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There’s scams, crimes, and frauds. Then there’s what Bernie Madoff did.

CNBC says that he committed the nation’s biggest investment fraud. The Wall Street Journal called it “the biggest ponzi scheme in history.” At sentencing, Judge Denny Chin called Madoff’s crimes “extraordinarily evil”. In the end, many people lost everything they had.

For those who are unaware, Madoff stole $19.5 billion, which he said had grown to $64.8 billion. Though not a single dollar or penny was ever invested in anything. He stole it, plain and simple.

Jim Campbell joins us in this episode of Follow Your Different, as we cover his book about the topic. His book, Madoff Talks, is already being considered as an authoritative source on this massive crime committed by Bernie Madoff that impoverished thousands of investors around the world.

What you are about to hear is a deep, shocking, and riveting dialogue that takes you through it all. From how Madoff did it, to the systemic problems with US regulators and the ongoing failure of the SEC.

The Hows and Whys of the Book

When asked how the book came to be, Jim talks about how he had built a connection with Bernie Madoff. What started as a simple correspondence culminated in over 400 pages of communication over several years.

Jim figured that with all the information he has, it would be a shame to not do anything with it. So began his mission to investigate and sort out the truths and lies about Madoff’s claims.

As to why he wrote the book, he had 3 major motives for it:

1. He wanted to know how Bernie’s mind operated
2. The architecture of the whole failure: It was not just Madoff acting alone, but the system enabling him to do so
3. Whether or not Madoff’s family knew about it

 “The mission to expose the failure of the system is the real takeaway of the book. People were interested in the sexy part: Bernie talking, what did Ruth know, and how the heck did he get away with it. Which is all fascinating and riveting stuff, but the takeaway is this is what had happened and how it happened.” – Jim Campbell

How Madoff Exploited the System

Jim shares how Madoff worked his way around the system, subverting 5 SEC investigations before someone finally figured it out.

Madoff did so by exploiting the system itself, in small ways to keep it unnoticeable. What surprised Jim is how Madoff ran a legitimate, squeaky-clean company to hide his other dealings. So while the company took the brunt of investigations, they couldn’t catch him on anything. Simply because there was nothing to catch on that front.

He further explains that the SEC did not have the right examiners on the case. They kept exonerating him on the wrong crime, which was Frontrunning. The final piece of it was the examiners were never allowed to talk to anyone else in the firm except for Bernie or his right-hand man.

“So he blocked them, he took advantage of the silos, and they kept investigating the wrong (thing). They chased the wrong rabbit.” – Jim Campbell

Penalties, or Lack Thereof

Jim goes on to iterate how Bernie Madoff gamed the system and played to its weaknesses. By studying how individual silos operate and the lack of communication thereof, he got away with a lot of things.

What’s fascinating and horrendous at the same time is that he could’ve easily been called out on his subterfuges had people been more thorough in their line of work. Yet Bernie had a trick for this as well, by usually calling in right before the weekend or after trade hours and seemingly burying details in “paperwork”, or having to check in a foreign office that doesn’t really exist.

When asked if heads rolled after the whole ordeal was made public, here’s what Jim Campbell had to say:

“The SEC reports were excellent reports. None of them were censored, so you got to give them credit. Except they issued it on a Labor Day weekend, with hardly any coverage. Eight people were demoted at the SEC, none at the management level. So yeah, nobody was penalized.” – Jim Campbell

To hear more from Jim Campbell about Bernie Madoff and the damage his actions has wrought, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Jim Campbell is the host of the nationally syndicated radio show Business Talk with Jim Campbell. He is known for his hard-hitting interviews of leading figures from the worlds of business, politics, and sports.

Known for “firsts,” Campbell snagged the first extensive interview with former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer after his resignation, the first interview with former Tyco CEO Denis Kozlowski after his release from prison, and the first broadcast interview with former stock analyst Roomy Kahn, a government informant in one of the biggest insider trading busts in American history.

