Follow Your Different
073 Why Dyslexia is a Superpower w/ Gibby Booth Jasper
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Gibby Booth Jasper, host of podcast Dyslexia is a Superpower, joins us today for a powerful dialogue about the learning difference Dyslexia. As a coach and advocate, Gibby talks about real life experiences of Dyslexics as well as the challenges and triumphs that go along with it.
Dyslexia is a Superpower
Gibby Booth Jasper believes that the real value of being dyslexic is the power of having a different mind. Dyslexics look at problems differently. It enables different solutions and in turn develops a person’s tenacity and determination.
Many people look at dyslexia as a disability. However, it can be noted that a learning difference is never a hindrance to achieve personal goals. Just look at famous dyslexic people such as John F. Kennedy, George Washington, Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, Richard Branson and Steven Spielberg, to name a few.
“They say everybody has a mountain to climb, but with dyslexia, your mountain has lava flowing, it has wild boars and all these obstacles. When you finally get to the top, you are able to accomplish so much more.” – Gibby Booth Jasper
Dyslexics Daily Struggle
Gibby believes dyslexics can connect the dots and solve problems differently. However, society has put on a standard on activities like writing, reading, and solving Math—which makes it hard for dyslexics to cope. Other than that, they do have spatial awareness problems, which is the difficulty of differentiating the left and the right.
Gibby and Christopher exchanged personal experiences, as both are dyslexic themselves. Gibby recounter how traumatized she is with gas stations, as she cannot figure out moving forward and backward with her car. Christopher also shared some experiences, especially in self-check out counters in grocery stores and with tipping and counting money.
“Spatial problems, self-checkout counters, counting money. Those are the kind of things that can be normally linked to dyslexia, so if you do see someone struggling, that might be it. Go help that someone” – Gibby Booth Jasper
Empowering Dyslexics
In dealing with dyslexia, Gibby stated the importance of informing their child that they are unique and different in a good way. Parents must reassure their children that nothing is wrong with them and assist them in building self-confidence.
“I think being able to look at it as ‘letting go of things because I can’t control them.’ Just have a sense of humor, because, in the grand scheme of life, it doesn’t matter” – Gibby Booth Jasper on struggles in doing daily activities
The real challenge for a dyslexic lies on their ability to play out strengths and to empower themselves while dealing with the existing society.
We hope you enjoyed Gibby Booth Jasper on 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!
BIO:
Links:
072 Why Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos & many others turned to “The Coach” Bill Campbell
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Randy Komisar of Kleiner Perkins joins us today to celebrate the life and lessons of legendary Silicon Valley coach, late Bill Campbell. Guest Randy Komisar, along with colleague Paul Martino of Bullpen Capital, came together to capture Bill in a podcast. Bill was the coach to Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and countless Silicon Valley legends.
Depicting The Real Bill
Bill was featured in a book called Trillion Dollar Coach, prior to the release of Randy and Paul’s podcast. The content of the book were flattering, but the title was so off-putting. It sets the wrong tone for understanding what BIll is all about.
“Bill wasn’t a guy with a big theory. He’s not that guy who has rules like ‘10 rules to be successful.’ He was somebody who connected incredibly well with who you were and what you need and was able to get you there.” – Randy Komisar
Bill was associated with a trillion dollars worth of value creation. He was not a highfalutin guy who would’ve wanted to be in the cover of a book. They were able to capture the real Bill, more than what the book portrayed him to be, through this podcast.
Paying it Forward
Randy and Paul had the opportunity to learn and share their respect and admiration for Bill and they want to pay it forward, through the production of their podcast. They wish that the entrepreneurs for the generations to come would be able to do the same.
Entrepreneurs could get a lot of inspiration from Bill. Randy even cited that if it was not for Bill, he would have quit business a long time ago.
“Bill made business interesting for me and many people because he made it about people, not money.” – Randy Komisar
Learnings From The Late Bill Campbell
One important point from this discussion was the difference in doing what is right versus what is smart. Bill believes smart people are great at rationalizing. Most of these people, though, still tend to overthink a problem and justify doing the wrong things.
“The right thing and the smart thing aren’t necessarily the same. The right thing is worth doing, but the smart thing needs a lot of consideration. It may be smart because it allows you to do the wrong.” – Randy Komisar
This conversation with Randy Komisar is jam-packed with Bill Campbell’s wisdom in entrepreneurship, people management, Silicon Valley legacy.
