Christopher Lochhead Follow Your Different™

It’s easy to make the case that we are currently living at the most comfortable time in history. A lot of things are accessible to us with a push of a button. From getting information, entertainment, and even communicating over long distances, there’s an app to solve our problems. Though according to our guest, Michael Easter, we are having a “Comfort Crisis”. According to the US CDC, 73.6% of Americans are either overweight or obese. That said, Obesity is a global problem, with at least 2.8 million people dying from it each year. Our mental health is not exactly doing great either. Nearly 8 in 10 adults say the coronavirus pandemic is a significant source of stress in their lives, as reported by the American Psychological Association. In this episode of Follow Your Different, Michael Easter discusses how we need to be active and outside to have a legendary life. We also talk about how to “embrace discomfort to reclaim ourselves”, and why being hungry is legendary. The Comfort Crisis Michael Easter shares how much more comfortable we are living right now compared to before. You don’t even have to go too far to compare; most of our modern-day comforts didn’t even exist a couple of decades ago. According to Michael, the main issue with all this comfort is that nowadays, getting something you need takes little to no effort. This means have to move around less and being less active. This can lead not only to physical degradation, but mental health problems over time. “We are moving about 14 times less than our ancestors. We spend 95 percent of our time indoors, and spend 11 hours and 6 minutes a day engaging with digital media. So we went from never having these digital media in our lives to now it’s essentially become our lives. And that’s had consequences for our attention, or awareness, how we spend our time and also our interactions with others. Things have really changed, and we’re too comfortable now.” – Michael Easter Changing The Perspective One of the things Michael wants to point out is that we tend to take for granted how good we have it nowadays because we are constantly surrounded by convenience and comfort. We can’t really appreciate them unless there were periods of struggle or challenges to acquire them. It’s like going to your favorite restaurant almost every day compared to only going after a long and tiring business trip. You tend to appreciate it more compared to when you are having the same thing almost every day. “We don’t have these moments that push back and are essential. Essentially, what are First World Problems anymore? So I think getting yourself out of your comfort zone in a variety of ways can do that, and give you a little more perspective on your life.” – Michael Easter   Challenge Yourself Michael talks about how children are raised differently nowadays. Some parents only let their children do what they think is best, rather than letting the children experience it themselves. This often leads to mental health issues when they go out into the world. They can’t cope with the daily struggles and challenges because they weren’t allowed to experience them beforehand. Michael explains this concept as toughening. He adds that it is important that we insert real challenges in our lives from time to time. Not only as we are growing up, but even as adults. “In the book I talked about, there’s a guy whose name is Marcus Eliot, and he’s sort of the foremost sports scientist in the world. He does this concept that he calls Misogi, where once a year, they choose one challenging, truly epic task. The only rules are that it has to be really hard, meaning that you have a 50% chance of finishing it, and number two, you can’t die. These are things that are truly out of their comfort zones and so challenging for them. But they learn something about themselves by getting put into position where “Damn, I really want to quit”, and “this is awful”. When he does this with athletes, those athletes can carry that mindset into the games they play.” – Michael Easter To learn more about Michael Easter and how stepping out of your comfort zone can be legendary, download and listen to this episode. Bio Michael Easter is a leading voice on how humans can integrate modern science and evolutionary wisdom for improved health, meaning, and performance in life and at work. He travels the globe to embed himself with brilliant but often overlooked scientists, thinkers, and people living at the extremes and shares the best of his findings and experiences in books, articles, and other media. Michael’s investigations have taken him into ancient monasteries in Bhutan, US Special Forces training grounds, high-tech genetic labs in Iceland, Fortune-500 boardrooms, the world’s most remote wilderness areas, and more. His work shows science has many answers. But it also shows that many aspects of the human experience and living well cannot be measured. To that end his work often c

As children, most of us had a wide range of interests, ideas, and dreams. We all wanted to do and be a lot of things. Though somehow, Life can beat us up. Sylvie Leotin grew up pursuing those interests and dreams. She did ballet, became a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and now a Healthcare Entrepreneur. Sylvie also has a deep background in engineering, robotics, artificial intelligence, as well as product marketing and management. She is also a cancer survivor.   As a woman of color who have dealt with cancer, Sylvie has had a front row seat to the racial injustice faced by minorities in the American Healthcare System. So like other legendary missionary entrepreneurs, Sylvie decided to do something about it. She founded a company called Equify Health, and is on a mission to “elevate the experience and outcomes of patients of color in healthcare and medical research”. In this episode of Follow Your Different, we have a very real, very deep, and personal conversation with Sylvie Leotin about empathy, survival, entrepreneurship, and many more. Sylvie’s Mission As someone who has navigated through the American Healthcare System, Sylvie Leotin knew the hardships that a person of color goes through to get proper healthcare. So when the COVID pandemic started, she started looking into reports on mortality rates and such. What she found was heart-breaking. She learned that people of color were dying at higher rates. Upon digging further, she observed that it was not just for COVID or cancer-related ones, but every serious chronic illness. “As a cancer survivor and someone that got a second chance to live, I felt really deeply distraught. I really felt that this is unfair. It really shouldn’t be your race, your ethnicity, that is dictating that you have a right to health. So I started to do some research to look into this more deeply.” – Sylvie Leotin  Using Her Setbacks as Motivation When asked why she felt deeply connected to this cause, Sylvie shares that it was probably because she battled cancer and experienced these healthcare issues herself. While she would still be distraught and concerned about these issues regardless, she feels that she wouldn’t be doing all she is doing right now had she not had cancer. “I think cancer took me close to mortality, close to being hopeless, close to feeling the biggest pain that I have ever felt in my life. And I really understood what it’s like to be so sick, that you can die of the sickness. I don’t think I would’ve understood if I just knew people, or even my family who died of cancer. I think cancer really opened up this huge well of compassion inside me, for the suffering of people in the world, but even more specially for the suffering of people that are affected by life threatening illnesses. And if there is anything I can do to help change that and make some people less hopeless, it will be a life worth living.” – Sylvie Leotin Mission-Driven Entrepreneurship Sylvie talks about how she had the insight on her current mission. As a designer, she can see the things that were poorly designed in the system as she experienced things firsthand. If she can relate it to healthcare providers, it can make a difference for future patients. The opportunity to turn her pain and experience into easing the experience for other people felt transformative for her. While it started as something to improve other cancer patient’s experience, it soon expanded to other serious illnesses as Sylvie saw more of the disparity and how Equify Health can help those in need. “I have witnessed so my first experience was more altruistic. But it was very visceral to go to treatment every day. While I was in the waiting room for a long time, and I was very distraught by the fact that I went to one of the top five cancer centers in the country. I didn’t see a single Black patient during my entire treatment, and I knew that this hospital is located less than three miles away from a very large black community.” – Sylvie Leotin Sylvie knew that she not only has to point out these disparities to healthcare providers, but also offer ideas and solutions to help POC and minorities who are often overlooked. To hear more from Sylvie Leotin, Equify Health and her mission-driven style of entrepreneurship, download and listen to this episode. Bio Sylvie Leotin is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, consultant, and polymath. She’s the founder/CEO of Equify Health. Equify Health is on a mission to elevate the experience and outcomes of patients of color in healthcare and medical research. A gold-medal ballerina and computer scientist, she combines a unique breadth and depth of expertise, with a keen eye for connecting the dots between disciplines, thoughts, people and ideas. Sylvie’s multifaceted career path crosses industries, continents, and boundaries. Transitioning from ballet to robotics, she made her way from France to Silicon Valley. Sh

In this episode of Follow Your Different, let’s have a very different dialogue about Sex. It seems like we might be living at a time where the very category of sex is changing, and there are a few megatrends going on. First, we seem to be in what The Atlantic calls a “sexual recession”. The Atlantic reports: “In the space of a generation, sex has gone from something most high school students have experienced to something most haven’t.” It turns out that people in their early 20s are two and a half times as likely to be abstinent. Though it’s not only limited to the younger generation. Even Gen Xers and Baby Boomers are having less traditional sex over the years. The second one is about increased loneliness. According to the HBR, rates of loneliness in the US have doubled over the past 50 years. Nowadays, around 40% of Americans say that they are lonely. The third is about Digital Sex. It has been reported that the porn industry is now worth nearly $100 billion, and uses more bandwidth than Facebook, Amazon, or Netflix. It seems that porn continues to reach new heights with the advent of new technologies and categories: In 2018, a Japanese man spent 2 million Yen on his wedding to an AI hologram. Toronto has opened a new category in the form of Sex Doll Brothels. OnlyFans has seen a spike of creators and registered users since Covid, who are mostly there for adult content. AR and VR sex is on the rise We talk about all this and more with our guests, Amy Baldwin and April Lampert of the Shameless Sex Podcast. They are here for a fascinating, no-holds-barred dialogue about Sex. This is a very frank, descriptive, and dare I say deep conversation. Sex Education Amy and April talk about the current state of sex education in the US. To most families, sex is not a topic that they are comfortable talking with their children. Though there are schools that have sex education classes, it mostly consists of anatomy and topics about abstinence. Most young adults tend to learn on their own, either through their friends, from experience, or from porn. While they do not shun consumption of porn, both think that porn should not be used as an educational tool.    “I think it really depends on where you’re growing up. Luckily, we have the internet now. But like April said, there’s porn, and we are not anti porn. We are anti porn as a sex educator, unless it’s educational pornography.” – Amy Baldwin They believe this is where they come in, to correct misconceptions brought about by bad information or unrealistic expectations people get from hearing stories or watching porn. Shameless Sex Podcast When asked about how open they were when talking on their podcast, Amy shares that they didn’t begin like that. While they do talk boldly and bravely about sexuality in their podcast, it wasn’t the case when they were younger. They also believe that we can all talk boldly about sex if we want to. “I believe we all can speak really openly and boldly about sexuality. Just like with anything, if we practice enough and we want to, (but) not everyone needs to speak the way we do.” – Amy Baldwin “It’s normalizing the conversation around sex. I think someone Emily Morris was specifically saying this treating another podcaster in sexuality, she was saying she wants to normalize sex so we can talk about it like it’s the weather and I think we do the same thing.” – April Lampert Designing Relationships In the topic of relationships, it is weird how rather than sitting down and talking about it, we just end up having to guess each other’s desires and objectives as we go along. April thinks that it’s because we find it easier to point out what we don’t like rather than honing in on the things we do. “In my opinion, and I know from my experience throughout the course of my life, I was always talking about what I didn’t want. I noticed that when I when I speak to folks, they are really great about ‘I don’t want this’ or ‘I don’t want to fight.’ ‘I don’t want to feel isolated in my relationship.’ I’m like, so what do you what do you want, then?” – April Lampert Amy shares that we have been taught and conditioned to believe that sex should be spontaneous. That couples shouldn’t talk about it; we should just let it happen. While spontaneous sex is great, Amy believes that you should have a plan for intimacy. “So I think that people are taught and this is conditioning. It’s what’s hot is spontaneity. It’s just supposed to magically happen. We’re supposed to know everything. We shouldn’t have to have these conversations, when in fact, that’s bullshit. That’s really, really the magic and these conversations can feel really good.” – Amy Baldwin To hear more from Amy Baldwin and April Lampert, the Shameless Sex podcast, and more of their insights regarding relationships and intimacy during this time of isolation, download and listen to this episode

As you know, the United States of America is in a deep, much-needed conversation about race, equality, justice and policing. This was sparked in large part by the killing of George Floyd and now his murder trial. In this very special episode of Follow Your Different, we are honored to bring you this legendary dialogue with one of the most qualified, experienced, and highest-profile law enforcement leaders in America, Dr. Cedric Alexander. You’ve probably seen Dr. Alexander on stage giving a speech or on television. Yet unlike TV, where you only get a few minutes with him today, we go deep, like you can only go on a real dialogue podcast. This is a very special conversation that you’ll surely enjoy. Reimagining Policing According to Dr. Cedric, rethinking policing is not a new thing. They have been thinking of new ways for policing to serve the community and get them involved. He said that they have made significant progress with it under the former President Obama’s directive, as part of the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Unfortunately, it got shelved as a new administration was ushered in. Though regardless of which administration is in play, police departments and officers have to understand that the times are changing. They might get tired of the community asking for transparency from them, but this is not a bad thing. It only means that the community wants to be involved in ensuring public safety, and they should embrace that.  “Because public safety is only as strong as the public in the police department joined together, police cannot do it by themselves. And the community cannot do it by themselves.” – Dr. Cedric Alexander On Defunding the Police Dr. Cedric Alexander then talks about the calls to defund the police, and how he thinks it is the wrong approach to reimagining Policing as a whole. Police departments need that budget to do the things that solve their cases and carry out their mission to the community. What Dr. Cedric suggests is that the police should be specific on what they have to do for the community, and focus on that alone. Set standards on those specific tasks and duties, and hold them to those standards. As of right now, he believes that people are asking police to do things that they’re not trained to do. “We have to really define and be very clear about what we want police to do in our communities, and not take monies away from them. Though they need to find other monies to fund some of these other social service organizations that can get the people who are struggling with homelessness, mental health issues, and domestic issues. You don’t take that out of police budgets. You let them have what they need in order to provide good public safety. Hold them accountable to that, with some ways to measure that success.” – Dr. Cedric Alexander The Importance of Community Policing Dr. Cedric goes back to his point on Community Policing, and how important it is to build a great relationship with the community you protect. Since no matter how technologically advanced or highly-skilled your police department is, getting information to solve crimes will be harder when no one in the community is cooperating with you. That’s exactly what Community Policing means in its most basic fundamental term. It means that the police and the community have a relationship. It means that both are supportive of public safety in the community. Since at the end of the day, all that authority that comes with the police officers’ job is only as valuable as the community giving them the legitimacy to do it. “I tell police officers this all the time, you’ve been given the authority by the state. But it is the communities that give you alone your legitimacy, in order to carry out your function. When we have a trusting relationship, and we’re constantly working on that relationship, when something happens, we don’t separate from each other, we join together to try to find resolve to it.” – Dr. Cedric Alexander To hear more from Dr. Cedric Alexander and his thoughts on George Floyd, the Capitol Attacks, and more of his insights regarding the current and future state of Policing in America, download and listen to this episode. BIO: Dr. Cedric L. Alexander A visionary leader who has served over four decades in law enforcement and public service, there’s few more qualified to speak on the growing strife between race, communities, and the police. In his frequent, high profile commentary on CNN’s Amanpour, NBC News, and MSNBC, he poses the hard questions about systemic racism in our country and the need for police reform. Cedric remains front and center on these issues that have inflamed our nation. He speaks out on the violence while providing concrete solutions about how to navigate these troubled waters to address the problems plaguing law enforcement and the communities of color they serve. Dr. Alexander brings to the conversation lengthy experienc

Have you ever wondered what it takes to upend one of the oldest categories ever? To create real, radical innovation and do something that almost everyone in the industry said was impossible? If so, you’re going to love this dialogue with our guest, John Spagnola. In this episode of Follow Your Different, John Spagnola talks about how he redesigned an old category and broke through expectations and preexisting ideas in the Spirits category. He is the epitome of a pirate , dreamer, and innovator. John Spagnola is the founder of Ublendit, THE pioneer in custom Spirits category. They create custom blended spirits for hotels, bars, nightclubs, and restaurants so they can have their own unique, custom-branded and blended spirits. Ublendit: Breaking the Fixed Mindset John talks about Ublendit and how he didn’t want it to be just another spirits company. At the time, the formula for making a spirits company was as follows: You build a brand, market it to distributors, and hopefully get your brand into different establishments through said distributors. There were those who commented that while John might start out with this completely new idea he had, he’ll eventually move into the same model eventually. John was having none of it. “The more I go into it, the more I thought: no, you’re totally wrong. The way you’re thinking about is totally wrong. There are so many angles that we can manipulate here, that you’re not even thinking about.” – John Spagnola John has always been into trying new things. Creating something that was game-changing and can disrupt the status quo was the dream. He feels fortunate that his investors shared the same views as he did and were willing to take risks.  Going Against the Grain John further elaborates as to why most spirits companies follow the traditional category model. Eventually, it all boiled down to how big of an investment it can be, that they think it won’t be worth their time. Most of the people who tried having multiple blends end up discarding underperforming ones and just focusing their effort to their best-selling ones. “I kind of understand where people come from for there, but there’s all these new, different elements that have opened up to allow us to, to be so versatile.” – John Spagnola John went against the grain and pushed forward with his custom-blended and branded spirits, and have not look back since. Nowadays, there are technologies that allow businesses to blend spirits in smaller scales, much like what Ublendit is doing. Yet John and Ublendit has the distinction of being the trailblazers for the category. Knowing Your Market As a Category Designer, one has to do their due diligence and know what you are working with. Otherwise, how can you change a category to something your target audience cares about? This is exactly what John did by going around and doing research on the target market. He identified what the pain points of various businesses are, and create something new that solves those issues. After doing his market research, he found two major factors that interest people. The first one was price, because they need to make money. The other one was having custom labels to promote their own brand. So John got to work in combining these two factors, and a new category was born. As for his clients, they wished Ublendit was created sooner. “The thing that stuck with me is (he said,) you’re giving me goose for $5. He literally said, I wish that I had found you 10 years ago when I started this company. I was like, well, we weren’t there yet. We didn’t exist yet. He’s like, well, now you have us forever.” – John Spagnola To hear more from John Spagnola and how to be a legendary category designer, download and listen to this episode. BIO: John Spagnola is the CEO of Ublendit, LLC. Ublendit is a pioneer in the custom spirts category. They are the first to create custom spirits for hotels, bars, nightclubs, restaurants and special events. John is also Managing Partner at Venture Santa Cruz, where they identify new markets to make a difference in and disrupt them. He’s based in Santa Cruz, CA. Links: Website: Ublendit.com LinkedIn: in/JohnSpagnola More about John Spagnola and Ublendit Off The Lip Radio podcast A new blended whiskey draws attention to local bartenders’ secret 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 Hebrew, the name “Mosha” means “Salvation”. That was the name of a 13-year-old boy who was forced into a Nazi concentration camp, and spent the next five years in 18 more. Yet somehow, he lived. In this episode of Follow Your Different, Daniel Gefen shares a real, raw dialogue about his grandfather Mosha, and how he has influenced Daniel’s life and his drive to become a podcasting entrepreneur. You’ll also hear about how Daniel embraces faith, family, and philosophy to guide his life, and how he turns frustration into fascination. Mosha, the Survivor Daniel shares the story of his grandfather, Mosha. Mosha was a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. He was shot, buried alive, and hanged twice, yet he somehow managed to live on. After the war, Mosha fled to Switzerland. He had no money, no connections, and couldn’t even speak the language. While all he had was himself, he made full use of his talents. He built a farm by himself, and continued to build himself up until he had his own hotel business. Yet even as a multimillionaire hotel owner, Mosha had always strived to live a simpler life. All his focus was on how he could help others be happy. “The reason he opened the hotel wasn’t to make money. The reason he opened the hotel was because he wanted to serve people. That’s how he lived his life. He lived in a very small little apartment above the hotel his whole life, didn’t drive a car, and gave away pretty much almost all of his money to charities.” – Daniel Gefen Giving Voice to Others through Podcasting Daniel talks about how the more recent generations have become too focused on themselves.  While it’s not a bad thing to have some self-love, being too wrapped up with oneself can narrow one’s view. Sometimes, focusing outwardly and living for something or someone else can give you a higher purpose. For Daniel, it was giving voice to those who have long yearned to share their stories through his podcasts. “I kind of feel like my career is all about giving people exposure right through podcasting. My whole career is all about giving people the opportunity to promote and share their stories and get themselves out there on the biggest podcast. Ironically, I feel like I’m doing something that my grandfather couldn’t do.” – Daniel Gefen Don’t Lock Yourself in a Should Prison Daniel describes how his grandfather’s past trauma has also affected future generations of the family. One of the affected parties is his father and Daniel’s relationship with him growing up. Yet he doesn’t blame his grandfather nor his father for it. Instead of letting things stay as it is, Daniel strived to reach out and build a strong connection with his father. Rather than focusing on what other people should do, Daniel decided to focus on what he could do for them. He also learned to choose what’s best given the situation, rather than hoping for that perfect ending. “I have a mentor, a rabbi, who many times has said to me, “You know, do you want to be right? Or do you want to be happy? You can’t always have both. Sometimes you can. But a lot of times, you cannot have both. So what do you want? You get to choose.” ” – Daniel Gefen To hear more from Daniel Gefen and on how his grandfather inspired him to be an entrepreneur, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Daniel Gefen is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Gefen Media Group – a podcast production and booking agency helping clients build a loyal following through the power of podcasting. He is also the host of the top-rated podcast show called ‘Can I Pick Your Brain?’ which has exceeded over 150,000 downloads and was named top 26 podcasts to listen to by CIO Magazine. He has interviewed over 100 thought leaders, Billionaires and celebrities. In 2017, he was named one of the top 25 most influential influencers and has been featured in dozens of media publications including Forbes Inc, CIO, Influencive, Success Radio and over 70 leading podcasts. Daniel lives with his wife Lorren and 4 children in the hills of Bet Shemesh, Israel. You can listen to his show by searching for ‘Can I Pick Your Brain?’ on iTunes or other podcast platforms. Links: Website: Gefen Media Group Get Booked: Podbooker.com LinkedIn: in/GefenMedia Amazon Books: The Self Help Addict 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!

