when people say they aspire for work/life balance, what they’re saying is, ‘I am going to place work in life against one another, because work is bad and life is good. And if I can’t find this equilibrium, then my life is not complete’.” – Ollie Henderson The issue is that statement is not true for every individual, and there is no one-and-done balancing to be done. Nobody has achieved that precise equilibrium, because it doesn’t work like a countermeasure of one over the other. Work/Life Flywheel Christopher adds that we have to reject the notion of work and life are compartmentalized in different sections, and we somehow need to balance them on weighing scales. There is only “Life”, and we do a lot of things in that life. So if not Work/Life Balance, what then? Ollie shares that there are some who use the term “integration” to add a new perspective to it. For him, he prefers to use the term “Flywheel”, because it entails that everything he does in life are interdependent of each other. “It’s this idea that there isn’t a single part of your work your life that is any more important than the other; they’re all interdependent. For me, when I’m doing great work and I’m happy at work, I’m a better person, I’m a better dad, I’m a better partner. And when I’m a better partner and a better dad, that manifests more in my work.” – Ollie Henderson To hear more from Ollie Henderson and the Work/Life Flywheel, download and listen to this episode. Bio Ollie Henderson Experienced founder and CEO, Ollie Henderson, pivoted his career while juggling the pleasures and pressures of raising a young family. He believes work/life balance is a myth. Rather than seeing career and personal life as two opposing forces, Ollie argues that the secret is to design an integrated approach that allows them to work in harmony. Ollie’s weekly newsletter and Top 10 Careers podcast, Future Work/Life, provides news and analysis to thousands of people interested in the future of work, covering subjects like creativity and innovation, data and technology, peak performance and workplace culture. He’s the author of the Amazon bestseller Work/Life Flywheel: Harness the work revolution and reimagine your career without fear. Links Connect with Ollie Henderson! LinkedIn | Future Work/Life Newsletter | Work/Life Flywheel We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

Have you ever had a conversation with someone where you feel very lucky to have been able to meet and talk to that person? My conversation with our guest, Dr. Simran Jeet Singh, felt like just that. Simran Jeet Singh, PhD is the Executive Director of the Religion and Society Program at the world-famous Aspen Institute. He’s also the author of a new national bestseller, called The Light We Give: How Sikh wisdom can transform your life. You’re listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let’s go. Dr. Simran Jeet Singh on Sikh Wisdom The conversation starts with one of the major proponents that Dr. Simran shares to everyone, which is Sikh wisdom. He defines it as such: “I think Sikh wisdom is these experiences and insights that people before us have developed and we have access to if we want. And one of our choices is do we want to learn all the lessons the hard way, or do we want to step into these treasures that are already available to us. It is the Sikh philosophy and traditions that I didn’t really learn to appreciate until I got older and started meeting real challenges in my life.” – Dr. Simran Jeet Singh Dr. Simran used these Sikh wisdom in moments of his life where he felt huge struggles and difficulties to guide himself into the person that he wants to be. The Challenges of being Different On such moment was when the events during 9/11 occurred, and the whole country was, in many ways, suffering a collective sense of trauma. It was a vulnerable feeling that people of the United States did not think they would feel. But the feeling of vulnerability was even more so for Dr. Simran and his community. “In this moment of extreme difficulty for our country, of extreme anger and violence, all of a sudden, I and people belonging to my community fell into the stereotype of how Americans saw their enemy. And so that, I think, is partly what felt so difficult in this moment: on the one hand, I felt like I was an American and belonged here and was going through the same trauma as everyone else. Yet at the same time, so many people around me, my fellow Americans would look at me and be like, “no, no, you’re not one of us here.”” – Dr. Simran Jeet Singh It hurts doubly for Dr. Simran, as he understands the pain and vulnerability that they are experiencing, as someone who has lived in the US for quite some time. But at the same time, the hate created by the almost-kneejerk reaction that some had afterwards was something that his community and others did not deserve, simply because they were different. Dr. Simran Jeet Singh on educating the masses Dr. Simran believes that this reaction is fear born from ignorance, and is something that could be remedied by educating the people on what the Sikh ideologies and culture really stand for. Sometimes, he would be surprised that an average American doesn’t know where Punjab is, let alone what a Sikh was. That gave Dr. Simran a sense of where he needed to start. Even before educating about the different cultures and ideologies, they might not even have an idea of where you came from, and they have been making assumptions about your culture based on the wrong information. To hear more from Dr. Simran Jeet Singh and Sikh wisdom, download and listen to this episode. Bio Simran Jeet Singh PhD is Executive Director for the Aspen Institute’s Religion & Society Program and author of The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life. He is a visiting professor of history and religion at Union Theological Seminary and a Soros Equality Fellow with the Open Society Foundations, and in 2020 TIME Magazine recognized him among sixteen people fighting for a more equal America. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN, and he is a columnist for Religion News Service. Author of the award-winning children’s book Fauja Singh Keeps Going: The True Story of the Oldest Person to Ever Run a Marathon, Simran is an engaging guest speaker who delivers keynotes and facilitates workshops. His message has been described as “critical and essential” and he’s noted for his “unwavering and empathetic approach to anti-racist work.” Simran lives in New York City with his family. Links Connect with Dr. Simran Jeet Singh! Website | The Light We Give | The Sikh Coalition We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

It’s been a crazy handful of days in Silicon Valley. But now that the federal government has made their announcements and has the ball rolling, I wanted to spend a few minutes with you just clarifying some things that seem to be creating confusion in the recent Silicon Valley Bank situation. There seems to be more confusion about what just happened with the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and what the federal government just did as there was about COVID. So let me see if I can break this down for all of you. There is no Bank Bailout for the Silicon Valley Bank Let me say that again: there was no bank bailout here. The executives got fired. None of the investors, creditors, nobody doing business with the bank, in that sense, are getting any of their money back, particularly the investors in the board. The Silicon Valley Bank is gone. The Effect on the US Finance The President has said that this will not cost taxpayers’ money. You may choose to believe it or not, but that is the current position of the government on the matter. What they’re saying is if there’s any protection money required, it will come from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC is an insurance company managed by the federal government, which is paid for by Wall Street and the banks. They pay insurance fees to the FDIC for drastic instances such as these. Making that point clear as soon as possible was a good move by the federal government, because if they have wavered in their decision to do so, twisted narratives about bank bailouts and conjuring the past instances of it happening would have been a bad blow to the US government’s image. The Silicon Valley Bank Depositors will get their money back White there’s no direct timetable for when the depositors can get their full funds back, the federal government, via the FDIC, came in and said that they will make sure that the people will get 100% of their money back. Here’s where most of the confusion lie at the moment, because there are some who spin the narrative like this resembles the recent FTX crash. But unlike the FTX crash where the money is in large parts gone, the Silicon Valley Bank’s money is still there. The main issue at the moment is that there were some horrendous mistakes in investing the money, which caused it to be stuck and become inaccessible at the moment. So when a bank run happened, they didn’t have enough cash. And that’s what caused this. But the money is still there, unless we learn otherwise after the ongoing investigations. To hear more updates and suggestions on how Silicon Valley, the federal government, and the FDIC can prevent such a crisis from happening again, download and listen to this episode. Bio Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger. He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur. Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist. In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion. He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse went off like a bomb on March 10th 2023. And I want to reach out to you and essentially share with you the conversations that I’ve been having with many friends, many entrepreneurs, many VCs, in the last 24 hours or so. That said, let’s talk about what’s really going on; specifically, what the media talking heads and idiot, ‘thought leaders’ on the internet are getting very, very wrong. Second, we’ll discuss a few ideas on what you can do immediately to shore up your situation if you are a Silicon Valley Bank customer, or even if you are working in the tech world. And then thirdly, let’s talk about the crisis from the perspective of your company, and what you can do moving forward. The Silicon Valley Bank Collapse As of now, what is clear is that Silicon Valley Bank went down in part, because of some combination of getting caught in a cash crunch. It appears they made some bad long term bond decisions at low interest rates. And as you know, the US government has been raising interest rates from about 0.25% roughly a year ago, to about 4.75% now a year later. This has caught a lot of people off guard. This is not to say there wasn’t a mistake on SVB’s part, but what we do know is that there were some combination of over investing in long term bonds, and the interest rates going up that aggravated the problem. Here’s a link to the Wall Street Journal article breaking all of what has happened so far. Media and Thought Leaders’ “thoughts” on the matter First of all, there’s a thread  growing around that says, “Oh, this is the billionaires in Silicon Valley doing corrupt things, and now they’re getting their comeuppance.” This is not the case. If there was something incompetent or illegal that took place in the Silicon Valley Bank, we’ll find out once the investigations are done. But for now, it is affecting a lot of people in the space, and not just those billionaires they are harping about. This is not some cash crunch hurting billionaires. It is hurting the people who didn’t get paid on Friday, because their employer just froze their bank. This is the entrepreneur who DM me on Twitter yesterday saying they have their entire 20 million of VC funding at SVB, and asking what they can do now. These entrepreneurs and CEOs don’t know how they’re going to pay their people, don’t know how they’re going to pay their bills. It appears that the FDIC is saying that people will get their guaranteed 250,000 on Monday, but over 90% of the deposits in this bank are in excess of that. So it’s really not much protection. And while it seems that much of this money will come back to its rightful owner, it’s not clear what percentage and in what timeframe. Running a business with no money is fucking hard. And that’s what’s going on here. To learn more about the Silicon Valley Bank situation and how your business can cope with crisis of this magnitude, download and listen to this episode. Bio Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger. He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur. Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist. In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion. He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

When we come face to face with the raw enormity of the human spirit, it can be truly stunning. And when we encounter a person who is so magnanimous, they inspire us to ask questions like, “What could I do?” Today on Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk to one such person, Peter Mutabazi. Peter grew up in shocking poverty, was called garbage and physically abused by his father. He ran away from home, and by 10 years of age became a “street kid” in the capital of Uganda Kampala. Today, Peter lives in America, and he’s living a legendary life as a foster dad. He is also running a foundation called I Am Known Foundation, and his mission is to help increase foster parenting to help care for the most vulnerable children in our country. By the end of this episode, you will gain a visceral understanding of how a person can literally traverse from the worst imaginable situations as a child to achieving success, happiness, and a deep sense of what he calls true worth. Peter Mutabazi on Teenage Adoption The conversation starts off on the topic of adoption, particularly on teenage adoption. While most of the conversations about adoption revolve around adoption as a child, teenage adoption is very rarely talked about. For Peter, this age period is particularly vulnerable for them, as they prepare to be part of society when they become 18. If there was no one to guide these teenagers, then they would have nowhere to go afterwards, and no way to establish themselves. “When you’re 15 and you have only three years left in the foster care system, and you have nowhere to go, it’s critical for anyone to step up and guide you to the world you’ve never lived, that you don’t know. So I feel like they’re the most vulnerable and need the most talk.” – Peter Mutabazi Peter also comments that teenage adoptees are easier to be with. This might be due to the fact that they can pretty much handle themselves in their day-to-day lives, provided that they have the support and resources to do so. Peter Mutabazi on his Origin Story Peter tells the story of his youth in a village called Kabaddi, which was located at the border of Uganda and Rwanda. From the get-go, life was harsh to them, as even the basic necessities are hard to come by at times. Peter shares that he wasn’t even given a name until he was 3 years old, as the survival rate of babies was so low, they did not want to give them names and form attachments before they are sure that he could survive. “I also got to learn that I didn’t have a name until when I was three years old. Why? Because for every 100 children were born in my village 60 would die before the age of two. So most moms were afraid to name a child because they didn’t want to get attached.” – Peter Mutabazi To add another layer of difficulty to all that, Peter’s father was what you’d call abusive, in every sense of the world. Peter quips that in a normal family, even if you suffer through hardships, there’s always some comfort of knowing that you have a home to return to. In his case, it was the most agonizing place to be in because of his father. So at the young age of 10, Peter decided that he had had enough. He ran away from home. To hear more from Peter Mutabazi and his story of growing up with an abusive father to being the father to those in dire need of it, download and listen to this episode. Bio Peter Mutabazi Peter Mutabazi is an entrepreneur, an international advocate for children, and the founder of Now I Am Known, a corporation that supplies resources to encourage and affirm children. A single father and foster dad, Mutabazi is a former street kid who has worked for World Vision, Compassion International, and the Red Cross. He has appeared on media outlets such as the BBC and The TODAY Show and continues to be a passionate speaker. He currently lives in Charlotte, North. Links Connect with Peter Mutabazi! NowIAmKnownFoundation.org | Now I Am Known | Facebook | Instagram Check out his book here: Now I Am Known | Amazon

This is part two of a very special Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different series that we are doing on how to design a legendary career, company and category. This two-part series is a masterclass on how to have a legendary career in technology from 2 different perspectives. On this episode, we have a dialogue with the amazing Gail Moody-Byrd. Gail Moody-Byrd is the head of Marketing for LinkedIn Sales Solution Group. And the job that she’s done there on category design is truly a stunner. I myself have known and done some work with Gail in the past, and she’s also worked with my friends and adopted brothers from Category Design Advisors. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to drive massive big change inside a massive big organization to make a massive big difference, you’re in the right place. You’re also going to learn what it took for a Harvard MBA to become a successful category designer, and get executive management bought in and participating in a massive new strategic initiative like category design. There are many people who would easily pay $25,000 to have lunch with Gail, and today you got her for free and on repeat. We hope you’ll enjoy this conversation as much as we did. Creating a New Category in LinkedIn The conversation starts off with acknowledging that Gail Moody-Byrd has done something extraordinarily rare in the business – which is to have implemented a category design approach within a monster corporation, which is within an even bigger monster corporation. This is because normally when you think of implementing category design in a business, it is usually done by startups and entrepreneurship, which may develop later on to a category business leader. Though it is not unheard of, it’s highly unusual for a megacorporation to attempt such a thing. But according to Gail, it all stems from the culture within LinkedIn itself, where they are encouraged to pursue and grow their business the way they see fit, almost like the same energy as a startup would, but with the backing of a monster corporation behind it. So when Gail joined the LinkedIn Sales Solutions Group, they already had the idea of finding something to elevate their status and “get their mojo back”. And Gail was just the spark they were looking for. Gail Moody-Byrd on the Curiosity of LinkedIn Christopher shares his experience with introducing Category Design to big corporations, and the less than successful results he would get a times. This is because major corporations tend to stay rigid and not dive into new ideas that easily, especially if their current product or service still has a huge share of the market at the moment. Gail agrees with this and adds that while LinkedIn may seem like the same on the outside, it has this inherent curiosity within that lets their people explore new ideas, as long as it stays within company guidelines and has the data to back it up. “The beauty of LinkedIn is that they gave me the liberty to explore some of those ideas. There’s a curiosity within LinkedIn that I appreciate. We’re so market driven, and interactive, always looking for new ideas. And so the amount of support and the extreme receptivity to the conversation was, frankly, shocking to me.” – Gail Moody-Byrd Evolving the Platform through Category Design Gail Mood-Byrd then talks about LinkedIn Sales Solutions, and its growth and changes over the years. It was created 10-11 years ago to enable salespeople in the b2b space to connect on the LinkedIn platform with people who might need their services. Over the years, it has grown from being a way to connect with potential buyers and fielding available talents, to something backed by support and data science to help you find the information and the system actively looking non-stop for related data to your inquiries and target audience. It has also gone from one-way communication, to something akin to an active conversation between potential buyers and sellers; all in a trusted network like LinkedIn. And that is something Gail and her team aim to develop further with category design in mind. To hear more from Gail Moody-Byrd and How To Design A Legendary Career, Company, And Category, download and listen to this episode. Bio Gail Moody-Byrd Vice President, Marketing, LinkedIn Sales Solutions Member, Board Of Directors, Grocery Outlet (NASDAQ:GO) A seasoned Senior Marketing Executive, two-time Category Creator and public board member with extensive experience in all aspects of Global Marketing, Sales and Strategy across industries, from enterprise software to retail/commerce. Propelled by a vision full of possibilities, acts as a change-maker who leads and inspires teams to deliver results, exceed expectations and grow as leaders themselves. Links More about Gail Moody-Byrd LinkedIn Newsletters Category Design Advisors: Category Design Lightning Strike of 2022 We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your D

This episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different is part of a very special two-part series that we are doing on how to design a legendary career, company and category. This two-part series is a masterclass on how to have a legendary career in technology from 2 different perspectives. On this episode, we have a dialogue with the legendary Joe Sexton. Joe Sexton has been a material contributor to creating well over $40 billion in market value over his legendary career. He’s one of the most legendary sales revenues and frankly, overall company leaders I’ve met or ever had the pleasure of working with. There are many people who would easily pay $25,000 to have lunch with Joe, and today you got him for free and on repeat. So sit back and let this conversation take you into new heights and ideas in the next hour or so. How to Change to Conversation in Tech Industries Christopher and Joe reminisce on the time they spent working together, what they learned from each other during that time, and how they were able to apply what they had learned from each other to their own practices after they pursued their own paths. For Joe Sexton, it was all about changing the conversation about things. Whether he went to McAfee, CrowdStrike, and other different fields in tech, his understanding in improving their business and becoming business leaders in their respective categories was on how to change the conversation, i.e. making a radical change in the usual perspective of a certain product, or creating a new one for a problem that people didn’t think of solving before. Know What You Know, and Execute Joe Sexton has taken may advisory roles over the course of his career, and have heard from CEOs that doesn’t seem to know what exactly their company does, or what they do in it. “I’ve spoken literally to well over 100 CEOs in my board role. I’ve heard pitch after pitch after pitch, and 99 times out of 100, after a half hour of passionate talk and presentation by the CEO, I say, “I’ve been doing these 35 years, and I don’t understand what you said. I mean, I only understand what you do.”” – Joe Sexton On the other hand, Joe has also worked with people who knew what they were good at, and got his help so they could focus on the thing they’re good at, rather than stretching themselves thin. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you only stay on that level for the rest of your company’s development, but learning where you can help your business grow, especially during its start, can spell success or failure in startups and the like. Joe Sexton on Creating Your Opportunities When asked about how he would create opportunities for himself when he got started, Joe replies that that is one of the questions that young people ask him. To answer the question, Joe shares that one must have a good track record on their field and the data to back it up. Because when it’s time to compete in the market, these two things will speak for themselves, rather than coming up with a soft pitch and hoping for the best. It’s like explaining what you are worth to a company or a potential investor, without needing to resort to technical babble or telling your story from scratch. Having that track record and reputation and the data to back it up means that they have something to look into before you even meet, and that could put them at ease. To learn more about How To Design A Legendary Career, Company, And Category, download and listen to this episode. Bio Joe Sexton Mr. Joe Sexton is an accomplished technology executive who’s been part of creating over $40 billion in value. He’s served as CEO, President, CRO and SVP, advisor and/or board member for more than a dozen category designing technology firms. He is the former President of Worldwide Field Operations at AppDynamics. ($3.7B purchase by Cisco) Prior to AppDynamics, he spent significant time in senior leadership roles at McAfee ($5B public co), Mercury Interactive ($4.5B purchase by HP) and CA Technologies ($20B public). Joe is currently on the Board of Directors of Aqua Security, Menlo Security, D2iQ, DecisionLink and BrainBox Intelligent Marketing. He is formerly on the Board of CrowdStrike and Executive Advisory Board of PagerDuty helping both companies experience successful IPOs. Joe is also a private investor in several promising technology startups. Joe earned his BA in Marketing from the University of Kentucky. He is very passionate about mentorship, helping women succeed in the workplace and teaching salespeople how to become Value Professionals. Links Connect with Joe Sexton! LinkedIn We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead, Follow Your Different, we are going to drop a conversation that I recently had with my dear friend, one of the smartest guys in tech, Bob Evans, on his podcast, Cloud Wars Live. If you work in technology, what Bob and his guests have to say is fascinating, illuminating, and, frankly, agenda-setting. If you’re a regular reader of Category Pirates, you’ll know that we’ve been writing about intellectual capitalists and the emergence of a whole new human category, Native Digitals, for quite some time. We believe this is an extremely important topic, and we believe that the emergence of the intellectual capitalist as the highest value role in the work world above that of what has historically been the highest value job you can have in the working world, which is the knowledge worker, is particularly significant. Because those of us who will thrive not just survive in the future, we’ll move beyond acquiring knowledge and getting paid to apply that knowledge to getting paid to create and monetize new categories of intellectual capital, new categories of knowledge, new categories of thinking, which can be turned into new products and services. The Story of the Hummingbird The conversation starts off with Christopher telling the story of the Hummingbird and his Sensei Sutton. His sensei is an amazing martial artist and a badass individual, but at a certain point in his life, he had to overcome many adversities before getting to where he is now. “So the moral of the story is in life – Sometimes you’re the hummingbird and sometimes you’re the sensei. But Sooner or later, we all need somebody to catch us tightly enough not to hurt us, but strongly enough to save us.” – Christopher Lochhead In life, we will absolutely be in situations where we are the hummingbird. But the real question is, when we have an opportunity to be the Sensei, will we will we meet the call? ChatGPT and the Death of the Knowledge Worker Christopher then talks about the current boom in AI technology, particularly on the topic of ChatGPT and similar AI generated content. Much like how machinery and Automation have taken over some aspects of labor from men, this new AI technology seems to be crowding in the profession of Knowledge Worker. While it may not be up to par with certain intricacies to date, it is quickly learning and becoming better over a short period of time. And much like the service workers of the past have to learn to adapt to new technology, Knowledge Workers also have to follow the trend and evolve, paving the way to what we call Intellectual Capitalists. Intellectual Capitalist So what is an Intellectual Capitalist? For Christopher, it’s someone who doesn’t just collect information and apply it like a knowledge worker, but someone who actually generates net-new knowledge. It could be from their experience while working on a certain field that makes them faster, more efficient, or outright the best in that field. In one word, an Intellectual Capitalist has Leverage over other people who are in the same field, but can’t do it better or even as good as them. An Intellectual Capitalist should also not be only bound to current categories and ideologies. If there is an idea worth pursuing, it’s not enough to learn why it hasn’t been done before. One should also look through it with what we have today, and if the rapidly-growing pace of technology will  be able to support it and when. To hear more about the dialogue about AI and the Intellectual Capitalist, download and listen to this episode. Bio Bob Evans Founder of Cloud Wars and Co-Founder of the Acceleration Economy, Bob leads the strategic direction of the global analyst network and actively covers the Cloud and Digital Business categories. Creator of Cloud Wars Top 10, a ranking and ongoing analysis world’s most influential tech companies driving digital business and the digital economy. World-class strategic communicator focused on emerging business strategy, disruptive innovation, and forward-looking leadership. Links Follow Cloud Wars Live! Acceleration Economy Network | Apple Podcasts | Spotify Related links to the discussion: The Digital American Dream: Life, Liberty, And The Exponential Pursuit Of Capital The Digital Creation Game: Exiting The Analog World Of Competition And Entering The Digital World Of Infinite Creation Paid To Create: How To Leverage Your Intellectual Capital To Accelerate Your Career & Achieve Financial Freedom The Mentor Myth: What Native Analogs Can Learn From Native Digitals (And Vice Versa) We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

Position yourself or be positioned has long been one of my favorite expressions. Most people think of life as something that happens to us, and that we have no agency to design our lives. It turns out, successful people like our guest Carly Malatskey, tends to think differently from that. They learn to create and seize upon opportunity before they succeed, they position themselves for success. Carly Malatskey hosts the SheLeads podcast, which is a podcast network made by women for women. Carly is also a two-time Stanford National Soccer champion, and has also started off her career as a new Venture Capital Investor at the legendary Floodgate in Silicon Valley. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, what you’re about to experience is a real dialogue about how to seek out legendary mentors and surround yourself with legendary people. We also talk about what it takes to win championships at the highest level, and how to start your career in a strong, powerful way and much, much more. Carly Malatskey on Starting a Podcast The conversation starts off with Carly being asked as to why she started her own podcast, and the types of dialogues she wants to have in it. Carly explains that she has always loved listening to podcasts. But she also thought that as a young leader, she has the opportunity to talk to other leaders in different fields, and have a conversation from the view point of a young woman who has the youthful energy of coming out of the academe but still has a lot to learn and experience in the field. This also comes at the cusp of COVID, so she along with countless leaders and individuals are currently stuck at home and pretty much open to doing conversations over zoom and the like. It just seemed to Carly that it was the right time to take a chance at it and reach out to different types of people so they can share their experiences with her and other young aspiring leaders. SheLeads Podcast: A Podcast for Women by Women Carly shares that one aspect of SheLeads podcast is that it is from the perspective of incredible female leaders in different fields and industries. “I talked to Olympians, founders, lawyers, and I thought, “why not have this aspect where these women are also talking to someone like me?” And thinking of how they started their career, what were their first steps, or how were they thinking through their career.” – Carly Malatskey Men and Women Communicate Differently When asked about the saying that men and women communicate differently, Carly shares her thoughts on the matter. For Carly, it’s much more natural for women to sit across from someone and really just sit for hours, talking. The topics could range from their experiences this past week or so, something that worries them in the future, or their feelings about certain matters. For men, they need an activity to distract them from the fact that they’re actually sharing their thoughts with another individual. It’s almost like it’s an excuse to talk and bond over something, though it was their original intention to begin with. Carly found the question quite interesting, and was even thinking if there was a scientific reasoning for these types of behaviors. To hear more from Carly Malatskey on how to win big and start your career stronger, download and listen to this episode. Bio Carly Malatskey is an Investor at seed-stage VC firm, Floodgate. Prior to Floodgate, she earned her Bachelors in Science, Technology and Society from Stanford University and was a Mayfield Fellow at Stanford as well. She also played for the Stanford Women’s Soccer team for 4 years and won 2 National Championships! Shortly before graduating, she started a podcast called SheLeads with Carly, where she speaks to powerful female leaders from all industries. With 80+ episodes, she explores their unique paths to becoming leaders in their fields as well as the lessons they learned along the way. It is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Facebook (video version). Links Connect with Carly Malatskey! Floodgate | Twitter | Apple Podcast | Spotify | SheLeads Show on Facebook We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk about Pricing, and how it can be a Superpower. Our guest, Dr. Rafi Mohammed explains how pricing strategy is one of the most underused power levers in business, and why you should start using it. Dr. Rafi Mohammed has written over 90 articles on innovative pricing strategies for Harvard Business Review over the years. He is the author of The 1% Windfall: how successful companies use price to profit and grow and the art of pricing. Also, he has got a brand new HBR article out called Expand Your Pricing Paradigm. When the smartest people in business want to work strategically on pricing, they go to Dr. Rafi Mohammed. So this may well be a very, very valuable episode that could be a demarcation point for you personally and your business. Pricing is about Capturing Value This dialogue could not come at a more timely manner for Christopher, as there have been multiple questions and discussions with him with CEOs who are asking very deep questions about pricing. And while him suggesting to double the price was being outrageous, Dr. Rafi agreed to his point that Price should be a function of value. To calculate their profits, many businesses, in Dr. Rafi’s opinion, erroneously use the formula “cost times a certain percentage,” which he claims is fundamentally flawed. For Dr. Rafi, Pricing is all about capturing the value of the product or service. He gives a story about it to illustrate the point: “A little example I have of that, that sort of illustrates a story is street vendors in the middle of Central Park. The minute that it looks like it’s gonna rain, many street vendors double the price of their umbrellas. But think about that: the doubling of price has three important thing components of pricing. First of all, it shows that price really doesn’t have a correlation with cost. The second point is price is all about what is the customer’s next best alternative. So if I’m in the middle of Central Park, I can hightail it to a local CVS six or seven blocks away, then get right on to buy an umbrella. Or I can have the convenience of it right now. And the third and most important point of that very simple story is pricing is all about thinking like a customer, how’s your customer thinking?” – Dr. Rafi Mohammed Dr. Rafi Mohammed on Highlighting the Unique Value One of the common practices that is also observable in the tech and Silicon Valley industries is that they view their competitor’s price, and adjust accordingly if they think they are “better” or roughly competing on the same level. The issue that Dr. Rafi sees in this is that most companies only have a vague idea of the “advantages” that their companies have over their peers. Most do not pinpoint what makes their products or services “unique” from the rest, hence they have problems capturing and justifying the correct value for their product or services. This lack of definition also makes the market more spread out, as consumers have a harder time figuring out which one is the better alternative from each other. Highlighting the “uniqueness” or in some cases, the “premium” qualities of a certain business also helps consumers figure out if they’re getting a decent price for it, or just paying too much for a small added convenience. “Here’s also the beauty of pricing. Even if you’re not as good as is the next best alternative pricing come in to save the day? And you can sort of look at customers other eyes, they look, I get that don’t have all the bells and whistles of this of this alternative that you’re looking at. But is it really worth the 40% premium that they’re charging over what I am? And I often tell people that if consumers always want the best, we’d all be driving Rolls Royces.” – Dr. Rafi Mohammed The Value of Category Design in Pricing Christopher then addresses the elephant in the room, which is how category design can affect the value and eventually the pricing of a product or service. Dr. Rafi explains that his point before still stands, which is how radically different this new category is to its next best alternative. It’s important to communicate with the consumer that they need it because it’s radically different, rather than this is different, therefore you want it even though It pretty much functions the same. “[An example would be] going from cell phone to smartphone. I could look you in the eye and say, “Look, we have all these different features. You can use apps in the internet, and you can start to put numbers to that.” And so, I think you’ve even in it in a new category, you can base a price off of what the customers alternative would have been, which is an older category plus the extra work they’d have to do.” – Dr. Rafi Mohammed To hear more from Dr. Rafi Mohammed and how Pricing can be a Superpower, download and listen to this episode. Bio Dr. Rafi Mohammed has bee

Today marks the 300th episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. And who better to have a dialogue with on this episode than one of our very first guests in the podcast, the amazing Dushka Zapata. Dushka Zapata is a regular here on the podcast, and is one of my absolute favorite people in the world. She’s the author of many legendary books. Her most recent is called How to Write a Book: or tackle anything you find daunting, which is part of the How to be Ferociously Happy series. When she’s not writing, she has had an extraordinary career as a PR communications executive and coach. A Period of Creativity The dialogue starts off with a reversal of roles, as Dushka asks Christopher about how he has been, and congratulating him on his most recent works. Christopher attributes it to having partners in the craft in Eddie Yoon and Nicolas Cole. He feels grateful that he has been able to work with both in what he refers to as his “business writing band”. “I think in my case, on the writing side with Cole and with Eddie, when you have partners, we sort of feel like a band. We call ourselves a business writing band, in so far as we’ve committed to do work together for years, and do meaningful work over a meaningful amount of time. And while the three of us have other interests and do other things, we do the vast majority of our writing together. So what being in a creative band means is the quality of the work changes radically.” – Christopher Lochhead Christopher adds that while they have overlapping interests, they also each have expertise in other areas, which allows for a multiple perspective on what they write, and can reach out and connect to different audiences. Creativity as a Way to Connect with Yourself On the topic of connecting to people, Dushka shares that creativity in a way has a purpose of connecting you more with yourself. She also finds it wonderful that while you are doing so, other people can join you on that path of self-connection. “I feel like being connected to the part of me that creates, which in my case is mostly writing. But it can be anything. Creativity can be baking, or raising a child or anything that creates something from nothing. But I think it’s us at our most us.” – Dushka Zapata Writing as a Superpower It usually is the case for people who create is that the more they get older, the less they create. Though it does not seem like it for Dushka, as she continues to write and share new things enthusiastically as time goes on. For Duskha, she feels like she has even become more creative as she grew older. Because for her, it’s something that she genuinely enjoys doing. “My relationship with writing is idyllic. I have heard great writers like Hemmingway say that you have to bleed at the keyboard. And I have never associated writing with anything that hurts. I have never felt frustrated with it. Or I’ve never experienced writer’s block. I’ve never felt that I have to suffer at the keyboard or with my pencil. It’s just pure joy. It always has been.” – Dushka Zapata To hear more from this amazing dialogue with Dushka Zapata, download and listen to this episode. Bio After working for more than 20 years in the communications industry, Dushka noticed a theme. People find it very difficult to articulate who they are and what they do. This holds true for both companies and for individuals. For companies, this is an impediment to the development of an identity, a reputation, a brand. It makes it hard for customers to see how companies are different from their competitors. For individuals, in a new world order of personal brands, it makes it hard to develop one that feels real. This is the focus of Dushka’s work: she helps companies and people put into simple terms who they are, what they do, and where to go next. Her work comes to life through message development, presentation training, media training and personal brand development. It comes to life through executive coaching, workshops and public speaking. It comes to life through what she writes. Dushka has written ten bestseller. Her work has been consumed on Q&A site Qoura 180M times. Links Connect with Dushka Zapata! Amazon Authors | Quora | LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we have a much-needed conversation with Denys Gurak of A.D.A.M., Iryna Savytska of Bank of Memories, and Dr. Amarjot Singh of Skylark Labs about the commitment to make a difference and standing up for what you believe in. We also get into how entrepreneurs and startups in Ukraine are answering the call to help their homeland from within and beyond. Denys Gurak and his company A.D.A.M. is a pioneering 3D bio printing company whose primary focus is 3D-printing bones, with the hopes of using the technology to assist medical professionals in helping injured soldiers. Iryna Savytska is the CEO of Bank of Memories, which is a blockchain startup focused on allowing families to protect the memories of all their loved ones, as well as key documents and assets for the next generation. Dr Amarjot Singh is the founder and CEO of Skylark Labs, a company that is designing a new category of next gen AI powered security products that can detect and save people from drone attacks and other threats. These three entrepreneurs and category designers prove the axiom, “Everything is the way that it is because somebody changed the way that it was.” And they are changing the way that it is. All startups on this episode are mentored by the Global Ukraine Foundation. The Global Ukraine Foundation is a community of VCs and Founders who support Ukraine and other tech founders around the world. A Snapshot of life in Ukraine The conversation begins with a question about the current conditions inside of Ukraine, and what are the immediate concerns that the public needs to know and help with if they can. Iryna shares the news of the recent rocket barrage by Russia, which was quite a dangerous yet almost routine for them nowadays. One of the things that hit the most is the current conditions in Ukraine, where they are forced to rely on generators to get electricity and water, things that people in the 21st century shouldn’t be worrying about anymore. She also describes the situation in some areas outside Kyiv, where looting and robbing houses have been happening. Most are being done by Russian soldiers, but there have also been other unscrupulous people taking advantage of the confusion around them to loot and steal. Physically away, mentally in Ukraine Denys Gurak talks about his experience living outside of Ukraine and seeing what is happening on the ground from the outside looking in. He shares that a lot of Ukrainians he knows who are also living in the US feels a certain guilt that they’re not there and physically support their families and countrymen. But he says that rather than wallow in guilt, it’s better to convert it into somethings productive and helpful for their countrymen, and do whatever they can even from a distance. When asked if it was a fucked-up thing for a young entrepreneur like themselves to be thinking about war and what to do about it, Denys has this to say: “Actually, it gives you experience and makes you stronger. I mean, you have to try to switch any situation from a problem to an opportunity. Otherwise, you can just sit at home on the couch and do nothing. And for many of us, that’s not an option now, is it?” – Denys Gurak Dealing with Drones Dr Amarjot Singh talks about drones, particularly on what they are developing at Skylark Labs. Their aim is to use drones on the side of Ukraine to help guiding systems and give a pre-emptive warning to people that Russian drones have been sighted in the vicinity. One of the issues with the usual procedures is that drones usually flight high and are hard to find using conventional means. Skylark aims to counter this with drones of their own, but focus on counteroffensive rather than escalation. That said, this technology can eventually help in surveillance and exploration of certain areas, especially once it has been developed to withstand different weather and abrasive conditions. Dr. Singh and his team are hopeful that it can be very helpful in maintaining a clear airspace in Ukraine and monitoring towns and other areas for national security. To hear more from these amazing people, their startups and how they are helping in the Ukraine effort, download and listen to this episode. Bio Denys Gurak Denys Gurak is an experienced C-level manager and serial entrepreneur. He is a CEO and Co-Founder at A.D.A.M., a 3d bioprinting company with a primary focus on 3D-printed bones. Denys’s ultimate vision is to build an on-demand personalized tissue manufacturing platform that would be a one-stop shop for transplanted tissues and organs; and, hence, to cut barriers to medical treatment for millions. Denys’s passion for biotech can be traced back to 2010, when he was leading the international relations and certification, along with EU legislation adaptation at the Ukrainian medicinal products regulatory authority (official position – director of the «GMP/GDP Center» of the State Administration of

