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172 Feelings Are Fickle | Dushka Zapata, Best Selling Author

172 Dushka Zapata

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 FacebookTwitterInstagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

070 Marketing Over Coffee w/ John J. Wall and Kevin Maney

LOM_Episodes-70

For the first time ever, we are dropping an episode from one of Christopher’s favorite podcast, Marketing Over Coffee, with host John Wall. Recently, they did an episode with the legendary author, Kevin Maney. Kevin, as you probably know, is a multi-time successful, bestselling author. He’s one of the co-authors of Play Bigger with Christopher.

In this episode of Lochhead on Marketing / Marketing Over Coffee Crossover, Kevin talks about his recent book Unscaled. They also talk about what that means and how powerful it is. And of course, category design and many other things.

Category Design and Play Bigger

Kevin shares about category design and his co-authored book Play Bigger. He also shares how the book led to the creation of Category Design Advisors. He further discusses his new book Unscaled – how world-changing technologies are taking apart scaled up industries.

“We started to go down that road together, the four of us meeting out at Chris’s wonderful house in Santa Cruz, California, riding our bikes to the beach in between long conversations. Over time, we tease out this idea of category design, which didn’t exist before. We all got together and started talking about this stuff.” – Kevin Maney on planning for the book Play Bigger 

Unscaled

Kevin describes how he ended up writing the book Unscaled, which was about how all of these new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, 3D printing and genomics, and these world-changing technologies, and how they’re all coming together to allow us to reinvent our current systems. 

“We got together with Stephen Klasko, who’s the CEO of Jefferson Health, one of the bigger health care systems in the country based in Philadelphia. Steven came out and I took that healthcare chapter of Unscaled to write a, what we actually call a manifesto. It’s about 60 pages long, describing how all these new technologies can take apart the old healthcare system, which was really based on taking care of people after they were sick.” – Kevin Maney on his book Unscaled

Other Noteworthy Topics

Kevin and John discussed a whole lot more noteworthy topics ranging from the IoT in health data, the economics of it all and the rise of telehealth. They also touched on the topic of shifting to online education and the history of IBM.

“I tend to look at almost everything anymore through the lens of health, either category design or upscaling, because I do believe that those are the two things that are going to drive technology, and create the most interesting technology companies of the next decade.” – Kevin Maney

To know more about Kevin Maney, 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

Marketing Over Coffee: Kevin Maney Talks Unscaled

Marketing Over Coffee: Christopher Lochhead on Play Bigger, and Legends and Losers

Marketing Over Coffee: Niche Down!

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

171 Black Entrepreneurs Matter w/ D’Narius Lewis

171 Black Entrepreneurs Matter w/ D'Narius Lewis

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’ monotonous standards are what motivated, and still motivates him to attain his current level of success

D’Narius attributes his success to constantly moving and failing forward. Even when he had $1 to his name, no one knew his financial struggles, but he knew it would only temporary. D’Narius also attributes much of his success to his mentor Mary Dingmann, whom taught him the concept of transformational learning or guidance education.

D’Narius dedicates his career to teaching people that they can live the life of their dreams if they are willing to suspend their disbelief for an extended period of time and maintain the discipline it takes to work toward your dreams every day. D’Narius believes that people are meant to live an abundant, rewarding, and fulfilling life.

Links:

Optimum Outreach

Linkedin: Dnarius Lewis

Amazon: The Power Of The Subconscious Mind – A Pocketbook Guide to Fulfilling Your Dreams 

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

170 Tech Icon Bob Evans of Cloud Wars Live Podcast

170 Tech Icon Bob Evans, of Cloud Wars Live Podcast

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!

069 How To Write A Book

069 How To Write A Book

In this episode, Christopher answers an email question from an entrepreneur who wants to become an author. We dive deep into the process of becoming an author, from pitching to publishers or agents, to actual writing, to marketing and promoting. He also talks about the pros and cons of self-publishing versus or seeking the help of top-tier publishers.

The Process of Becoming An Author

Christopher shares the question he recently received: “Did you write a book proposal before getting started on the writing? Or did you write the book first? What were your first steps in acquiring representation, slash a publishing contract?”