Most leaders want to build a legendary business and be socially and environmentally responsible at the same time. Sadly, many get caught in a false dilemma between doing good in business and doing good in the world. In spite of that, there are companies that strive to do both and continue to prosper to this day. In this episode of Follow Your Different, Dr. Gero Leson shares how Dr. Bronner’s has become the pioneer in the global movement to establish socially just and environmentally responsible supply chains. So if you care about building a long term, successful business that dominates its niche and makes a giant difference in the world, you’re going to love everything about this conversation. Having an Impact on the World If you’re looking for a company that has an impact on the world, look no further than Dr. Bronner’s. They have spent 70 years showing everyone that you don’t have to choose just one to maintain good growth. They back up this claim by ranking as the second highest scoring B Corp in the world. Dr. Gero Leson attributes this success to having an authentic brand and being consistent about it all these years. He believes that the causes they address speak to the general public, particularly to people who advocate saving the planet. “There are many other things. Of course, it’s the quality of our product, no doubt. But I think it’s also the messaging and then the action (we take). It’s what we do to have an impact beyond just making soap. I think that package speaks to people, and we have a fantastic team that’s all driven by the same vision.” – Dr. Gero Leson Standing the Test of Time Dr. Gero shares his thoughts on how Dr. Bronner’s is still relevant after all these years. Despite having new ideas and products launched, they have stayed true to their desire to have more natural and sustainable products and ingredients in the market. As for their sustained growth, Dr. Gero explains that they don’t focus on it. He knows it sounds like a cliché, but that mindset helped them explore new ideas that others would find risky. “This is not about cashing out, getting a few millions in the bank and then retire and just sit on the board of philanthropic organizations. The Bronners’ and most of our executive team just love being able to make decisions and bring about change, and that drives me alive. This is the biggest fun ever. I could retire, but that would be so boring. It’s just so much fun to use your business to bring about change, honestly.” – Dr. Gero Leson Precision and Creativity Nowadays, it is normal to have your Executive offices and your production line separate.  Yet for the longest time, Dr. Bronner’s has kept it all in one place. This leads to a unique contrast of seeing everything work with exact precision, but in an environment driven by everyone’s creativity and individuality.  “It is really fun to watch normal people respond to this. I sometimes bring in the chiefs of our projects and they’re very normal people. They come there and they say, “Huh, there’s a very interesting, great atmosphere here”. Its a very unique contrast of normality, efficiency, planning and at the same time, you have wildness and independence driving.” – Dr. Gero Leson To hear more from Dr. Gero Leson and his thoughts on building a business that thrives while making a difference, download and listen to this episode. Bio: DR. GERO LESON is Vice President of Special Operations at Dr. Bronner’s, the top-selling brand of natural soaps in North America. After joining the company in 2005, he helped it transition to sourcing all its major ingredients directly from certified fair trade and organic projects. Under his leadership, Dr. Bronner’s has become a pioneer in the global movement to establish socially just and environmentally responsible supply chains. Leson speaks regularly on business, sustainability, fair trade, and regenerative agriculture. He lives in Berkeley, California. Links Website: DrBronner.com Facebook: fb/DrBronner Instagram: @DrBronner Twitter: @DrBronner Get the Book: Honor Thy Label More about Dr. Gero Leson 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!

Most people would like to be more creative, and some would like to make a living with their creativity. Though without legendary role models, particularly those who are willing to get real and go deep about their experience, it’s hard to learn what it really takes. In today’s dialogue with Nasri, you’re going to learn about it and a lot more. In this episode of Follow Your Different, it is all about Nasri. His music has been streamed over 4 billion times to date. He’s a Grammy Award winning songwriter, producer, and singer who’s worked with literally the biggest names in music today. Nasri has won a Grammy Award for his works, including Best Latin Pop Album for his work with Shakira on her record Eldorado in 2017, and Best R&B album for his work on Chris Brown’s F.A.M.E. record. His band Magic! released three successful chart-topping albums with RCA Records, and he’s probably best known for their international smash hit “Rude”. He also just released a brand-new EP, a solo EP called “Here for You” to much critical acclaim. This is also Nasri’s first podcast experience, so join him and Christopher as they discuss Grammys, working with great musicians, and how to live a creative life. On Nasri Winning the Grammys Christopher starts off with the big one, and asks what it was like winning the Grammys. Nasri shares his thoughts on collaborating with a lot of talented artists and producers in the industry, and the experience of creating Grammy Award-winning songs. He also adds that nowadays, producing music is different than before. It’s normal to see five or more people being credited in one song, and that’s okay. All of it is necessary to create great music. Though it is understandable why some might be confused when they see multiple names in the credits. “Now when you make music, everybody has a little piece of everything. It’s kind of confusing when you see four or five names on a credit, or even seven or eight, nine names on a credit of a song. It’s confusing to the audience to like “Seven people wrote this song?” No, seven people didn’t write the song. Two or three people wrote the song, and then it goes through a process of like, “hey, let’s team up with this sound designer”, and they also want a piece of the publishing.” – Nasri   On Creatives Self-Producing Christopher brings up his experience on publications, and on why he chose to self-publish later on. Nasri agrees with the sentiment, and points out that it’s not a bad idea to work with a company first before trying to publish or produce on your own. At the very least, you’ll get some much-needed experience from them first and commit less mistakes when you are on our own afterwards. “I think the beginning stages, if you look at why you may need a publisher, it has made me learn a couple things, you know. To see kind of what the scope of marketing for this medium is, and that’s what I went through. In the band Magic!, we were signed to RCA Records, and I was like, “Okay, cool.” When I went now to make my solo project, I felt like I had a pretty good grip of how to market something.” – Nasri He’s also glad that he got into self-production. He talks about how he’s not on other people’s clock but his own, and he take his time and perfect his craft. “I’m in no rush. I own the master. I have nobody telling me in some sort of meeting that is not moving fast enough. That’s (part of) what I didn’t like.” – Nasri Nasri’s New EP Speaking of producing something, Nasri recently released his new EP, “Here For You”. Nasri talks about how it came to be, and how much fun it was to create. He also got into the finer details and how happy he is with its reception. “So all of a sudden, this whole thing just came together through us just being passionate about it. And some of the stories that in all the years of him making music, this is one of the first times that his wife has actually listened to the music on repeat, you know? Because generally, a lot of the stuff we make our wives are like, yeah, another pop song. They’ll listen to it once or twice and be like, “okay, cool”. But now, we went in and made some real music.” – Nasri To hear more about Nasri and his thoughts on creating great music on his first-ever podcast, download and listen to this episode. Bio Nasri With over 4 billion streams to his name, Grammy-winning artist/producer Nasri Atweh has solidified himself as a certified hitmaker. Lending his songwriting talents for artists including Justin Bieber, Halsey, Robin Thicke, Usher, John Legend, Skip Marley, H.E.R., Chloe x Halle and many more, Nasri has proven his ability to bring the best out of the artists with whom he works and elevate their art to a whole new level. Nasri was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, and began singing at age 6. In 2002, Nasri won the John Lennon songwriting contest with a song he wrote with one o

Nowadays, people live at a time when discerning what’s right and wrong is getting more complex. As your choices can have profound, long term implications, it’s best to know where your moral compass lies. In this episode of Follow Your Different, Dr. Susan Liautaud talks about Ethics and why it is more than just common sense. She explains why it matters more today, and how to apply an Ethics lens to critical areas of society. This is a fascinating conversation that will matter to anyone who cares about making the world a different place. Dr. Susan Liautaud is the author of the new bestseller, The Power of Ethics: How to Make Good Choices in a Complicated World. She is an Ethics Advisor to major corporations and institutions, and also teaches Ethics at Stanford. She serves as Chair of the London School of Economics and Political Science Council. Why Ethics is Not Common Sense It used to be that people grew up on stories that gave examples of what’s right and wrong. Everything seemed black and white, and the lines in the sand were clear. In today’s world, where information is but a touch of a screen away, these lines have seemingly been blurred. Dr. Susan Liautaud uses media platforms like Facebook or Twitter as examples for this. On one hand, it serves as a tool to connect people together and have lively conversations. On the other hand, there are some that use it to bully people and spread misinformation. “In today’s world, you know, good and bad are all mixed. We are in this gray zone and things that can be used for the good like social media. Yet they can also be used for harm, like bullying on social media or spread of disinformation. So I think largely because the world has just gotten so complicated and technology and all the forces driving it aren’t really common sense for a lot of people.” – Dr. Susan Liautaud The World is Changing so Fast Christopher shares that for him, changing your opinion on something is not a bad thing. It means that you are open to new ideas and correcting your own. “If you haven’t changed your mind lately, how do you know you have one?” – Christopher Lochhead Dr. Susan agrees with this sentiment, and describes that Ethics can be the same way. The things we find ethical or otherwise can be flipped due to recent events or newly-available information. For her, it’s better to be in-the-know rather than to always stick with the old ways. “I think one of the things about ethics that’s different today is that the world is changing so fast. The complexity I referred to earlier is evolving so quickly that we need to be monitoring, instead of holding our nose and leaping into a decision and being sure that we’re absolutely right. So I don’t call it flip flopping. I call it staying grounded in reality.” – Dr. Susan Liautaud Finding Non-Binary Solutions As more people get access to information and the lines between black and white get even more blurred, people’s definition of Ethics changes even further. For Dr. Susan, this is not a bad thing. Her main concern lies with people still looking for binary solutions to solve ethical problems. Dr. Susan explains how people can get stuck behind a yes or no mindset for different situations, which limits their thinking to binary solutions. She elaborates further by using Christopher’s foil board example: “What I would say is, can’t we find a solution that is non-binary, other than you can’t foil board on a public beach. Maybe you can foil board at certain times of day, in a place where there are only foil boarders who are willing to put themselves at that risk. We get ourselves into this Yes, No, black, white, one side of the wall or the other binary thinking, and we never get to seizing opportunity and mitigating risk.”   – Dr. Susan Liautaud To know more about Dr. Susan Liautaud and how Ethics is not common sense in some companies, download and listen to this episode. Bio Dr. Susan Liautaud teaches cutting-edge ethics at Stanford University and serves as Chair of the Council (trustees) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She advises corporations, NGOs, and governmental bodies and their leaders on internationally complex ethics matters and is the Founder of the Ethics Incubator. Links Follow Dr. Susan Liautaud here! Susan Liautaud’s website Linkedin: in/SusanLiautaudJDPHD Twitter: @SusanLiautaud Stanford profile: Dr. Susan Liautaud Find out more about Dr. Susan Liautaud in these articles: Washington Post Simon and Schuster Huffington Post 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 today’s episode of Follow Your Different, we are joined by Behavioral Ecologist and world-renowned Elephant Scientist, Dr. Caitlin O’Connell. She spent more than 30 years studying animals in their natural habitats. Dr. Caitlin has also taught at places like Stanford and Harvard. She’s got a brand-new book out called Wild Rituals, where she explores 10 lessons animals can teach us about connection, community, and our own humanity. Her book comes out at a time in history when the human race is dealing with some pretty deep existential questions. Dr. O’Connell is here to help us deepen our understanding of ourselves by teaching us all about these legendary animals. Taking Social Rituals for Granted As the pandemic continues to keep everyone socially distant, people have started noticing social rituals and activities that we used to take for granted. Dr. Caitlin talks about the rituals in wild animal societies and how intense each social interaction was, even for something as simple as a greeting.  She further explains that in our current isolation, people have realized the importance of these rituals in our lives, no matter how basic it may have seemed.  “The reason I was inspired to write about rituals in wild animal societies was really just to remind us of how important ritual is in our own lives, and how similar our rituals are to other animals.” – Dr. Caitlin O’Connell Different, But the Same Dr. Caitlin discusses how we as a species have evolved, and how tools like language have accelerated our growth. Yet it is important to remember that everyone came from the same humble beginnings, but took different paths.  She reminds everyone we all evolved this need for ritual for the same purpose, despite the differences we display them.  “It’s easy for people to do that because we are the only species that evolved language. Then by that language, suddenly we just accelerated away from the branch on our evolutionary tree. But the thing to remember is that we all came from the same humble beginnings, whether or not we moved in another direction.” – Dr. Caitlin O’Connell The Importance of Rituals Dr. Caitlin and Christopher dive into the importance of social rituals, and why we cling to them almost instinctively. Dr. Caitlin shares that inclusion in such rituals makes us feel comfortable and connected.  “Well, rituals are very calming, they’re very soothing, they comfort us and, and make us feel connected. They, especially group rituals, when you’re doing something as a group, let’s say in a marching band or synchronized swimming, or singing with your friends to cheer your team on. They make you feel included and more bonded to the people that you’re with.” – Dr. Caitlin O’Connell She also explains that as the population grew and society became more diverse, some social rituals have evolved to help identify each other from different groups. Yet as all of these group rituals help people feel bonded to the group, rituals can also lead down a dark path. To know more about Dr. Caitlin O’Connell, as well as the dark path and how we can avoid it as social animals, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Dr. Caitlin O’Connell has been called a modern renaissance creative. She is currently on the faculty at the Eaton Peabody Lab at Harvard Medical School studying elephant low-frequency hearing while also overseeing a non-profit foundation, (Utopia Scientific) promoting the importance of science and conservation. Dr. Caitlin is an award-winning author and photographer and has been studying elephants in the wild for the last thirty years, having written dozens of scientific papers and numerous feature magazine articles and two memoirs about her experiences. She taught creative science writing for Stanford and The New York Times and co-developed the award-winning Smithsonian documentary, Elephant King. Dr. Caitlin is currently developing a new elephant docu-drama, Elephant Crown, and working on several feature movie and television scripts aimed at getting real science into popular media.  She has authored eight popular books about elephants, including an award-nominated thriller series about the ivory trade that is also being released as a graphic novel. Links: Website: Dr. Caitlin O’Connell’s Official Website Amazon Books: Wild Rituals: 10 Lessons Animals Can Teach Us About Connection, Community, and Ourselves Twitter: @Dr. Caitlin O’Connell Instagram: @Dr. Caitlin O’Connell Harvard links: @Dr. Caitlin O’Connell 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 today’s episode of Follow Your Different, we are joined yet again by the breathtaking Dushka Zapata. Dushka is one of our regular guests in the podcast and one of the most important and prolific writers this world has to offer. The world truly needs more of Dushka. Additionally, in an act of radical generosity, Dushka has decided to make all e-versions of her published books available on Amazon, for free, starting March 17, 2021. Everything she has published will be available in ebook form for free within a 24-hour period. We highly recommend going and check out the link and read her astounding books. The Prioritization of Well-Being The pandemic has changed everyone’s relationship landscape, and the glue that has held those relationships has modified its fundamental composition. Dushka discusses that the difficulty in prioritizing one’s well-being is due to the fact that oftentimes it is impossible to tell what exactly is the best for one’s well-being. She shares that the only way to find the answer is to spend time alone, compassionately and gently, giving thought to what is genuinely best for oneself. “We are all like boats and we all carry other people who take care of the maintenance of the boat. If the boat sinks, you are useless to others. So what is it that you need to do for the boat, which is you? You need to be functional for others. The most responsible thing that we can do is to think about the best ways we can take care of ourselves.” – Dushka Zapata The Pursuit of Happiness Dushka discusses that her definition for the pursuit of happiness is less about being happy and more about the feeling of whether her actions have a sense of purpose. Most people are trapped in a constant state of sabotaging their own happiness because they feel like it’s too much. When in reality, there is no logical limit to how happy one can become.  She encourages people to never believe in mediocrity, low-grade despair, and to devise small steps to interests that bring one closer to happiness. “There isn’t a higher being monitoring your amount of happiness. I think that if there were a first step, it would be to remove your own tendency to sabotage your own happiness. If there were a second step, it would be about identifying the wants that are real. And, if there were a third step, it would be about truly understanding what the difference is between the superficial want and the deeper wants.” – Dushka Zapata The Architecture of One’s Fabrication Dushka and Christopher discuss how life is just the story that people tell themselves about the facts, people live in the architecture of their own fabrication. Dushka shares how it is worthwhile to perceive oneself as the person who thinks their thoughts rather than being one’s thoughts. This guarantees a life not filled with suffering over things that are uncontrollable and non-existent.  “To me, a really central part about learning how to love myself has to do with making a distinction between the things I believe that are not true.” – Dushka Zapata To know more about the legendary Dushka Zapata and how to prioritize your well-being, 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: Amazon Authors: Dushka Zapata Quora: Dushka Zapata Linkedin: Dushka Zapata Instagram: @dushkaamateur Twitter: @dushkamateur 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!