Campbell’s extensive corporate, consulting, and entrepreneurial business background includes roles at KPMG Consulting, Dean Witter Financial Services (now Morgan Stanley), and IBM. He is founder and president of JC Ventures, Inc., a management consulting business.

Links

LinkedIn: in/JimCampbell

Book: Madoff Talks: Uncovering the Untold Story Behind the Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme in History

More about Bernie Madoff and Madoff Talks:

Wall Street Journal: Bernie Madoff Dead at 82

CNBC: Bernie Madoff dies, Mastermind of the Nation’s Biggest Investment Fraud

The Guardian: Madoff Talks Review

CBS: Madoff Talks by Jim Campbell

Fortune: Madoff Talks

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!

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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 combines the best of the statistical and mystical. It melds topics ranging from medicine and anthropology to theology and philosophy, along with case studies of everyday people doing extraordinary things.

Michael’s work has appeared in over 60 countries and has been endorsed by some of the world’s largest magazines, past directors of the CIA and Navy SEALs, gold medal-winning Olympians, leading physicians, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, Buddhist and environmental leaders, and more.

He is the author of The Comfort Crisis. You can also find his writing in Men’s Health, where he’s a contributing editor, and Outside, Men’s Journal, Cosmopolitan, Vice, Esquire, Scientific American, Women’s Health, and more. He also shares his thoughts on a Medium feed.

When he’s not on the ground reporting, Michael is a professor at UNLV. He co-founded and co-directs of the Public Communications Institute, a think tank at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). It conducts science communications research and helps public and private organizations adapt complex messaging to mass audiences.

He’s spoken to or consulted for various top-tier universities, medical schools, Fortune-500 companies, government agencies, and some of the country’s largest nonprofits.

Links

Connect with Michael! 

Website: EasterMichael.com

Twitter: @Michael_Easter

Instagram: @Michael_Easter

Get a copy of “The Comfort Crisis” today: Amazon.com/Comfort-Crisis

Related Articles:

Are Children in Tune with the Nature Pyramid? by NationalParks.UK

Stress & Mental Health Crisis by The American Psychological Association

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!

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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.

She was also a visiting scholar at Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and has worked in a wide range of engineering, product and marketing roles at Oracle, Sun Microsystems and startup companies.

Driven by a lifelong thirst to understand the human mind, she is also passionate of literature, philosophy, and psychology.

As a consultant and facilitator, Sylvie combines her rich multidisciplinary knowledge, and holistic system thinking skills to help companies find unexpected insight and growth opportunities. 

Passionate about empowering human potential, she developed a innovational framework to help companies uncover unrealized levers to increase customer and employee wellbeing and success. She teaches creative workshops on customer and patient experience design.

A skillful writer, her articles have been published in business, technology, and literary publications.

Sylvie holds a Masters of Science in Engineering Economics Systems from Stanford University, a Masters of Science in Computer Science from ENSIIE, and a gold medal in ballet from France’s National Conservatory.

Links

Website:

Sylvie Leotin

Equify Health

Follow Sylvie at Twitter:

@SLeotin

@EquifyHealth

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!

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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.

Bio:

Amy Baldwin is a Sex and Relationship Coach trained in both the Somatica® and Hakomi Method, Certified Sex Educator, lead educator for Uberlube, as well as co-owner of a mother-daughter owned online pleasure boutique called Pure Pleasure Shop. Amy has a passion for promoting shame-free, pleasure-focused sexuality education while emphasizing the deep emotional and energetic forces behind great sex and intimate connection, offering everything from private sessions to how-to workshops to erotic empowerment retreats.

April Lampert has been educating people about sexual pleasure, health and wellness, and pleasure products at a global scale since 2008. She travels internationally as VP of Hot Octopuss, an innovative pleasure product company. April was voted Woman of the Year in the adult industry in 2016, and has dedicated her life to the business of sex and pleasure.

Together, Amy and April combined forces to create the Shameless Sex Podcast, inspiring radical self-love, sexual empowerment, and shame-free intimacy. Shameless Sex is unabashed real talk about sexuality with a playful twist. Amy and April are not afraid to tell it like it is and invite you to join the SHAMELESS SEX REVOLUTION!