“It’s important to note for Play Bigger, we used an agent and a traditional publisher. For Niche Down, we actually went the self-publishing route.” – Christopher Lochhead

Christopher gives an in-depth explanation of his process for both books in this episode.

Traditional Publishing vs. Self-Publishing

Christopher also touched on the pros and cons of traditional publishing and self-publishing, He shares that publishers handle the publication and distribution of the book, but does not touch on marketing. The author has to promote to boost book sales. 

“The other thing about self-publishing, you have a lot more control than you do. When a publisher has your book, you decide what the books gonna look like, the cover art, all that stuff, you decide what kind of paper is going to be used. And of course, the obvious one is you have all of the economics.” – Christopher Lochhead

Get The Ball Rolling: Drafting Content

Answering another set of questions about content creation, Christopher shares their actual process for Play Bigger. Since the book has four authors, they decided who will have the last say in terms of content. They started with writing outlines from their brainstorming/jam sessions and Kevin Maney writes the draft and the rest gives their feedback. 

“What we decided to do was get together in person, which we did at my house for a few days. We had a ton of fun. we brainstormed, we talked, we shared stories and all this. Kevin is the professional author captured all of that.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more about how to write a book, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

169 A Republic, If You Can Keep It | David Crane of Govern For California

169 Govern For California's David Crane A republic, if you can keep it

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!

168 Conscious Capitalist Navin Chaddha of Mayfield

FYD - Episode 168v1

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!

167 The State of The United States w/ Asha Rangappa, Ex-FBI Agent, Yale Lecturer & CNN Analyst

167 The State of The United States w/ Asha Rangappa, Ex-FBI Agent, Yale Lecturer & CNN Analyst

Imagine being able to sit down and have a meaningful conversation about the state of the United States. We speak with a woman who is a Yale-educated lawyer, a graduate of the FBI famed Academy in Quantico Virginia, and a former FBI counterintelligence investigator. This woman is a senior lecturer at Yale and a legal and national security analyst for CNN. That woman is none other than Asha Rangappa.

We have a powerful conversation about the state of affairs in the United States and the decline of social capital. We talk about the destructive power of disinformation and disengagement, and more. This is a big insight into what’s going on in our world today.

Shakespeare and Current Events

Asha narrated how she became a Shakespeare aficionado. She even found herself playing roles in several Shakespeare theatre adaptations. She shares how she finds Shakespeare’s stories as universal, which also explains why these get a lot of modern adaptation.

“You can actually look at characters and understand motivations of people today through his words. So I’m a big fan. I don’t know if that answers the question of why Shakespeare but I find him especially relevant to current events.” – Asha Rangappa

30% of Americans Don’t Trust Each Other

Asha recounted to Christopher how the United States is at a moment of the lowest level of general social trust since World War Two. Social capital is referred to as “the value that we get from our relationships with other people.” She further explained that strong social capital is essential for a healthy democracy. 

A high social capital means there is a generalized social trust. In short, people care about the well being of their fellow man. 

“Most Americans don’t trust each other. This is actually a question on the General Social Survey they’ve asked, but asking it since 1972, and we’re at the lowest response, which is about 30% of people say that most Americans can be trusted.” – Asha Rangappa

Worst Possible Choices Being Made

Asha believes we are currently in a crisis point. She agrees with Christopher that circumstances are forcing people to decide on the future that they want to live in. 

“On the roster of choices have been made, whether it’s with the pandemic or the economy or in response to the protest, and I’m talking about, the Trump administration. So, I think that it has brought to the fore what I was talking about before that, we are at a precarious moment. I have felt that this has been a precarious moment, even before this. I think the urgency of it might be brought home to a greater degree, because of this kind of critical state that we’re in at this moment.” – Asha Rangappa

To know more about Asha and her thoughts on the destructive power of disinformation and disengagement and the general state of the United States, download and listen to this episode. 

Bio:

Asha Rangappa is a Senior Lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a former Associate Dean at Yale Law School.

Prior to her current position, Asha served as a Special Agent in the New York Division of the FBI, specializing in counterintelligence investigations. 

Her work involved assessing threats to national security, conducting classified investigations on suspected foreign agents, and performing undercover work. 

