Follow Your Different
091 Crowd Funding For Good w/ DonorsChoose.org’s Charles Best & Oliver Hurst-Hiller
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Today’s inspiring guests are from DonorsChoose.org, CEO and Founder Charles Best and entrepreneur Oliver Hurst-Hiller. These two, together with a small group of people, came together and made our world a different place, through crowdfunding.
DonorsChoose.org
Donorschoose.org is a non-profit which enables teachers who need help to go straight to the public and seek financial assistance. Charles Best, a former high school teacher turned activist founded the organization. Together with Oliver Hurst-Hiller, the Chief Technology Officer of the org, they have pioneered the category of crowdfunding.
“I was like teachers all over the country. I was spending my own money on school supplies for my students. My colleagues are doing the same. We would talk about all the stuff we want our students to have, but we couldn’t go into our own pockets to buy.” – Charles Best
Merging Technology with Advocacy
Charles Best and Oliver Hurst-Hiller share the current education situation in the US — it is underfunded — and teachers and students need help. In the past, millionaires have been the common benefactors of organizations. Charles, however, thought about regular citizen donors and how their collective power can benefit this cause.
Regular donors will have the ability to pick, choose, donate and hear directly from the beneficiaries. All the donors — whether they donated 50 dollars or 5 million dollarngets the same appreciation, feedback, and transparency direct from their beneficiaries.
“If the internet/technology can enable a regular person giving 50 bucks to have that experience of directness, transparency, reporting and feedback, something magical might happen and 840 million dollars later, I think it has.” – Oliver Hurst-Hiller
The “Philanthropic eBay”
Stanford Business School and Amazon dubbed DonorsChoose.org as “the most innovative non-profit.” The organization is for school front-liners who have an idea or project and is seeking microloans to fund it. The organization connects them to patrons and philanthropists.
“The first news story about our site compared us to a philanthropic eBay. That’s the only parallel that they could draw at that time — with its two-sided marketplace and people connecting.” – Charles Best
Charles Best and Oliver Hurst-Hiller talk more about the organization, crowdfunding. Further, they discussed more on the power-houses backing them up as board of directors. They are Stephen Colbert and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, to name a few.
To hear more about the DonorsChoose.org crowdfunding for good and more information about Charles Best and Oliver Hurst-Hiller, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Charles Best, Founder / CEO
Charles Best leads DonorsChoose.org, a nonprofit website that enables anyone to help a classroom in need. He launched the organization in 2000 at a Bronx public high school where he taught history for five years. To date, teachers at more than 80% of all the public schools in America have created classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.org, and more than 3 million people have given to those projects.
DonorsChoose.org is one of Oprah Winfrey’s “ultimate favorite things.” It made the cover of Fast Company as one of the “50 Most Innovative Companies in the World.” It is the first time any charity has received such recognition.
Oliver Hurst-Hiller, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Product
Oliver is responsible for the technology and user experience that power DonorsChoose.org’s unique philanthropic marketplace.
Prior to joining the team in 2006, Oliver managed product engineering projects for Microsoft’s new search engine, now called Bing. He helped start Microsoft Live Labs, an applied research laboratory for Internet technologies. Further, he is also the co-inventor of 22 issued U.S. patents related to Internet search technologies.
In 2011, the Microsoft Alumni Foundation honored Oliver with the Integral Fellows Award. He is the Chair of CTOs For Good and on the Advisory Council on Computing & Information Technology for Brown University.
Links:
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!
090 The Green “Circular Economy” w/ #1 Amazon Bestselling Author Heather Clancy
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Today, Amazon-best-selling author Heather Clancy gives us insights about a very timely topic — the green economy. We talk about what she’s learning about the green economy, the controversy around carbon taxes and how companies are creating new offerings centered on sustainability.
The Sustainability Journalist
Heather is the editorial director of GreenBiz.com. She is an award-winning journalist who covers transformative technology for business readers. Media outfits such as Entrepreneur, Fortune, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times have featured her articles.
She discusses with Christopher the concept of circular economy and how major corporations have played a major role in its growth and acceptance among consumers.