Teri Williams is the legendary President and Chief Operating Officer of OneUnited Bank. She is helping transform the country with the empire she is currently building. From purchasing a small struggling community bank in Boston to creating OneUnited Bank, the largest black-owned bank in the United States of America. Since they have started, Teri and her husband, Kevin, with their team have made over $1 billion in loans together. Along with being an entrepreneur, she is also an author with her book, I Got Bank!: What My Granddad Taught Me About Money. Today, we have a powerful conversation about OneUnited Bank’s mission and how the couple runs a successful powerful business while raising two wonderful children. Teri has some fascinating insights on what it really means to make money and the statistics of the black community in the financial system. We also talk about how Teri and Kevin are showing how banking and entrepreneurship can change lives, communities, and even a country. The OneUnitedBank OneUnited Bank is the largest black-owned bank in the country. It has not only started as a community but is also transforming to becoming a digital bank. The goal they have is to make financial literacy a core value in the black community. Teri gives a bit of her personal background and story, and how she learned business from her grandmother. She shares how one of the important things for the black community is to recognize those individuals who have been there, eliminate the carried shame, and value one’s experiences. “We’re finding ourselves not being able to speak in our authentic voice. We’re finding that our community is not listening to us because we’re not speaking in our authentic voice. So we have changed our communication. It was important for us, as a bank, to speak to the challenges that our community faces, not to run away from them. From that came this bank black movement. It is a bank black movement where black people can speak how they are going to move their money to black owned banks and are going to support black businesses.” – Teri Williams Black Communities in the Financial System Teri discusses the statistics and the poor treatment of the black community in the financial system. She shares how the homeownership rate in the black community is 30 percent lower compared to the white community. The number of loans and mortgages from national banks is 1 to 2 percent of all mortgages that are given to black families. Though, there is hope. OneUnited Banks is creating partnerships and transacting with big corporations that are currently making big differences to the community. “Netflix was the first to come out with this. Because of corporations like them, a lot of corporations have followed. I think the corporations realize that this is a way to contribute to what these banks are trying to do. It’s also important for people to know what we do. Over 70% of our lending actually goes into the community and our credit losses are almost zero. It’s not like we’re doing lending that is risky. We are just doing lending that isn’t being done by other institutions. That lending is giving our community an opportunity to build well.” – Teri Williams OneTransaction Campaign and Conference For Black History Month, Teri shares the OneTransaction Campaign and Conference that will be held on Juneteenth (June 19, 2021) from 1:00 – 6:00 PM ET (Eastern Time). The campaign will be a free virtual conference encouraging the black community to focus on one transaction in 2021. It will be filled with amazing speakers who are passionate to educate the community on how they can create generational wealth and close the racial wealth gap. We hope you can virtually join and register for the OneTransaction Campaign and Conference and be part of the conversation. “We give them a choice of six transactions. It could be a will, life insurance, home ownership, having a profitable business, improving their credit score or savings, and investments. We ask them to select one of those six transactions and then we provide them with action steps to accomplish that in 2021. We’re having this conference on Juneteenth which is an African-American holiday. We want to really educate the community on how they can build wealth.” – Teri Williams To know more about Teri Williams and the amazing work her and husband are doing at OneUnited Bank, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Teri Williams is President and Chief Operating Officer of OneUnited Bank. She is responsible for the implementation of the Bank’s strategic initiatives, as well as the day-to-day operations of the bank. These operational areas include all retail branches, marketing, compliance, lending, information technology, customer support, legal, and human resources. Under her leadership, OneUnited Bank has consolidated the local names and product offerings of four (4) banks to create a powerful national br

Gloria Hwang was a long-time cyclist who never wore a helmet. She thought they were too bulky, inconvenient, and space-agey looking. Then, a friend of hers died in a bike accident. She decided something had to be done about helmets. Gloria, a savvy professional who’s been working for five years inside the legendary Tom’s shoes, saw the new mobility category designed right in front of her eyes. With a very small amount of money and a Kickstarter campaign, she started Thousand Helmets. In this episode, we talk about Gloria’s story, as an entrepreneur and category designer and her mission of saving lives. The Mission of Thousand Helmets When Gloria decided to buy a helmet for herself, she saw a bunch of passable-looking helmets, but there’s nothing she wanted to wear. The number one reason people don’t ride a bike, skateboard, or scooter is they just don’t feel safe. So, she believed that making a helmet that people would want to wear could help save a lot of lives: “I really believe that I can create a product that people want to wear and I could solve a lot of problems. They could help save lives, and I could get people moving around cities in a different way.” – Gloria Hwang Prioritizing the Customer’s Perspective As helmets have been around since forever, Christopher asks Gloria how she saw an opportunity to create a different category of helmets. She says that it was all about customer insight as she was once a customer. Their first products were based on a human-centered design perspective and not on a market perspective. “As a consumer, you have a whole different set of customer needs and problems than what’s on the shelves. Then you kind of know that there is something out there for you that needs to be created.” – Gloria Hwang Design Philosophy Gloria shares the fundamental concepts in their product development process. The first one is style, and the second one is safety so that people can be safe and look stylish at the same time. The last one is convenience, which created the idea of their secret PopLock function to avoid theft when people leave their helmets behind. “There’s the execution where things need to be beautiful and high quality, but it always goes back down to what the customer would be thinking right now and what problem they encounter when they’re deciding to pick up a helmet. So, at the end of the day, it’s kind of trying to get a good understanding of what that customer wants.” – Gloria Hwang To know more about Gloria Hwang and how to be a bootstrap entrepreneur, download and listen to this episode.  Links: Thousand Helmets – Our Story Instagram: @explorethousand Twitter: @explorethousand Linkedin: Gloria Hwang Designer Spotlight: Thousand Bike Helmets Become A Stylish Safety Accessory Pinterest 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

Harvard’s top astronomer professor Avi Loeb, just published a book called Extra-Terrestrial, The First Sign Of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth. He believes that in 2017, the highly unusual object that passed by earth called Oumuamua, was likely alien. So in this episode, we go deep into obvious hypotheses, the attributes and characteristics that prove that Oumuamua was not a comet or an asteroid or anything else we’ve seen before. We also dig into why the good professor thinks it was likely alien. We discuss why he thinks science is a “dialogue with nature” and why at massive personal risk, he decided to come forward with his theory. Science as a Dialogue with Nature Avi says that science is a way of appreciating and understanding the world. It is not in conflict with religion either. Science explains how things work and it increases your own understanding of nature. Additionally, he says that he’s frustrated because many scientists focus on concepts without evidence and have no connection to experiments: “There is no evidence that these ideas are valued and that they actually describe nature. To me, that’s a betrayal of traditional physics, where we were supposed to have a dialogue with nature, not a monologue. We’re not supposed to tell nature what it is but listen for experiments to what nature is.” – Avi Loeb The Discovery of Oumuamua Christopher and Avi talk all about the likely alien, Oumuamua. Avi says that before discovering Oumuamua, they haven’t seen an object in outer space that moves too fast and more powerful from the gravitational pull. This ability to escape the gravitational pull of the sun was a huge discovery and led to the idea that an alien passed by the Earth for a visit. “It’s just that it’s relative speed. If a bullet moves too fast relative to the earth or, if a spacecraft moves too fast, it will never fall. It would just escape. So the issue is how fast does an object move relative to the source of gravity? All the objects we have seen before were bound to the sun that was relics from the formation process of the solar system.” – Avi Loeb Claims About Oumuamua After discovering Oumuamua, astronomers claimed that it was just a comet or an asteroid that came near the Earth. Another object with an extra push similar to Oumuamua’s was also discovered. However, it turns out it was a rocket booster that left the Arabs in 1966. This event somehow proved that Oumuamua is indeed peculiar. “The actual discovery of Oumuamua is by itself a puzzle. It means that the abundance of such objects is much greater than would be expected from the rocks that occupied the solar system at any event. Putting that aside, this object was peculiar. It exhibited an extra push of the type that you expect from a comet.” – Avi Loeb To know more about  Harvard’s Top Astronomer and the Aliens Who Tried to Contact Us, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University.  He received a Ph.D. in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel at age 24 (1980-1986), led the first international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative (1983-1988), and was subsequently a long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1988-1993). Loeb has written 8 books. These includes most recently, Extraterrestrial (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), and about 800 papers (with an h-index of 113) on a wide range of topics. Topics include black holes, the first stars, the search for extraterrestrial life and the future of the Universe. He had been the longest-serving Chair of Harvard’s Department of Astronomy (2011-2020), Founding Director of Harvard’s Black Hole Initiative (2016-present), and Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation (2007-present) within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He is the Chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies (2018-present). Additionally, he is also an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics. Loeb is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) at the White House and a member of the Advisory Board for “Einstein: Visualize the Impossible” of the Hebrew University. He also chairs the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative (2016-present). Further, he serves as the Science Theory Director for all Initiatives of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. In 2012, TIME magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in space. In 2020 Loeb was selected among the 14 most inspiring Israelis of the last decade. Click here for Loeb’s commentaries on innovation and diversity. Links: Harvard – Loeb Harvard.edu – Avi Loeb Wi

Today, we have the legendary Steven Kotler to talk about how we can turn the impossible into possible, using insights from his book, The Art of Impossible. The book is about peak performance and it aims to teach us how to stretch far beyond our capabilities to attain our dreams and anything we want. Personality vs. Biology Steven states that in the field of peak performance, personality doesn’t scale because biology does. Personality is composed of traits that are immutable and locked in. He also describes neurobiology as a mechanism of brain work. “If you try to figure out what works for me and use it to train you and if you’re not exactly the same kind of person I am with the same personality traits, this is not going to work. But underneath that one level down, there is a level of biology. A way the system has been designed to work, and that is the part that we all share. The stuff that evolution designed for all of us to share.” – Steven Kotler Focus Comes with Motivation Steven says that you always have to focus on what you pay attention to, or what you ignore. Curiosity, passion, purpose, and autonomy are designed to work in a specific sequence, but all of them give us focus for free. He also says that the whole point about biology and the human system is you get farther and faster with less work. “We are hardwired for the extraordinary. It is one of the surprising things about being human that most people don’t realize. To take it a step farther, not going big, is actually bad for us. That’s an equally important point here.” – Steven Kotler Turning Anxiety into Excitement Today, we live in a world filled with probabilistic threats, which is the reason why most people have anxiety. Steven concludes that the brain doesn’t turn off until the danger is gone completely. So, you have to take steps to calm nervous system down because it won’t shut down on its own: “Most humans can feel curiosity and anxiety at the same time. Talk about reframe and cognitive reframing, a technique for turning anxiety into excitement. Because it’s the same chemical and it’s very easy to do. An example of giving biology to work for you rather than against you. We’re plagued by anxiety, and yet we’re hardwired to turn anxiety into excitement very easily just with the right tools.” – Steven Kotler To know more about the art of the impossible with Steven Kotler, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. He is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance. He is the author of nine bestsellers (out of thirteen books), including The Art of Impossible, The Future is Faster Than You Think, Stealing Fire, The Rise of Superman, Bold, and Abundance. His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over 40 languages, and has appeared in over 100 publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, TIME, and the Harvard Business Review. Links: Website: Steven Kotler Twitter: @steven_kotler Linkedin: Steven Kotler 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

Our guest today is Martin Lindstrom, best-selling author and branding and culture guru. Time Magazine calls him one of the 100 World’s Most Influential People. He’s got an important and timely, brand new book out called The Ministry of Common Sense: How To Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses And Corporate Bullshit. We have a captivating conversation and Martin sheds light on some very eye opening ideas, like why empathy is dying and what we can do about it, why common sense has eroded and what we can do about that too. There’s going to be fascinating things like how Botox is hurting the relationships between mothers and babies, why Netflix has a bizarre hugging policy, the impact of women driving in Saudi Arabia and a lot more. Listen closely for Martin’s theory on why some people get a lot more opportunities in life than others. It’s quite fascinating. The Impact of Women Driving In Saudi Arabia Martin shares his travels in Saudi Arabia and how the country is transforming in a historic moment. He discusses how he helped bring driving schools to Saudi Arabia.  This elevation of women’s freedom brought him a different kind of purpose.  “For you and I, it sounds like an ordinary thing, but in Saudi Arabia it has never existed before. My driver was a woman. It was the second time she’s been out driving. She was almost shaking because she was so excited about being liberated. So it’s just amazing and such a warm hearted experience to see how these suppressed women are suddenly getting freedom.” – Martin Lindstrom Empathy is Dying The thing that everyone is missing in the world is empathy. Martin discusses factors such as the use of phones, the absence of observation, and the “easiness” of social apps has contributed to the lack of empathy.  “There was a study done recently showing that the degree of empathy among more than 10,000 students in the US have dropped around 50% over the last decade. The reason why it’s disappearing is not just because of the smart phones, where we don’t look at each other during meals, but also because we no longer observe.”  – Martin Lindstrom Common Sense Has Eroded Martin points out that along with empathy, the world seems to have lost its common sense. He explains that when he refers to common sense eroding, he meant that no one questions things at all. This is because people have become so attached to becoming politically correct in every aspect that they no longer dare see things anymore as they are.  “One of the things that are disappearing out of our society, along with empathy, is the lack of common sense. There is no common sense in our society at all. Common sense is first of all, like muscle memory. You have to train it and in turn it becomes stronger. If you don’t use it, it becomes weaker and guess what? It’s incredibly weak at the moment because remember by empathy, I say you put yourself in the shoes of another person. That’s really common sense because sometimes you actually have to look at things from a different point of view, exactly as if you’ve experienced it with your own eyes.   – Martin Lindstrom To know more about Martin Lindstrom and hear more about his fantastic book and theories on life, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Martin Lindstrom is the founder and chairman of Lindstrom Company, the world’s leading brand & culture transformation group, operating across five continents and more than 30 countries. TIME Magazine has named Lindstrom one of the “World’s 100 Most Influential People”. And for three years running, Thinkers50, the world’s premier ranking resource of business icons, has selected Lindstrom to be among the world’s top 50 business thinkers. Lindstrom is a high profile speaker and author of 7 New York Times best-selling books, translated into 60 languages. His book Brand Sense was critically acclaimed by The Wall Street Journal as “one of the five best marketing books ever published”, Small Data was praised as “revolutionary” and TIME Magazine wrote this about Buyology: “a breakthrough in branding”. Links: Website: Martin Linkdstrom Book: The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS 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!

At the moment, there is a big rise in “diseases of despair.” These are things like substance abuse, alcohol dependency, suicidal thoughts and behaviors. As a matter of fact, according to the medical journal BMJ, diseases of despair have soared in the United States over the past decade, rising 68% between 2009 and 2018. The study also shows suicidal thoughts and behaviors were up 70%. And all of that was of course before COVID. However, despair doesn’t have to mean defeat. Our guest today, Eric Jorgensen is an extraordinary man. His son, William was born with significant disabilities. What you’re about to hear is the extraordinary tale of how Eric’s life turned to tragedy, the horrible suffering that he endured and the painful events of Eric and William’s life. You’ll also hear how this real American hero transformed, unbearable despair into triumph. Road to Healing Life often throws us whirlwinds of challenges, tragedy, and sometimes even despair. Eric shares his tale of how he has withstood the hardships of having cancer and taking care of his son with significant disabilities. He shares his extraordinary story of recovery, all the while dealing with the global pandemic, Covid-19.   “When I found out it was grade IIA cancer. I guess in the scheme of things, I was somewhere in the middle. I didn’t need chemo. I didn’t need radiation. In terms of recovery, I got really lucky. It was just a matter of taking care of my wound and letting it heal…In regard to COVID, alI I could think about is holy crap. It was scary. If I get sick, on top of cancer, and I can’t help my son out on his day to day stuff, what’s going to happen. Who’s going to do that for me?” – Eric Jorgensen Channel Your Anger The ability to appropriately express and channel one’s anger is one of the most important things about being human. Eric discusses how his anger, while not always constructive, was the driving force for him to start his own company. Rising through all this frustration and anger, it was able to lead him into where he is now. “I was getting frustrated because what I was being asked to do, wasn’t what I wanted to do. It wasn’t helping the people I wanted to help. It wasn’t addressing the need I thought it needed to be filled… Now that I started my company ,I get to help families who are where I was eight years ago. Not knowing what to do and I’m catching them before they get there.” – Eric Jorgensen Know You’re Not Alone Eric shares his big learnings as he looks back over the last eight years of his life and how he has navigated through his challenges. One of the things he wants people to remember is that don’t try and do everything alone. Everyone is strong but oftentimes, one needs someone they can lean on and trust.  “I kept it balled in and then it would shockingly blow up at the worst possible time. I would take it out on people that I had absolutely no reason for me to take it out on. So try to build a team or a tribe or whatever you call it. Try to build a group of people. I keep my circle pretty small. Get a couple of really tight people that you can really really trust.” – Eric Jorgensen To know more how to redesign your life with Eric Jorgensen, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Eric has been helping families with intellectual and developmental disabilities since his retirement from the Navy in 2012. He was widowed the same year he retired. At the time his 12 y/o autistic son, William, was completely dependent on his wife for everything. It was his frustration with the difficulty of figuring out what to do and navigating services for his son which led him to found Special Needs Navigator. Eric created the category of Special Needs Planning to help families, individuals and caregivers connect the dots when working with attorneys, financial advisors, and other professionals. His specialty is helping them identify what they don’t know and provide clarity. He works with his clients around the country to develop individualized solutions best suited to their circumstances. In addition to working with clients one on one; Special Needs Navigator has a blog, YouTube channel and podcast. Eric uses the blog to do a deep dive every week into subjects like ABLE accounts, Special Needs Trusts and other topics families frequently have questions about. The podcast and YouTube channel focus on benefits, resources and services families may not know, or want to learn more, about. Links: Website: Special Needs Navigator Podcast: ABC’s of Disability Planning Facebook: @SpecNeedsNav Twitter: @NeedsNavigator Trends in the diagnosis of diseases of despair in the United States, 2009–2018: a retrospective cohort study A New Study Found ‘Deaths Of Despair’ Soared Over The Past Decade We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listen

This is Christopher and I just wanted to take a little moment to share a couple quick things with you. First, just big thank you. Thank you for making me and our entire team part of your 2020. The second thing, I know it’s been a horrible year for many of us, for me and my family, it’s been the most horrible year of all. I also want you to know that I thought about quitting a lot this year, both podcasting and writing. Knowing that you were there, if you sent email or tweets or LinkedIn messages or just knowing you were there, has made a big difference. I didn’t know (when I started writing and podcasting) how much the friendships that I would develop with our listeners and readers would mean to me. Even if we’ve never met or exchanged a message, I just want you to know how much I appreciate you. Thank you because for the last 15 months, it’s really been the worst time of my life. Having you with me has made a giant difference. I know you being there has made a giant difference to our entire team. So thank you so much. I also wanted to share a little piece that I put on social media, for those of you who might have lost someone. So I’ll just read that to you quickly. If you have an empty chair, this holiday, I’m truly sorry. If you have an empty chair, this holiday, please know that your family does not cry alone. And if you do not have an empty chair this holiday, please remember to tell your friends and family how much you love them. In times like these, it really calls for inspiration and who better to turn to than Winston Churchill. So I thought I’d share this quote with you. If you will, as a toast to 2021, without courage, all other virtues lose their meaning. So I’m going to grab hold of this Macallan 12. I have a little squirt and say, thank you. Bless you. Here’s to 2021.