Given recent events in the world of Cryptocurrency, almost everyone in business is currently pondering the following question: Is Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of the crypto exchange FTX, the Bernie Madoff of Crypto? Or is he merely an entrepreneur who made some horrible errors? Today at Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we are joined by the legendary Jim Campbell to examine this question. Jim Campbell is the author of the bestselling definitive book on Bernie Madoff called Madoff Talks. We did a deep dive with him on the book and on the topic of Madoff himself. Check it out if you’re interested in how Madoff manipulated everything before it all fell apart (FYD 217). On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we go deep with Jim Campbell on the similarities and the differences on old school scammers like Bernie Madoff and the disaster that is Sam Bankman-Fried and the fate of FTX. Jim Campbell on Sam Bankman-Fried: Madoff 2.0 or not? The dialogue starts off direct to the point: is Sam Bankman-Fried Madoff 2.0? Jim responds that there are similarities but also differences between the two. The biggest similarities is that both Madoff and Bankman-Fried comingled their firm and customer assets to boost the value of its company, with Bankman going so far as to use said money to create more connections in the tech, business, and even so far as government and politics. Both were also involved in something like a Ponzi scheme, though FTX allegedly took it a step further by using its own FTX tokens as collateral to further increase its own valuation, which is a form of market manipulation. The baffling behavior of Sam Bankman-Fried When you are accused of a crime as big as the one Sam Bankman-Fried is currently facing, it’s normal to avoid the public eye for a while, and make no statements unless in the presence of their lawyer, lest they say something incriminating. Which is why Sam Bankman-Fried’s behavior baffles everyone, as he goes so far as guest for certain podcasts and interviews. Yet he still had the arrogance and audacity to say that he didn’t know what he has done would result in a loss of $32 billion dollars for their investors and consumers. Jim Campbell on doing your due diligence The thing is, there were a lot of questionable aspects to FTX, once you dug into their model. Unfortunately, doing the due diligence seems to be a rare thing nowadays, due to the fear of missing out. With the boom of crypto in the latter half of the 2010s and even more so during the pandemic, investors wanted to hop it to latest coin or token, should it increase in value exponentially like what happened to Bitcoin. Some tech companies and businesses are also guilty in this regard. Take for example on what happened to Theranos. Businesses were so eager to jump in even with just a concept, because they think it’ll be more expensive to establish connections and partnerships later on. Some were dazzled by the names attached to the concept, others by the “projected” earnings should it be developed. In the end, they all lost their investments because they couldn’t be bothered to do their due diligence beforehand. To hear more from Jim Campbell, download and listen to this episode. Bio Jim Campbell is the host of the nationally syndicated radio show Business Talk with Jim Campbell. He is known for his hard-hitting interviews of leading figures from the worlds of business, politics, and sports. Known for “firsts,” Campbell snagged the first extensive interview with former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer after his resignation, the first interview with former Tyco CEO Denis Kozlowski after his release from prison, and the first broadcast interview with former stock analyst Roomy Kahn, a government informant in one of the biggest insider trading busts in American history. Campbell’s extensive corporate, consulting, and entrepreneurial business background includes roles at KPMG Consulting, Dean Witter Financial Services (now Morgan Stanley), and IBM. He is founder and president of JC Ventures, Inc., a management consulting business. Links LinkedIn: in/JimCampbell Book: Madoff Talks: Uncovering the Untold Story Behind the Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme in History More about Bernie Madoff and Madoff Talks: Wall Street Journal: Bernie Madoff Dead at 82 CNBC: Bernie Madoff dies, Mastermind of the Nation’s Biggest Investment Fraud More about Sam Bankman-Fried: Exclusive: SBF secretly funded crypto news site We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

Plato once said that Necessity is the mother of Invention. This could not be anymore true with Category Design, and for our guest today, Mike Evans. Mike Evans is the founder of Grubhub, a category in food delivery service that was born from the necessity of having a multitude of options in one app, rather than having to look for it in different websites or printed pamphlets. From a budding delivery guide, Mike grew his company into a premier delivery ordering platform, and became Category King in this regard. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we go through Mike Evans’ journey, from the spark of the idea to managing a successful startup and beyond. Mike Evans on the inception of Grubhub The conversation starts off with Mike sharing how their love for great food made them a big fan of ordering. “I live in a household with a woman who loves to cook. Because we like to eat, sometimes we don’t feel like cooking. And when I say we, I mean her – I helped mildly. And maybe it’s because we’re getting a little older or whatever, sometimes you just don’t feel like the rigmarole of going out to a restaurant and sitting down and that. And there’s this magical ability to press a button on your Star Trek communicator and have a very nice person show up at your house with some very warm food from one of your favorite local restaurants. It’s a fucking miracle.” – Mike Evans Grubhub came at a time that the home internet is still finding its foothold in everyone’s household, and is one of the first few apps you’ll find in the App Store. Necessity brings Innovation But as the idea might seem like a simple one nowadays, it’s surprising that we haven’t thought of it sooner, even as a simple website or catalog. Of course, there was the yellow pages, but it’s not like there’s a dedicated section there for restaurants, and the numbers aren’t always updated. And you still have to resort to pamphlets to find out what’s on the menu, so can be quite redundant. “I just wanted to find who delivered to me, and the Yellow Pages was a terrible, a terrible way to organize that information. It was just alphabetical sorted for the whole city and Chicago is 25 miles tall and 3 miles wide. And so the restaurants that deliver to the White Sox area, don’t deliver to the cubby area. Not useful to see it in a in a big Yellow Pages book. And so that was the original idea.” – Mike Evans While there were some restaurants that were doing online ordering at the time, it wasn’t what Mike has originally had in mind. He just wanted to have the location and contact details of a restaurant, as well as and updated menu of what they offer. Eventually they would expand Grubhub to be an ordering platform as well, but that’s a few years down the road. Mike Evans: Content comes first Now that he has the idea for it, the next step was creating the business and driving traffic into it. Mike Evans explains that the common trap among starting business that bridge two markets together is that they often cater to just one end or the other. According to Mike, before you even get to any side of the market, you first need to create great content for your business. In his case, he built out the online menu guide first for high-traffic restaurants before marketing it to potential users and showing restaurant owners that it is a viable product. He basically found a way to get value on his business that doesn’t depend on either side of the network to start. Mike also commented that there’s a common misconception that you have to be the first in order to corner a big chunk of the market. For him, being the First Best is important, as you will be used and remember much better this way by users, rather just having a clunky business model that happened to come out first. To hear more from Mike Evans and his startup journey, download and listen to this episode. Bio Mike Evans founded GrubHub in his spare bedroom and grew it into the multi-billion-dollar online food delivery colossus that is a household name. In Hangry, his insightful and hilarious memoir, he reveals the inside story of how a pizza craving turned into a hobby, and then became a business, and then ultimately grew into a multi-billion-dollar behemoth that changed the way we eat. Shocking everyone, at the pinnacle of startup success, Mike leaves it all behind, quitting the company he started to bike across the United States. Links Connect with Mike Evans! Mike’s Website | Linkedin | Twitter | Instagram | Hangry on Amazon Books We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

On almost every episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we strive to provide radically valuable, radically different real dialogues that hopefully make a big difference. Today, we aspire to do none of that. Because what you’re about to hear is a fun funny ADHD conversation with our guest, my buddy and Santa Cruz icon, Neil Pearlberg. So sit back and listen to two buddies have a conversation while the cocktail flows and the better judgment goes out of the window. Neil Pearlberg On podcast high jinks and Cameo The conversation begins with some light-hearted ribbing about podcasting, and how they don’t get together often anymore unless there’s a podcast. There’s also a couple of stories about their previous attempts and always having an issue every time they do so. Afterwards, Christopher brings up the idea of Cameo, and maybe hiring someone to do audiobook readings of their Category Pirates mini books. They muse if UFC fighters could be good audio books readers, and also wonder how much they would charge if they set up their own Cameo. Neil Pearlberg on high-profile guests to the podcast The conversation then shifts to the past guests they’ve had on their respective podcasts, particularly the higher-profiled ones. Neil recalls the time when he had Jimmy Panetta on as his guest, back when he was still a District Attorney and was running for Congress. He remembered how nervous he was and how he wanted to ask great questions rather than the usual ones they dish out at interviews. So as Neil’s interview winds down and he is down, to his last question, he decides to take a chance. “So at the end of my 10 questions. I’m like, fuck it, I’m just gonna ask the guy. Because I know he’s gonna say No, and I’m not afraid of the word No. So I said, “Mr. Panetta, What could you tell me? What it was like to be in the situation room with you and Obama went off to bin Laden? Can you describe to me that process?” I’m thinking, “Fuck no. Hey, that’s top secret”, you know? He answers, “Do you have half an hour?” Yes, sir. I do. And he told that story about the whole thing with the three helicopters and that black ops and Navy Seals and the whole thing was badass. was pretty cool.” – Neil Pearlberg Getting Banned on Twitter Christopher then talks about Twitter, and given its recent trends, how he got suspended for the most ridiculous reasons. One of his suspensions was from an offensive Covid tweet, where he sarcastically replies that Bill Gates has a farm that puts Covid on 5G towers (a weird conspiracy hoax perpetuated at the time). Unfortunately, Twitter customer service bots can’t detect sarcasm, and he was suspended the next day, although he got immediately reinstated once he deleted the tweet. Though given the current trend, getting banned or suspended on Twitter is almost a badge of honor for some, especially if their ban came from the most ridiculous or offhand reason. Which is sad, because despite its flaws, Twitter remains one of the few places were people could have an open discourse, provided it is executed properly. To hear more from Christopher Lochhead and Neil Pearlberg, download and listen to this episode. Bio Since September 2009, Neil Pearlberg has written over 200 articles covering the sport of surfing, as well as skateboarding, and soccer, for the Bay Area News Group, & Santa Cruz Waves. He is also the host of the “Off the Lip Radio Show”, & Hour Local Radio Show aired on Santa Cruz Radio Show KSCO AM 1080, FM 104.1, ksco.com and streamed on Santa Cruz Waves Facebook Page. Neil has also published articles in Adventure Sports Journal, National Geographic, Stand Up Paddle Board Magazine. Links Connect with Neil Pearlberg! Off the Lip Radio | Instagram | Twitter | Linkedin We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we go deep with one of my favorite people in Silicon Valley, Bruce Cleveland. Bruce Cleveland has had a career in Silicon Valley for over 40 years. And he’s pretty much done it with building companies, technologies, categories, and brands, as well as working on and with some of Silicon Valley’s best executive teams and entrepreneurs. He’s been a successful investor. He’s also a bestselling author. In fact, one of my favorite books is Traversing the Traction Gap, which he wrote. And I recommend it to all entrepreneurs. By the end of this dialogue, we hope you’ll have gained radical new insights into how you can do legendary things in your life and career. Traversing the Traction Gap The conversation begins with a discussion of Bruce Cleveland’s book, Traversing the Traction Gap. His best-selling book was praised by Silicon Valley insiders and many entrepreneurs for the information and insights it provided. Bruce shares that his reason for writing the books stems from people trying to make VC seem like a mystical thing, rather than explaining things in a clear way. “The reason I wrote it was because I began to grow pretty weary of really, really smart people not making it. Their companies not surviving for a variety of reasons. And they all tended to be pattern-matched against those reasons. I was also not happy with the venture community in its entirety, because I don’t think it was honest with a lot of these entrepreneurs as to why they weren’t getting investments, etc. And I kind of wanted to demystify those issues.” – Bruce Cleveland Bruce Cleveland on helping out entrepreneurs Another reason Bruce gives for writing out the book is that he wanted to help out fellow entrepreneurs who may be feeling lost, or guide those who are doing well into things that could make their ventures better. “The purpose and objective of this book was to share with entrepreneurs that, “hey, here’s some things you could possibly do to significantly enhance the probability of success.” You know, we only get one shot at this life, I felt like I owed it back to the entrepreneurs of the world who take all the risk as to what I saw, from my vantage point, both as an operating exec and as an investor, to why I thought things weren’t working for the vast majority of startups.” – Bruce Cleveland C3.ai and Enterprise AI The conversation then goes to Bruce’s latest ventures into category creation. Together with Tom Siebel, they founded C3.ai, which delves into enterprise AI. Bruce then talks about how it came to be, and how working on C3.ai has been so far. “I think this is one of the benefits of having a CEO who understands and believes in category creation, is that it as your job as CMO becomes much easier to do.” – Bruce Cleveland When they started conceptualizing and creating the category of enterprise AI, the term wasn’t even on the radar. While there were companies who were doing something similar to a lesser degree, it wasn’t clearly defined, and no one was pursuing rapid advancement on it. Now, it’s something that a lot of companies are looking at, and C3.ai is at the forefront of it. To hear more from Bruce Cleveland and how to have a legendary career in VC and tech, download and listen to this episode. Bio Bruce Cleveland’s career in Tech spans more than 40 years as a venture investor and operating executive. He was a first investor and a board member of Marketo, which held an IPO in 2013 and was acquired in 2018 by Adobe for $4.75B. He was an early-stage investor in other notable companies such as C3.ai, Doximity, Vlocity, and Workday. Bruce also held senior executive roles in engineering, product management and product marketing at Apple, AT&T, C3.ai, Oracle and Siebel Systems. His book, Traversing the Traction Gap, is a prescriptive guide for startups and new product initiatives within larger companies helping teams to use ‘market engineering’ techniques to successfully transition from Ideation to Scale. He attended the US Military Academy, West Point, New York, and received a BS in business administration from CSU, Sacramento. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Connect with Bruce Cleveland! LinkedIn | Twitter | Website Check out his book here: Traversing the Traction Gap We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

In observance of the Midterm Elections in the United States, we will not be dropping full normal episodes of Follow Your Different this week. And if you are American, I do hope you get out and vote. It is, in my opinion, one of the most patriotic things you can do. I also just wanted to read you a little something that I wrote recently on LinkedIn that I think is germane. Because whatever happens in the American midterms, roughly 50% of the country is going to be elated, and 50% of the country is going to be pissed. So let me do a little reading for you here. “Today, more Americans hate more Americans than ever. And yet, we all know hating someone because they disagree with you might be the biggest stupid of them all. So how did this happen in the oldest surviving democracy in human history? It’s because politicians, media, and social media, on both sides, create hate. Politicians, media, and social media, on both sides. monetize hate. We took the bait and internalize the hate, but it’s not too late. We can start really thinking. We can start really dialoguing. We can start really making a difference. American on American hate stops with us. This is something every American can be a leader on, and frankly, everybody in the world can be a leader on. American on American hate stops with us. God bless America and God bless the world.”