“For many individuals, there’s a lot of different reasons for this, the idea of the circular economy is ‘something can be reused in someways.’ Not necessarily recycled, but potentially remanufactured.” – Heather Clancy
The Circular Economy
Heather shares some of the efforts of major corporations to address sustainability issues in the market. A recent company called The Real Real raised 300M in their last week’s IPO. It is one indication that the circular economy is on the rise.
Moreover, she shared about the company Loop, formed by Terracycle, which offers common household products in reusable packaging.
“The idea behind Loop is: big consumer brands like Procter & Gamble and Unilever, should be thinking about reusable containers. They are now designing packaging using aluminum or glass, which you think about as old packaging, but they’re kinda beautiful.” – Heather Clancy
This effort of Terracyle challenges packaging designers to offer consumers a different kind of product, one that still creates brand affinity. Additionally, Heather thinks that this switch from single-use plastic to reusable packaging would be a good talking point for PR.
Are all the efforts worth it?
Loop partnered with grocery store Walgreens and drugstore Kroger as drop-off points for the empty reusable packaging. UPS then collects the empty bottles for the refill and redelivers them to the customers. With this supply-chain set-up, Christopher posed a very important question: are all efforts worth it?
We are very much aware of the carbon emissions for transporting these goods. Likewise, Christopher also mentioned an article about Tesla and how “unsustainable” it is. The cost of manufacturing one car is alarming, in terms of carbon emissions.
“I don’t have an impact statement for you there, but the companies who are making them, are basically giving a 2nd life to them.” – Heather Clancy
To hear more about the green “circular economy” w/ #1 amazon bestselling author, Heather Clancy, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Heather Clancy is a veteran journalist working at the intersection of information technology, entrepreneurship, and green technology.
Heather is the Co-author of #1 Amazon bestseller, Niche Down: How To Become Legendary By Being Different.
Heather’s articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times.
She is the editorial director for GreenBiz.com, and the launch editor of FORTUNE Data Sheet, a daily dose of enterprise technology news.
Links:
The Real Real: Luxury Consignment Sales
Terracycle – Closed Loop Solutions
Wired.com – Teslas Electric Cars Might Not Be As Green As You Think
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!
089 Entrepreneurs: Know the Difference Between “Craft Venture Capitalists” & Wall St VCs
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In this episode, Christopher Lochhead explores the distinction between Craft Venture Capitalists and Wall Street Venture Capitalists (VCs) and why is it very important for entrepreneurs to know the difference.
This is a special episode for entrepreneurs who are contemplating on raising funds from VCs.
The Power of Venture-backed startups
In a study published by Brookings, they claimed that “in recent decades Venture Capital (VC) has generated more economic and employment growth in the U.S. than any other investment sector. Further, venture-backed startups make up 0.2% of GDP, in terms of investment and they deliver an astonishing 21% of U.S. GDP
“Venture-backed startup entrepreneurs who seek VC, produce an extraordinary outcome, not just for themselves, their people, customers, investors but for the US economy overall.” – Christopher Lochhead
So, What’s The Issue?
Lochhead frankly discussed a disturbing trend in Silicon Valley over the last 15 years or so. The emergence of Wall Street type VCs — who are principally focused on value extraction. This is in opposition to “Craft VCs” who helped build Silicon Valley.
“Here’s the problem: the wall street types come in and they whisper sweetly into the ears of entrepreneurs and they convince them to delay going public. They convince them to make money with them.” – Christopher Lochhead
Lochhead clarified that these folks are focused on value extraction from the entrepreneurs. These Wall Street VCs impose terms and conditions which are often fairly punitive to entrepreneurs and to employees.
Entrepreneurs: Pay Close Attention!
Lochhead forewarns entrepreneurs who are considering Wall Street VCs versus Craft VCs. First and foremost, Craft VCs prioritizes relationship with the founder and the employees. They focus on providing experience, as they are former entrepreneurs themselves.
“Craft VCs partner to create value with entrepreneurs and the terms and conditions reflect this over time. The wall street folks? They just wanna come in, make money and frankly, they don’t care who else is successful. They don’t care who else they hurt, they’re in for themselves.” – Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about the difference between craft VCs and Wall Street VCs, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 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.
Links:
Brookings – As the venture capital game gets bigger, the Midwest keeps missing out
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!