What really happened in 2020? Where’s the world of technology heading? What does the future of software look like and what do we all have to be prepared for? We discuss all these and a whole lot more with Ray Wang. He’s the number one tech analyst in the world and the founder of Constellation Research. Today, give us some powerful insights as we go forward into 2021. Salesforce Slack Christopher and Ray dive into the discussion with COVID hypocrisy and Ray’s thoughts on the Salesforce Slack $27 billion deal, and where he sees the future of technology headed. He emphasizes the idea of business graphs and how this can potentially tap tribal knowledge for business  and become a great acquisition. It is the kind of category acceleration deal that is fit for category designers, visionary entrepreneurs and CEOs who are trying to shape the future as opposed to monetizing the present or past. “Why would we want a business graph in our business? The goal of the business graph is so that we can start making better decisions. We call them precision decisions and the goal is to improve this concept called decision velocity. Which, I talk a lot about in my book, are basically machines making decisions a hundred times per second.” – Ray Wang Ad Revenue Ray discusses how top companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are competing head-on for digital advertising revenue. A massive winner takes all market and digital ads of category kings who are running some of the largest market shares in each of their categories. These category kings are battling for six areas of monetization: ad revenues, search revenues, goods, services, and membership subscriptions.  “There’s all your digital monetization models. Now I won’t say too much before my book comes out. That’s what we spent a lot of time talking about. These different monetization plays that are happening. We talk about how value chains are collapsing, but in Salesforce and in Microsoft’s case, they’re building this business operating system or this business nervous system. That’s actually coming in the transactions between  sales orders.” – Ray Wang Zoom in Light of Slack Salesforce Deal Through every single video revolution the problem with video was there was never enough bandwidth. Ray shares how Zoom needs to go beyond meetings and discover the ability to integrate with everyone else. Whether this means selling at their peak and letting other people build or integrate into a future broadcast platform.  “You have your own personal ad network with the zoom. You’re basically internal only. I mean, they have the ability to do all those kinds of things. You can actually do broadcasts. You are a video property. You are basically a media property. They haven’t taken it from tool to where now the broadcast property kind of like YouTube is the broadcast pot property. So someone who’s creative enough thinking about this market that wants to go after it pretty hard could attempt to kind of work with them in that regard. Though the valuation is so high, right? That’s the challenge.”  – Ray Wang Bio: R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Silicon Valley based Constellation Research, Inc. He’s also the author of the popular business strategy and technology  blog “A Software Insider’s Point of View”. With viewership in the 10’s of millions of page views a year, his blog provides insight into how disruptive technologies and new business models such as digital transformation impact brands, enterprises, and organizations. Wang has held executive roles in product, marketing, strategy, and consulting at companies such as Forrester Research, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and Johns Hopkins Hospital. His new best selling book Disrupting Digital Business, published by Harvard Business Review Press and now globally available provides insights on why 52% of the Fortune 500 have been merged, acquired, gone bankrupt, or fallen off the list since 2000. In fact, this impact of digital disruption is real.  However, it’s not the technologies that drive this change. It’s a shift in how new business models are created. Wang has held executive roles in product, marketing, strategy, and consulting at companies such as Forrester Research, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Personify, and Johns Hopkins Hospital.  He is a prominent and dynamic keynote speaker and research analyst working with clients on digital, innovation, business model design, engagement strategies, customer experience, matrix commerce, and big data. His Silicon Valley research firm, Constellation Research, Inc., advises Global 2000 companies on the future, business strategy, and disruptive technology adoption. Ray is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and well quot

In today’s episode, we have legendary combat veteran Navy seal Brent Gleason. He’s got a red, hot, rocking, new book out called Embrace The Suck. Brent is a successful entrepreneur, author and speaker and his new book is catching everybody’s attention. Today, we get into why Brent thinks we need to lean into pain, how to deal with failure and rise up to any challenge, no matter what. Leading Through Change Brent gives us an inside look on what it was like as a legendary combat veteran Navy seal. Moreover, he shares his perspective on the pandemic and what he thinks leaders should be doing. He thinks organizations should reevaluate the needs of its people based on a lot of factors. “The global pandemic has caused an even heightened level of leadership, complexity, and challenge. As leaders, we’re supposed to show empathy and be innately in tune with what motivates each individual on our team, within our direct reports and our peers. Now with everybody working predominantly in a remote setting, everybody has a different environment that they’re now in. In addition, some people thrive in remote settings and others feel isolation and uncertainty. Greater levels of digital silos are now creating communication challenges. Obviously your organization is going to go through a lot of change.” – Brent Gleeson Leaning Into The Pain In his book, he shares psychological, emotional, and physical pain and suffering and how various people deal with pain. There is a purposeful suffering that everyone must engage in to achieve loftier goals and causes greater than ourselves. These will serve to develop individuals in expanding the boundaries of one’s comfort zone. In turn, lead to a more fulfilling, happier, and purpose-driven life.   “When have you ever achieved anything meaningful in your life that did not have something attached to it? Like some level of pain, suffering, or adversity. The answer is nothing. When have you ever done something that gave you true fulfillment that was trapped within the confines of your comfort zone? Nothing. It’s only when we peak beyond the boundaries of the comfort zone and see what’s out there. That is what expands your comfort zone and moves the goalposts. You make it a ritual part of your existence and part of your mindset.” – Brent Gleeson Taming The Tiger Brent discusses how in life there are choices down the road that lead you to temptation. He shares how one can tame the tiger and resist temptation. In life, humans are inevitably tempted and human centered, the goal is to mend the relationships or goals one is focusing on. He shares how it ultimately comes down to the philosophy of simply limiting choices and creating an environment that supports your objective. He discusses how one should set themselves up for success by being purposeful in the environment and what one creates. Lessening the opportunity to be distracted or tempted by things that do not align with the actions necessary to achieve the desired outcome.  “In order to tame my tiger, I had to transform my entire lifestyle and mindsets to limit the choices. I removed every possible element of temptation from my life that would stand in the way of the goals I had made. So my social life, my dietary habits, workout regimen, even going as far as removing people from my life that I knew would stand in the way of achieving that goal. If I wanted to achieve my goal, all that stuff had to go.” – Brent Gleeson To know more about the legendary Brent Gleeson, his new book and his incredible life journey. Download and listen to this episode.  Bio: Brent Gleeson was a member of SEAL Team 5, some of the first SEALs deployed to Iraq in early 2003. He completed combat deployments in Iraq, Africa, and other theaters of war. After returning to civilian life, Brent earned an MBA and has built award-winning, multi-million dollar organizations that have repeatedly landed on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies. He is the author of TakingPoint and has starred in several reality shows including Mark Burnett’s ‘Stars Earn Stripes.’ Links: Taking Point Leadership Taking Point Leadership – Books Twitter: @brentgleeson Linkedin: Brent Gleeson 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!

Our guest today Michael Juergens, is a senior partner at Deloitte. He’s also a super wine geek of the highest order and on a trip to the Bhutan in 2016 , he discovered there was no vineyards there at all. What you’re about to listen to is the real story of how Michael, by accident, connected with government leaders in this magic little country to become the founder of a new industry and is pioneering the last great wine frontier. Bio: Michael Juergens doesn’t fit into a simple box.   As a senior partner in a large global consulting firm, he’s a seasoned business executive who spends his time advising Fortune 500 organizations.   His passion for wine has led him to be a candidate to become the 45th American to qualify as a Master of Wine and he started the wine industry in the Kingdom of Bhutan in the Himalayas.   He also owns the award winning SoCal Rum company. He’s an internationally known speaker and author, and also is a professor at the University of CA, Irvine.    He plays the drums in a punk rock band, and spends his free time diving with great whites, building motorcycles and hot rods, and running adventure races in remote locations around the world. Links: Linkedin: Michael Juergens The World’s Newest Wine Frontier Is the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan The wine industry said I’m crazy: US pioneer to create ‘next Napa Valley’ in Himalayan hills of Bhutan First Vineyard Planted In Bhutan Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon Gross National Happiness The 4 Pillars of GNH Bhutan: Committed to Conservation 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!

Imagine sitting on a wonderful backdoor deck, overlooking the vast beautiful bluey green Pacific ocean as sets of waves. Roll in on a perfect warm sunny fall day in beautiful Santa Cruz, California. Then imagine a funny, ADHD infused conversation between two buddies with the beers and tequila flowing. Well, that’s what we have today, with none other than Santa Cruz, icon, surf/skate legend, host of the mega popular podcast Off The Lip, Neil Pearlberg. In this episode, we get silly. We swear a lot and have tons of fun. I invite you to crack open a cold one and join Chris and Neil for a lot of fun. 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: Off the Lip Radio Instagram: @offthelipradioshow  Twitter: @offthelipradio Linkedin: Neil Pearlberg 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, we go deep into the life, lessons and learnings of a legendary musician, singer, producer, and songwriter Sharon Vaughn. Sharon has written hits for legends like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Reba McEntire, The Oak Ridge Boys, George Jones, Kenny Rogers, Randy Travis, Patty Loveless, Agnes, and Kate Ryan. In 2019 Sharon was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. If you’re a creative person, if you love music and if you find inspiration in stories of amazing triumph, you’ll love this episode. Pay special attention to Sharon’s thoughts on the grand dame of country music, Dolly Parton. A Creative Writing Instrument Sharon discusses her professional and personal background and how she developed an interest in singing and songwriting. She goes into detail about how her writing process has been a schizophrenia lifestyle. “It’s a very difficult line to walk because if you’re writing for strictly commercial, it gets vapid. If you’re writing strictly for an emotional purging, then it gets selfish and self centered. But if you walk that straight and narrow line between commercial and genuine emotion. That’s where the tension lies.” – Sharon Vaughn Admiration of Musical Genius Sharon continues to discuss her professional journey. She lets us in on her joys and difficulties of what it was like to work as a harmony singer. Further, she shares what it was like working with Jimmy Buffet, Porter Wagoner, Bill Anderson, and Dolly Parton. Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Sharon describes her excitement and her thankfulness for being inducted to Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Further, she expresses her gratefulness to the people along the way who have been instrumental to her life. This all had contributed to her becoming a great listener and a legendary storyteller.  “Everybody on this planet has a story. Most of them are very eager for you to hear it, to tell it. All you have to do is have enough curiosity to listen and respect what they’re saying. You have to realize that everybody in this world is worthy of listening to. I, for one, have been the recipient of listening to people and that’s the main thing I’m most grateful for. ” – Sharon Vaughn To know more about the legendary Sharon Vaugh and her incredible life journey, download and listen to this episode.  Bio: Vaughn moved to Nashville in her early 20s. In 1974, she charted two singles as a performer for Cinnamon Records: a duet with Narvel Felts titled “Until the End of Time”, and “Never a Night Goes By”. A year later, she signed with Dot Records and released a third single, “You and Me, Me and You”. She was also the lead singer in the Lea Jane Singers, and worked with the Jordanaires, the Nashville Edition and The Holladay Sisters. Vaughn’s first big songwriting success was Waylon Jennings (1976) “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.” Willie Nelson later popularized the song in 1980 for the soundtrack of the movie The Electric Horseman. Her next songwriting hit was The Oak Ridge Boys (1977)’s “Y’all Come Back Saloon.” Since then she has worked with country artists such as Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Tanya Tucker and Kenny Rogers. Vaughn was a nominee for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame three times, and was inducted in 2019. Vaughn has during the last couple of years had over 100 cuts with European artists and four number ones in Japan. She has worked with several Swedish Idol artists including the winner Jay Smith (2010) and a number one hit for Ola. She has also worked with many Scandinavian songwriters and artists including Agnes, Mutt Lange, Tony Nilsson, Vendela, Anders Hanson and Emilia. In 2009, her co-written song Release Me by Swedish pop artist Agnes reached #1 on the U.S Billboard Dance Club Songs Chart.[8] In 2013, Vaughn received a JASRAC Award as #1 of the Top 10 Foreign Works for her 2011 co-written song “Rising Sun” by the Japanese pop band EXILE. During 2014, Vaughn competed as the songwriter of three songs in Melodifestivalen. Vaughn has also co-written songs with Ian Dench[11] and Carl Falk. Links: Nashville Songwriters Foundation Hall of Fame Waylon Jennings My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys – Waylon Jennings My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys – Willie Nelson Wikipedia – My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys  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!  

We continue our run on legendary authors today with none other than NY #1 Best Selling Author, Ryan Holiday. You see, the only authors we ever have are the ones that we think have ideas, teachings, and stories that are worth digging into.  Today, we go deep into the teachings of some of the greatest thinkers in history. Ryan helps us see the events of today through the lens of powerful philosophers and history, providing today, in an incredible context. We deal with big topics like truth, character, pain, and suffering humor, and a lot more. Invest Time in Reading Chris lauded Ryan for writing a historical book in the age where almost everyone is addicted to selfies. Ryan was actually amazed himself how in this age and time, people still invest in time and money reading books. He shares what he thinks about good books and why people still opt for a book, instead of getting validation in social media.  “I opened the book, there’s a story about Xenos, the founder of Stoicism. You get this prophecy as a young man that the Oracle tells him ‘you will become wise when you begin to have conversations with the dead.’ Years later at a chance encounter in a bookstore, do you come to realize that this prophecy was about reading, that books are a way to speak to the dead.” – Ryan Holiday Condensed Life Experiences Ryan and Chris discuss life-changing books. Ryan shares an anecdote from Socrates saying: “the reason you read is that you gain quite easily what others learned quite painfully.” He further describes his new book Lives Of The Stoics, as something less about him and more about the wisdom of the past. “Reading is condensed information. It’s distilled down information. In reading one book, you could jump forward a year of your life, or 10 years of your life. It can save you painful trial and error.” – Ryan Holiday An Escape and Reassurance Ryan further shares what he thinks about good books being an escape and reassurance. Reading books, especially historical ones, will make you realize that you are not alone dealing with your feelings or that there are universal truths that span from generations. One of which is human struggling and the fight between good and evil. “I find whenever I’m stressed about what’s happening, I try to study the past. This gives me a clear view of what’s happening right now.” – Ryan Holiday  To know more about Ryan Holiday and his new NY best-selling book, Lives of the Stoics, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Ryan Holiday is one of the world’s foremost thinkers and writers on ancient philosophy and its place in everyday life. He is a sought-after speaker, strategist, and the author of many bestselling books including The Obstacle Is the Way; Ego Is the Enemy; and The Daily Stoic. He’s newest book Lives Of The Stoics is an instant New York Times Advice & Business Bestseller, USA Today Bestseller, and Wall Street Journal #1 Bestseller. His books have been translated into over 30 languages and read by over two million people worldwide. He lives outside Austin, Texas, with his family. Links: Website: Ryan Holiday  Twitter: @ryanholiday Instagram: @ryanholiday Amazon – Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman: Book Review, Key Lessons, Best Quotes, and More 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 this episode, a truly legendary conversation with two extraordinary men, men who are on a mission to stop deadly wildfires. First, we have Charlie Croker, the founder and CEO of Zone Haven. Zone Haven is using data to everything technologies, to help government agencies and citizens both plan for and respond to serious disasters.  Our second guest is Chief Jonathan Cox, CalFire Executive who is responsible for fire operations in this region.  Together, Charlie and Jonathan share how firefighting heroes stop these fires and save countless lives and billions in property. A Night Californians Will Never Forget  The night of Saturday, August 15 2020, a massive lightning storm hit the region. Approximately 12,000 strikes of lightning hit Northern California which caused massive fires. The wildfire lasted for weeks and it destroyed almost 10,000 buildings along with the big basin redwoods State Park, and took the life of one person. “It was a horrifying fire and it started eating the mountainous area that has a lot of underbrush, some of the most beautiful ancient redwoods, and a lot of wonderful homes, towns and businesses.” – Christopher Lochhead The Worst Fire Season In History Chief Jonathan Cox recounted to Chris how they had expected the worst for the wildfire season. However, they did not expect this horrible incident to have grown into that magnitude. He further explained their process and prioritization and how technology from Zone Haven has contributed a lot to their firefighting efforts. “We’re very good when there’s one or two large fires burning, getting an incident management team assembled and getting resources drawn throughout the system. But this really was one of those moments where you had concurrent major emergencies happening in a small geographical area, really in the Bay Area, and a little bit north, and it really turned into a prioritization of resources based on the threat to humans and the threat to structures.” – Chief Jonathan Cox Saving Lives and Properties Charlie Crocker, from Zone Haven shares the technology as it relates to helping CalFire make sound decisions during that emergency. He further shares in this episode how their communication strategy, along with the CalFire executives, were in sync and were out of the box, that it made drastic results in terms of preventing more damages.  “The main focus of it and why we’re called Zone Haven is that we really focus on very small neighborhoods or zones. So these zones are smart. They know the number of people, they know how quick, how long it’s going to take for people to get out of there.” – Charlie Crocker To know more about How Heroes Fight Wildfires and for more information about CAL FIRE Chief Jonathan Cox & ZoneHaven CEO Charlie Crocker, download and listen to this episode. Bio: CAL FIRE Deputy Chief Jonathan Cox CalFire Deputy Fire Chief Jonathan Cox oversees fire operations at the San Mateo County Division of CAL FIRE, which includes San Mateo County Fire Department and Coastside Fire Protection District. His passion for the fire service started young, prior to his current role he worked both municipal and wildland fire field operations with CAL FIRE at Coastside Fire District, San Mateo County Fire Department and San Luis Obispo County Fire Department. In addition, he spent several years as the Northern California spokesperson for CAL FIRE. Jonathan was also a founding member for CAL FIRE’s land use planning program at the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM), working with local jurisdictions to make informed land use decisions related to the threat of wildfire. Jonathan also responds to, and manages, some of California’s largest disasters. He spent five years as a member of CAL FIRE’s Incident Management Team 6 (FEMA Type 1), where he served on the command staff in the capacity of Public Information Officer (PIO1). He holds a Bachelors Degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and a Masters Degree from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.  He has also completed an intensive training at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva, Switzerland.  Jonathan is a State of California (OSFM) certified Chief Officer and Registered Instructor. Additionally, Jonathan is an emergency response educator and trainer in the field of emergency management and crisis communications.  He has been a subject matter expert speaker at numerous conferences, including the National Fire Protection Association. His work has spanned five countries and involved working with hundreds of professionals. He has lived in the US, Denmark and the United Kingdom.  Charlie Crocker, Founder/CEO Zonehaven Charlie is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zonehaven Inc.  He is a data geek and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience building teams to bring data out of the shadows and drive business value.  Prior to Zonehaven, he