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow your Different, we discuss the idea of keeping a successful career that you have stopped liking a long time ago versus quitting it to find one that you find more fulfilling. And who better to have this conversation than with our guest, Pat Hiban. Pat Hiban is the bestselling author of the book, The Quitter’s Manifesto. He is an investor, author, podcaster, and a guy having a very good time living an epic life. By the end of this dialog, you will gain radical new insights to build your muscles for designing the life of your choosing, and not just do something because of a current trend. Pat Hiban on The Quitter’s Manifesto The conversation starts with Pat Hiban’s book, The Quitter’s Manifesto, particularly on the topic of why he wrote it, and his inspiration while doing so. Pat shares that during the past year or so that we were all locked up, people had time to think a lot about their work conditions, and what they want to do in life. “It was during COVID. I just heard of a lot of people making decisions to change jobs and the change the location of where they were working from. Also, we had this great resignation going on. I saw it, and I called Tim and I was like, “Tim, the one thing that I learned from you, you are my mentor in quitting, and I said, we should write a book on quitting.”” – Pat Hiban So Pat and Tim Road pooled their thoughts together and The Quitter’s Manifesto was born. Quitting is Scary Pat’s idea for the book was that it should be a tactical, step-by-step book. So first things first, they have to acknowledge the reality of things: that quitting a stable career is scary. “The first chapter in the book is called, Acknowledging the Truth. And the truth is, quitting is very, very scary. It’s like going to a cliff and jumping off.” – Pat Hiban For entrepreneurs, taking the jump is just Tuesday to them. This is because before they jump, they already have a parachute or glider ready even before they take the leap. Normal people do not always have those prepared beforehand, and jump blindly to their doom. So the aim of The Quitter’s Manifesto is to create rope swings that they can hang on each chapter, and at the end of it all, a net of safety when you finally decide to take the plunge. The Company Healthcare Trap The conversation then shifts to the topic of job fluidity being hampered by healthcare being tied to their employment. There are a lot of people who stick it out with big corporations for less pay, because of the healthcare benefits that they could have. So a lot of people end up being stuck or always teetering at the edge of quitting, until they find something with enough income that it overshadows the healthcare benefits they get. The weird thing about this is that they may already be earning a lot more monthly than that potential “healthcare benefit” might provide, but they still hedge because they don’t want to let go of that supposed “security blanket”. “I talked to a guy yesterday that had a family health care plan, it was worth $2,000 a month. And he wouldn’t quit his work because of it, even though he was flipping real estate on the side, making 400 grand a year. He wouldn’t go to flipping real estate full time, just because he wanted that healthcare. And then he finally did quit, and he realized how minuscule that the healthcare actually was, it didn’t matter.” – Pat Hiban To hear more from Pat Hiban and The Quitter’s Manifesto, download and listen to this episode. Bio Pat Hiban As a young child, Pat Hiban was labeled “learning disabled with speech deficiencies” and put into special classes. Through his teenage years, Pat fell forward through life and tried everything he could to find his purpose, including 2 years as a 4th string player (benchwarmer) on the lacrosse team. He graduated from college with a degree in sociology and a 2.6 GPA. After being turned down for several corporate sales positions out of college, Pat jumped into real estate and sold 10 homes his first year (6 condos, 1 house, and 3 mobile homes); he earned a total of $13,200. Through the consistent application of 6 steps, Pat grew his real estate business each and every year. In 2004, he became the #1 RE/MAX agent in the world. In 2006, he was honored with the same recognition by Keller Williams Realty. Now, having sold over 4,000 homes and over one-billion dollars in volume, Pat is one of only a handful of residential real estate agents internationally to hold the title of Billion Dollar Agent. Pat is also an avid real estate investor, a venture capitalist, and the founder of Rebus University: an online training platform for real estate agents who want the secrets that most successful agents try to keep to themselves. On average, Pat takes 153 days off each year to spend with his wife of 18 years and his two daughters. In his book, he outlines the exact process he follows to earn more working less so you can too. He lives in a suburb

Most of us are interested in what is happening in the electric energy revolution. So it is logical that people want to understand how this different future will impact ourselves, our families, our communities, our work, and our world. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow your Different, we talk to Bill Nussey to clear the air about renewable energy. Bill Nussey is a best-selling author, and his book, Freeing Energy is a fact-based, clear-eyed look at how innovators are using what he calls a local approach to solar to develop whole new categories. What you’re about to discover is how learnings from the information technology and entrepreneurship world are now driving breakthroughs, in energy and in specific solar energy. We go right at some of the myths about solar energy, and the trillions in New Category potential that Bill sees for entrepreneurs and investors in solar energy. Bill Nussey on Legacy Power Technology Bill starts of the conversation by describing how outdated the current grid system that we are using to power homes and businesses around the country. He describes past inventors like Graham Bell and Wright Brothers, and how proud they would be if they were to see how far their inventions have evolved over time. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about the technology running our power grids. “If I were to go back to Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, George Westinghouse, any of the fathers of the original grid 100 years ago and bring them forward. They would look around and say, “WTF, this is the exact same system.” Every other part of the industry & technology has been completely changed, yet this is the same. – Bill Nussey Why Nothing has Changed All of this could be traced back to the business model being outdated, yet no one is taking a huge leap in changing. That’s because they are afraid of losing the monopoly they have over distribution, should their new venture fail. Every one of them is risk averse and more than happy to just keep the status quo. Though it might look broken at times, it’s not to say that the grid can’t handle the capacity. It’s just that overall consumption is steadily growing, especially during peak hours when everyone is at home, using their devices and charging up their EVs. That said, this also fuels the rhetoric of how monopolies work, which is “if it is not noticeably broke, then we don’t have to fix it.” Myths about Renewable Energy Bill then talks about the general misconceptions and myths surrounding renewable energy, particularly those who insist that it is worse than what we currently have now. One major misconception that still prevails is that creating the materials to harvest renewable energy is simply too expensive and generates a lot of waste that it supposedly should prevent. The main target of this argument was solar panels, which back then was costly to make, and usually have a long Return of Investment (ROI) for potential adopters. While it may have been a reasonable argument in the past, nowadays technology and further development has made it so that manufacturing these materials don’t require as much energy and resources as it did before. If you are willing to spend a little extra, you can even have the manufacturer create 0% net carbon panels for you. New technology will continue to make more efficient, and more affordable things in the future. It’s all a matter of if and when you are willing to adapt to the new circumstances. To hear more from Bill Nussey and how the Renewable Energy category can thrive in the near future, download and listen to this episode. Bio Bill Nussey spent most of his career as a tech CEO. His first company, which he co-founded in high school, provided graphics software for early, text-based personal computers. Bill’s second company, Da Vinci Systems, was started out of his college dorm room and grew to serve millions of users across 45 countries. Later, he spent several years as a venture capitalist with Greylock. In 1998, he left the firm to become CEO of a portfolio company, iXL, which went public and grew to $500 million in revenue. After iXL, he joined Silverpop as CEO. The company grew to nearly $100 million in recurring revenue and became a global leader in cloud-based marketing. In 2014, IBM acquired the company and made it the foundation of the IBM Marketing Cloud. Shortly after the acquisition, Bill was promoted to IBM’s VP Corporate Strategy, helping the CEO and SVPs set IBM’s strategic roadmap. Bill’s companies have created thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in value. Bill’s journey into clean energy began with a TED Talk, which grew into 100+ articles and, most recently, the #1 ranked renewable energy podcast called The Freeing Energy Podcast. All of this supported and ultimately led to his upcoming book called Freeing Energy. Supported by 320 interviews across the world, the book’s mission is to help readers understand a powerful new approach to acce

On today’s episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, what you’re about to hear is a story of challenge, loss, courage, and triumph. We’re also releasing it now in part because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So join us as we have a meaningful dialogue with our guest, Katrin Van Dam. Katrin Van Dam is a successful executive in the media business, and she’s focused on content for kids and families. About three years ago, doctors told her that she had to have both breasts removed because of cancer. What she did next will surprise and will likely inspire you because she chose a different path. By the end of this dialogue, I think you’ll gain some legendary insights into a problem that almost all of us will be touched by. Katrin van Dam on Breast Cancer The dialogue starts of with Christopher sharing that as people stay longer in this world, they experience a lot of expected and unexpected things. One of the unexpected things would be cancer and other serious ailments. Katrin van Dam replies that it is not as unexpected as we all thought. Given that one in eight women get diagnosed with breast cancer. So rather than unexpected, it’s something to be aware of and get checked for every once in a while, after a certain age. When Katrin was diagnosed with breast cancer, she found that both her breast had an invasive type of cancer. So rather than going for radiation, she opted to nip the problem in the bud and went with mastectomy. Being Presented with Options The part that Katrin found perplexing afterwards was when she found out that there was an option to not have breast reconstruction after undergoing mastectomy. Most would’ve probably taken reconstruction as part of the process, rather than an option. But Katrin also clarifies that she’s not advocating that everyone not to have reconstruction, but consider if it is really something they want. “I want to be clear about this. It’s a tremendous boon to somebody who wants to have breast mount reconstruction. For many, many women, that is a great way to be able to sort of move on from what’s happened to them and to reconnect with their bodies. And I don’t begrudge anyone that, but knowing that it was not for me.” – Katrin van Dam She also points out that Breast Mound Reconstruction is not a one-and-done thing. It is normal for those pursuing it to have multiple operations to have the desired outcome that they want, and as with any operation, each one of those presents risks. This is why Katrin is pissed that women aren’t given all the options upfront, and some have gone through painful and risky operations for something that they may have not wanted in the first place. Making an Informed Decision Katrin brings up a conversation she had with her husband when she informed him that she wasn’t getting the reconstruction. It surprised her that he did not give his immediate support on the matter, which got Katrin thinking if she missed something. In retrospect, Katrin realized that they were not operating on the same knowledge base. She who has had time to research on the complications and risks of reconstruction can confidently say that she doesn’t want one, as compared to her husband who has not delved into the matter as deep as she did. Another thing was that they were working on different assumptions: him thinking that having no breast would be a constant reminder of the cancer, while Katrin not caring about it at all. In the end, Katrin realized that she could’ve communicated better, not just on the final decision, but on her process on how she got to that decision. To hear more from Katrin van Dam on how to be Flat and Happy, download and listen to this episode. Bio Katrin van Dam has worked in children’s media and licensing for nearly thirty years and is currently a creative executive at a major media company. A few months after her debut Young Adult novel was published, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy. After getting a taste of the societal pressure to have reconstruction, she felt compelled to provide a resource for women who are facing this difficult decision. FLAT AND HAPPY, her first work of nonfiction, came out of that commitment. Katrin lives with her husband in New York City. She is an avid theatergoer and enjoys hosting raucous dinner parties and traveling. Katrin is also passionate about good food, storytelling, and saving our beautiful, besieged planet (not necessarily in that order). She is a graduate of Yale University. Links Connect with Katrin van Dam! Website | Flat & Happy More information about Breast Cancer: www.cancer.org We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

US President Joe Biden recently warned about the possibility of Armageddon. He said “we have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.” On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we discuss the current situation in the US and around the world with All In Podcast Rain Man, David Sacks. David Sacks is a legendary entrepreneur, category and company builder, and now venture capitalist. He’s the founder of a VC firm called Craft Ventures. He was the founding Chief Operating Officer of PayPal founder and CEO of Yammer, which sold to Microsoft for well over a billion dollars. He has been an early investor in companies like Facebook, Twitter, Uber, SpaceX, Airbnb, Slack, and more. And today, he’s also incredibly well known as one of the CO hosts of the All In podcast. So listen in to keep up with current affairs, and you might learn a thing or two on how to prepare for the future. David Sacks on Biden’s comment about Armageddon We begin on the recent comments that Biden made about Armageddon. When asked why he thinks Biden’s thoughts went that way, David’s reply was: “My reaction to this was the man who can’t see two steps ahead, suddenly realizes where his policy is leading. We’re the ones who have refused to engage in any sort of diplomacy or any sort of negotiated settlement. Our strategy is not to provide them with an off ramp.” – David Sacks But David also thinks that Biden acknowledging this is a step in the right direction. “That being said, I still thought it was incredibly useful for Biden to say what he said, because the first step of getting out of a problem is acknowledging that you’re in one.” – David Sacks David Sacks on Tactical Nukes & Risking Nuclear War There has also been talks of using tactical nukes to quickly resolve the situation. David does not agree with this, saying that using nukes at this point just opens up the risk of a nuclear war. “If a tactical nuclear weapon gets used in Ukraine, then the whole world will be different. This thing could escalate very quickly into a larger scale nuclear war. You had Petraeus on the Sunday shows last weekend saying that if Putin uses attack nukes, the US should respond by hitting every Russian military target in Ukraine? Well, again, think two steps ahead. How do you think the Russians would react to that, given that they clearly don’t have the military might to stand up to the US in terms of conventional arms?” – David Sacks If countries start using nukes, then it signals that the former agreements against it can be violated with impunity. And that is a dangerous ground to tread. Prediction or Deterrent Returning to Biden’s statement about Armageddon, David suggests that, rather than being a prediction, this statement, along with Petreaus’, could be interpreted as a warning or deterrent against Russia going nuclear. The problem is that the reasons why the Russians might escalate to the use of nuclear weapons is because they’re losing the war by conventional means. Add to the fact that Putin doesn’t have an off ramp that lets him keep his reign. Because if he loses this war, or doesn’t gain anything significant from it, it is very likely that he will be forced out of office by the public. Putin is pretty much acting like a cornered beast at this point. The scary part is that you don’t know what that cornered beast might do as a last-ditch effort to escape. To hear more from David Sacks and the current situation of the world, download and listen to this episode. Bio David Sacks is co-founder and general partner at Craft. He has been a successful founder and investor for over two decades, building and investing in some of the most iconic companies in tech. He has invested in over 20 unicorns, including Affirm, AirBnB, Bird, ClickUp, Eventbrite, Facebook, Houzz, Lyft, OpenDoor, Palantir, Postmates, Reddit, Slack, SpaceX, Twitter, Uber, and Wish. David is also co-host of the popular “All-In Podcast” with Chamath Palihapitiya, David Friedberg, and Jason Calacanis. David first got involved in the technology industry in 1999 when he joined early-stage startup Confinity, later renamed PayPal. Serving as the company’s first product leader and then as COO, David built and ran many of the company’s key teams, including product management and design, sales and marketing, business development, international, customer service, fraud operations, and HR. He pivoted the product from beaming money on Palm Pilots to emailing money on the web, and introduced the business model. When the company IPO’d on the Nasdaq in 2002, David was 29 — the median age of the “PayPal Mafia” executives listed on the S-1. PayPal was later acquired by eBay and eventually spun back out into a publicly traded company (under ticker symbol PYPL). In 2008, David founded enterprise collaboration company Yammer, which was one of the first SaaS startups to apply consumer growth tact

Most people want to be welcoming of others and believe in equality for all human beings. But we’re all a little biased. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we go deep on the topic of bias with our guest, Jessica Nordell. Jessica Nordell is a bestselling author who has written a book called The End of Bias. Jessica’s book has won a boatload of awards, including being named a Best Book of the Year by the World Economic Forum. What you’re about to experience is a real different dialogue about what it really takes to end bias. Jessica Nordell on Bias and Racism The conversation starts off on the topic of Bias, and how it relates to racism. Christopher asks if racism and bias served a purpose for humanity or not, to which Jessica replies: “Racism certainly emerged because it had a very specific social, political and economic purpose, which was to enable the existence of chattel slavery. In order to justify and sort of perpetuate the existence of that inhumane practice, what we would look at now as a criminal, criminally inhumane enterprise, Racism had to exist as a as a way to justify it. Because if a group of people are seen as lower on a social hierarchy, then it’s much easier to justify that kind of inhumane behavior.” – Jessica Nordell Jessica Nordell on the Origin of Racism Following up on the topic, Jessica was asked if these ideas of being superior over a certain race or gender started existing after a certain period, or did humanity have these notions from the start. Jessica explains that this particular question was one of the things she really dug into in her research for her book, The End of Bias. One of the things she found was that in ancient Egyptian civilization, there was no notion of skin color prejudice. There were even evidence of non-ethic people rising on the Egyptian political administration, which suggests a high intermingling of people in the region. This suggests that contemporary racism was invented at a certain point in time for a specific purpose. Jessica Nordell on Male-Female Bias When asked if it was the same for Male & Female biases, Jessica shares that Patriarchy predates the written word, which means the position of men above women is a really old school of thought. But there have been civilizations and ethnicities that flip that over its head. For example, in ancient Mesopotamia women are associated with divinity. There was a sense of women being associated with authority and leadership, which has eroded over time. So it’s hard to find the origin of Patriarchy, because by the time we have writing, it was already there, and men were doing the writing. To hear more from Jessica Nordell and what it takes to actually end bias, download and listen to this episode. Bio Jessica Nordell is an award-winning author, science writer, and speaker known for blending rigorous science with compassionate humanity. Her first book, The End of Bias: A Beginning, shortlisted for the 2022 Columbia Journalism/Lukas Prize for Excellence in Nonfiction, the 2022 NYPL Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the 2021 Royal Society Science Book Prize, is the culmination of fifteen years of reporting and writing on the subject of bias and discrimination and how to solve it, for publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the New Republic. The End of Bias was named a Best Book of the Year by the World Economic Forum, Greater Good, AARP, and Inc and is currently being used by organizations from newsrooms and startups to universities, healthcare organizations, and faith communities to solve some of their biggest cultural challenges. Deeply engaged with connecting across differences to expand and heal the human experience, Nordell’s own early-career experience with workplace bias inspired her passion for tackling discrimination and for seeing others in their full complexity and humanity. With degrees in physics from Harvard and poetry from the University of Wisconsin, Nordell undertakes pioneering collaborations across disciplines; her work with computer scientists to simulate the real-world impact of workplace bias became a 2021 viral NYT story. Nordell is the recipient of a Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television, was named a Best New Poet by Tracy K. Smith, and was a 2022 featured speaker at SXSW. She is a direct descendent of the last woman to be tried for witchcraft in the state of Massachusetts, and is an amateur rock drummer. Links Connect with Jessica Nordell! Website | Twitter | Instagram Read her book: The End of Bias We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk about something that every single one of us has, very few of us think or talk about, and it’s something that can have a profound impact on our lives. So let’s talk about Secrets with our guest, Michael Slepian. Michael Slepian is an Associate Professor of Leadership and Ethics at the legendary Columbia University. He’s also a recipient of the Rising Star Award from the Association of psychological science. Michael is considered by many to be the leading expert on the Psychology of Secrets. He’s got a brand-new best seller out called The Secret Life of Secrets, which we will get into this episode and much more. Michael Slepian on Secrets The conversation starts out on secrets, and how we all keep them. As to why we have secrets, Michael was asked if there were pros and cons in keeping secrets from people. “So the pros, you are protecting something, you might be protecting your reputation. And in your own mind, you might be protecting someone’s feelings, you might be protecting a relationship with someone. Whatever you think is the outcome of people learning about this thing, you’re preventing that.” – Michael Slepian But to keep a secret means you are essentially cutting yourself off from other people, so they couldn’t share your burdens or provide emotional support if that is part of what you are keeping your secret from. “You’re blocking yourself from the availability of getting help from others. You can’t get their emotional support; you can’t get their guidance and advice.” – Michael Slepian Why We Keep Secrets One reason that we keep secrets is that we often feel ashamed of those secret. In response, we bury it deep and isolate it from the public, so no one will know. But this process of isolation also keeps it from receiving any validation if the secret is something to be actually ashamed of, or something that one only thought would be unacceptable. “We’ll feel isolated with those secrets, we’ll feel inauthentic for keeping them and uncertain that we’re doing the right thing. But all these negative feelings are tempered easily when we start talking to people and getting the help that we need.” – Michael Slepian Having Secrets is Natural Michael further explains that having secrets is normal, and that people tend to keep the same secrets. On his research that shows 38 common categories of secrets, an average person has 13 secrets that fall on that list, and 97% of people would have more than one secret that is in that list. “We all keep the same kinds of secrets. As isolating as a secret can feel, we all have similar ones. And so we’re not alone in the secrets we have.” – Michael Slepian To hear more from Michael Slepian and the secret about Secrets, download and listen to this episode. Bio Michael Slepian is the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Associate Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Columbia University. A recipient of the Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science, he is the leading expert on the psychology of secrets. Slepian has authored more than fifty articles on secrecy, truth, and deception. His research has been covered by The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, NPR, and more. Links Connect with Michael Slepian! Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Columbia bio Check out his new book: The Secret Life of Secrets We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