088 The Impact Entrepreneur: Mike Flynn
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Fellow entrepreneur and podcaster Mike Flynn joins us today for another great episode. He is a best-selling author and host of the podcast, The Impact Entrepreneur. Today, he talks about his heart-felt book “Master The Key,” the inspiration behind it and his opinions on personal development, commitment and service and many more.
Facts About Employee Disengagement
Mike shares some important figures for employee disengagement at work. He says that “85% of the employees globally are disengaged at work.” Further, 40% of these American employees said they have a side gig that is related to their passion.
“If someone is following their passion and they really dont know what they are passionate about, and they don’t know what they are willing to suffer for, and they still haven’t left their job that they are disengaged at, when that business fails and they fall back from that place where they were disengaged, what’s gonna happen, Christopher?” – Mike Flynn
Personal Development in the Workplace
Christopher cited some of his observations about employee disengagement at work. He cites the visible impacts of this, such as the escalating depression rates and obesity problems.
Further, Christopher shared some important points from Episode 071: How to design a company that people are lining up to work for. He discussed the importance of the personal development of every employee. For him, happy individuals in the workplace result in positive company culture.
“Every company needs to be personal development company because every organization is made up of a bunch of individuals who are grappling with 4 fundamental questions: who am I, how do I show up in the world, what would I do when I get there, who do I do it with?” – Mike Flynn
The Podcast and the Book
Mike also talks about his podcast, “The Impact Entrepreneur.” He shares that he has not earned any money from the podcast for three years. He started monetizing his talents through his book and through public appearances as a speaker. He shares that all his efforts are done out of love.
“I was at a point in life when I needed to reach out to people and learn how they managed the various impact moments: the victories, the failures, the brokenness of their life — and how they turned that into something that served the good.” – Mike Flynn
Additionally, he shares the inspiration behind his fictional book, “Master The Key: A Story to Free Your Potential, Find Meaning and Live Life on Purpose.”
To hear more about the impact entrepreneur himself, Mike Flynn, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Links:
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!
087 9 Lies About Work w/ Ashley Goodall
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The author of a ground-breaking new book called Nine Lies About Work, Ashley Goodall, joins us today for a fun, smart and unpredictable conversation about work and life. Lochhead and Goodall discuss what’s wrong with work and what to do about it, work-life balance and nurturing the human spirit at work.
Nine Lies About Work
Ashley Goodall is SVP of Leadership and Team Intelligence (LTI) at Cisco. He built this new organization to focus entirely on serving teams and team leaders. Through this, they are able to research and study the most challenging questions about work.
His work at Cisco focuses on defining what is special about the best teams and how does one create the best team for the company. Other than this, he is also the co-author of Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World.
“There are very few things in life that you can’t or shouldn’t smile at. At some point, the more serious the topic, the more important it is to find little moments of levity and humor.” – Ashley Goodall
Work-Life Balance
Ashley points out his opinions about achieving work-life balance and why it is such an unapplicable paradigm in today’s world. Christopher shared how this mindset creates two persons: one that is working and another one, who is living his life.
“The implication of that is, all that stuff in work is bad and all the stuff in life is good. Your job — in order to lead a fulfilled life — is to have enough sugar to sprinkle into all that bitterness of work.” – Ashley Goodall
In this mindset, we are taught that life is the antidote to work — but that is a huge misrepresentation of life. Further, Ashley says that work-life balance is such a disservice to the wonderfulness of work. It mutes employee curiosity of finding out what work will be like if one is high-performing or say, growing and making a huge impact.
“If the prescription is to take over the toxicity and balance it with life, you’ll never get to ask those questions, that is such a shame.” -Ashley Goodall
Language, Love, and Life
Ashley shares a wide array of stories and opinions in this podcast. He poses his standpoint on giving weight to context, as opposed to just taking words as it is.
He further gives advice on how to grow the human spirit in the workplace. The discussion turns into an interesting discussion about love.
To hear more about the nine lies about work and more relevant information from Ashley, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Ashley Goodall is an executive, leadership expert, and author, and has spent his career exploring large organizations from the inside.
He looks for lessons from the real world that help people and teams thrive. Further, he focuses on what makes work a more human place for all of the humans in it.
His first experience of teams and leadership were as a student musician and conductor. He was fascinated by the unspoken understanding between people playing together and carried this fascination into the corporate world.