This is Christopher. I wanted to let you know that we are going to take the pause that refreshes here as America votes. The entire attention of the United States is on the election as it should be. Much of the attention of Americans and the entire world is focused on this election. We thought the wise thing to do would be to take some time off and come back after the election. The good news is if you love either of our podcasts, we have a tremendous back catalog. Unless you’ve listened to every Follow Your Different™ and every Lochhead on Marketing™ episode, there’s probably some gems in there you could really benefit from. If you want a break from all of the political news over the next handful of days, there are some amazing conversations, legendary even that you might enjoy. I want to ask you to vote If you’re an American, I believe voting is a civic duty. I think it’s important to remember that. Democracy can’t happen without participation from its citizens. I think it’s important to remember that people have died for the right to vote. I think it’s important to remember that there are many human beings on planet earth who do not get that right, who do not live in a democracy where their voice matters. I’m no political expert, but if you look at the polls and consume information, news and data, it looks like there’s a very good chance this could be a very close election. I think the worst outcome we could have would be a rerun of 2000 Bush versus Gore or anything along those lines. I think what we absolutely need in the United States of America is a clear winner at the presidential level and a clear direction for Congress. We need leaders, federally, who have a clear mandate to govern. I think a big part of the problem that we’ve had is things have been so close lately that many of us our confused by the messages. We have a very divided country. So please vote, make a plan to vote. *** We’ll be back with new episodes of both Lochhead on Marketing™ and Follow Your Different™ shortly after the election here in the United States, bless you. Please take care, stay legendary. And until we’re together again, follow your different.

In this episode, we do have a world changer. She’s both an entrepreneur, author, and podcaster. She’s the category queen of a new category of flavored healthy water. Her name is Kara Goldin and she’s the founder and CEO of a product you probably have tried and most likely love called Hint water. Fortune named Kara one of the most powerful women entrepreneurs and Forbes says she’s one of the 40 Women To Watch Over 40. Today, she reveals how Hint Water could have just been another idea that never went anywhere if she had let her own doubts or the doubts of others be the end of the story. Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters Kara has recently launched a new book called Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters. It is currently number one on the Amazon charts. IN fact, Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer at Facebook says it’s a great read for entrepreneurs looking for proof that her dream can come true.  Even if you’re not an entrepreneur, you’re going to love this conversation with Kara and the story behind her book.   You Don’t Need To Know Everything Christopher asks Kara about the statement, “you don’t need to know everything, you just have to know where to start. Kara expounds on her opinion on this statement. A lot of times, people give all sorts of excuses to not get a project starting. Most people say they lack education, or are not well-experienced enough or they spend too much time with their kids.  “Once you ultimately start moving it forward, that actually adds up to getting over challenges, making progress. Whatever it is, you just have to start somewhere in order to ultimately get it going in some direction. You may change direction as well, but at least if you start somewhere. That’s ultimately what helps you to achieve your dream success.” – Kara Goldin Looking For The Perfect Job Kara made a transition from the technology world — where she was an executive handling 200 people — into starting her own business. She was against incredible odds in creating a whole new beverage category and becoming the category queen.  She recounts in this episode what made her decide to do the transition and how while she was looking for the perfect job, she was also scouting to find the best diet and for the best doctors to diagnose her as she gained weight after birthing her kids.  “I saw this, ultimately, this void in the market that would lead me to launch my company Hint. A few steps before that was when I finally decided that the best thing for me to really understand why I wasn’t as healthy as I wanted to be, would be to actually look at ingredients and everything that I was eating and drinking.” – Kara Goldin To know more about Kara, her journey to a healthy life, and why she is undaunted, download, and listen to this episode.  Bio: Kara Goldin is a disruptor, builder, thought leader, and successful entrepreneur. She is the Founder and CEO of Hint, Inc., best known for its award-winning Hint® water, the leading unsweetened flavored water.  She has been named one of InStyle’s Badass 50, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, Fortune’s Most Innovative Women in Food & Drink, and EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California.  The Huffington Post listed her as one of six disruptors in business, alongside Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.  Kara has successfully navigated the world of large companies and startups in many industries including media, tech, and consumer products.  In addition, she understands retail and direct to consumer well. She is an active speaker & writer and hosts the podcast Unstoppable with Kara Goldin where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs, and other disruptors across various industries.  Kara’s first book, Undaunted, published by Harper Leadership, will be released in October 2020.  She lives in the Bay Area.  Links: Facebook: @KaraGoldin Twitter: @KaraGoldin Linkedin: @KaraGoldin 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!

Robert Rosenberg is a legendary entrepreneur CEO and author who has helped change the world today. He also has a brand new book, Around the Corner to Around the World: A Dozen Lessons. In his book, he talks about how he ran Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins. Today, we have a real conversation with Robert about his story and the lessons that he has learned through the successes and setbacks in his life. He lets us in on the real story behind one of the most legendary marketing campaigns of all time. He even shares with us the story of how munchkins a.k.a doughnuts holes came to be, and so much more exciting topics! The Best and The Brightest Robert specifically talks about David Halberstam’s book: The Best and The Brightest. The book made him realize the importance of humility and listening, rather than talking. He discusses how this has led him to place processes and policies that have helped strengthen and grow the business even further.  “It was a learning moment, I was maybe 35. So it was 10 years, I’d love to say I came into the job at 25 and was all grown up, but I wasn’t, clearly. This was a grown-up moment, and it was essential for the next four or five years, each with different responses, different strategies. Basically, we never look back and we were well on our way not to make that mistake again. I’m forever thankful and that came out of a book, but a lot of things for me came out of books.” – Robert Rosenberg The Story of Munchkins An interesting part of the conversation is when Robert shared how munchkins came to be. He also shares his amazement on how this Halloween product turned into the phenomenon that it is today. “That was the beginning of a product that now when you look back 50 years later is still a mainstay on the menu. And a treat for people all the time. Not just for Halloween, but 24/7 and 12 months a year.” – Robert Rosenberg Aspiration and Superior Strategy The ability to build the value of the brand, through a real commitment to product quality, and through great organization and an incredible team has led Dunkin Donuts into the industry it is today. Robert even shares his 3 P’s: good planning, great people, and a real commitment to products. “You don’t necessarily pick the times it comes. Believe me, for 35 years, it’s gone, come and you have to be prepared for that because day to day activities, things come in over the transom constantly at you. It’s easy to get waylaid and in my view, if the strategy isn’t spot on, if the organization isn’t appropriate and spot-on, this little else you can do in terms of activity that can save the day and create success.” – Robert Rosenberg To know more about Robert Rosenberg and his story and Lessons Learned From Running Dunkin Donuts For 35 Years, download and listen to this episode.  Bio: Robert M. Rosenberg (born 1938) is an American businessman, professor, and author. He was the chief executive officer of Dunkin’ Donuts for thirty-five years from 1963 to 1998 and also served on the board of directors of Sonic Corp and Domino’s Pizza. He was also an adjunct professor at Babson College’s F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business. In 1963, at the age of 25,[9] Rosenberg assumed leadership of his family business, Universal Food Systems, as CEO and president. At the time, the company consisted of several small businesses grossing $20 million per year, including 100 Dunkin’ Donuts locations in the U.S., generating $10 million in annual sales. Rosenberg transformed Universal Food Systems to focus on Dunkin’ Donuts. On February 6, 1968, Rosenberg took the company through its initial public offering. In September 1983, Rosenberg became chairman while continuing to serve as CEO of Dunkin’ Donuts. The company remained publicly traded until 1989, earning investors a 35% compound rate of return. During his tenure as Dunkin’ Donuts CEO, Rosenberg served on the board of the International Franchise Association. In 1970, he served as the association’s chairman. In late 1989, Dunkin’ Donuts announced its acquisition by Allied-Lyons PLC, a large UK food and beverage group which also owned Baskin-Robbins. Rosenberg continued to lead the company that became known as Allied Domecq Retailing (later Dunkin’ Brands) which also acquired Togo’s sandwich shops. By the time Rosenberg retired in 1998, the company had about 6,500 locations around the world. Following his retirement, Rosenberg went on to become an adjunct professor at Babson College’s F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business. He also served as a trustee of the college. In addition to teaching at Babson, Rosenberg was on the board of directors at Sonic Corp., from April 1993 to 2016, and Domino’s Pizza, from 1999 until April 2010, where he served both companies as chairman of their compensation committees. Links: Linkedin: Robert Rosenberg Book: Around

We continue our run on legendary authors with our guest today, Annie Duke. She’s got a new book out called How To Decide: Simple Tools For Making Better Choices. In this episode, she teaches us about how she thinks about decisions, and how building stronger decision skills can make a difference at a time of crisis, particularly like the kind of time we’re living in now.  She was one of the world’s top professional poker players. She tells us how to think about the possible and the probable, how to think about the different futures that could occur. Anne’s got a very provocative point of view about luck that I think you’ll find fascinating. In addition, I would suggest you pay close attention to her thoughts on the power of a hedge.  Every Decision Is A Bet Annie briefly tells us what has been going on in her life and family, especially during the pandemic. She shares her personal journey and professional background on how she got into poker. Take note where she shares how to decisions while facing massive amounts of uncertainty. “The point is to hold all those possibilities in your head at once. To be thinking when you should be making the decision. What does that look like under different futures that might occur? So how much money might you win or gain under those futures, or I might be setting up a play. If one of those futures were to occur, you might do something now that allows you to do something later. You have to be thinking about all those things at once. So you always have to have it in mind that the future is uncertain.” – Annie Duke Hedging Bets On this topic, Annie discusses the companions to bets, which are called a ‘hedge’. This, diving in deeper, can refer to the different ways the future can unfold and the negative impact it can have in life. Annie shares with us further its meaning as well as examples to help set the tone of the message. Further, she advises to mitigate and weigh in the cost that comes with the negative outcomes. She then connects hedging with what she calls ‘the paradox of experience’. “It fits into this broad category of something I call the paradox of experience, which is that you need experience in order to become a better decision maker. Any single experience could interfere with the lessons that you learn. There’s many, many possible futures, but only one past. Once we know the past that occur, we sort of think of it as inevitable. Then we regret having done anything that would plan for any other future.” – Annie Duke Good Decision Process Annie discusses how choosing different options can contribute to the likelihood of receiving luck. This luck can influence life in different ways, whether for the good or bad. In addition, she discusses beliefs as a foundation of the decision making process and how the information gathered from this can contribute to the decisions made.  “There’s different probabilities of each option occurring. It could be that you have the same set of possibilities, but they have different impacts. The magnitude of those things is different. So this kind of tells you now if you can think about those two options. You want to understand what that set looks like. And then when you choose an option, what you’ve done is you’ve decided on the set of possibilities, and how probable each of those things is to occur. Which thing actually happens.” – Annie Duke To know more about how to make better decisions and the challenges that come with it, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Annie Duke has leveraged her expertise in the science of smart decision making to excel at pursuits as varied as championship poker to public speaking. Annie’s latest book, How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices, is available on September 15, 2020, from Portfolio, a Penguin Random House imprint. Her previous book, Thinking in Bets, is a national bestseller. In the book, Annie reveals to readers the lessons she regularly shares with her corporate audiences, which have been cultivated by combining her academic studies in cognitive psychology with real-life decision-making experiences at the poker table. For two decades, Annie was one of the top poker players in the world. In 2004, she bested a field of 234 players to win her first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet. The same year, she triumphed in the $2 million winner-take-all, invitation-only WSOP Tournament of Champions. In 2010, she won the prestigious NBC National Heads- Up Poker Championship. She retired from the game in 2012. Prior to becoming a professional poker player, Annie was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship to study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her master’s degree. Annie now spends her time writing, coaching, and speaking on a range of topics such as decision fitness, emotional control, productive decision groups, and embracing uncertainty. She is a regularly sought-

This is a giant one! Our prediction is that this episode will break the internet. Today, the second part of the series, we go deep with the Forbes reporter who, in all likelihood knows more about President Trump’s business, than anyone outside The Trump Organization, Dan Alexander. He’s got a deeply researched book called Whitehouse Inc. How Donald Trump Turned The Presidency Into A Business. We think it is important for every American voter, whether you love President Trump or not, to know what kind of business person he is. President Trump has promoted himself as an entrepreneur, so now we get to go deep into his business. Stunning Revelations There are many stunning revelations in this first part of the series. Dan answers the question, is the President actually a billionaire. He examines for us how well or how poorly the president businesses are currently doing, where he makes money, and loses money. He also dives deep into how much the President would have made if he had sold all of his assets, and put them in a blind trust and whether or not that would have been a better move for him.  “I believe it was 1982. Donald Trump was on the first one [Forbes 400]. He should not have been, but he snuck his way onto that list. His father deserves to be on it. He did not. He sort of conned his way onto the list.” – Dan Alexander Owning Complex Businesses Also, you’re going to discover what happened politically, after the Government of Qatar rented office space in a building in San Francisco, that the President owns 30% of. We also get into the potential conflicts of interest the President faces as he owns such a complex business organization. Further, we get Dan’s take on the New York Times report on Mr. Trump’s taxes.  Conversation with Eric Trump You can also find in this episode about Dan’s conversation with Eric Trump and what Eric Trump told Dan, about his father’s involvement in the business during the presidency. Eric also revealed to Dan, what the Trump organization’s real business strategy is, and a whole lot more.  Dan and Christopher try to unpack this information as best as possible.  “I asked Eric about it. I said, ‘what are your plans here?’ He told me, flat-out, that he planned on updating his dad on the financials of the business. This was like a month or two after his dad said the exact opposite. So right there, upfront, one of the core promises falls by the wayside. Then you have Trump promises that he’s not going to do any new foreign deals. He does limit some of his foreign deals, as I mentioned earlier. He does do new foreign deals, he ends up selling land in the Dominican Republic while he’s in office.” – Dan Alexander To know more inside information on President Trump’s Business, Taxes & More and for more information about the author of Whitehouse Inc., Dan Alexander, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Dan Alexander is a Senior Editor at Forbes where he covers President Donald Trump and he’s the author of White House, Inc. Links: Book: White House, Inc. Linkedin: Dan Alexander Twitter: @danalexander21 Forbes.com, Yes, Donald Trump Is Still A Billionaire. That Makes His $750 Tax Payment Even More Scandalous Sfchronicle.com, SF’s 555 California, partly owned by Trump, could be sold Forbes: Dan Alexander NY Times Book Review: White House Inc. 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 is a giant one! Our prediction is that this episode will break the internet. Today, the first of two episodes, we go deep with the Forbes reporter who, in all likelihood knows more about President Trump’s business, than anyone outside The Trump Organization, Dan Alexander. He’s got a deeply researched book called Whitehouse Inc. How Donald Trump Turned The Presidency Into A Business. We think it is important for every American voter, whether you love President Trump or not, to know what kind of business person he is. President Trump has promoted himself as an entrepreneur, so now we get to go deep into his business.  Stunning Revelations There are many stunning revelations in this first part of the series. Dan answers the question, is the President actually a billionaire. He examines for us how well or how poorly the president businesses are currently doing, where he makes money, and loses money. He also dives deep into how much the President would have made if he had sold all of his assets, and put them in a blind trust and whether or not that would have been a better move for him.  “I believe it was 1982. Donald Trump was on the first one [Forbes 400]. He should not have been, but he snuck his way onto that list. His father deserves to be on it. He did not. He sort of conned his way onto the list.” – Dan Alexander Owning Complex Businesses Also, you’re going to discover what happened politically, after the Government of Qatar rented office space in a building in San Francisco, that the President owns 30% of. We also get into the potential conflicts of interest the President faces as he owns such a complex business organization. Further, we get Dan’s take on the New York Times report on Mr. Trump’s taxes.  Conversation with Eric Trump You can also find in this episode about Dan’s conversation with Eric Trump and what Eric Trump told Dan, about his father’s involvement in the business during the presidency. Eric also revealed to Dan, what the Trump organization’s real business strategy is, and a whole lot more.  Dan and Christopher try to unpack this information as best as possible.  “I asked Eric about it. I said, ‘what are your plans here?’ He told me, flat-out, that he planned on updating his dad on the financials of the business. This was like a month or two after his dad said the exact opposite. So right there, upfront, one of the core promises falls by the wayside. Then you have Trump promises that he’s not going to do any new foreign deals. He does limit some of his foreign deals, as I mentioned earlier. He does do new foreign deals, he ends up selling land in the Dominican Republic while he’s in office.” – Dan Alexander To know more inside information on President Trump’s Business, Taxes & More and for more information about the author of Whitehouse Inc., Dan Alexander, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Dan Alexander is a Senior Editor at Forbes where he covers President Donald Trump and he’s the author of White House, Inc. Links: Book: White House, Inc. Linkedin: Dan Alexander Twitter: @danalexander21 Forbes.com, Yes, Donald Trump Is Still A Billionaire. That Makes His $750 Tax Payment Even More Scandalous Sfchronicle.com, SF’s 555 California, partly owned by Trump, could be sold Forbes: Dan Alexander NY Times Book Review: White House Inc. 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!