It is said that the people who have the most legendary careers are what you might think of as other-directed. The key to a successful life is to remove your joy blockers, and the goal of a career should be to, as Warren Buffett says, dance your way to work. We talk about all these and more on Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different with our guest David Novak. David Novak is the co-founder and was the CEO for 17 years of the legendary Yum! brands. Yum! is the world’s largest restaurant company, which owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, and many others. David also has an amazing podcast called How Leaders Lead, and a new book called Take Charge of You: how self-coaching can transform your life and your career. Learn how be a legendary leader, executive, and entrepreneur from the best by listening in to this episode. David Novak on Looking Back on his Career The conversation begins with David’s new book, and how it is a window to his career and life, and the interesting events and tidbits that go along with it. “I was the first kid in my family to get a college education, got a degree in journalism, didn’t get an MBA, ended up becoming a CEO, and have the time of my life building a fantastic company. Now I’m in my next phase of my life where I’m fortunate enough to be able to spend time on the things that truly give me joy.” – David Novak Nowadays, David focuses on Leadership Development, and shares his thoughts and insights in his podcast, How Leaders Lead by David Novak. He also has time to write books, which has been a big passion of his. David Novak on Reaching One’s Goals and What Comes After The topic shifts on how most of the books and guides in entrepreneurship that is published are focused on personal growth and development, but there are only a few on what happens when you achieve those goals. Because life doesn’t stop when you reach those goals – there has to be something else to direct your passion into. David agrees and adds to it that after proving yourself and learning to manage and eventually lead people, the goal post shifts ever so slightly, and you find other ways to draw success. “Well, I have to tell you, that a lot of the research out there says that, you know, the people that are the happiest are other directed. What I’ve found is that the more other directed I got, the more I focused on other people’s success more than my own, the more success I ultimately got. And, you know, it’s kind of an amazing thing.” – David Novak On the Current State and Rising Up Again The conversation then goes to the current state of things, where inflation and the looming threat of recession is on the rise. David comments that there is current a huge divide, particularly in the haves and have nots, especially in the environment that they are in. That is not to say that there aren’t any people who thrive in harsher environments, but David wishes that people would at least have the chance to nurture themselves and grow. “I hope one day, my goal is somehow from all the leadership development I do that there’ll be one person that will rise up in this country and inspire people again.” – David Novak To hear more from David Novak and how you can take charge of you, download and listen to this episode. Bio David Novak, Founder/former CEO Yum! Brands & NY Times Bestselling Author Starting with an undergrad degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri, David grew from his first job as a copywriter at a small ad agency to become a New York Times best-selling author, co-founder and former CEO and Chairman of Yum! Brands, the world’s largest restaurant company (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut), and now, founder of the non-profit organization, David Novak Leadership, Inc. and host of top-rated leadership podcast, How Leaders Lead with David Novak. David was named “CEO of the Year” by Chief Executive magazine, one of the world’s “30 Best CEOs” by Barron’s, one of the “Top People in Business” by FORTUNE and one of the “100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World” by Harvard Business Review. And he’s passed it on. Today, there are over 26 CEOs of major American corporations that David has coached or led earlier in their careers. Links Connect with David Novak! LinkedIn | Podcast | Twitter How Leaders Lead | How Leaders Lead – Twitter Read the book: Take Charge of You We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk about the idea of startup capital, how to have an exponential career, and maybe even a new way to think about the future with our guest, Mike Maples, Jr. Mike Maples, Jr. is the co-founder of Floodgate Capital. Floodgate has led early-stage investments in companies like Twitter, Lyft, and much more. His podcast, Starting Greatness, is truly one of the greatest business podcasts there is. That said, let’s get into the discussion of how to think about the future. From Value Creators to Rent Seekers Mike Maples, Jr. dives into the idea of the industries and business leader’s mindset and drive for creating new ideas or the lack thereof. At the time when the animating forces behind industrial economy was mass production, mass distribution, and eventually mass computation, the focus in new technology and ideas revolved around improving performance. Over time, it evolved into developing networks, whether physical or via software, and value was derived on how vast your network reached. Fast forward to recent years, in which Mike started noticing that there was a disconnect with most of the ideas from the founder of a company, to its current inheritors. A lot of them are starting to focus on creating a status quo, rather than moving forward. As a result, a lot of people in business make money through financial engineering rather than things that improve productivity. “They’ve transition from being value creators to rent seekers. And they’ve started to become more interested in preserving their institutional power than in fulfilling their mission to their constituents.” – Mike Maples, Jr. Mike Maples, Jr. on Nurturing an Economy that Rewards Productivity According to Mike, the issue nowadays is that people make money from the market without creating new ideas, and are incentivized to do it in the current financial economy. In order to become a successful society, we need to incentivize productive behaviors to move forward. “So hedge fund guy borrows money close to 0%, and then buys IBM stock or loans at IBM so they can buy back their own stock. And since they know they’re gonna do that they front run it. And so Okay, did any jobs get created in that? No. Did any new products get created in that? No. But people who played financial engineering games did well. And what you want is an economy that is not financialized. You want an economy that rewards productivity gains, because fundamentally all abundance and standard of living advancement comes from people being more productive.” – Mike Maples, Jr. Engaging in fakery and keeping this charade of an economy will just lead to a cycle of economic bubbles and bursts in the future. Startup Capitalism If the current system won’t lend itself to shifting back to a productive economy, then the third option is to exit. Though it was not as feasible before as it is now, Bitcoin and other non-Fiat currencies have given us the chance to break free and start over, without being tied down by Fiat economies. That said, Mike has been playing around the idea of a Startup Capitalism. As with most startups, they focus on creating a different future than just following the current flow of things. Which is why startups are born from the pursuit of new ideas, and could be the drive to a more productive economy that Mike wanted. And you don’t necessarily need to start a new company to create a startup. It could be born inside a bigger one, much like the iPhone inside Apple. “At the very least, you get to exercise the option of doing things in a different way. “– Mike Maples, Jr. To hear more from Mike Maples, Jr. and his ideas on how to Rethink the Future, download and listen to this episode. Bio Mike Maples, Jr. is the Co-Founder and Partner at Floodgate, the host of the Starting Greatness podcast and a Co-conspirator with awesome Startup Founders. Links Connect with Mike! Website: Floodgate |Twitter: @m2jr | LinkedIn: in/Maples | Podcast: Starting Greatness We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, our guests Lauren Dunford and Kevin Maney discuss how Category Designers work to create the future. On this topic, we also talk about how do you create a company that makes a difference and makes money at the same time. Lauren Dunford is the cofounder and CEO of an extraordinarily exciting new company called Guidewheel. They are a mission to empower all the world’s factories to reach sustainable peak performance. Kevin Maney is a legendary bestselling author and award-winning columnist. He’s also the co-founder of Category Design Advisors, where he helps companies create and dominate new market categories. He is also one of the co-authors of Play Bigger, and one of the Godfathers of Category Design. If you care about building companies that changed the future, I think you’re gonna love everything about this episode. Lauren Dunford and Kevin Maney on Category Design The conversation starts off with an explanation on how Lauren Dunford and Kevin Maney met, and the work they have done together on category design. Kevin knows Lauren from the work they have done on the category design project on Lauren’s company, Guidewheel. Kevin was really interested with Lauren’s work, as he explained: “There are actually two tracks of reasons that I very interested in Lauren, and her company guide wheel and one is the category design aspect, which I feel like was a very exciting project. But then also, there’s another track of the book that I wrote that came out earlier this year called Intended Consequences. The idea behind that book was that there’s been lots of conversation out there about responsible innovation and how a company’s ESG had companies to do good and everything. And hang on. And we were talking about the fact that there wasn’t really a real playbook for like, if you wanted to start a company that was like this.” – Kevin Maney As he was writing the book, Kevin realized that a lot of conversations he had with Lauren Dunford line up with the ideas that they were talking about in the book; mainly how to setup a company that from the beginning, will be a company that is profitable and does something really good. Lauren Dunford on Guidewheel We then pivot to a discussion on Lauren’s company, Guidewheel, and the work they are doing to make the business a force for good. Lauren and her co-founder were undergrads in Stanford, where they ran competing climate change groups. Afterwards, they consolidated their efforts and aimed to create a profitable business objective that still had a massive impact on climate change. “We work with factories, and the category we’re building is Factory Ops. Our goal is let’s have all of the world’s 10 million factories, having the tools to reach sustainable peak performance, if we can do that at scale huge for their businesses. And then, of course, your massive impact for the planet because of how much emissions results from how we make those guitars and everything else on the planet.” – Lauren Dunford Lauren describes the category of Factory Ops as making the tools of the biggest factories run efficiently, so there are less waste and by-products. This in turn meant that companies will have the same, if not more, output while contributing less to factors that cause climate change. To hear more from Lauren Dunford and Kevin Maney on how to create a company that makes a difference and makes money at the same time, download and listen to this episode. Bio Lauren Dunford Lauren Dunford is the co-founder and CEO of Guidewheel, on a mission to empower all the world’s factories to reach sustainable peak performance and recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of the 100 most promising companies globally poised to have a significant impact on business and society.   Kevin Maney Kevin Maney is a bestselling author and award-winning columnist. He’s also the co-founder of Category Design Advisors where he helps companies create and dominate new market categories. He has been writing about technology for 30 years, has interviewed most of the tech pioneers you can name, and brings broad and deep context to Category Design conversations. He is co-author of the book Play Bigger, and has been an A-list writer and thinker about technology for 25 years. Kevin’s most recent book is UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance, which proposes a new category of healthcare. It is co-authored with Hemant Taneja of General Catalyst and Stephen Klasko, CEO of Jefferson Health. Kevin and Hemant also co-authored the 2018 book Unscaled: How AI and a New Generation of Upstarts Are Creating the Economy of the Future. His other books include The Two-Second Advantage (a 2011 New York Times best seller), Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On and Others Don’t, and The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson Sr. and the Making of IBM. Kev

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, our guest Al Ramadan talks about what’s at stake when it comes to category battles, how you can spot the category challengers who can become category kings and queens, and what they need to become category leaders that earn 76% of the economics. There comes a time in every startup’s life, where they face an epic, typically 18-to-36-month category battle. As we reported in our first book Play Bigger, the company that wins that battle earns 76% of the total value created in the category as measured by the market caps for public companies and valuations for private companies. What that means is, in any space, one company earns two thirds of the economics, which makes that category battle, which is typically 18 to 36 months long, arguably the highest stakes game in business. This episode will be available on both Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different and Lochhead on Marketing, because we think it is that important that everyone must hear about it. So without further ado, let’s dive into this dialogue. Play Bigger: Looking back, and its impact today Al Ramadan comes into the conversation bearing data about the businesses and companies we’ve observed when writing Play Bigger, as well as some new players that have achieve the same feat since then. To recap, Al Ramadan and Christopher Lochhead wrote a book back in 2014 called Play Bigger, which talks about category design and how it can make you become a category leader in your chosen space. One of the things they’ve found out in the course of their research is that Category Leaders tend to corner 76% of the value of said space. Though when they wrote Play Bigger, the world was nowhere near as digitized as it is today. So a lot of the research was based on tech companies back then. But now, as more and more categories are behaving like tech categories due to digital scalability and digital reach, these findings are becoming true for every category. Category Kings to Category Leaders Al Ramadan shares that he and his team looked into the 35 Category Kings that they have observed back in Play Bigger, and check on their current situation in the market sphere. In Play Bigger, we originally published a set of research and tracked 35 Category Kings in the tech space and their market caps at the time were 465 billion and those same companies today are now worth 1.9 trillion. “If you track what happened to those 35 kings, as we call them back then, between the year of 2014 to the year of 2021. You want to know what the numbers are? At the time in 2014, the entire pool of the 35 category kings were valued at 465 billion. They are now valued at 1.9 trillion. That is, they’ve created more than $1,000,001.5 in market cap and the annual for those people who care about this stuff like Investors and Financial people. The compound interest growth rate of those kings. Market cap wise, is 22.46%.” – Al Ramadan Given this data, it begs the question of how many understand that this is the new dynamic, and how many entrepreneurs and marketers still think that it’s a big leap of faith to follow. To hear more from Al Ramadan and how Category Kings can become legendary Category Leaders, download and listen to this episode. Bio Al Ramadan is a co-founding partner of Play Bigger Advisors and coauthor of the book, Play Bigger. He also co-founded Quokka Sports, which revolutionized the way people experience sport online. Al then joined Macromedia and Adobe, where he spent almost ten years changing the way people think about great digital experiences. At Adobe, Al led teams that created the Rich Internet Applications category and helped develop the discipline of experience design. In the early ‘90s he applied data science to Australia’s Americas Cup — an innovation in sports performance analytics. His work in sailing led directly to the idea for Quokka. He lives in Santa Cruz, California. Links Connect with Al Ramadan! Play Bigger | LinkedIn | Category Contenders We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, our guest Alexander Rose asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks. We go deep into that question, and a myriad of other topics in today’s dialogue. Alexander Rose is the executive director of the Long Now Foundation. And their mission is to foster long-time, long-term thinking. And they’re probably most known for the building of this massive 10,000-year clock with the support of Jeff Bezos. If you are anyone who cares about products, if you’re an engineer, a product leader, or frankly, anyone else who cares about creating products, or a different future, you’re going to love this conversation. Alexander Rose on The Long Now Foundation The conversation starts off with Alexander describing the purpose of The Long Now Foundation and The Long Now Idea itself. It was started by a set of both technologist and artists, who are part of the earlier generation of Silicon Valley. “It was a group of people that were realizing that by the kind of fetishization of speed that was happening, especially around Silicon Valley, in technology, circles, that we were taking a lot of things off the table. So things like climate change, if you were only given a few years to solve something like that, you basically won’t even start. But if you are willing to think about something, at least in terms of centuries or generations, you could imagine how you might solve these large challenges that humanity is now facing.” – Alexander Rose Brian Eno, one of the founders of the Long Now Foundation, coined the term, and he really stretched it out to the 10,000 years we’ve had, to the 10,000 years in the future, making it a 20,000-year story. Humanity 10,000 Years into the Future The focus then shifts into the story of what will happen 10,000 years into the future. For Alexander, he believes that humanity will still be there, but it depends on what we do today if they are thriving or struggling by then. “I very much believe that humanity is going to be around for the next 10,000 years. The question is, are we making decisions that are going to help those future generations right now? As Jonas Salk originally asked: Are we being good ancestors, or are we being bad ancestors? And how can we be better ones?” – Alexander Rose Alexander then proceeds to discuss our ongoing report card on the matter. Alexander Rose on Thinking of the “Good Old Days” Talking about the past, particularly the notion of the good old days, Alexander firmly thinks that we definitely have it better today than in the distant past. It is just that, we are used to modern comforts and the ever-growing technology at the palm of our hands, that we take those things for granted and focus on the bad things todays and reminisce on the good memories from the past. Alexander describes it like a pendulum swinging back and forth. While there are swings on both directions, the momentum for the forward / positive swing is oftentimes bigger than the backwards or negative one. Though granted in today’s climate, it’s hard to see the positives than the negatives. While the past would be nice to visit, a person from this time would find it a horrendous place to live in, minus the comforts that they have been accustomed to. To learn more about Alexander Rose and The Long Now Foundation and mindset, download and listen to this episode. Bio Alexander Rose Links Connect with Alexander Rose! The 10,000-year clock We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