He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Leadership and Team Intelligence (LTI) at Cisco. It is a new organization built to focus entirely on serving teams and team leaders, and which aims to reveal the answers to some of the most challenging questions about work. What is special about the best teams?
Why do we follow one leader and not another? How can we make more teams like our best teams and more leaders like our best leaders?
The new approaches he has pioneered address everything from performance management to feedback, to team activation technology, to real-time team intelligence, to social network mapping, to strengths-based leadership—and together this challenge much of the conventional wisdom of work today.
Ashley is the co-author, with Marcus Buckingham, of Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World (Harvard Business Review Press, April 2019), and of two cover stories in the Harvard Business Review: The Feedback Fallacy, (March/April 2019), and Reinventing Performance Management, (April 2015).
Links:
CISCO Executive Bio – Ashley Goodall
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!
086 Grumpy Old Geek Stuff: Jason DeFillippo
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He’s back! Podcast legend and co-host of Grumpy Old Geeks podcast, Jason DeFillippo joins us for another dynamic conversation about the world of podcasting. They also touched a few recent topics about “who should be allowed at Disney World,” “why FaceApp is scarier than Facebook and Instagram” and many more!
Podcasting Is Alive!
In episode 006, Jason DeFillippo joined Christopher Lochhead to discuss a lot of random but viral topics. In this episode, DeFillippo did not disappoint as he shared his views on a lot of topics, firstly, about podcasting.
“Those people are like you and I, we stick around and we get through the tough times. We’re not here to make a quick buck. We’re not here to turn a profit on 10 episodes or 6 episodes, on an iPhone on a library. You gotta put in the work.” – Jason DeFillippo
DeFillippo shared his comments about news writers who dub podcasting as dead. In unison, Lochhead shared statistics to prove that podcasting is, indeed, growing. They exchanged stories as hosts, such as their experiences with booking and rejecting guests and advertisers.
“I’m a craftsman, I’m an artist. I love to make new things. I love to try new things, that’s why I love podcasting. There’s always something new to learn but people who come into this, all they want to do is make money and that’s almost everybody that’s coming in now.” – Jason DeFillippo
Viral Issues: Where do you stand?
For a breather, Lochhead cites some viral stories and takes the standpoint of DeFillippo.
Lochhead cites the Disney rant — where a mom’s rant about long queues and childless millennials in Disney World, goes viral. They also discussed Apple’s Siri recordings apparently sent out to contractors for analysis. DeFillippo believes it will not hurt the company in any way, just like how Facebook stock prices rose up after paying fines to the government.
In relation to Security threats raised by Morgan Wright in Episode 84, about deep fakes and Russian FaceApp, DeFillippo brushed these events aside.
“Who cares? This is useless data. These photos? They could get that in the internet already. They care about a lot of other things, but a picture of you? No, ‘cause they’re looking at numbers. They care about your behavior and your demographics and how they can influence you.” – Jason DeFillippo
Moreover, Lochhead and DeFillippo discussed more recent top stories such as Equifax paying $125 for filling up a simple form and for bizarre stories, about a woman cuddling a giant pet snail. They sure did had fun having a rundown on these top and viral stories.
To hear more about podcasting, viral stories and more relevant information from Jason, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Jason is a full-time podcast producer and editor for The Jordan Harbinger Show as well as the Creator and Co-host of the Grumpy Old Geeks Podcast.
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 1994 he created the groundbreaking website Spewww which was nominated for a Webby in the first year the awards were held in 1998.
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 service as well as co-founded the global blog network Metroblogging.
He has worked at several startups in San Francisco including Technorati and 8020 Media, the publishers of JPGMagazine.com, and statistical aggregator Metricly.
Links:
Some of the topics covered:
Childless millennials have no place at Disney World and should be banned, tired mom rants
Siri recordings ‘regularly’ sent to Apple contractors for analysis, claims whistleblower
‘Deepfakes’ Trigger a Race to Fight Manipulated Photos and Videos
Why you probably won’t actually get $125 from the Equifax settlement
Woman inseparable from giant pet snail that she loves cuddling on sofa
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!
085 Conversations vs Interviews
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In this episode, Christopher Lochhead shares some insights about conversations (or dialogue) and interviews. Two gentlemen, a guy who messaged him on Linkedin and actor Tom Hanks, were the inspiration for this episode. Both underscored the difference between real conversation and typical interviews.