We have another super special episode for you today. Recently, Christopher was lucky enough to get an opportunity to start a new podcast with Navin Chaddha, who leads Mayfield, one of the top venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. What you’re about to listen to is a recent episode of the brand new podcast called Conscious VC. It’s with an extraordinary man named Sal Khan. In this episode of Conscious VC, Naveen and Christopher have a riveting conversation with Sal, he takes you into why his mission is free education for everyone in the world. He unveils some of his biggest learnings in building an incredible education nonprofit, the Khan Academy, and his key learnings for entrepreneurs. Free World Class Education Navin, Sal, and Christopher discuss Sal’s professional and personal achievements, as well as, Khan Academy, its mission and what it stands for. Sal goes into detail about Khan Academy’s mission not being about profit, but rather establishing free world class education for anyone anywhere. He hopes that this platform can lead to various opportunities for the children. Whether that be through college admissions, apprenticeships, and job opportunities. “You know, I think these days, it’s very easy to beat up on public education. There’s a lot of things that are imperfect, a lot of things that need to be fixed. We’re trying to work in partnership with school districts and teachers to help address some of that. I think it is worth it. Giving credit for how much the world has transformed because of this very aspirational public education.” – Sal Khan Be Authentic and Honest Sal and Navin dive deeper into the factors that have contributed to Khan Academy and Mayfield’s success. Sal shares his key learnings and advice for entrepreneurs who plan to follow in his footsteps. It all starts with the vision, mission, and key insight. These all bring back to the question of how one can make the world a better place. He continues to discuss how content should be based on what you’re excited about and what you truly believe in. Sal hopes Khan Academy can fulfill this potential and create a legacy that can help shape the world. “My role is to make sure that Khan Academy can really stay true to the vision. Now, while hopefully I’m alive for many decades. I want to retain it, that focus on a mission, which historically, nonprofits can be reasonably good at. At the same time, I want to stay nimble. There’s one fear that Khan Academy disappears, and it’s not able to fulfill its potential. There’s another fear that it fulfills its potential, but then it becomes the legacy, it becomes the entrenched interest.” – Sal Khan Creating Pathways to Learning Navin and Sal share more about Mayfield and Khan Academy as well as the programs they offer to help expand the students opportunities for learning and growth. He discusses his fascination on these innovative models and how they have paved a way to the hybrid online world. Sal then goes on to talk about how these programs are truly a fast track opportunity for the students. In addition, he shares the struggles that they have been facing combining both the platforms of education in the midst of the pandemic. “I think from my perspective, we need more people like what Sal has done with his life. People who are helping build businesses, for better and are making a positive impact in the world. I hope many people and entrepreneurs who don’t need to do this, including VCs like me, use our time, money, ideas and access. We can even start with 1%. And that’s what Mayfield has started with the pledge 1%. And my belief is, each smaller drop in the bucket fills buckets that can fill in a pond, and then sky’s the limit. So we have to just get started and have role models like Sal and others who are showing us the way. I think we have endless possibilities.” – Navin Chaddha To know more about the mission and vision of Khan Academy and Mayfield, download and listen to this episode.  Bio: Navin Chaddha Navin Chaddha leads Mayfield. He has ranked on the Forbes Midas List of Global Tech Investors 12 times, including being named a Top Five investor in 2020. During his career as a venture capitalist, he has invested in over 50 companies, 17 of which have gone public and 20 have been acquired. Some of his investments include Lyft, Poshmark, SolarCity, Hashicorp, Elastica, CloudGenix, and CloudSimple. As an entrepreneur, he has co-founded or led three startups including VXtreme, a streaming media platform, acquired by Microsoft to become Windows Media. Navin is a committed philanthropist who directs Mayfield’s 50-year tradition of philanthropy to support many causes including diversity, health, hunger, and education. Interests: Cricket, Bollywood. Salman Khan Salman Amin (Sal) Khan (age 42) is a New Orleans educator, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and former hedge fund analyst. He is the founder of the

We continue our run on legendary, bestselling authors today with Kevin Maney. Kevin is a technology executive who’s covered tech for over 25 years for outfits like USA Today, Newsweek, and many others. He’s the co-author of my first book: Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, Innovators Create and Dominate Markets. Today, we have a fascinating conversation about how technology is driving a massive shift from traditional approaches to health care — which Kevin sort of frames as “sick care”— to a new category that he and his co-authors called health assurance. Conscious Capitalism Kevin believes that consumers will start to embrace new and interesting products and services when the pandemic ends. In fact, the VC community and Fortune 500 companies started to realize a massive shift within their policies and are now focusing on conscious capitalism. “We’re actually embarking on a huge project that has around this idea of, call it what you will, conscious capital of responsible innovation.” – Kevin Maney From Book to New Category Design Kevin describes how he got together with Stephen Klasko, the CEO of Jefferson Health, one of the biggest health care systems in the country based in Philadelphia. They took that healthcare chapter of Kevin’s book, Unscaled, to write a manifesto.  The manifesto is about 60 pages long, describing how new technologies can take apart the old healthcare system, which was based on taking care of people after they were sick. “We actually tried to attempt in this book to literally create a new category of healthcare that we call health assurance.” – Kevin Maney What Healthcare Has Become In part, Kevin describes the word healthcare as becoming an industrial complex, in reality, is not a “healthcare system.” He further shares that the system is designed to take care of us after something bad happens to us, not to help us stay healthy. The economic incentives are around doing operations and not keeping us “out of hospitals.” “We ended up writing about in the book, these health assurance technologies that have been in place before COVID happened. You would have been able to see the patterns happening as it shifts around the globe, in almost real-time. So we ended up redoing the book to reflect all of that.” – Kevin Maney To learn more about healthcare and why the future calls for health assurance, download and listen to this episode. Bio:  Kevin Maney is a bestselling author, award-winning columnist, and partner at Category Design Advisors (CDA). He co-authored Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets, which gave birth to the discipline of category design. His book The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson Sr. and the Making of IBM is the definitive biography of the man who built IBM. Maney has been a contributor to Newsweek, Fortune, The Atlantic, Fast Company, Strategy + Business, HBR.com, CNN, and ABC News, among other media outlets. Additionally, he was a contributing editor at Conde Nast Portfolio during its brief run from 2007 to 2009. For 22 years, Maney was a columnist, editor, and reporter at USA Today. He’s appeared frequently on television and radio, including CBS Sunday Morning and NPR, and lectures at conferences and universities, including New York University, UNC in Chapel Hill, and his alma mater, Rutgers.  Links: Kevin Maney.com 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! Get amazing, different stories on business, marketing, and life. Subscribe to our newsletter The Difference.

Today, we have a riveting conversation with bestselling author and artist Meera Lee Patel. She’s got a new book out called Create Your Own Calm: A Journal for Quieting Anxiety. We have a powerful conversation about dealing with anxiety and why Meera thinks, “the more you run away from something, the more it follows you.” You’ll also enjoy Meera’s thoughts on self-acceptance, why journaling is a powerful conversation with yourself, and pay special attention to Meera’s ideas around “the only way out – is through.” Dealing With Anxiety Meera describes where she is at the moment. She is in an in-between/transition time where she is feeling overwhelmed. Further, she shares that she is struggling to be “at the moment.” She is at, exactly what Christopher describes as, the “cocoon period.” “I feel unable to act sometimes to take action and that’s on several different levels. Personal, emotional professional, I feel like I can’t take action or make the changes that I want to make. Some of them are true, some of the limitations that I faced that we’re all facing — travel, leaving our homes, things like that. They’re real. Some of them, especially the emotional and mental ones, like, in most cases, they’re not real. They’re self-implemented and I’m working on undoing them.” – Meera Lee Patel What You Resist, Persists Meera describes how we are all in a constant anxious state. She reminds us of the importance of understanding why things are happening to us and the need to address this head-on to be able to work through them. She believes that ignoring what causes your anxiety will run after you in a different setting. “I think that is far more healthy and productive and useful than simply ignoring or pushing aside, or forgetting about what’s happening. So often when people say ‘to just suck it up,’  ‘you need to move on,’ ‘don’t dwell on this.’ What they’re doing is ignoring what’s happening to them.”  – Meera Lee Patel Different Worlds and Philosophies People are often surprised when they meet Meera as she has “different worlds and philosophies.” She has different sides that are not exactly visible on her Instagram account.  “I think in my work, my artwork especially, which tends to be very vibrant, and ethereal, expresses a side of me that would be unseen. Otherwise, that is simply the form it takes. It comes out in my painting, this very upbeat, kind of beautiful, peaceful watercolor, those aspects of my personality and my being come out in my work.” – Meera Lee Patel Meera also talks about why journaling is a form of conversation with oneself and a whole lot more.  To know more about Meera and how to create your own calm, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Meera Lee Patel is a self-taught artist and writer who believes that anything is possible.  She is the author of My Friend Fear: Finding Magic in the Unknown (TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Random House) a beautiful meditation on fear and how it can help us become who we really are–if we let it. She is also the author of three journals with TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Random House: Create Your Own Calm, a journal for quieting anxiety which encourages self-acceptance for quelling anxiety and stress. Made Out of Stars, a journal for self-realization that encourages the belief that we are already whole. Start Where You Are is a journal for self-exploration that is designed to help others understand that the answers they are seeking are contained within themselves. She is currently a core contributor to Uppercase Magazine, where she creates visual essays about the intersection of creativity and mental health. Links: Website: Meera Lee  Instagram: @meeraleepatel Etsy: Meera Lee Patel Amazon: Meera Lee Patel 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! Get amazing, different stories on business, marketing, and life. Subscribe to our newsletter The Difference.

Bruce Feiler is a legendary thinker and writer and unlike in a normal interview, we go deep in this episode. Bruce has a monster new book out called Life Is in the Transitions. Today, we have a very big conversation about what Bruce calls “life quakes,” both voluntary (new job, getting married, moving) and involuntary (death of a loved one, loss of a job, divorce, etc). We also talk about why the linear, up and to the right “hero story” we get told about life is bullshit, why C19 is a collective, involuntary, life quake, what that means for all of us, and much more! Life Quakes Bruce shares how all the events that have occurred in his life led to his professional career today. He shares what he calls “life quakes” which pertains to a moment of big wrenching change that happens in one’s life. This pandemic has coincided with his book, Life is in The Transitions, which asks “how do you deal with the life quakes that happen in your lives?” Bruce even shares the “life quake” that he went through in order to have this mindset.  Involuntary and Voluntary  Bruce talks about how reading helped him discover the false narrative that is being blocked into human beings. He speaks about the narrative of life, being a linear path with only one bump along the way to success and happiness. This has led Bruce to believe that 53% of life quakes are involuntary and only 47% are voluntary, which he further explains in this episode. “I had to figure out what is going on now. How we see the world and how we need to update the way we look at our life. How do people tell their stories? This is what I uncovered. The linear life is dead. It’s been replaced by nonlinear life. The nonlinear life involves many more life transitions. That became the big idea that emerged from my experience.” – Bruce Feiler  Life Transitions Bruce shares how life quakes can either be voluntary or involuntary. Life transitions, on the other hand, must be voluntary. He advises people to make decisions that will bring back the power to control one’s life. In addition, he discusses how finding a higher calling can make you feel part of the team. A team that will help you get through your life transition together. It may rather be a rough and painful journey but it is a road paved with growth and renewal.  “If we look at life transitions as periods that we have to suffer our way through, we are wasting half of our life. If we look at them as periods, they’re going to be difficult and painful, but there’s also opportunities for growth and renewal. That’s the story of your life.” – Bruce Feiler  To know more about life quakes and the transitions that come with it, listen to this episode.  Bio: BRUCE FEILER is one of America’s most popular voices in contemporary life.  He is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers; the presenter of two prime-time series on PBS; and the inspiration for the drama COUNCIL OF DADS on NBC.  Bruce’s two TED Talks have been viewed more than two million times. Employing a firsthand approach to his work, Bruce is known for living the experiences he writes about. His work combines timeless wisdom with timely knowledge turned into practical, positive messages that allow people to live with more meaning, passion, and joy.  His new book, LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS: Mastering Change at Any Age, describes his journey across America, collecting hundreds of life stories, exploring how we can navigate the growing number of life transitions with greater purpose and skill. “One of those books that’s so profoundly aligned with the zeitgeist that you end up underlining the whole book,” wrote Arianna Huffington in Thrive Global. “Bruce Feiler is the perfect person to lead us on this journey.”  The book was a Top 10 New York Times bestseller. For more than a decade, Bruce has explored the intersection of families, relationships, health, and happiness. His book THE SECRETS OF HAPPY FAMILIES collects best practices from some of the country’s most creative minds. The book was featured on World News, GMA, and TODAY and excerpted in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Parade. THE COUNCIL OF DADS describes how, faced with one of life’s greatest challenges, he asked six friends to support his young daughters.  The book was profiled in PEOPLE, USA Today, and Time and was the subject of a CNN documentary hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Links: Bruce Feiler Website 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! Get amazing, different stories on business, marketing, and life. Subscribe to our newsletter The Difference.

Today, we have none other than Matthew Cowan of Next47. Matthew and Chris have known each other for almost 20 years now. He’s been both an investor and an entrepreneur and has invested in a lot of category queens and kings companies. In this episode, we have a wide-ranging conversation with Matthew about venture capital, entrepreneurship, and a whole lot more. How The Future Looks Like Matthew shares that the first question we have to take into consideration is with respect to opportunities. Every evaluation should start with the question: can businesses scale and grow in the current economic environment? He cites his company as an example, Visible, a platform that has an event management software. Prior to Covid19, they had their fair share of challenges. However, they found themselves on the positive side of this “new normal” as most companies shifted their conferences and events virtually.  “All of our customers said, ‘look, I know we can’t do these events in person, we still have to do these events. These are mission-critical for our customer relationships, and our forward progress. So we need you to help us figure out how to do events in a virtual construct.’ So very quickly Visible figured out a way to deliver you know, near term and experience that satisfies, you know, the key market requirements, and they just closed their best quarter ever by a factor of two x.” – Matthew Cowan  Invest In Product Development Today is a great time for investors to think about the early stages of a new product. Further, Matthew says this is a good time to invest in a team of engineers, lock them in, and come out with a new product to launch. He further shares why this stage of focus is critical for businesses. “It’s okay to lose a lot of money building a company you have to, but if your unit economics have never been positive, the only metric you’re going to do is figure out how fast you can burn cash.” – Matthew Cowan The Wrong and Right Way In Investing Chris cites that there is a wrong and the right way in investing. Obviously the right way is investing in things that hopefully payoff overtime and the wrong way is in unit economics that will not be fixed. Matthew agrees to Chris saying that the greater fool theory is asking: “how do I just get this to the next level and get someone else to buy it — market investors, private equity firms, and others. “I think we’re at the beginning of what’s going to be an incredible wave of continued consolidation. We’ll probably see that with the scooter companies, as well. Ride-sharing. Companies have to figure out how to create, you know, improve utilization. The way that these businesses could succeed is delivery, density, and utilization. For them to figure out a way to keep the cars full.” – Matthew Cowan on Uber  To know more about Matthew Cowan and unicorn and camel VCs, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Matthew joined Next47 in 2018 and is based in Palo Alto. His investment focus runs the gamut from the high-growth supply and logistics market to vertical software applications for the enterprise.  Though Matthew is a General Partner in the U.S., he also leads the firm’s activities in Israel and views the region as a vital source for deep tech startup activity. Before joining Next47, Matthew was the CEO and co-founder of Breezeworks, a mobile CRM platform for small business owners.  Prior to Breezeworks, he was the co-founder of Bridgescale Partners, a late-stage venture capital fund with investments in companies such as BitGo, Jasper Wireless, Plum Organics and Proofpoint.  Matthew was also the founding General Partner of Bowman Capital’s venture capital group, where he was responsible for leading investments in Arrowpoint Communications (sold to Cisco), Atheros (NASDAQ: ATHR), Broadbase (sold to Kana), epinions (sold to eBay), FastForward Networks (sold to Inktomi), Onebox (sold to Phone.com), ONI Systems (sold to Ciena), RemarQ (sold to Critical Path), SupportSoft (NASDAQ: SPRT), Sycamore Networks (NASDAQ: SCMR) and The Street.com (NASDAQ: TSCM). Matthew spent the earlier part of his career at Intel Corporation, where he was responsible for investments in CMGI (NASDAQ: CMGI), CNET (sold to CBS), Geocities (sold to Yahoo!), Illustra (sold to Informix), iVillage (sold to NBC), Launch Media (sold to Yahoo!), Liquid Audio and Sportsline, among others. Matthew holds a BA from Tufts University. Links: Next47 People – Matthew Cowan Linkedin: Matthew T. Cowan 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! Get amazing, different stories on business, marketing, and life. Subscribe to our newsletter The Difference.

Tim Tully is one of the most legendary technologies and product leaders of this generation. He is the Chief Technology Officer of $35 billion market cap company Splunk. He also runs the engineering, product, and tech operations.  In this episode, we get into all of it, how to execute a big, bold product vision, what it takes to run a major technology organization in the era of COVID. Find out why Tim thinks that software needs to be indulgent in the way that it delivers an experience and much more. Born To Code Tim was at Yahoo for years. He did a ton for Yahoo’s modern business. Most notably, Tim was on the team that helped to create the open-source database Hadoop. If you’re in the tech world, you know how big a deal that is. If you’re not, well Google it and you’ll see but Hadoop is a major contribution to the data world.  He shares in this episode how he grew up from a “tech household,” as both his parents were programmers from Silicon Valley in the 70s.  “Obviously coding is one way that I can do a lot of things in a very flexible way and have a lot of control over a system.” – Tim Tully  Inside Tim’s Mind Tim shares that his thoughts are classified into two things: what he wants to try to do next or what am he wants to try to improve. He is in constant search of how to improve things and how to solve a problem in front of him. He shares that although its innate in him to solve problems on his own, the real challenge of leading a team is how to help your team solve the problems with you. “If you’re like a true engineer, it’s really hard to let go of just solving every problem yourself. You have to very quickly learn that there’s a team that needs to get the job done. You’re not helping the team by solving the problem for them. What your job is to remove roadblocks and help them solve the problem and bring them along.” – Tim Tully Leading The Team Tim also shares how he as Splunk’s CTO is responsible not only for vision but also for delivering products since he is also the head of engineering. He gave a great insight into how his team works and ultimately, how he leads his team of champions. “I learned over time is the very best architects that you can have in a company, I think we have that here at Splunk. You know, they obviously have high IQ, but they have to have high EQ because the problem is they have to be able to influence and persuade large swaths of people without directly managing them.” – Tim Tully To know more about Tim Tully and how to build a legendary software, download and listen to this episode.  Bio: Tim has served as Splunk’s Chief Technology Officer since 2017.  Prior to joining Splunk, he spent 14 years at Yahoo in various roles, including leading engineering for the Media Organization, where his teams developed leading brands such as Yahoo.com, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Fantasy, Tumblr, Huffington Post, and Flurry.  He previously served as Yahoo’s Chief Data Architect, where he led architecture across all data teams and developed much of that stack as well.  Before that, Tim served as a Member of Technical Staff at Sun Microsystems in the JavaSoft team.  Tim holds an M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.S. from the University of California, Davis. Links: Linkedin: Timothy Tully Splunk Blogs Author Tim Tully Splunk CEO Doug Merritt on Episode 166 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! Get amazing, different stories on business, marketing, and life. Subscribe to our newsletter The Difference.