Today’s episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different is a love letter to our military and veterans. Our guest Christian Anschuetz shares his story of how he looked up to these brave heroes growing up, and how he became one of the heroes that serve our country. Christian Anschuetz retired from the U.S. military as a Marine Captain. After his service, he had a long and successful career as both an entrepreneur and an S&P 500, Senior C-level executive. After hanging up his uniform as and executive and advisor, he continues to serve as one of the leaders of the organization called Project RELO and will be spearheading an upcoming endeavor called Task Force Tribute. If you are interested in his story, and the story of thousands of active military and veterans who have served our country, stay tuned to this episode. Christian Anschuetz & the Legendary Humans of the US Military Imagine being 12 years old at home with your dad, as you watch a strange car pull up in front of your house. Two men in uniform get out, and one’s a chaplain. This is an experience only Goldstar families know. This was also the moment a 12-year-old Christian Anschuetz, learned that his older brother and hero, Norman, had died serving his country. Years later, Christian finds himself joining the military himself. He did so to honor the memory of his brother, and the love of country in his heart. He eventually became a Marine Captain and went to serve for several years. We often forget that military service in our country is completely voluntary. So it takes a tough and brave soul to go through all the harsh training, and eventually deploy to dangerous and unknown territories. To sacrifice so much to serve speaks volumes to their love and loyalty to our country. After Christian retired from service, he found himself in the entrepreneurial side of things, where he utilized his expertise in advising and training business leaders and executives on how to hone their leadership skills. Project RELO Christian talks about Project RELO, a veteran non-profit that he founded. He provides a quick description of what they do, and how they help hone the nation’s top CEOs and management teams to think different. “What we do is we take some of the nation’s top executive leadership of fortune 500, CEOs and their management teams, and we provide leadership training to them. But what we do is we actually go on to military bases, and we conduct full military operations for three days. We do everything from convoy operations, communications, weapons handling, etc.” – Christian Anschuetz The beauty of Project RELO is that the people teaching these leadership training are transitioning military members. So it not only trains future business leaders to focus and learn leadership skills from another perspective, it also helps these transitioning military members and veterans have an idea on how they can use their previous experience to find work, or even build up new careers. Task Force Tribute Christian then talks about Task Force Tribute, which is a huge undertaking that Project RELO will be undertaking soon. One thing he pointed out was that not a lot of people know that people they mingle with on a day-to-day basics is a veteran, or is serving in some capacity in the military. Part of it is the depiction of what military does in the media. So when they eventually leave the service, there are certain preconceptions on what they could do for a career or business moving forward. As said earlier, Project RELO helps shine a light to both business leaders and military members that these military members’ skills are not just confined to military-related activities. They are well-equipped with other talents and skills, plus the military discipline that has been trained to them for years. Task Force Tribute aims to tell their story in a more elaborate way. They want to tell the story of these legendary people, both active and veterans alike, and share their perspectives to those who they have protected and served. To learn more about Christian Anschuetz, Project RELO, and Task Force Tribute, download and listen to this episode. Bio Christian Anschuetz, Marine Captain (retd.), Executive Leadership Advisor Executive leader and advisor in art and science of ‘strategy activation,’ Christian Anschuetz helps industry leaders re-imagine and re-invent how their companies do business. His unique blend of market-shaping vision and leading-edge tech savvy coupled with a strong belief in the power of service over self helps leaders step beyond conventional thinking. The result? Envisioning and executing future-proofing market strategies that lead to competitive edge, rapid growth, and lasting digital transformation. Christian has held C-level and executive leadership positions at top global firms in the advertising, cyber security, global safety and supply-chain arenas, and is known for success in case studies by Microsoft, Intel, HP, and Oracle. He is

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk about how ordinary people do legendary things and push ourselves to go beyond ourselves with our guest, Colin O’Brady. Colin O’Brady is an extraordinary extreme athlete. He has summited Everest twice, and he is the first person ever to solo trek across Antarctica. And he’s a 10-time world record breaking explorer and adventurer, and is considered to be one of the most legendary endurance athletes on the planet. Yet Colin considers himself a regular dude, and will share his story on how we can all do some serious legendary things in our lives. Colin O’Brady on his reasons for doing what he does The conversation starts off with the question of why Colin does what he does. “Why do I do what I do? Yeah, it’s an easy question as you’re like, “Why would somebody walk alone across Antarctica for 54 days, dragging a 375-pound sled by themselves?” I asked myself that question sometimes.” – Colin O’Brady That said, Colin is very happy with his achievements, especially with his wife as his number one supporter. They have built their business together, and she has helped Colin with these world record expeditions and how to execute them. And they don’t forget to have fun while doing so. “I remember calling her around day 35 and in a sadly scrapped crackly sat phone connection I said to her, “Hey, if I ever tell you I want to do this again. Make sure to remind me that I don’t.”” – Colin O’Brady Type 2 Fun Colin asks if we are familiar with the phrase, type 2 fun. “So type one fun is like fun. We you know, normal fun. You know, you’re drinking with your buddies, you’re dancing, you’re partying, you’re hanging out with your wife and are watching a beautiful sunset. It’s just fun, just fun for fun. Type two fun is it’s not super fun.” – Colin O’Brady For Colin, type 2 fun is the fulfillment one gets from pushing their body to the limits, and exploring the human potential. Not just in the physical sense, but also emotional and mental sense. The Desire to be outside is part of our DNA We talk about our outdoor trips, and while it is not as extreme as Colin’s adventures, we do get that exhilaration and joy of exploring the outdoors. Colin agrees with this, and remarks that as human, it is in our DNA to explore the outdoors. “I think it’s in our DNA to be outside in nature. Like you said, kind of those moments where after a busy week, or a busy month, you look up and you kind of watch the clouds go pass for a second, or something like that. There’s something very grounding in those experiences.” – Colin O’Brady To hear more from Colin O’Brady and how to do the impossible, download and listen to this episode. Bio Colin O’Brady is a 10-time world record breaking explorer and one of the world’s best endurance athletes. He isn’t your typical adventurer despite his unmatched athletic accomplishments including a world-first solo crossing of Antarctica, a world-first ocean row across Drake Passage (from South America to Antarctica), and summiting Mt. Everest twice. Colin is an expert on mindset, a highly sought-after keynote speaker and a New York Times bestselling author. Colin is also a television host, an executive producer and an entrepreneur who has built and sold companies. And, he’s done it all after overcoming a devastating accident – that nearly left him unable to walk – to prove that anything is possible. Links Connect with Colin O’Brady! Website | Youtube Check out his new book: 12 Hour Walk: Invest One Day, Conquer Your Mind, and Unlock Your Best Life We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk about how we can create & design your life, and overcome anything with our guest, Chris Duffin. Chris Duffin is the world record holder in 1000-pound deadlifts and squats. He is one of the strongest men on planet Earth, which is a very legendary achievement. He’s also an author of a fascinating riveting book called The Eagle and the Dragon, a story of Strength and Reinvention. Those achievement on themselves are amazing, but when you hear more about his background, it becomes a whole new level of legendary. Liquid Courage The conversation starts on the topic of alcohol, and how it helps take down the defenses that people normally have with strangers or on speaking in public. Chris Duffin follows up with a related piece that he wrote about drinking back in 2014, which was called Whiskey and Deadlifts. “It actually talks about how alcohol can be used as a performance enhancer. And I talked about the history of it actually being used as that which a lot of people aren’t aware of.” – Chris Duffin It’s certainly not an endorsement of excessive alcohol drinking by any means. But it gives a good glimpse on the world of powerlifting. Chris also says that he might update it soon, so look out for that. Chris Duffin on his journey The conversation shifts to Chris’ life story, which he admits took him a while to tell it comfortably. For him, it shows how you can move the needle in life with the right approaches from a mental aspect. For Chris, it’s not exactly a “woe is me” story, as he has created what he wants to do with his life now, and moving forward. The story is actually opening from his book, The Eagle and the Dragon. It starts when he was six years old and living in the wilderness. Not just for camping and vacationing, but full-on living in the wilds, exposed to deadly animals and the like. “On that first story, I was being taught how to handle and capture live rattlesnakes, we were killing them, so that we could sell the skins and try to make ends meet. But also, I was being taught at six years old, because that was the environment we lived in. And then I needed to have that for my safety.” – Chris Duffin Creating His Own Path Other stories in Chris’ childhood involved other dangerous elements in their life, in this case it was traffickers and serial killers. To be exposed to such situations at such a young age, it was not an environment that someone should be exposed to growing out. Which is why Chris found himself gravitating to sports, trying to bring in some money to help the family, and he also found comfort in doing athletic activities. Due to his efforts, he eventually got a full-ride academic scholarship to go to a school for a dual engineering degree, and eventually worked on his MBA. As he was working and studying away from his family most of the while, it apparently got worse on the home situation. So much that he had to take custody of his little sisters, so he could help and guide them towards better choices in life, and help heal the trauma that they have been through as well. To hear more about Chris Duffin and how to overcome anything in your life, download and listen to this episode. Bio Chris Duffin Links Connect with Chris Duffin! Website | Instagram | Linkedin | Facebook | Youtube Check out his book, The Eagle and the Dragon, a story of Strength and Reinvention We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

The turmoil in the economy and stock market has created massive turmoil not only in Fiat currencies, but also in Cryptocurrency. As such, Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs are bracing for tough times. Today at Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we are here to make sense of it all with Sequoia Partner Michelle Bailhe. As you know, Sequoia is one of the giants of venture tech in Silicon Valley, and I have known and worked with the folks at Sequoia for over 20 years. Today, we get to hear from one of their partners and learn what advice Sequoia is currently giving to their entrepreneurs and much more. Michelle Bailhe and I go deep on what’s really going on with the crypto markets as they face their first meaningful downturn. Why bad times tend to yield great entrepreneurs and startups, and what we can learn from the 1600s. Michelle Bailhe on the crypto market The conversation starts off on the topic of the crypto markets. Michelle shares that she thinks crypto is in a very interesting moment, for a lot of reasons. While crypto has its own problems, on top of the current economic conditions, Michelle thinks it can weather the situation. “Crypto has been through a lot of bear and bull markets, or winters and summers. And so there’s a sense of, well this is winter, and we have been here before. We know what it’s like, and we know how to build through it.” – Michelle Bailhe Though according to Michelle, it’s worth noting that what lies in the future may be way different than before. For one thing, valuation will be unlike before when crypto was on the rise, and investors are savvier than before. So it’s all a matter of how crypto will adapt and integrate itself into the market in the long run. Crypto’s first downturn When asked when the first downturn was for crypto, Michelle explains that crypto has had its ups and downs over the years. As to why it went unnoticed, it was mostly due to the issues being with crypto itself, and not due to external factors. As for whether Covid had anything to do with it, 2020 was actually an explosion of new cryptos due to people taking an interest in investing and growing their current funds. Though it wasn’t all for the better. Much like the tech boom in 2000, where there was a hunger for new tech, but not enough focus on quality. So a lot of new cryptocurrencies were minted, only to collapse on themselves in a few months. What’s different this 2022 is that crypto, along with other markets, is going through a global macro issue. As it becomes more ingrained in other sectors, companies, and markets, it also incurs the problems those systems have. That will be the fundamental difference between the winters before and the upcoming one now. Hedging against Inflation There has been a prevailing thought that crypto would be a good hedge against inflation, particularly around the time when Bitcoin has more or less stabilized. While Michelle thinks of it as a novel idea and has heard the arguments for it, crypto has never been created and traded as a hedge against inflation. “Bitcoin has not at all traded as a hedge against inflation. It has been extremely correlated to technology stocks, and it looks much more like an unprofitable technology stock, partly because money people are still wrapping their heads around how to think about it: Do I think about it like equity? Do I think about it like a commodity? What are the demand and supply drivers?” – Michelle Bailhe As for whether you should invest in crypto or not, Michelle Bailhe gives her thought on the matter. So download the episode and continue to listen. Bio Michelle Bailhe is a Partner at Sequoia, a leader in technology venture capital. She focuses on crypto, fintech & software. Learn more about Michelle Bailhe. Links Connect with Michelle Bailhe! LinkedIn | Twitter We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

Welcome to the second part of a two-part series on neuro-diversity and mental health. If you happened to miss the first one, you can check out our dialogue with M.E. Thomas on psychopathy (FYD 277). On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk about how to improve your mental health. And who better to have that conversation but with Sarah Fay, PhD. Sarah Fay is a bestselling author, and her new book is called Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses. Apple books said Sarah’s new book is “a powerful memoir by a deeply compelling person and a fantastic writer.” Whether you are curious about neuro-diversity, or looking for ways to improve your mental health, you can’t go wrong with listening to this episode. The world that Sarah Fay lives in The conversation starts off on the topic of how Sarah is processing the world we live in today. As someone who was in the vacuum of the academe for a while, one might not even notice the world outside. Sarah admits that she pretty much missed the Obama administration while she was working on her PhD. There is a certain appeal of the academe of being away from the world and being surrounded by actual books, and being in pursuit of knowledge. That is, until the world comes calling. How things have changed Sarah shares that she has been writing about how different things have changed for her and how she saw herself. One of the things she has noticed is the change in her mental health, and how it has changed for the better. “I was writing about how different things have changed for me and how I see myself. Now as someone who had a mental illness, I believe I’ve been cured. There’s no evidence to suggest that we cannot fully heal from mental illness, even serious mental illness like what I had.” – Sarah Fay Sarah finds the notion that mental illness only lies dormant at times very pessimistic, as it sets the precedent that it could never be fully healed. The Metaphor of Mental Illness Sarah shares the metaphor of mental illness that she absolutely loves, which is much like breaking a bone. “When you break a bone after it heals (which I didn’t know, this is in physical medicine), the point of the break becomes the strongest part. And so if we think of mental illness, or some sort of psychosis as a break, then we heal stronger.” – Sarah Fay And if you look how resilient and strong people are who have recovered from mental illness, it makes a whole lot of sense for Sarah. To hear more from Sarah Fay and how to improve your mental health, download and listen to this episode. Bio Sarah Fay (Ph.D., MFA) is an award-winning author and mental health advocate working to improve how we think and talk about our mental health. Her experience of being diagnosed with six different mental health disorders and finding no relief led her to write her journalistic memoir Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses, an Apple Best Books pick that was hailed in The New York Times as a “fiery manifesto of a memoir.” Sarah has shared her story on NPR’s 1A, Oprah Daily, Salon, NPR’s KERA/Think, The Rumpus, in The Los Angeles Times, and more. Pathological has been featured in Forbes, mindbodygreen, Thrive Global, Lit Hub, Psychology Today, and others. Links Connect with Sarah Fay! Website | Instagram We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

This episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different is a love letter to America. I recently posted something on LinkedIn and on social media about the court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, and I wanted to share that with you and reflect on it with you for a moment. So, let’s talk about America. Roe v. Wade People are saying this ruling put abortion back in the hands of the states. Sort of, but not really. It puts it back where it belongs in our hands. You and me get to decide what the future will be by voting. A poll with 235,613 responses says that 58% support women’s rights to choose. Now, if the Democrats pick up seats in November, it will in large part demonstrate what Americans think about some combination of the abortion issue. And broadly, the Democratic agenda and how the Democrats have been performing in the White House and in Washington. With Biden at 38% approval, it seems very likely that the Dems will pick up seats in November. If the predicted red wave hits Washington, it will for sure tell us that some combination of dislike for Biden, the GOP’s ideas resonating. and pro-life momentum are things that Americans are focused on. Continue to have Meaningful Dialogue Whether you’re currently celebrating or reverberating over the road decision. It’s important to underscore this is how it’s supposed to work. We argue, we debate and hopefully we even listen radical idea, right? to each other. We come to our own conclusions, and we vote for candidates who most reflect our beliefs. Hating someone because they disagree with you might be the biggest stupid of all. Now, to be clear, I am pro-choice. And I could tell you why if you cared, and I respect that pro-life people truly believe they are doing what’s best what’s right. And I know and love people who I know to be legendary, very good people who are pro-life. I just disagree with them. That’s okay. Steel sharpens steel. This is how it’s supposed to work. Please participate in thoughtful dialogue. And let’s all do some thinking, then let’s vote. So that was the post and it seems to have blown up and hopefully caused some thought for a conversation. Some people have commented No, this is not how it’s supposed to work. And they have an opinion about why that’s the case. They might be right. But at a very high level. The difference between democracy and insanity is we dialogue. We vote. We create leaders and create laws and then we live by them. What we don’t do is hate each other. And we don’t fight with each other physically. That’s called anarchy. And so I think what this tells all of us is, democracy is a participation sport. To hear more of Christopher Lochhead’s love letter to the United States of America, download and listen to this episode. Bio Christopher Lochhead We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