To hear more about Why Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos & many others turned to “The Coach” Bill Campbell and more relevant information from Randy, download and listen to the episode.
BIO:
Links:
Straight Talk for Startups – Book
The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living – Book
Executives Launch Podcast To Pass On Lessons From Bill Campbell, Coach To Silicon Valley Stars
Executives Launch Podcast To Pass On Lessons From Bill Campbell, Coach To Silicon Valley Stars
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!
071 How to design a company that people are lining up to work for
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Inspired by his conversation with Bob Evans at Cloud Wars Live, Christopher Lochhead talks about radical ideas involving employee happiness, growth, and satisfaction as key determinants in designing a company that people are lining up to work for.
Americans are Unhappy at Work
Christopher shares the alarming truth of today’s workforce: Americans are unhappy with their jobs. In fact, in episode 056, guest Jim Harter discussed the rapid decline in the rate of productivity at work. Thirty-four percent (34%) of the 37.2 million American respondents surveyed said that they were not engaged.
“If most employees say they are not engaged, and most managers say they are not engaged, then there’s something off with the typical work environment—what most people would call culture.” – Christopher Lochhead
Algebra of Happiness
In episode 052, Professor Scott Galloway related how happiness can be plotted as a graph.
A person’s happiness level starts relatively high until it slowly declines in a phase called “shit gets real stage.” Contributors to these low levels may include raising children, financial instability and crazy work life. After the dip, it goes up over time as a person reaches age 45 to 55.
Amazing Culture at CutCo
Listeners might remember from episode 044, Dan Casetta and his amazing culture at Cutco. Inexperienced high school graduates and working students make up his workforce. The company runs by its mantra, “changing lives while selling knives” and it has been successful with its recruitment, training, and inculturation.
The Takeaway
How do these ideas intersect? The vast majority of people felt disengaged at work. However, this is not the case at Cutco. Christopher acknowledges the industries today have a cultural, engagement problem.
“If part of creating jobs is creating an environment for them to become fully self-actualized, then most companies are dramatically failing.” – Christopher Lochhead
If companies would only infuse into their culture the mentality of personality development—where they teach employees life skills, career skills, sales skills, and relationship skills—then people would definitely be lining up to work for them.
Christopher poses two points to ponder. First, could we change the level of engagement? Second, can we actually, meaningfully increase the amount of happiness the people have during the core part of their career?
To hear more about Christopher’s take on designing a company that people are lining up to work for, download and listen to the episode. Got a question for Christopher? Email him at bl*******@******ad.com.
Link:
Book-It’s The Manager by Jim Harter
*******@******ad.com. Link: Book – It’s The Manager by Jim Harter Episode 056 – Jim Harter Episode 052 – Professor Scott Galloway Episode 044 – Dan Casetta 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!”> Jim Harter – *********@******ad.com.%20%20Link:%20%20Book%20-%20It%E2%80%99s%20The%20Manager%20by%20Jim%20Harter%20%20Episode%20056%20-%20Jim%20Harter%20%20Episode%20052%20-%20Professor%20Scott%20Galloway%20%20Episode%20044%20-%20Dan%20Casetta%20%20We%20hope%20you%20enjoyed%20this%20episode%20of%20Follow%20Your%20Different%E2%84%A2!%20Christopher%20loves%20hearing%20from%20his%20listeners.%20Feel%20free%20to%C2%A0email%C2%A0him,%20connect%20on%C2%A0Facebook,%C2%A0Twitter,%C2%A0Instagram%C2%A0and%20subscribe%20on%C2%A0iTunes!”>Episode 056
Professor Scott Galloway – Episode 052
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!
070 Alternative Investing w/ Eric Satz
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Eric Satz, CEO of Alto IRA and retirement planning advocate, joins us in today’s episode. He is on a mission to enable everyone to invest their retirement money in alternative investments. He actively campaigns for drastic information dissemination among retirees to save them from potential poverty in the future.
Diversifying Investments
Regular listeners might remember the teachings of prior guests like David Osborne or Pat Hiban or Dorie Clark. These smart people recommend a diverse investment strategy that creates multiple income streams over time. Such a strategy will help investors achieve the amazing goal of having investments pay for all expenses.
Eric Satz also promulgates diversifying investments, especially for retirees. He acknowledges the importance of various platforms today, where resources can be easily uploaded and disseminated. Eric and his team from Alto IRA provide information on alternative investments such as private startups, growth companies, real estate, loans, and digital assets and currencies.