Today, we speak with entrepreneur turned activist Andy Roo Forrest. He is the founder of a fascinating nonprofit called FeelGoodVoting.org who is on a mission is to get more people in the United States to vote. We dig into why there is a low voter turnout in the past elections, and most importantly, what can be done about it now. Andy and Chris also talk about how political attacks actually destroy the category called “politician.” Moreover, why this “attacks” drives disengagement and dissatisfaction among the voters. Lastly, find out how Feel Good Voting is creatively and innovatively using social media to encourage people to register and to vote. Apathy For President Did you know who won the last election in the United States? We all know that President Donald Trump won the electoral college and that’s why he’s president, garnering a total of 63 million votes. Hillary Clinton got 66 million votes.  “But here’s the truth. Neither one of them is the real winner of the last election in the United States. You see, apathy got 100 million votes because 100 million people did not vote in the 2016 US presidential election in the United States.” – Christopher Lochhead Age and Family Background Andy shares about a recent study from Knight Foundation, surveying 14,000 people and why they didn’t vote. One thing was clear, most of those belong to the 18 to 30 age group. The participants also noted a few more reasons such as “my vote won’t matter,” it doesn’t make a difference,” or “I don’t understand what’s going on,” and “I shouldn’t vote because I don’t know enough.” “A lot of people voted because they grew up in a family where their parents took them to the polling station. They remember their mom voting, and they went into a booth and pulled the curtain, and flipped the levers. A lot of people who don’t vote have no tradition of that in their family.” – Andy Roo Forrest Old, White Voters There are a lot of factors at play for the upcoming elections since Covid-19 happened. The average voting age is 58 years old. It can be noted that over 65-year old, white voters take a huge chunk of the voting turn-up.  “It boggles some of our minds that there’s many white, older Americans who are right now deciding whether they’re going to vote for Trump or Biden, that might seem that decision might seem preposterous to many of us. But most of the money in this campaign, upwards of $2 billion is going to be spent on that demographic because they show up and vote.  – Andy Roo Forrest To know more about Andy Roo Forrest and his organization Feel Good Voting, download and listen to this episode.  Bio: Andy Roo Forrest is a serial entrepreneur, songwriter, and social change activist.   He has created restaurants, nightclubs, design studios, publishing companies, Disney Theme Park attractions, and a few experiences that don’t have names.   In 1999 Andy co-founded the world’s most prolific board game design studio, which he sold in 2019.   At the moment, he is currently the Executive Director of Feel Good Voting, an issues-based media initiative dedicated to the advancement of social justice and environmental action. Links: Feel Good Voting Feel Good Voting 3-minute video Feel Good Voting Strategy Brief 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! Get amazing, different stories on business, marketing, and life. Subscribe to our newsletter The Difference.

Why is there a disproportionate impact against Black-owned and Women-owned Businesses? Today in Follow your Different, Robert Fairlie, a professor at the University of California and a researcher for the National Bureau of Economic Research, shares his research on the impact of Coronavirus on small businesses and black and women-owned businesses. Impact of COVID-19 Rob shares the alarming figures that small businesses faced. From 15 million active businesses to 12 million, to the 15% unemployment rate in just one month  (Bureau of Labor Statistics), Rob gives us facts and figures how devasting Covid-19 has impacted businesses. “I think they are starting to get become more attention focused on the business side of it and the importance of business owners. Not only do they create a route out of poverty or an alternative for income but they also create jobs.” – Rob Fairlie Impact on Black-owned Businesses Prof. Farlie says that there is a hugely disproportionate impact between White-owned businesses and African American-owned businesses. According to the data found from February to April, there’s a 41% decrease of active African-American business owners compared to a 17% decrease of active White business owners. “I’m just worried that this is going to increase racial inequality and gender inequality. It’s not just going to be for a few months as we deal with COVID, but it’s going to be longer. Retirements kind of maybe setting us back and that’s a bigger, much bigger worry.” – Rob Fairlie Impact on Women-owned Businesses One of the reasons why there is a bigger drop in women-owned businesses is because they are in industries that cater to personal services that were shut down because of health risks. Another reason is that women-owned businesses are often smaller in scale and they do not have the resources to face all the regulations to operate during the pandemic. “There has been some new research and I’m working with a couple of co-authors to try to do a little more work on this. This shows that mothers are taking a disproportionate hit compared to fathers in terms of reducing their hours of work, dealing with children, dealing with homecare. This isn’t just evidence from the US, this is evidence from a lot of countries around the world.” – Rob Fairlie To learn more about Prof. Rob Fairlie and the impact of COVID-19 on Black and Women-owned businesses, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Robert Fairlie is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Research Associate, NBER. His research interests include entrepreneurship, education, information technology, inequality, labor economics, and immigration. Further, he received his Ph.D. and M.A. from Northwestern University and B.A. with honors from Stanford University. In addition to this, he has held visiting positions at Stanford University, Yale University, UC Berkeley and Australian National University. He has received funding for his research from numerous government agencies and foundations. He has testified to the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Department of Treasury, and the California State Assembly regarding the findings from his research, and received a joint resolution from the California Legislature. Links: Linkedin: Robert Fairlie UCSC Economics Faculty: Professor Robert Fairlie Research Papers on Impacts of COVID-19 on Small Business Owners Senate Bill referencing research UCSC People: R. Fairlie THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS: EVIDENCE OF EARLY-STAGE LOSSES FROM THE APRIL 2020 CURRENT POPULATION SURVEY IZA Institute of Labor Economics: Robert Fairlie 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, we have a legendary conversation about schools and education. This is a topic that is not getting enough attention right now. With us today is Ted Dintersmith, the author of a great book called What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration From Teachers Across America.  We talk about how we can make school work, especially today that we have a new reality. Ted has some powerful insights and some great ideas about that. We even get into how to make the weirdest school year in modern history as an opportunity to reimagine school and reimagine learning. What School Could Be Ted was with us back in 2019, at Episode 117, shortly after his book came out and he’s back as Chris digs into one of two important issues that we face today during Covid19, education. The other topic he will dive deep into is entrepreneurship. (Watch out for the next episode with the University of California. Santa Cruz, Professor Rob Fairley) He’s been talking to a lot of the top educators in the country. Further, he gives us insights as we are standing on the edge of the new school year. If you care about our future, if you care about kids, if you care about education, I think you’re going to love this conversation with Ted. Non-traditional Methods of Learning Ted shares with Christopher how he checked back with parents, teachers, school administrators, and students when Covid19 started. One outstanding finding he got was that those who were practicing non-traditional methods of learning were optimistic during this time.  “The kids they work with were really good — pre-COVID — on identifying what they wanted to learn, turning that into an initiative. They wanted to manage their own time and draw out appropriate resources, other adults’ online stuff, and then sticking with it until they proved something they cared about. In my book, with no sense of a looming pandemic. I said this is a really important skill for adults.” – Ted Dintersmith Anxiety and Stress  This time has caused much anxiety and stress for teachers and school administrators. There is no right formula and it involves a lot of variables in deciding how to operate schools come September. Chris and Ted also discussed how “inconvenient” this set-up is for those who can privileged, but how devastating this set-up could be for a single-parent, juggling multiple jobs. “Even if you had a great plan to reopen, it requires money. Now, you just start marching through everything that has to be done safely for you to say, here’s our plan to reopen. Here’s an effective transportation plan. Here’s an effective disinfected plan. Here’s how we’re going to staff classrooms, here’s what would happen to our students. Here’s how we’re going to add nurses on call. You look at everything that’s required and then you say, ‘oh, by the way, do it with even fewer budget dollars because state local budgets have been hammered.” – Ted Dintersmith To know more about Ted and how school could be during Covid19, download and listen to this episode. Bio: About Ted Links: Ted Dintersmith Twitter: @dintersmith 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! Get amazing, different stories on business, marketing, and life. Subscribe to our newsletter The Difference.

Now you might be asking, why are we dealing with God on a business podcast? Well, first of all, if you’re a regular listener, you should know this is no normal business podcast. When this crisis started, we decided to steer right into this crisis, to frankly, help and scale ourselves to meet the challenge of this time. In this episode, Pastor Dave Ferguson joins us to talk about God. He is an award-winning author and the founder/lead pastor of Chicago’s Community Christian Church. His book Hero Maker: Five Essential Practices For Leaders To Multiply Leaders is a must-read. Pay special attention to pastor Dave’s thoughts on what he thinks God wants for all of us.  Evil Cloaking As Christians Chris shares with Pastor Dave what has been occupying his mind and heart in the past months. Aside from another recent family accident, Chris shares how the case of the murder of his best friend has finally come to a close. The Santa Cruz police brought his murder to justice after they captured the four murderers.  “The other thing you should know is, my dear friend Tushar, was a — and these are his words — a brown guy. They [murderers] we’re young, 19, 22, and 23. These men who murdered Tushar are white Baptists from Southern California.” – Christopher Lochhead Too Much Evil In The World Chris shares he does not expect anything from the baptist church, but at least a public denouncement of evil, especially after they learned that these murderers belonged to the said church. In fact, the father of one of the criminals is a pastor.  “But just like with the discussion around the police, Pastor Dave, are there bad police? Yes, there are. Are there bad Muslims? Yes, there are. Are there bad Christians? Yes, there are bad human beings. Evil is a very real thing.” – Christopher Lochhead Having Important Conversations Pastor David recounts to Chris a few stories he had about the racial disparity and the clamor for equality. He spoke about African-American pastors and colleagues and about his parents (also pastors) who also joined the movement to have important conversations in their congregation. Pastor David also shares what he asks others from other people who are searching for meaning. “For people that are really sincerely seeking, I’m going like ‘just continue to search that, continue to pursue that. If it’s real, because we’re talking about God, in this case, he’ll make himself real to you.’ In fact, I’ll even sometimes challenge people, ‘hey, take 30 days and just pray ‘God, if you’re real, make yourself real to me.’ There have been enough times in your history where God has proven himself real. He’s taking you down a really good path. He has consistently shown up.” – Pastor Dave Ferguson To know more about God from a completely different kind of dialogue with Pastor Dave Ferguson, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Dave Ferguson is an award-winning author, founding and lead pastor of Chicago’s Community Christian Church, a missional multi-site community considered one of the most influential churches in America.  Dave is also the visionary for the international church-planting movement NewThing and president of the Exponential Conference.  You can get more information about Dave at www.daveferguson.org or check out his latest book, Hero Maker. Links: Email  DaveFerguson.org  CommunityChristian.org   Newthing.org Exponential.org HeroMakerBook.org Book: Hero Maker: Five Essential Practices for Leaders to Multiply Leaders (Exponential Series) 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 this episode, we have an amazing conversation with the world’s number one tech analyst, Ray Wang. He’s the founder of Constellation Research and the author of a spectacular, bestselling book called Disrupting Digital Business. We talk about what’s going on with C19, is C 19 a bioweapon, and what’s going on with bioweapons. We also talk about the digital giants and stock investing. Additionally, we talked about the future of enterprise tech and much more. Is C19 A Bioweapon? As a fan of conspiracy theory, Chris asked if indeed, Covid19 is a bioweapon. Ray shares it has not yet been addressed as of the moment but deconstructing the DNA of Covid19 says otherwise. He raised a serious call for treaties among countries as bioweapons are not a thing of the future.  “Do we have offensive or defensive capabilities? And the thought crosses through every government’s mind as to, what’s required? What’s within the limits? What treaties have we signed? So I don’t think it was intentional. I think the safety protocols were definitely broken. I think it’s not necessarily something they were planning to unleash. But it was something that they were studying.” – Ray Wang Currency Crisis and Cryptocurrency Ray also shares some of his views about the current “devaluing of dollars.” They also touched on the efforts of China and Russia to push forward the use of cryptocurrencies. Ray foresees issues with the use of cryptocurrencies, from currency exchange manipulation to funding of terrorists and untraceable purchase of ammunition. “We’re seeing some massive shifts, and it’s really the attack on the dollar that has been happening for some time. It’s as if everybody is not in favor of the dollar being the world’s reserve currency.” – Ray Wang Ransomware Gangs Chris and Ray talk about some recent events where some personalities’ Twitter accounts got hacked and were asked to send back Bitcoin to get back their accounts. Aside from this, Ray shares a much deeper kind of attacks they receive, targeted to tech professionals like him. “We have insider threats, people inside companies that have either been placed, recruited, or turned. I’ll say that again. They’ve been placed, recruited, scooted, or turned to work against the US, the country or a corporation. And this, we have cyber ransom spies going to work for government agencies and or corporations, with the foreign government agencies, whether knowingly or unknowingly, they have been told that, ‘hey, if you just stick into the drive over here, for a bunch of zero-day vulnerabilities, which we’ve packaged together very well, you can take out entire networks. And you can do your part, you know, in part of the revolution, or whatever revolution you’re in.’” – Ray Wang To know more about Ray Wang and what’s going on in the world and tech world today, download and listen to this episode. Bio: R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research, Inc.   He’s also the author of the popular business strategy and technology blog “A Software Insider’s Point of View”.  With viewership in the 10’s of millions of page views a year, his blog provides insight into how disruptive technologies and new business models such as digital transformation impact brands, enterprises, and organizations.   Wang has held executive roles in product, marketing, strategy, and consulting at companies such as Forrester Research, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and Johns Hopkins Hospital. His new best selling book Disrupting Digital Business, published by Harvard Business Review Press and now globally available provides insights on why 52% of the Fortune 500 have been merged, acquired, gone bankrupt, or fallen off the list since 2000.   In fact, this impact of digital disruption is real.  However, it’s not the technologies that drive this change. It’s a shift in how new business models are created. Wang has held executive roles in product, marketing, strategy, and consulting at companies such as Forrester Research, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Personify, and Johns Hopkins Hospital.  He is a prominent and dynamic keynote speaker and research analyst working with clients on digital, innovation, business model design, engagement strategies, customer experience, matrix commerce, and big data. His Silicon Valley research firm, Constellation Research, Inc., advises Global 2000 companies on the future, business strategy, and disruptive technology adoption.   Ray is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and well quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg, CNBC TV, Reuters, IDG News Service, and other global media outlets.  Wang has thrice won the prestigious Institute

Today, we continue our run on top venture capitalists with none other than the legend, Brad Feld. He’s the co-founder of Foundry Group and Tech Stars. He’s on the Forbes Midas List and a Top Five Investor. He has a new book called The Startup Community Way.  We have wide-ranging conversations from C19, making sense of this time of hyper change complex adaptive systems, the future of startups Silicon Valley and work, and why Brad is not leaving his house. Pay special attention to Brad’s thoughts on how to deal with an unpredicted situation and where it can feel like we have a lot less control. The Three Crises Brad shares what’s on his mind at the moment, how he has stepped forward to help the governor of Colorado without leaving the confines of his home, and how he has pondered upon the three crises of the world today. “I referred to the health crisis, which is COVID, which generated an economic crisis, which we wouldn’t have had otherwise, our economy was very strong, which has generated a mental health crisis and which is subsequently generated. racial equity crisis. All of these things are interacting with each other.” – Brad Feld Complex Adaptive Systems Brad shares how he realized that all of these crises were complex systems. In fact, in his book, The Startup Community Way, he bases the entire framework of how startup communities develop and evolve on complexity theory and the notion of complex adaptive systems.  “I’ve really been soaked in that intellectually, not just in the COVID crisis, not just in the book, not just in all the dynamics around the businesses that I’m involved in, and I’m an investor in, but just sort of thinking about how as humans, we do such a bad job of understanding how to interact with complex systems. We want everything to become deterministic, linear or well defined and the vast majority of stuff we interact with isn’t.” – Brad Feld Simple and Complex Systems  Simple is making a coffee drink, complicated is designing a Boeing airplane, or conducting a business audit, and complex is raising a child. “I think a lot of people have been operating against the backdrop of believing that a lot of things are deterministic and predictive, and trying to function in a way where that is not natural. As humans, we want to control stuff. You want to understand what it is you want to do, fix things so that you’re not fighting against them and you want to get to an outcome and you want to set a goal and make a goal.” – Brad Feld To know more about Brad Feld, download and listen to this episode.  Bio: Brad Feld is co-founder of the Foundry Group and has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987.  Brad previously co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and Techstars, and prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures.  Feld was an early investor in Harmonix, Zynga, MakerBot, and Fitbit.  A writer and speaker on venture capital investing and entrepreneurship, Brad has written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series, and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals.  He currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and on the boards of Path Forward, the Kauffman Fellows, and Defy Ventures.  Brad holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from MIT.  An art collector and long-distance runner, he has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 U.S. states. He lives in Boulder, Colorado. Links: The Foundry Group Team – Brad Feld The Startup Community Way Twitter: @bfeld Linkedin: Brad Feld 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 this episode, our host Christopher Lochhead speaks with Rob Chestnut on why integrity matters more than ever. Rob is the former chief ethics officer of Airbnb and the author of the new book Intentional Integrity. Chris and Rob go deep on strategies for handling a crisis and how leaders have to deal with the speed required in this age of canceled culture to get positive results. They talk about what exactly a chief ethics officer is, and why more companies are adding the position. Pay special attention to what Rob says about corporate MBAs and his thoughts on what the work world looks like after C19. Coping With Change Rob shares that the world is changing so rapidly. He says that he admires how we, especially kids, are coping with this incredible rate of change. He also shares the changes in leadership both corporations and governments.  “I think the world is moving toward integrity, though. There’s a connectedness that has led all of us to think about others in ways that maybe we haven’t been thinking about people in the past.” – Rob Chestnut Cancel Culture Christopher shares a recent incident in a Santa Cruz restaurant and how it got a taste of “cancel culture” from its customers and employees, Rob shares his insights into this current movement, where employees and customers rally online.  “Customers want to do business with businesses that share their values. Employees want to work in places that share their values. What we’re seeing more and more is, if there’s a mismatch, customers leave. Customers will leave very quickly and move their business elsewhere. If they perceive a business that isn’t in line with their values. The same thing with employees, more than ever today.” – Rob Chestnut Chief Ethics Officer Rob also shares what a chief ethics officer does. Rob shares it is important for employees to know that someone is standing up and speaking about issues. He shares how this was implemented in Airbnb who has 5000 employees now.  “The chief ethics officer does not make a company ethical, and a company doesn’t need a chief ethics officer to be ethical. That role can help drive integrity into the culture of the company, by being the spokesperson on the leadership team, for ensuring that the company doesn’t lose sight of its Northstar, of its purpose and its mission and to ensure that the company is thinking about all of this different shareholder, stakeholders, employees and alike.” – Rob Chestnut To know more about Rob Chestnut and intentional integrity, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Rob Chesnut is the general counsel at Airbnb Inc.  As Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Chegg,  Rob oversees the company’s corporate and legal relations.  Rob brings over twenty-five years of legal experience from high profile e-commerce and technology companies.  Prior to Chegg, Rob served as the Senior Vice President and General Counsel for LiveOps, Inc., a leading provider of call center outsourcing services. Before LiveOps Inc., he worked as eBay’s Senior Vice President of the Trust and Safety Department, where he oversaw the development of the company’s global detection infrastructure.  With extensive experience in the U.S. Justice Department, Rob is the recipient of the Department’s John Marshall award for litigation, and the CIA’ Outstanding Service Medallion. When he’s not working, Rob loves to spend time with his family or head out to the golf course. Links: The Intentional Integrity Linkedin: Rob Chestnut Twitter: @chestnutrob Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead An Ethical Revolution 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!