On this remarkable episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk with M.E. Thomas about psychopathy, and how you can be in a relationship that works with a psychopath. M.E. Thomas is a pseudonym of the bestselling author of Confessions of a Sociopath. She’s a lawyer, musician, and now a teacher. She is among the first psychopaths or sociopaths to come out of the closet, and share her life and experience. This episode will have you thinking deeply about your identity, relationships, and the masks that we all wear. So stay tuned. M.E. Thomas on Knowing she was “Different” The conversation started with the question of identity. Specifically, about when M.E. Thomas found out she was “Different”. “I always knew that I was different. But I had so many things that they’d be different, I just assumed it was one those – like, I was raised in a big Mormon family, so I grew up with five siblings. We just had weird idiosyncrasies. My dad was kind of a crazy guy. Even now, they call him Einstein because he wears his hair, kind of like white and crazy, and his eyebrows were long and curly. He says, he thinks that makes him look distinguished.” – M.E. Thomas Aside from this, there were a lot of things that people would think weird about her. But it came off most of the times as precocious and charming as a child, and cool and collected growing up. M.E. Thomas on Not Experiencing the Same Things Another way M.E. Thomas knew she was different from others was when she and the other kids her age hit puberty. Simply put, she wasn’t experiencing the same things that others were being self-conscious or worried about. “During puberty, everybody was kind of losing their collective minds. And I was just like, “I don’t get it”. I didn’t get the self-consciousness, and I didn’t get the awkwardness. And I didn’t get the kind of like, “we’re going through some sort of new identity”. I kind of didn’t get that, although I got it in a way because I would kind of choose a new identity every day for whatever situation I was in.” – M.E. Thomas Looking back, M.E. Thomas was kind of relieved that she didn’t go through all that, citing a Reddit page that showed teenagers and all the stupid things they did and wear growing up. How to Work the Social System M.E. Thomas muses that she was glad that she didn’t go through the same experience, as she’s heard stories of how people were both very happy and unhappy during those times in their life. She particularly calls out peer pressure, which is probably the number one reason teenagers do stupid things for stupid reasons. She herself wasn’t subjected to peer pressure, because she admits that she already knew how to work the social system even then. Given the cool demeanor she portrays, she was easily part of every social circle and friends with different groups. Though she does say that being that much of a social butterfly should’ve been an indicator of a personality disorder. To learn more about M.E. Thomas and her experiences growing up, download and listen to this episode. Bio M. E. Thomas (a pseudonym) is the author of Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight. (Penguin Random House) She is a former law professor who has written extensively on music copyright issues, a current California attorney, and the founder of a non-profit. She is also, most recently, a professional musician. Links Connect with M.E. Thomas! Website | Twitter | More about the Author More about M.E. Thomas NYTimes: Confessions of a Sociopath Slate: American Psychopath’s Patrick Bateman Reviews M.E. Thomas’ Confession of a Sociopath YouTube: Ask a Psychopath – What is your background? YouTube: Ask a Psychopath – What are some things you’ve done? We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk about those voices in your head with our award-winning guest, Dr. Ethan Kross. Who knows, you might learn something useful from listening to it. Dr. Ethan Kross is an award-winning psychologist and professor at the University of Michigan and the Ross School of Business. He has a new book out called Chatter: the voice in your head, why it matters and how to harness it. Bestselling author Adam Grant says, “this book is going to fundamentally change some of the most important conversations in your life, the ones you have with yourself.” So if you want to know how you can work with those voices in your head to make your life better, stay tuned to this episode. Ethan Kross on the Voices in your head The conversation starts off with the topic of Ethan Kross’ new book, Chatter. Ethan explains that we all have an inner voice, which is the ability to silently use language to reflect on our lives. “it’s a tool of the mind. It’s a tool that that distinguishes us from every single other animal species. You use language silently in your head to do all sorts of things like, simulate and plan for the future. You use this inner voice to do something I find to be magical, which is tell stories about our experiences in this world. Stories that help us understand who we are.” – Ethan Kross Chatter According to Ethan, there are times when this inner voice we possess doesn’t work so well. “Sometimes when you experience adversity, you reflexively tried to use this tool to think through a problem, but you don’t come up with a clear solution. You end up for lack of a better term spinning, worry, ruminating catastrophizing. And that’s what I call chatter.” – Ethan Kross Chatter sometimes takes the form of an inner critic. Sometimes, it’s a self-disparaging voice. Sometimes it’s an inner monologue filled with anger and aggression. But the idea here is that you’re just getting stuck in this negative thought loop, and you can’t break free. Ethan Kross on Metacognition We bring up the topic of “thinking about thinking”, and Ethan shares his thoughts on the matter. For Ethan, most people actually do a lot of thinking about thinking, or metacognition. “Basically, Metacognition refers to exactly what you’re talking about: thinking about thinking. And I think we spend a lot of time doing this in ways that create misery. And, like, when we’re worried about stuff we keep on, you know, we start worrying, like, think about what worry is, there’s something in the future that you’re concerned about. At some point, you start worrying about the fact that you’re worrying.” – Ethan Kross He then used sleep as an example. At first, it’s simple: you sleep when you are tired. But as we think about other things like “are we getting enough sleep,” and the effects of not staying up late, etc. We start to worry about too many hypothetical things in our head, and we, ironically, lose sleep over it. To hear more from Ethan Kross and how to channel your inner voice to be more productive in life, download and listen to this episode. Bio Ethan Kross, PhD, is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. An award-winning professor at the University of Michigan and the Ross School of Business, he is the director of the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory. He has participated in policy discussion at the White House and has been interviewed on CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper Full Circle, and NPR’s Morning Edition. His pioneering research has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Science. He completed his BA at the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD at Columbia University. Links Connect with Ethan Kross! Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | More about Ethan | Chatter We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

If you’ve ever watched the Olympics, gone to a Major League game, or even turned on your Xbox, chances are you’ve seen our guest’s great work. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we have a dialogue with Audrey Arbeeny, the Category Queen of Sonic Branding. Audrey Arbeeny presented the discipline of Sonic Branding, way back in 1993 at the Design Management Institute in Amsterdam. Now that Sonic Branding has exploded, particularly as digital products have, it has been become a giant category across all kinds of areas marketing, branding, product design, and experience design in the arts world and the film to entertainment world. So if you are interested about Sonic Branding, and how it blitzed through the competition, stay tuned to this episode. Audrey Arbeeny on Sonic Branding The conversation starts off with defining what Sonic Branding is. Audrey has this to say on the matter: “I believe what you’re doing is the same thing as when we did the original Major League Soccer, Anthem, and we do our Sonic Branding. The deputy commissioner in the interview said, he heard from player after player that when they heard that song, it put them in the right frame of mind it put them in a place that they wanted to be in, and it prepared them to get ready for the game. I have certain songs I play also, when I need to get in a certain frame of mind. And that’s what Sonic Branding is. You want to get to that emotional center of the brain that triggers play.” – Audrey Arbeeny Biomusicology If you’re wondering if there is a word for that, yes there is. It’s called Biomusicology, and it covers how sounds and music can affect our brain and biology. Sometimes, music can even evoke physical reactions from us, as seen in the revelry in anthems, or that welling feeling you might get while listening to an orchestra. “We’re a vibratory system. And that’s what it is. And from as early as time as you could remember, that’s what sound did. It connected people. It communicated and it made people feel, feel physically emotionally connected.” – Audrey Arbeeny Audio Brain Advocates for Health and Well-being Audrey shares a personal experience where music and hearing familiar sounds in someone’s vicinity had helped people ease their pain and their well-being. So while Sonic Branding is being used on all these global brands, Audrey also hopes to advocate the use of music and different sounds to promote health and well-being to everyone. “Yes, we do all these global brands? We’ve been music supervisors for 10 Olympics for NBC Olympics. That’s 25 years. Yes, we’ve done great things like that. But we’ve also done a lot in health care. And I’ve done a lot of research in health and well-being. And I’ve worked with kids that were deaf and blind, and done music therapy with them. Because when you’re in that situation, nobody really takes the time to make sure you’re enjoying that meal and spends a lot of time they have a lot of kids to take care of. So that’s my North Star. That’s my passion point. And audio brain has done a lot of a lot of pro bono work in that area.” – Audrey Arbeeny To hear more from Audrey Arbeeny, Sonic Branding, and how music can help your well-being, download and listen to this episode. Bio Audrey Arbeeny As Owner and Emmy™ Award-Winning Executive Producer/ Creative Director for Audiobrain, a globally recognized sonic branding boutique dedicated to the intentional development of music and sound, Audrey Arbeeny has realized her dream of combining her lifelong love of music and science with proven business skills. Audrey oversees Audiobrain’s projects from start to finish, coordinating logistics, strategy, experience design, resources, and talent. In addition, Audrey oversees Audiobrain’s ongoing research in areas of psychoacoustics and biomusicology. With over 20 years of experience, she is recognized throughout the world as a pioneer in sonic branding, presenting on this discipline as early as the 1993 Design Management Institute in Amsterdam. Audiobrain has consistently stayed leaders in this field through innovation, research, education, advanced technological skills, and forward- thinking initiatives for some of the world’s largest brands. Music has long been an important part of Audrey’s life. She began formal piano training at the age of four. She is also an accomplished flutist and studied voice at Carnegie Hall, under the late Silas Engum, for many years. In addition to her musical talents, she has extensive recording, editing, licensing, interactive, and sonic branding experience. Audrey is highly skilled in many areas of sonic branding development and implementation. Her environmental branding leadership includes her role as Music Supervisor the past 7 Olympic Broadcasts for NBC, garnering her 2 Emmy™ awards for her work on the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games. She has also done extensive experience

Welcome to a very special episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, where we talk about how to make money in a recession. In times that are challenging, one of the greatest things we all can do is contribute what we can contribute. Given that it looks like we’re about to be in a recession, what Eddie Yoon Nicolas Cole, and I aka the Category Pirates decided to do was to write a new mini book newsletter. It’s called How To Make Money In A Recession: Five steps to create demand for your product, service or platform. We elected to make the written version of this free. There’ll be a link to it at the end of this show notes. So consider this episode, a mini book audio read. We are in a Recession Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate, We are in a recession. (Not officially, but it is not looking good.) Stocks are down. Startup valuations have plummeted. Bitcoin and Ethereum have lost more than 50% of their total value since their respective highs back in November, 2021. And sentiment around Silicon Valley is that the next 12-18 months are going to be challenging for companies looking to raise money. But where there is chaos, there is opportunity. Approximately 10% of companies get stronger in downturns. And you can’t be in the 10% unless you do some serious thinking. Through the category lens, downturns are simple to understand—and have a clear path to navigate. When times get tough, businesses, governments, households, and individuals all do the same thing: they create two lists. “Must Haves” “Nice To Haves” Then they start cutting the “Nice To Haves” to lower costs—as a direct response to their revenue / income / buying power shrinking. The Question Every Business Should Ask Which means the seminal question is: what makes people put some categories/brands/products on the “Must Have” list versus the “Nice To Have” list? Perceived value. (Everything we value, we’ve been taught to value.) The difference between a dumb idea and a great one, or the difference between useful products and useless ones is the perception we have based on what we have been taught. (Don’t forget: pet rocks used to be in demand.) The trick is to get your product/service/platform on the “Must Have” list, and to be as high up on the list as possible. Because the higher the category is on the hierarchy of perceived value in the consumer’s mind, the greater the likelihood they will keep buying from you. Which is why savvy leaders market the category in downturns. Because people make their lists by category first, and brand second. The Net-Positive Effects of Recession Elon Musk was a guest on the All In podcast and summarized the net-positive effects of recessions well: “Recessions are not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve been through a few of them. What tends to happen, if you have a boom that goes on for too long, you get misallocation of capital. It starts raining money on fools, basically. Any dumb thing gets money. At some point, it gets out of control… and the bullshit companies go bankrupt and the ones that are building useful products are prosperous.” When most people hear the word “recession,” they imagine the housing crisis of 2008 or the dot-com bubble in the late 90s—and all of the businesses that went under as a result. But what doesn’t get talked about enough are the incredible companies that emerged out of these challenging times as well. Google and Amazon both came out of the dot-com bubble in the 90s (as did hundreds of other world-changing companies). And Uber, Spotify, Airbnb, Square, and dozens of other next-gen technology companies were founded between 2006 and 2009, right in the middle of the greatest financial crisis to ever threaten America. Recessions are pressure-cookers that rid the system of businesses failing to live up to the value they are promising society. To hear more on how you can make money even during a recession, download and listen to this episode. Bio Christopher Lochhead Links How To Make Money In A Recession Category Pirates We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we have a radically different dialogue about thinking with the legendary Roger Martin – a man who has been called, “the world’s number one management thinker” by former Ford CEO Jim Hackett. Roger Martin is a Professor Emeritus at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, where he served as Dean from 98 to 2013, and as Institutional Director of the Martin Prosperity Interest Institute from 2013 to 2019. In 2013, he was also named Global Dean of the Year. In this remarkable conversation, we dig into the definition of thinking. We also discuss the difference between what Roger calls reflexive versus reflective thinking, and why thinking is a meta skill. So if you are interested on expanding the way you think, stay and listen to learn more. Roger Martin on Thinking about Thinking The conversation starts off on the topic of thinking about thinking, and if it’s weird to do so. Roger offers his thoughts on the matter: “I don’t think so, no. But you know, I am surprised at the number of people who seem to not think about how they think – they just think. And then when something kind of bad happens, they’re kind of flummoxed. The ones who are more inclined to think about how they’re thinking are more likely to say, “well, maybe I wasn’t thinking about that the best way I could, what would be a different way to think about it?” ” – Roger Martin The Definition of Thinking Before heading into deeper topics, we discuss the definition of thinking. Roger gives an explanation of his definition of thinking below: “I see it as the process of reflecting on your world against a model you have of it. So you’d be thinking, if you say, that person just smiled at me as we walked by each other. So that was stimulus to your senses. And to think about it, you have to have some kind of a model in your head interpreting it. So you would say, when the corners of the lips go up like that, it generally means that that person is kind of happy, or is favorably disposed toward me, and not they have a nervous tic. But that could be another interpretation of it. But you have some kind of model that says, “this is my method of interpreting what is happening to me.” “ – Roger Martin The thing is, other people might not have the same model as you do, unless you are privy that information. This often results in clashes in models, or a misinterpretation of other people’s model because they are unfamiliar, or radically different from yours. That is where thinking about thinking plays a role. Reflexive versus Reflective Thinking Roger was then presented with a thought about the current way of thinking: “We live in a world today that what that says that what most people call thinking is actually the mental retweeting of something they heard that they like, that often confirms and existing thought. And that existing thought was something they were taught to think, ergo, what most people call thinking today is actually not thinking.” Roger’s response is that conceptually, that is correct. But in a way, it is also another type of thinking. “What you describe is also thinking, but it is a much more reflexive form of thinking, then reflective form of thinking. So it’s sort of a bit of a, like a reflexive pattern recognition. But I don’t object to calling non reflective thinking to be just barely thinking or maybe not thinking at all.” – Roger Martin To learn more about Roger Martin & the different kinds of thinking, download and listen to this episode. Bio Roger L. Martin is Professor Emeritus at the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, where he served as Dean from 1998 to 2013, and as Institute Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute from 2013 to 2019. In 2013, he was named Global Dean of the Year and in 2017, he was named the world’s number one management thinker by Thinkers50. He has published 12 previous books including When More Is Not Better and Playing to Win (with A. G. Lafley), which won the award for Best Book of 2012-13 by Thinkers50. Martin is a trusted strategy adviser to the CEOs of many global companies. A Canadian from Wallenstein, Ontario, he holds a BA from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Links Connect with Roger Martin! Website | A New Way to Think | LinkedIn | Twitter Check out Roger’s books on Amazon! We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

Many people are asking how do we create legendary cultures in a digital / hybrid work environment. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we ask Daniel Coyle this question: how can we create legendary cultures? Daniel Coyle is a New York Times bestselling author. His book, The Culture Code, was named the Best Business Book of the Year a little while back by Bloomberg. He has a new book out now, called The Culture Playbook: 60 highly effective actions to help your group succeed. He is the man on all things culture, so stay and listen to learn more. Daniel Coyle on Writing His New Book The conversation starts of with congratulating Daniel Coyle on publishing his latest book, The Culture Playbook. Daniel follows up on his thoughts on how he feels when launching a new project or book. “We are living through a moment, aren’t we? It’s like, when you start a project like this, you’re never quite sure when it’s going to land. And everybody’s trying to figure out, “How are we going? How are we going to do this? How are we going to work together now? Everybody’s having that conversation now. It is a moment, and it’s kind of fun to explore what’s possible” – Daniel Coyle The Transition Period Daniel was then asked about his thoughts on certain huge companies that are telling their people to go back to the office. Another thing to note was that those who are pushing for these things are usually those who are Native Analogs – people whose life don’t revolve in the digital sphere. Daniel thinks that this current period is a transitional phase, and it’s a way for companies to see what works and what doesn’t. “Is it transition and it is totally fascinating to see us people self-organize in this new world. And there’s basically two schools of thought about it. The first school of thought is, this was a rupture. People things will never go back to the way they were, people discovered that they had lives outside of work. Then there’s another school of thought, which says, Yeah, this is kind of part of a larger, longer journey, there was a sort of zoom out where people realized, hey, life’s a lot bigger than work. But at the same time, that there is kind of a joy and a pleasure and a positivity and a productivity that comes out of being in the office. It’s maybe not five days a week, maybe it’s three, maybe it’s two.” – Daniel Coyle Daniel admits that he himself falls under the second school of thought, and that going to the office can be quite beneficial for productivity, even if it’s just 2 to 3 days off a week. Organizing Your Office for the New Work Experience On the topic of adopting the hybrid workplace, one of the issues brought up was the lack of coordination. For example, one could be scheduled to be at the office, yet the people who they have to work or have a meeting with are staying at home. Daniel agrees that this is currently happening in a lot of offices, and is something that the teams and management need to address. They have to be intentional and work out schedules where everyone in the team is in the office at the same time, so they can meet and collaborate on what needs to be done for their projects. Management can also help in coordinating schedules, so that different teams that need to work together can have overlapping schedules. But at the end of the day, the initiative to coordinate should come from the teams themselves. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck in your cubicle, still doing zoom calls with your teammates. To hear more from Daniel Coyle and how to create a legendary culture in your workplace, download and listen to this episode. Bio Daniel Coyle is the New York Times best-selling author of The Culture Playbook, The Culture Code, The Secret Race, The Little Book of Talent, The Talent Code, Lance Armstrong’s War, Hardball: A Season in the Projects and the novel Waking Samuel. Winner (with Tyler Hamilton) of the 2012 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Prize, he is a contributing editor for Outside magazine, and also works a special advisor to the Cleveland Indians. Coyle lives in Cleveland, Ohio during the school year and in Homer, Alaska, during the summer with his wife Jen, and their four children. Link Website | The Culture Playbook | Daniel Coyle’s Works We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