Links:

Shameless Sex Podcast

The Hot Octopuss

The Purple Pleasure Shop

Follow them on Instagram!

@AprilLampert

@AmyShamelessSex

@HotOctopuss

More articles regarding this podcast:

The Atlantic: The Sex Recession

Institute for Family Studies: Is Sex Recession turning into the Great Sex Recession

Talyor & Francis Online: Pornography Consumption, Modality and Function in a Large Internet Sample

Healthline: Why Young Adults, Especially Men, Are Having Sex Less Frequently

Shape.com: How Might Virtual Reality Porn Affect Sex and Relationships?

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!

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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 experience as the former Chief of Police in DeKalb County, GA, President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, and member of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Throughout his career, he has been pivotal in reforming troubled police departments and restoring trust between them and their communities.

He is also the author of In Defense of Public Service: How 22 Million Government Workers Will Save Our Republic that features endorsements from the late U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, Retired Major General James “Spider” Marks, and attorney Barry Scheck from the Innocence Project.

His insight into the non-elected “fourth branch” of government—our nation’s public servants, civil servants, and first responders—as those who will save the nation by helping bring our greatly divided society together is uncanny during today’s times.

Cedric has testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Facial Recognition Technology, as well as on the pros and cons of using body cameras, drones, and crime mapping in law enforcement.

He sits on the board of the Innocence Project, working to exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

He is also consulting with companies such as AT&T FirstNet, the first nationwide network dedicated to public safety to help law enforcement, fire service, and EMS do their jobs safely and effectively.

With a doctorate in clinical psychology from Wright State University, Cedric is equipped to address the prevailing issues nationwide. In every situation, he conveys a sharp understanding of human nature, the breadth of issues facing our communities, and how to break through to create a solution everyone can unite behind. Widely respected for his ability to lead thoughtfully and respectfully, he transcends both public and private sectors in an effort to foster positive change.

Links:

About Dr. Cedric Alexander

Linkedin: in/CedricLAlexanderPsyD

Twitter: @CAlexLaw

Amazon Books: The New Guardians

Other information about Dr. Cedric Alexander:

What the Plan Now America

This is a Job for Cedric Alexander

Dr. Cedric Alexander on Capitol Security

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!

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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

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A new blended whiskey draws attention to local bartenders’ secret

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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!

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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!

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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 of his closest collaborators, Adam Messinger.

Following this, Nasri and Adam then formed the production duo called “The Messengers.”

Together, they helped drive the reunion of New Kids on the Block and wrote hits for Christina Aguilera, David Guetta, Cody Simpson, Jason Derulo, and many more. Nasri and Adam were nominated for two Grammys in 2011 for their work on Justin Bieber’s My World 2.0andChris Brown’s Graffiti and the duo won the Grammy for Best R&B Album in 2012 for their work on Chris Brown’s F.A.M.E.

Additionally, Nasri won the Grammy award for Best Latin Pop Album for his work on Shakira’s El Dorado in 2017.

In 2013, Nasri took a step out from behind the curtain as the front man of MAGIC!

The band released their highly successful debut song “Rude” which topped the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom. MAGIC! has gone on to release three albums with RCA Records: Don’t Kill the Magic (2013), Primary Colours (2016), and Expectations (2018). Today, Nasri continues to work with music’s top talents. In 2020, albums he worked on received multiple Grammy Awards including Best Pop Vocal Album (Justin Bieber – Changes), Best R&B Song (Skip Marley ft. H.E.R. – “Slow Down”), Best Reggae Album (Skip Marley – Higher Ground), Best R&B Album (John Legend – Bigger Love) and Best Progressive R&B Album (Chloe x Halle – Ungodly Hour).

Links

Follow Nasri today!

Twitter: @NasriWorld

Instagram: @NasriAtweh

YouTube: @NasriAtweh

Learn more about Nasri!

Rolling Stone

ABC News Radio

Drop the Spotlight

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!