We listen today to an extraordinary and unique perspective on what is happening in the United States right now. Our guest, the legendary MK Palmore, whose entire background positions him to be a leader of this moment that we all find ourselves in. Not only does MK have this incredible career as a Marine, as an FBI agent, now, but he’s also a Silicon Valley-based executive at a major tech company. He is African American and his perspective on our world right now is like none other I have seen or heard, and we go deep on all of it.  This is a very powerful conversation we hope gets heard by many. To Serve and To Protect Coming from a solid law enforcement background, MK shares the conversations that he is having with his former colleagues. He mentions that there should be an understanding about the basic concept of “being called to serve and protect” among law enforcers. Unfortunately, a number of law enforcers have a different agenda other than this core mission. “It requires, again, an understanding that, ‘hey, a potential problem exists.’ This is from law enforcement to the other side [minorities]. We need to be willing to listen so that we can make adjustments to how it is that we go about policing, which I think will be a huge challenge.” – MK Palmore  Police-ing Is Extremely Hard Work MK describes the demands of police work. There are certain challenges involved in that profession that don’t lend themselves to flow judgments. As these recent situations arise, he believes that there should probably be some training changes that need to happen on the law enforcement side. “Law enforcement officers are trained in a particular way so that they can make quick judgments or assessment of situations so that they can mitigate and bring down a situation as quickly as possible, to de-escalate a situation quickly as possible.” – MK Palmore Comprise To Let Healing Begin MK shares how strong leadership is needed to talk about issues and to compromise. This is the only route where healing can begin. He shares his experiences as an African American former FBI agent and now a Tech professional and how he contributes to the current issues. “While I do not believe that there is an explicit racism present in law enforcement, I do believe that there is implicit racism in our society. To believe that law enforcement is somehow immune to this, I think, is misplaced.” – MK Palmore To know more about MK Palmore, a Marine, FBI Exec & Cybersecurity Advisor and his unique American perspective, download and listen to this episode. Bio: MK was born and raised in Washington, D.C.  It’s no surprise he was influenced daily and at an early age by the formative sights and sounds of our government at work.   As a youth, he had already decided to embark on a career of service. This led him to the shores of Annapolis, where he was a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy, and afterward as a commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps.  Following his military service, MK began a 22-year journey as a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a key player behind numerous high-level investigations and an early combatant in the fight against cybercrime. During this impressive career of public service, MK honed his leadership skills, rounding out his tenure in an executive position leading the cybersecurity investigative teams of FBI San Francisco. Links: MK Palmore Linkedin: MKPalmore Twitter: @mk_palmore 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, we have one of our regular guest Dushka Zapata, one of the most prolific and important writers on planet Earth. Her work has been viewed on the Question and Answer site Quora, 165 million times. She’s got a brand new book out called Feelings are Fickle, and Other Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me. We have a great conversation and she will definitely help you make sense of all that is happening in the world today. How Are You? Christopher and Dushka discuss how this question has been asked a lot of time during this time of Covid19. They shared how you can respond to this question or how to ask other the same question. Dushka shares the importance of intently asking since most people are suffering during this time.  “I think that anyone that you encounter today, anyone is isolated, scared, overwhelmed, maybe unemployed, stressed. It’s just like a really, really a moment of reckoning.” – Dushka Zapata Writing During Covid19 Dushka also shares about how she stopped posting online and started listening. She shares her process now as compared to pre-Covid19. The themes of her writing are more about shared experiences and now more than ever, everybody is experiencing the same thing. She finds it universal that everybody can relate now to her writing. “I have friends everywhere. I’ve lived in many places in the world throughout my life, and I have friends in Italy and friends in Switzerland and friends across Asia. We’re all going through the same thing, through similar concerns and similar fears. It’s horrible and fascinating.” – Dushka Zapata Cocoon Time and Optimism Christopher asks Dushka about her thoughts about the world being in a cocoon time, where there is pre-Covid19 and then there’s the future. Dushka describes it beautifully as she says this metaphor is full of optimism, as it relates to a caterpillar turning into a colorful and iridescent butterfly.  “I think I would want to make a distinction between optimism and toxic optimism. Toxic optimism is: ‘I believe that things will work out in a good way.’ That is optimism. Toxic optimism is ‘me believing that things will work out in a good way’ is a wall between me and understanding the possibilities. So am I putting up other possibilities that people have not considered or am I blind to what’s actually happening today?” – Dushka Zapata To hear more about Dushka and why feelings are fickle, download and listen to this episode, Bio: Dushka Zapata is one of the most prolific and popular writers working today.  On question and answer site Quora her work has been viewed over 165 million times. She’s the author of ten best-selling books. Dushka has over 20 years experience as a senior communications executive in Silicon Valley.  When she’s not writing, she works as a communications executive in San Fransciso. Links: Quora: Dushka Zapata Feelings Are Fickle Twitter: @dushkaamateur Linkedin: Dushka Zapata 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, we have a very big conversation about social change, entrepreneurship, Black Lives Matter, and a whole lot more with author, entrepreneur, and speaker, D’Narius Lewis. We believe he represents a voice that is not being heard enough right now — the voice of young African American entrepreneurs. D’narius has gone from homeless to successful. He is the founder of Optimum Outreach, a telecom brokerage firm. Frankly, we need to be asking ourselves “how do we foster an environment where there are a lot more D’narius Lewis’ you see denarius amongst many entrepreneurs?” Living in Ground Zero Christopher probes D’narius what it is like to be a young black male American entrepreneur, living in the “hood” in Minneapolis, which, as you know, is where George Floyd was killed.  D’narius described how on the same day as his birthday, literally just 30 minutes away, George Floyd suffered from police brutality.  “Everyone wants to have this conversation but until you actually put yourself on the ground level and take action and see why people are protesting, see why people are frustrated. There has to be a reform behind everything that’s been created. It’s a never ending conversation.” – D’Narius Lewis What It Would Take For A Breakthrough D’Narius believes having the right conversations are essentially what needs to be done to get something out of the Black Lives Matter movement.  “Right now, we’re still having a debate to why this isn’t even a conversation. Racism is not real and so having that first conversation is really  like ‘let’s actually sit down and break this down. Let’s not be defensive. Let’s actually break down the facts.’ Once we get down that road, then let’s break down defunding the police department. A lot of people want to defund the police department. The police department defunded funds is not completely defunding a police department. It is taking funds that can be allocated to the community, to allocate for individuals and mental health spaces. ” – D’Narius Lewis Crime is Crime By Humans D’narius shares more about humans committing crimes and how people want to be treated as humans. He also shares about what is happening at the local level, especially why the activists are not the person responsible for the riots. “We’re still having the same conversation that Martin Luther King had Malcolm X had. Now we’re in the 2020s many years away from that conversation and we’re still saying, ‘hey, are we’re still being killed on the streets by police brutality,’ ‘hey, we’re still living in poverty from from years of being set free, but not actually given a system to be a part of.’ The list goes on and on of all these different roadblocks and loopholes that I might know I’ve had to go through because the system wasn’t built for us.” –  – D’Narius Lewis To hear more about D’Narius and social change, entrepreneurship, Black Lives Matter, and a whole lot more, download and listen to this episode.  Bio: D’Narius Lewis was born May 25, 1993, in Shelby County, Tennessee. His family then moved to Minnesota in 1998 where he currently resides. D’Narius was raised by his single mother; being the youngest and only boy in his family shaped his outlook on life and the concept of survival and determination. He has stepped up to the plate as being the man of his household to keep his family as a unit. A born entrepreneur, D’Narius Lewis started his sales career at the age of 15 when he began selling iPhones and Androids off Craigslist; this led to his passion for business and entrepreneurship. While in college D’Narius balanced a full time job along with being a student. His balance became overwhelming and he often found himself having to decide to go to work or school. He later got fired from his job and eventually dropped out of college in rebellion to the demanding college lifestyle. During that time, until he was 21, D’Narius had worked over 6 jobs and found his instability to be the result of his lack of passion, lack of freedom, and unfulfilling financial standing. Eventually, in 2012 D’Narius was a homeless-couch surfing kid with nothing but a suitcase and a name. He didn’t have a permit, a license, or a car, so his ability to get around was also limited. Fortunately, things took a positive turn and he found himself blessed to have a friend from high school whose family took him in. By the summer of 2013, the money D’Narius made was used to support rent, bills, and groceries–which was limited to $10. He often found himself left with $7.40 after all his bills were paid. He soon decided that was not the life he wanted to live, so he did something about it. Fast-forward to 2016, D’Narius is now an author, speaker, and social media expert with multiple books on self-help and inspiration. His love for networking, desire for likability, and rebellious attitude towards societies’ monot

Today we have Bob Evans, tech industry icon, the host of Cloud Wars Live Podcast, and a regular guest at Follow Your Different. Yes, he’s back. We have a wide-ranging conversation that intertwines business life, what’s going on right now, technology, and many other things. We also talked about several topics such as moments of transformation, stepping up to your calling in times of challenge, and in times of crisis and particularly, about what Bob calls constructive fear. Positive Transformation Being good friends for years now, Bob recounts his previous phone conversations with Chris and how the past year had been very challenging for him. Bob saw how much Chris had endured from all the personal horrific experiences he had, and how he overcame the challenges and successfully launch the world’s first Podstorm. “There are only two choices, continue to walk through fire or just get in a fetal position with a bucket of back Jack Daniels and a big bag of weed and fucking forget it ⁠— which, by the way, I did a lot of too.” – Christopher Lochhead Christopher shared his realizations where many of us in our country are suffering because of Covid19 and the recession. He also shared about the civil unrest and that moving forward with your life is really a matter of personal choice.  Constructive Fear Bob also shares how life-changing Akshay Nanavati and his book Fearvana. He was particularly moved with the thought of dealing with fear and taking action, which is he also called constructive fear. “I think fear is one of the most potent human capabilities or weapons we have, but only if it’s used in the right way, in a constructive way, when we allow it to overrule our thinking or our higher-level capabilities.” – Bob Evans The Youth, The Future and More Since Chris works with a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of young leaders, who will be big leaders of tomorrow, Bob asked about how to encourage them to answer their calling. They also talk about letting your emotions reign from time to time and how the future will have dazzling opportunities.  “There’s no time in history you’d pick other than now. Human beings have never been more wealthy than they are now. They’ve never been more healthy than they are now. Do we have problems? Yeah, of course, we do. But I think now is an extraordinary time and to your question on younger people, do shit that matters. Make a difference.” – Christopher Lochhead To know more about Bob, his thoughts on technology and more, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Bob grew up outside of Pittsburg, with hard-working parents and his 6 siblings.  Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 and entered the business world, flowing his passion for information technology and writing. He rose to become the editor of Information Week, one of the top two publications in technology at the time. He became the SVP and Content Director for Information Week’s parent company TechWeb/CMP After thirty years in the media business, he left to join the world of software vendors, after a quick stop at ERP vendor SAP,  Bob was recruited by the world’s 5th richest person, a legendary category designer, and entrepreneur — Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle.   At Oracle Bob served as SVP and Chief Communications Officer for Larry. Today Bob runs his own strategic communications firm, is a prolific writer, a tech industry commentator, public speaker, and a legendary guy.  He hosts the widely popular Cloud Wars Live Podcast. Links: Cloudwars Podcast Twitter: @bobevansIT Linkedin: BobEvansIT 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, we have a very big conversation about how to drive real social and political change with a guy who’s a Stanford lecturer, who is a former adviser to Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and today is the founder of Govern for California. His name is David Crane. We go deep on why state and local governments matter so much and matter in ways that the federal government doesn’t, as it relates to yours and my day to day life. What really drives politicians, how the call we are having right now, for social and racial change in the US could actually lead to not much change at all, and what needs to happen in order to make real change occur. Figuring Out Politics David spent 25 years in business until he was 50 and ready to retire. Fate must have brought David to politics because his long time friend Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to run for office and asked for his help. He was a bit shocked when he first stepped into the ring as he didn’t realize how to play the game of politics.  “I thought I knew everything about politics and policy, that was my principal interest in life. I got up to Sacramento and I learned I knew nothing. It just blew me away at the age of 50 to learn that the area that had been my avocation that I thought I really knew, I didn’t know. “ – David Crane Politics is Business New people who get elected into office do not know the way the game is played. It is a business and David placed it into perspective in this episode. He shared how the State operates for its customers, who are the citizens, specifically the students who take Kto12 Education, Medicaid beneficiaries and corporations and business entities. “The State of California alone this year will spend $300 billion 100 billion alone on K through 12. Education, 100 billion dollars alone on Medicaid. For now, more than 13 million Californians one in three Californians is covered by Medicaid. Well, the principal recipients of that 200 billion are employees and corporations and their customers. The state of California will pay very serious attention all the time to what’s going on with that government. They’re in the state capitol every day and the legislators and the governor see them all the time.” – David Crane The Role of The Federal Government David also shares the structure of state government versus the federal government. The former has three to five times the number of employees since they are service-oriented to the people of the state than the latter. He also likened the federal government as an “insurance company with an army.” “State local governments do everything else. Public education, public safety, public transportation, and that’s why there are four times as many employees in the state local government than there are in the federal government, even though the federal government spends much more money.” – David Crane To hear more about David Crane and his thoughts on what drives politicians, and how the call we are having right now for social and racial change in the US will not have much effect, after all, download and listen to this episode.  Bio: David Crane is a lecturer in Public Policy at Stanford University and president of Govern for California.  From 2004-2010 he served as a special adviser to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and from 1979-2003 he was a partner at Babcock & Brown, a financial services company.  Crane also serves on the board of the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California and formerly served on the University of California Board of Regents and as a director of the California State Teachers Retirement System, Environmental Defense Fund, and the Volcker-Ravitch Task Force on the State Budget Crisis. Links: Twitter: @DavidGCrane Website: David G. Crane Govern For California Org  Standford University, Public Policy: David Crane TheHill.com: Coronavirus aid should go directly to the people Medium.com: CA Passes A Disappointing Budget They Count on You Not Knowing TEDx PaloAlto 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 this episode, we continue our run of top Silicon Valley venture capitalists with Navin Chaddha, who leads Mayfield, one of the oldest and most storied venture capital firms in the Silicon Valley startup world. Navin has been on the Forbes Midas list for a long time and is a top-five investor according to Forbes. We have a wide-ranging conversation where we deal with everything from diversity to philanthropy, Navin’s backstory, what he calls superhumans, and pay special attention to why Navin thinks that biology is a technology. Leading a 50-Year Old Company Navin leads the company Mayfield, which is on its 51st year of operations in 2020. He considers this opportunity as a real blessing and one that is filled with responsibility as well. He is optimistic about the future, but is wary of serious impending issues of the world such as this widespread disease and racial disparity. “We have to ensure it’s all about people because one of the founding mottos of the firm is people make products, products don’t make people are everything. So whatever we do, we want to live by the people and do good by others, at the same time, do well as a firm and for our investors and entrepreneurs. – Navin Chaddha Becoming A Conscious Capitalist Navin shares how venture capital needs to change. Instead of investing money and helping entrepreneurs, Navin challenges his fellows to become conscious capitalists. Mayfield pledges to this movement, as they aim to contribute yearly 1% of their management fee and 1% of their carry, to give the opportunity to underrepresented students and entrepreneurs. “There we take a balance of what we can do, not only financially, but what can we do for human and planetary evolution in the form of giving back some of the financial resources we have, but also giving back our time.” – Navin Chaddha Entrepreneurship & Underrepresented Communities Navin shares his thoughts about underrepresented communities and entrepreneurship. He encourages them to reach out to VC’s such as Mayfield, who will launch the program Access For All, with the premise of making capital available across all boards. “It has to be done by people who want to be entrepreneurs. They need to just lean forward and make the plunge. They need to go make sure they get good mentors, whether it’s their advisors, whether it’s former entrepreneurs, whether it’s potential customers, whether it’s legal firms, or people like you, beyond venture capitalists, whom they can look upon and get some advice and I call that mentorship capital. Once they have those things in place, please come approach the venture community because we are all focused around funding innovation, and helping people achieve their dreams.” – Navin Chaddha To hear more about Navin Chaddha and becoming a Conscious Capitalist, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Navin Chaddha leads Mayfield. He has ranked on the Forbes Midas List of Global Tech Investors 12 times, including being named a Top Five investor in 2020.   During his career as a venture capitalist, he has invested in over 50 companies, 17 of which have gone public and 20 have been acquired. Some of his investments include Lyft, Poshmark, SolarCity, Hashicorp, Elastica, CloudGenix, and CloudSimple. As an entrepreneur, he has co-founded or led three startups including VXtreme, a streaming media platform, acquired by Microsoft to become Windows Media.  Navin is a committed philanthropist who directs Mayfield’s 50-year tradition of philanthropy to support many causes including diversity, health, hunger, and education. Interests: Cricket, Bollywood. Links: Navin Chaddha Top VC Unveils Crisis Leadership Strategies For Entrepreneurs 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!