Welcome to the second part of our extraordinary, unfiltered, unfettered real dialogue with David Gergen. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we dive into the key themes of his new book about leadership, called Hearts on Fire: How great leaders are made. David Gergen has served as an adviser to four United States President Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and most recently, Clinton. He is the rare political leader to serve his country from both Republican and Democratic vantage points. Professor Gergen also teaches public service, and as the founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also the winner of two Peabody awards for excellence in broadcasting. If you want to check out the first part our dialogue with David Gergen, you can check out FYD episode 266, where he talked about his thoughts on the war in Ukraine, and the people with important roles to play in it. David Gergen: Hearts on Fire The conversation starts off on the topic of David’s new book, and how it is different from his previous work. His new book, Hearts on Fire, felt more like a love letter to the Native Digital generation, and encouraging them as they face the future ahead. David explains that he felt as though people that are currently handling the reins are going in the wrong direction. But he could see potential in the new generation, and would like to share his knowledge to them and help them grow. “There were a lot of individuals in my classroom. So I thought the world of them, and I thought they were really impressive. They have the capacity to change the world, or just manage to change this country. So this was a an attempt to call them, to summon who would like to get in the arena. I think they can make a huge difference.” – David Gergen For David, his latest work was like a Legacy book; a message he wanted to leave for the next generation. Turning Adversity into Purpose A huge topic in this book is how to tackle adversity – not just to overcome it, but to use it to find your purpose. David explains that a lot of the younger generations can do great things. But they are hampered by the fact that they have not figured out what their purpose is. “We can draw hope from the quality of the people who are coming in these next generations. They’re just people who will knock your socks off when you spend time with them. But they’re still searching how they can make a difference.” – David Gergen Like David said, he wanted his book to be a guide, or at the very least, share his own experiences so that the new generation can derive what they can do better in their life. David Gergen on Passing the Baton For David, writing this book was like passing the baton to the next generation. That said, he thinks that the older folks should be willing to do so, rather than clinging to power. This also leads to the discussion about how leadership is evolving nowadays. We are no longer living in a world in which leaders are only formed in our nation’s most lead institutions. Rather, the current leaders of the generation come from the crowd themselves, like Greta, the Parkland students, and Malala. To hear more from David Gergen and how the younger generation’s hearts of fire can help spark change in the world, download and listen to this episode. Bio David Gergen is a professor of public service and founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, he serves as a senior political analyst for CNN and works actively with a rising generation of new leaders. In the past, he has served as a White House adviser to four U.S. presidents of both parties: Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. He wrote about those experiences in his New York Times best-seller, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton (Simon & Schuster, 2001). In the 1980s, he began a career in journalism. Starting with the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour in 1984, he has been a regular commentator on public affairs for some 30 years. Twice he has been a member of election coverage teams that won Peabody awards, and he has contributed to two Emmy award-winning political analysis teams. In the late 1980s, he was chief editor of U.S. News & World Report, working with publisher Mort Zuckerman to achieve record gains in circulation and advertising. Over the years, he has been active on many non-profit boards, serving in the past on the boards of both Yale and Duke Universities. Among his current boards are Teach for America, The Mission Continues, The Trilateral Commission, and Elon University’s School of Law. David Gergen’s Work David’s work as director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School has enabled him to work closely with a rising generation of younger leaders, especially social entrepreneurs, military veterans and Young Global Leaders chosen by the World Economic Forum. Through the generosity of outside donors, the Center helps to p

Free speech is often called the first freedom and the bedrock of democracy. Our guest today says that on one hand, free speech around the world has never been better. But right now, we are experiencing a free speech entropy in the United States. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead, we have a deep dialogue about Free Speech with Jacob Mchangama. Jacob Mchangama is a global expert on free speech. Political satirist PJ O’Rourke says that his new book is. “The best history of free speech ever written, and the best defense of free speech ever made.” That book is called Free Speech: a history from Socrates to social media, and it is out now. Jacob is a Danish lawyer, and the founder of Justicia, a Copenhagen-based think tank that focuses on human rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law. So if you want to learn more about free speech, how it has evolved through history, and what it will look like in the future, stay tuned to this episode. Jacob Mchangama on Free Speech The conversation begins on Jacob’s work on free speech, and his new book about it. He was then asked about what his thoughts on the current state of free speech in the world today. According to Jacob, we’ve never had it better. It may not be as apparent in the US, but if you consider the rest of the world, people get to speak out more than ever before. Most of which was born with the proliferation of the internet, and the wide reach it provides. “You and I can speak there’s no censor, making sure that we don’t say inappropriate things. And you know, so technology, internet has given us unprecedented opportunities.” – Jacob Mchangama Recession of Free Speech It is really the golden age of free speech. Though according to Jacob, it is an age that is currently in decline. As things enter a more stable period after a boom of ideas, a state of entropy starts to set in. It is no different with free speech, as Jacob explains: “Every time there’s a period in history where free speech is now sort of secure and we’ve turned the corner, a process of free speech entropy sets in. “ – Jacob Mchangama This comes after the European Union is in the process of adopting a law which would, which says that social media companies have to remove your illegal content within a short timeframe or risk huge fines. Social media themselves are almost self-censoring to a point, restricting certain content from appearing on people’s search results and feeds. The Evolution of Free Speech in the US Moving the topic to the US side of things, Jacob finds the US and its take on free speech fascinating. According to him, it seems that free speech has evolved and grown over the years, and yet the first amendment and its wording has remained the same. The evolution stems on how the US society interprets these words, leading to the growth of its scope and reach. As Jacob puts it, nowadays it’s difficult to imagine what you could say to a sitting US president that would get you in jail, short of direct threats or incitement of violence. Yet in the old days, you could go to jail for making a snide remark about an incumbent president. But this same flexibility and reach is what’s putting free speech in a tight spot. With the wide reach of the internet also comes rampant misinformation. The issue is some of the people peddling misinformation is hiding behind the notion of free speech, which makes it difficult to remove once and for all. Though for Jacob, it will all boil down to how we, as a society, will decide on what’s acceptable or not. “Ultimately, I think that the culture of free speech is probably more important than the legal language, or a legal statute, or constitutional protection. Because ultimately, the culture of free speech is what will inform where we draw the limits, and how we interpret the legal protections that we have.” – Jacob Mchangama To learn more about Jacob Mchangama and the current state of free speech in the US and around the world, download and listen to this episode. Bio Jacob Mchangama is the founder and executive director of Justitia and a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in Washington. In 2018 he was a visiting scholar at Columbia’s Global Freedom of Expression Center. He has commented extensively on free speech and human rights in outlets including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. Jacob has published in academic and peer-reviewed journals, including Human Rights Quarterly, Policy Review, and Amnesty International’s Strategic Studies. Jacob is the host and narrator of the podcast Clear and Present Danger: a history of free speech and the author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning book, MEN Ytringsfrihedens Historie i Danmark (BUT: The History of Freedom of Expression in Denmark). He is the author and presenter of the short documentary Collision: Free speech and religion (2013). Jacob is a 2016 Marshall Me

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we go deep into topics that traditional television could and would not go. Specifically, we talk about the war in Ukraine, and where all of this might end with our guest, Dmitri Alperovitch. We also talk about cyber threats, and how capable the US is against it. Dmitri Alperovitch is one of America’s top cybersecurity experts. He is on the US homeland security advisory council, and the co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer of the $50 billion market cap CrowdStrike. Right now, he is also the chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator. So when he talks about cyber threats and security, you’d best listen in. Achieving Escalation Dominance The conversation starts off with Dmitri explaining that the United States has the capability to take Russia off the internet. They could it temporarily, or even permanently – though it could prove complicated to do so. Both of which can be escalatory and provocative. Dmitri’s point on this is that rather than slowly matching Russia’s actions with certain sanctions or retaliating in a similar manner, the US can use this to send a message and stop those attacks from further escalating in the first place. “If they do launch those attacks, in my opinion, we need to be very thoughtful about our response. We need to make sure that we achieve escalation dominance, in that we stop those attacks that in their tracks that we send a very strong message to Moscow: that this is not going to be tolerated, this is not going to be acceptable.” – Dmitri Alperovitch Life Without Internet As to why this would serve as a great deterrent, Dmitri explains that while they could still send people to do cyberattacks on the US from other places, this would send a strong signal to make them think twice about it. Because like the rest of the world, they are also dependent on this digital resource to run their country. Nowadays, energy sectors, healthcare, and logistics see the highest usage rate for it. So in effect, shutting down their internet capabilities could have a strong effect on their economy as well. “The goal of the internet shutdown is not to stop cyber attacks; that is an impossibility because they can launch them from any place. And we’re not going to go around the world shutting down countries from the internet. That’s not an interest in the United States. The goal is to demonstrate the type of effect we can have on their economy, if they continue to judge those attacks from wherever they may launch them, from Russia or elsewhere.” – Dmitri Alperovitch Though Dmitri warns that this should only be done as a retaliatory action or response to an attack, rather than a pre-emptive strike. Because if they decide to do the latter, it might suddenly invite attacks, so the US should consider things carefully first. The Effectivity of Cyber Attacks Dmitri describes cyber attacks as a perfect tool for inflicting damage but having the option of anonymity or deniability. One can execute it remotely, and still have impact on a far-away area or country. Though for something as overt as what Russia was doing, defaulting to kinetic weapons and outright war could achieve their objectives. Though it is not to say that cyber attacks is ineffective in this case, as Dmitri shares what happened in the first few hours or the Russian attacks on Ukraine. “One of the attacks that has not gotten a lot of attention was the hack of a US-based satellite provider called ViaSat that has a subsidiary that provides satellite communication services to Eastern Europe, particularly the Ukraine military. The Russians had actually hacked that satellite provider, or actors are believed to be Russian. They were able to essentially cripple satellite modems, thousands of them that the Ukrainians were using in the first hours of the war. My understanding is that that actually did have a significant impact on their ability to communicate in those initial hours and potentially even had operational impact as well.” – Dmitri Alperovitch Disabled satellite communications meant that coordinating the military became a monumental task, and the Russians took advantage of this to mount their initial blitz. To hear more from Dmitri Alperovitch and his thoughts and expertise on cyber attacks and cybersecurity, download and listen to this episode. Bio Dmitri Alperovitch is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a non-profit focused on advancing American prosperity and global leadership in the 21st century and beyond. He is a Co-Founder and former CTO of CrowdStrike Inc., a leading cybersecurity company. A renowned computer security visionary, he is a thought-leader on cybersecurity strategy and state tradecraft and has served as special advisor to the Department of Defense. He is a frequent strategic cybersecurity advisor to CEOs and Board of Directors of public and private companies. Alperovitch is also an active angel in

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we ask the question: Who are You? What do you want to be? What’s the difference between being and doing? And who better to help us answer those questions that the legendary Minter Dial. Minter Dial is a B2C Branding Master, having had a legendary career with L’Oreal and the CEO of hair care brand REDKEN. He’s also an extraordinary storyteller; his first two published books be international prize winners. His new book, called You Lead, is definitely a must-read. If you believe in the power of dialogue to change thinking, you’re going to love everything about this episode. You Lead The conversation starts off about Minter Dial’s new book, and how it has brought up several great points as you progress through it. One of the most thought-provoking ones is the idea of being yourself makes you a better leader. This makes sense, as one of the biggest causes of struggle and pain in life and one’s career is trying to be something you are not, just to accommodate others. Minter explains that one of the issues that bad leaders face is that they probably do not have the proper people skills for the job. That disconnect, more often than not, stems from their lack of awareness about who they are. “Essentially, there are probably very few good leaders. And the reason for that isn’t that they don’t have people skills, its that they haven’t done the work to figure out who they truly are. My observation is that a lot of people think they know who they are. They might have a broad idea of who they want to be. But they haven’t done the hard work that says more precisely “who I want to be.” “ – Minter Dial The Ability to be Good Christopher shares that one of his friends think that his superpower was the ability to go deep in anger. That he was able to embrace and utilize it to make powerful statements, but not let it consume his rationale. Minter explains that he thinks that people are wired to be good, in general. The reason why we are like that is the need to be together rather than stand alone. The only way that would work is if we are good to each other. “If you’re an evil person, as a CEO, you might do well in the short term. But as soon as you leave the vacuum that you’ve created, and all the damage that you have sown will cause an impossibility for the follow up act. And so it might be a short term approach. So the bottom line is, I think that we all have the ability to be good.” – Minter Dial Sure, all people have dirt, a bit of evil and naughtiness in all of us. But it is important to be aware and understand how much of that we should bring to the table. But it’s also not good to hide it all. Showing some of your foils or imperfections shows that you are still human. Minter Dial on Radical Self-Awareness and Roundedness Christopher continues with this line of thought, saying that it isn’t radical transparency that CEOs need, but radical self-awareness. To know your own strengths and weakness, so you know what to work on and keep yourself well-rounded. You are also then aware of what you lack, and can surround yourself with people that can fill those gaps. Minter agrees with this assessment, and adds that sometimes, we tend to exclude people that could attribute to this roundedness. His example for this is journalists. If you’re building a tech team, you’d get the usual suspects: HR, finance, and marketing. But what a bout hiring a journalist? At first, you might think it’s an odd fit. But if you think of what journalists do rather than the industry they came from, they are probably really good at discerning the tastes of the people. They would have to be when writing up articles to entice people to read them. His point is, learn to diversify in your choices, and it could end up with a more rounded group than you normally would. To hear more from Minter Dial and how to figure yourself out, download and listen to this episode. Bio Minter Dial is a storyteller, filmmaker, four-time author and an international professional speaker. After a 16-year international career at L’Oreal, he set off on his own and speaks and consults on Leadership, Branding and Transformation. He has spoken at prestigious conferences around the world (and now online) to great acclaim. He works with major global brands such as L’Occitane, Google, Samsung, Remy Cointreau, Kering and Tencent. Among his works, Minter is author and producer of the award-winning WWII documentary film and book, The Last Ring Home, A POW’s Lasting Legacy of Courage, Love and Honor in World War Two (November 2016). The book won the Book Excellence Award 2018 in the category of Biography. His second book, Futureproof, How to get your business ready for the next disruption (Pearson-FT Imprint), co-authored with Caleb Storkey, bowed September 2017 and won the Business Book Award 2018 in the category of Embracing Change. His last book, Heartificial Empath

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we continue our focus on the current situation in the world and in the United States. Because in times of great change and great uncertainty, we turn to great, though in some cases, counterintuitive minds. Today, we talk to one of the great minds of today, David Sacks. David Sacks is a legendary entrepreneur, category, and company builder – and now, venture capitalist. He is the founder of Craft Ventures. In Silicon Valley, David is a living legend. You see, he was the co-founding CEO of Paypal, founder and CEO of Yammer, which sold to Microsoft for over a billion dollars. He has been an early investor and advisor to companies like Facebook, Twitter, Uber, SpaceX, Airbnb, Slack, and so much more. He’s also co-hosting an amazing podcast called All In, which has become one of the most popular dialogue podcasts in the world. So if you want to listen to the thoughts of this legendary individual, stay tuned to this episode. If you want to check out our past dialogues with David Sacks, you can check them out here. This episode was recorded on March 29th, 2022 David Sacks Goes All In The conversation starts off with what’s new with David, particularly, his relatively-new podcast. David explains that it started out as a conversation pod with his “besties”. It was something they did to pass the time during COVID. Little did they know, it would grow into what it is today. “It’s been kind of a surprise. We started doing it at the beginning of COVID when we were all trapped in our houses and had nothing else to do. So it’s me and three friends, the four besties as we ironically say, and yeah, we’ve been doing this weekly pod. Amazingly, it’s climbed the charts. I think the new episodes tend to be in the top 30 or 40 podcasts. And it’s done really well.” – David Sacks David shares that at first, they tried to focus on talking business and markets, as well as private investing in VC. But there was only so much you could talk about that without circling back on itself. So they eventually started talking about current events, politics and world affairs, and how it can affect the world of business. Having a Healthy Conversation David muses that what makes them different from other business and marketing podcasts, except for their discussion on current affairs, is that they get to have a healthy conversation. Unlike your typical podcast that has the host and maybe one or two guests to discuss a certain topic, the four of them talk it out amongst themselves, and sometimes even lead to heated discussions. Because it’s not simply an echo chamber, it’s a place where ideas are presented, and confirmed or challenged by the other hosts. “One of the things people say they like about it is the fact that we can get into debates, vigorous debates about politics, and yet we’re all still friends. There’s that vibe to it. But there’s also people on the show breaking each other’s balls, that kind of stuff. And they like that vibe, too.” – David Sacks Since it’s the same four people having the conversation each week, each episode feels like a continuation of the last. Which makes you want to listen to it and look forward to the next. David Sacks on the War in Ukraine When asked about his thoughts on the current situation in Ukraine, David responds that it can be difficult to say what exactly is happening at a particular time. Despite technology giving us easier access to information, there is just too much conflicting information being touted around. That said, he felt that some US media is escalating the current situation to the point that as if we are already at the brink of World War III. As a man who preaches for peace rather than an escalation of conflict, David hopes that our politicians and leaders steer clear of the war and help pursue for peace in the region. To hear more on David Sacks and his thoughts on the current affairs of the world, download and listen to this episode. Bio David Sacks is co-founder and general partner at Craft. He has been a successful founder and investor for over two decades, building and investing in some of the most iconic companies in tech. He has invested in over 20 unicorns, including Affirm, AirBnB, Bird, ClickUp, Eventbrite, Facebook, Houzz, Lyft, OpenDoor, Palantir, Postmates, Reddit, Slack, SpaceX, Twitter, Uber, and Wish. David is also co-host of the popular “All-In Podcast” with Chamath Palihapitiya, David Friedberg, and Jason Calacanis. David first got involved in the technology industry in 1999 when he joined early-stage startup Confinity, later renamed PayPal. Serving as the company’s first product leader and then as COO, David built and ran many of the company’s key teams, including product management and design, sales and marketing, business development, international, customer service, fraud operations, and HR. He pivoted the product from beaming money on Palm Pilots to ema