Safe, bankable and professional
Tom Hanks is one of the most successful and cleanest, most professional, family-friendly actors of all time. His movies have grossed over $5 Billion. He would unlikely get drunk and urinate in a hotel lobby on a press tour — which is why Disney hired him.
To shine a light on our topic, Tom Hanks was recently on Jimmy Kimmel to promote the newest Toy Story. He talked about how Disney enforced strict control over what he can and can not say about the movie.
“Ever wonder why you rarely hear a Fortune 500 CEO say anything interesting? Ever wonder why politicians don’t really answer questions? High profile people have been taught by lawyers and PR people to ‘bridge back’ to their talking points.” – Christopher Lochhead
Everything is Scripted
As Lochhead observed, many politicians, celebrities and even CEOs say the same thing over and over again during interviews. The reason for this is: it is scripted!
Interviews are almost 100% predictable and inauthentic — from the host looks, clothes to the shots, content, and substance. The whole interview focuses on PR talking points, legal constraints, predetermined narrative. Further, the whole “conversation” is rehearsed in advance.
“Interviews are more like classical music. Conversations are different. They are more like rock ‘n roll; they feel a little more exciting and are free form.” – Christopher Lochhead
Conversations are like rock and roll
Conversations are different, as most of the time, the guest and host go off-script. Interestingly, one guy from Linkedin messaged Lochhead and provided feedback. He mentioned things such as “make it shorter, edit it to cut out the non-essential parts and seems not prepared enough in terms of the questions, seems more like an informal conversation.”
Lochhead further explained that that was not the objective of this podcast. However, he does understand that this style of odd-cast is not for everyone.
“People think out loud. They jam. They go beyond well rehearse lines. As a marketing guy, I’ve understood this for a long time. Conversations are way more interesting than interviews.” – Christopher Lochhead
In this episode, we included some of the feedback we received from listeners about how they would describe the podcast to a friend.
To hear more about conversations vs interviews and more relevant information from Christopher, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher advised over 50 venture-backed startups. He is a venture capital limited partner and a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO, entrepreneur. In addition, he co-authored two bestsellers: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
After he flunked school, with few other options, Christopher started his first company at the age of 18.
He was a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard, in 2006, acquired that company for $4.5 billion.
Further, he also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD. Christopher was the founder/CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient. He also served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Christopher loves his family and friends. He thinks the Ramones are legendary and loves riding the mountains and waves of Northern California.
Link:
Tom Hanks Revealed the Secret of How He Avoids Dropping Toy Story 4 Spoilers
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!
084 Security w/ Morgan Wright
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Today’s fun, informative and somewhat terrifying conversation is with Morgan Wright, Senior Advisor in the US State Department on Antiterrorism. Wright, with 18 years of state and local law enforcement experience, shares pressing stories about China, AI and what Russia did with data from FaceApp and some valuable information about quantum encryption.
An uptight, drill sergeant, with no personality…NOT!
Morgan Wright has 18 years of background with law enforcement and is a National Security opinion writer at TheHill.com. Hundreds of television interviews about security featured Morgan. New York Times best-of selling author has quoted him as well.
He had a background with behavioral assessment and damage assessment—which span from different areas of security such as bomb threats, espionage and illegal importation of dangerous drugs. Amidst these descriptions, one would expect that he is an uptight, drill sergeant with no personality, but he is definitely not.
What’s up with Russian FaceApp?
In our previous episode with Tom Siebel, he quoted in his book a statement from Vladimir Putin, which reads “AI is the future, not only for Russia but for all humankind. Whoever becomes a leader of this sphere becomes the ruler of the world.”
Wright agreed with Lochhead on this quote. He said there are two things the U.S. Security is worried about now. The first one is the impact of AI and machine learning and what it can do with this information. The second one is the offensive capability of what is going on with Google, Microsoft, and China and Russia, where they are building their versions of Robocops.
“I started looking out for deepfakes not so long ago, not for this Scarlett Johansson and how you make porn stuff out of it. What if, I can show a video that appeared to be the Commanding General telling his troops to “stand down, hold on a minute” — just long enough for one of our adversaries to launch a strategic attack against us.” – Morgan Wright
More Security Threat
Wright discusses the real impact AI—from a psychological standpoint, distant information standpoint and kinetic standpoint. He further tells us facts about quantum encryption and what makes it troubling for national security.