“The idea is to open up areas of investment that have the potential to generate higher returns, higher yield and greater levels of current income—so that we are all in a better position to retire.” – Eric Satz
Alarming Truths About Retirement
Eric started his mission with straightforward and entrepreneurial motivation. There is a huge market opportunity of 30 trillion US dollars, sitting in retirement savings. However, only 1% of this amount is invested in alternative assets, instead of around 10 or 20%.
“Investing is proactive, saving is passive. If we don’t change the way we invest, 25 million Americans—elderly Americans—basically will be living in poverty.” – Eric Satz
Eric wanted to fight the conventional wisdom of financial advisors. He considers America to be under a retirement crisis up until 2050. He promotes diversification in investing in businesses commonly considered by upper-middle-class and the elites, like real estate.
Save and Invest
Further, into this episode, Lochhead mentions the importance of having investments while saving on the side.
He further says that retirees should take the opportunity to invest aggressively because of the changing of public-market-private-market dynamics. With a projected 46% increase in capital gains annually, an avid saver can plot his or her retirement early.
To hear more about alternative investing and more relevant information from Eric, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Eric Satz, Founder/CEO Alto IRA
An entrepreneur and former investment banker, Eric worked for DLJ/Credit Suisse First Boston before co-founding Currenex, Plumgood Food, and Tennessee Community Ventures, a VC firm.
Eric served on the Board of the TVA from 2015-January 2019, and he teaches an entrepreneurship class to high school students.
A Miami native and diehard ‘Canes and Dolphins fan, Eric went to Amherst College.
After years in NYC and then San Francisco, he and his wife moved to Nashville, her hometown, to raise their kids.
When he’s not breathing life into startup companies, Eric loves to ski, play soccer, and practice yoga.
Links:
Alto Ira Raises Seed Round – Hypepotamus
Will Wall Street be able to earn the trust of younger investors
Book: Rescuing Retirement: A Plan to Guarantee Retirement Security for All Americans
We hope you enjoyed Eric Satz on 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 Trust w/ Christian Anschuetz & Bob Evans
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In this episode, former Marine and Entrepreneur Christian Anschuetz and Bob Evans, host of “Cloud Wars Live” podcast, joins us for a conversation about the connection between trust and happiness. They explore the dichotomy of why trust has never mattered more but remains so low in major institutions.
Trust is Collapsing
The conversation starts about personal definitions of trust and how trust and love coincide. The guests share anecdotes on their personal lives and ultimately, how trust adds to overall happiness in any relationship. Given the background of the guests, the discussion took a quick turn in discussing the trust issues of consumers to institutions.
“Whether it’s on a corporate level or a personal level, who we are, on a large part, is the promise or commitment that we make and whether or not we keep those promises or commitment.” – Christian Anscheutz
According to PR Firm Edleman, only 48% of people trust the government and 47% trust the media. Moreover, The Atlantic says, “Trust Is Collapsing in America.” Major corporations are not exempt from this discussion.
Breaking Promises
At a fundamental level, businesses are expected to have a set of commitments and promises around a product and service. These things make customers come back to the product/brand. However, we live at a time where a lot of major institutions have broken a lot of major promises to consumers, resulting in a massive takedown of trust.
“Trust is being eroded and trust is being created and both seem to be happening on a rocket speed today.” – Bob Evans
Christian and Bob observed that as big companies rise, failure in internal leadership, model setting, and problem recognition also results. It may be an advanced world now. However, these companies have no clue in keeping their customers’ trust.
Overriding Policies
Internally, policies guide management decisions, while externally, policies help the company lead in new markets. However, policies don’t square well most of the time, especially in terms of bridging the gap between the consumer and the company. No matter how much employees want to help consumers, their hands are tied because of certain company policies.
“How do companies fail to see this and how do they fail to act? It’s not a matter of doing stuff a little better or being more efficient. This is survival and death.” -Bob Evans
To further enhance personalization with consumers, Christian and Bob suggest that companies should explore Artificial Intelligence in customer service. AI can understand a consumer’s profile and history. It can contextualize an appropriate response without causing risks for the company.
To hear more about trust from Christian and Bob, download and listen to the episode.
Bios:
Chief Digital Officer, UL
Christian Anschuetz is the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) for UL (formerly known as Underwriters Laboratories) where he is responsible for identifying, prioritizing and embedding technology innovation and digital trends into the vision, strategy, and operating models required to sustain and accelerate the company’s growth. Before assuming the role of CDO, he served as UL’s global Chief Information Officer (CIO).