While in the FBI, Asha gained experience in electronic surveillance, interview and interrogation techniques, firearms, and the use of deadly force. She has taught National Security Law and related courses at Yale University, Wesleyan University, and the University of New Haven.

Asha graduated cum laude from the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study constitutional reform in Bogotá, Colombia. 

She received her law degree from Yale Law School and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Juan R. Torruella on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She is admitted to the State Bar of New York (2003) and Connecticut (2003).

Asha has published op-eds in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post among others and has appeared on NPR, BBC, and several major television networks.

She is an editor for Just Security and is currently a legal and national security analyst for CNN.

Asha lives in Hamden, Connecticut with her two children.

Links:

Asha Rangappa

Twitter: @AshaRangappa_

Wikipedia: Asha Rangappa

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!

068 Behind The Mic: Inside The 1st Marketing PodStorm / Jaime Jay, Jason Defillippo & Christopher Lochhead

Behind The Mic: Inside The 1st Marketing PodStorm / Jaime Jay, Jason Defillippo & Christopher Lochhead
We are on our 30th episode of the World’s First PodStorm! We would like to thank everyone who went through the storm with us! Today, Lochhead on Marketing producers Jason DeFillipo and Jaime Jay joins us and takes us behind the mic. We go deep into the challenges, the wins, and the lessons in creating this PodStorm. We talk about a lot of other matters which you’ll find relatable!

Challenges with Production

Making a podcast comes with its challenges, even more so if it’s the world’s first 30-day PodStorm. Timing is one of the main challenges in production. Jason DeFilippo shares that the hard part was dealing with unplanned life events. He seriously advises anyone to take this into account if they want to pursue podcasting.   Although they faced challenges, this 30-day marketing discussion proved that the Podstorm is a new category of a podcast activity. 
“It is basically a roadmap for anyone who wants to do any kind of marketing in their business.” – Jaimie Jay

Category Design

Christopher mentions that Podstrom is all about marketing and category design. The PodStorm encourages marketers to create their category and to differentiate themselves in a niche that they can own. They discussed further category design and rising above the challenges despite the situation the world is at. 
“In the midst of the greatest economic crisis and the greatest healthcare crisis of the modern era, you transformed your business and you are absolutely positioning yourself to be in that 10% that gets stronger as a result of the recession.” – Christopher Lochhead

Success of PodStorm

Jaimie Jay celebrated the fact that LOM Podstorm gained an 80% increase in listenership. One of the reasons for this series’ success is the format—  it’s quick but is jam-packed with information.
“The thing that makes this successful is that they are short. So every day, you can pop it in, get it done, and while you’re sitting there having your eggs for breakfast or outside taking a walk with a dog and you learn something and it is a very laser focus.” -Jason DeFillippo

More About Business and Current Events

The trio discussed a lot more that is 100% relatable to any businesses. They talk about trying to help companies against recession brought on by Covid-19 and touched on the topic of the murder of George Floyd and the role of marketing in social justice and making social change happen.  To know more about the legends behind the mic, Christopher Lochhead, Jason DeFilippo and Jaime Jay, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Jaime Jay Jaime is the managing director and founder of Bottleneck Virtual Assistants, LLC.  The organization offers professional growth opportunities for ambitious leaders by creating an efficient and systematic approach to identify, hire, and cultivate team members who focus on specific roles and responsibilities. Jaime Jay is the co-owner of Podcast Pilot which handles the technical execution and website for Follow Your Different and Lochhead on Marketing. Jason DeFillippo Jason has been building websites since the early days in 1994 for clients that range from small businesses to million dollar websites for blockbuster films to his own start-ups.  In 1995 a new media company in Santa Monica moved him out to Los Angeles to build the first website for Epson America.  Since then Jason has launched over 250 websites for major corporations like Paramount Pictures, Sony, Warner Brothers, and Disney.  He also created the two time SXSW Weblog Award-winning Blogrolling.com as well as co-founded the global blog network Metroblogging.  He has worked at several startups in San Francisco including Technorati.com and 8020 Media, the publishers of JPGMagazine.com and statistical aggregator Metricly.com.  Currently, Jason is a full-time podcast producer and editor.

Links: 

Bottleneck Virtual Assistant – World’s First Dedicated Distant Assistant Provider Grumpy Old Geeks We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.