“We now have to worry about our troops having to fight armies — that are supplied with technology by American companies.” – Morgan Wright
To hear more about security issues and more relevant information from Morgan, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Internationally community recognizes Morgan as an expert on cybersecurity strategy, cyberterrorism, identity theft, and privacy.
He is President and Chief Development Officer for RadiusAI.
He currently serves as a Senior Fellow at The Center for Digital Government. In addition
, he is a national security opinion contributor to TheHill.com.
Morgan’s landmark testimony before Congress on Healthcare.gov changed how the government collected personally identifiable information.
He appeared in hundreds of interviews on national news, radio, print, and web. These include CNBC, Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, ABC, NPR, NBC and more. Previously, Morgan was a Senior Advisor in the US State Department Antiterrorism Assistance Program. He is also a Senior Law Enforcement Advisor for the 2012 Republican National Convention.
In addition to 18 years in state and local law enforcement, Morgan has developed solutions in defense, justice, and intelligence for the largest technology companies in the world including SAIC, Unisys, Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco.
He’s a contributing author for the 4th Edition Computer Security Handbook. He has been quoted in 2 New York Times bestsellers—Sharyl Attkisson: Stonewalled and Carmine Gallow: Talk Like TED.
Links:
America’s Enigma problem with China: The threat of quantum computing, TheHill.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!
083 A Legendary Executive, Sue Barsamian
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Today, we hang out with an amazing and effective executive, Sue Barsamian. Sue recounts the early beginnings of her career, her challenging job at Mercury Interactive with Christopher and her not-really-a-retirement retirement. In this episode, find out why people dream about having her career.
Challenges After Challenges
Sue has an engineering background that might have contributed to her natural passion for creating, building and solving things. She worked with Christopher at Mercury, which was sold at $5B to HP. She stayed with HP and was assigned to run a billion-dollar cybersecurity business.
“HP gave me a chance to test myself at a scale that I have never tested myself, ‘can you lead 4000 people, can you do 10,000 at P&L?’ Its a different ball game and you’ll never know until you tried it, so that was fun, I had a blast.” – Sue Barsamian
She went ahead to become the head of Sales and Marketing for Software at HP—a role that is unusually given to a single executive. At present, she’s on the board of Symantec ($15B), Box ($2.5) and privately held Gainsight, Xactly. She retired from the operations side of the business but still held a seat at the board.
Keep on Evolving
Sue admits she had a good run in her 36 years in the business. She worked with 8 companies have had around 25 roles overall.
“Nothing in my resume that would say ‘she could do that.’ One of the things about staying in a company is, companies take a risk on people they could stretch and that benefitted me tremendously through my career.” – Sue Barsamian
Other than staying with a company, she stressed the importance of working well with people. She admits that she loves working with different people of different cultures, surviving different situations. She has learned how to understand people and help them become successful
Career Tips to Ponder
Sue Barsamian shares a lot of career tips in this episode. She gives special importance to understanding people and how they have a part to play on the path to success. Giving due credit and acknowledging employees as heroes also do wonders.
“In order to get things done in a company, you need to move mountains that don’t report you. At the end of the day, if you are not about other people’s success, if its all about you and you taking credit to all of your work personally, you’ll crash and burn.” – Sue Barsamian
To hear more about the legendary executive Sue Barsamian and more relevant information from Sue, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Sue Barsamian is a seasoned technology veteran with experience in both startups and major public enterprises.
Her background spans in general management, marketing, sales and engineering.
She serves on the boards of Symantec, Box, Gainsight, and Xactly.
Previously she served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Software, successfully spinning the division out from HPE and merging with Micro Focus International, plc to form the 7th largest software company in the world.
From 2006 to 2016, Ms. Barsamian served in various executive roles at Hewlett Packard including SVP and GM of Enterprise Security Products, the company’s cybersecurity portfolio and SVP of Worldwide Indirect Sales.
Prior to joining Hewlett Packard, Ms. Barsamian was Vice President, Global Go-to-Market at Mercury Interactive Corporation and held various leadership positions at Critical Path, Inc. and Verity, Inc.
She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Kansas State University and completed her post-graduate studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Links:
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!