Before joining UL, Christian was the CIO for Publicis Groupe, the 3rd largest communication company in the world.
In addition to holding several other executive positions, Christian also founded a technology services boutique focused on providing cybersecurity services to firms as early as 1998.
Christian holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Stayer University. He is a proud veteran of the United States Marine Corps and the founder of the innovative nonprofit startup, Project RELO.
Bob Evans
Bob grew up outside of Pittsburg, with hard-working parents and his 6 siblings. He 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. Later on, 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 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:
Christian Anscheutz – Linkedin
We hope you enjoyed Bob Evans and Christian Anscheutz on 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 Can Women & Men Work Together? w/ Shelly Witzke
In this episode, Shelly Witzke joins us to discuss her work relationship with men and with Lochhead in particular. They both have worked together as software salespeople and have developed a close but very professional connection. They talk about how men and women behave in the workplace pre-MeToo movement, establishing common respect for the opposite sex and the subjectivity of interpreting words and actions.
#MeToo Movement
In 2017, the #MeToo Movement went viral as social media users attempted to demonstrate the prevalence of sexual harassment. Different people felt strongly about the event. It gave rise to a common point of discussion in the workplace—can men and women still work together?
“I feel that the common reaction of male to the #MeToo movement is, ‘Don’t even.’” – Shelly Witzke
In this interview, Shelly shares valuable insights such as: how men think differently from women; how women can protect themselves by intuitively deciphering a person’s character and how reputation and patterns of behavior towards other people are important in dealing with the opposite sex.
Respect Begets Respect
Shelly Witzke has her fair share of #MeToo stories. She says that men have also been protective of themselves in the workplace. Men nowadays consider working with women risky, even more so if work requires traveling with the opposite sex. The stories of today differ from her personal and professional stories with Lochhead, as they used to spend loads of time together. There was never a time where Shelly felt she needed to evaluate her work relationship with Christopher. He was clearly respectful of all his colleagues.
“It was obvious from your actions and words that you have utmost respect to human beings and women, no different. Perhaps that’s partly where the trust factor [came from]. Maybe it starts there, maybe it’s built there.” – Shelly Witzke on Christopher Lochhead
Context Is Everything
Aside from a person’s reliability, one can note that the feeling of threat is highly dependent on each person. A man can utter profanity and be very vocal about his opinions. However, because of his respectful character, he may not offend the opposite sex.
“From that perspective, it never crossed my mind that I had to guard myself or be careful. I think that’s a big part of our relationship, my feeling of safety.” – Shelly Witzke
A man and a woman can have a peaceful working relationship, just like what Shelly and Christopher have. This can be achieved if the feeling of “safety” is established from the beginning of the relationship. To hear more about how men and women can work effectively together and more relevant information from Shelly, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
A software rep in the ‘90’s working with accounting firms and family businesses, Shelly made a bold choice to retire at the height of her career at the age of 33.
Unwilling to continue her life as it was, she forged into the unknown frontier of being a stay at home mom to let her with business degree languish in the idyllic green hills north of Toronto.
Humbled by parenting, she began to appreciate other moms, and now believes that parenthood forces our hand at leadership skills when we are least prepared.
Shelly holds an honors bachelor of commerce degree from Lakehead University, and today teaches bread baking in her kitchen and in unique online experiences to bring the smell of fresh bread into every kitchen.
Spending time with this warm hearted woman, you will crave feeling the blissful softness of proofing dough, delight in the intoxicating smell of homemade bread and learn to listen for the faint crackling of a hot crust as it starts to cool. She hopes that craving will be the beginning of a love affair with your kitchen and your life.
Links:
Instagram.com/insideyourcupboards
We hope you enjoyed Shelly 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
067 CEO Whisperer Jerry Colonna Reboot
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WIRED calls Jerry Colonna the CEO Whisperer. He believes better human beings make better leaders. Today, he joins Lochhead in a fun and deep adult conversation about his new book, Reboot, and about growing up, what it takes to become a warrior leader and a lot more.
Writing a Book He Would Read
Jerry shares that Reboot is the only book he could write. Anything else would have been complete and utter bullshit. After all, he has had too many scars to bullshit his way through life.
He didn’t even know what he wanted to write when he received his agent’s offer. But soon he realized that they wanted him to be himself and show up. And the experience, coupled with his readers’ reactions, could easily reduce him to tears.
“I wrote the book that I needed to read 20 years ago.” – Jerry Colonna
Words Coming from Life
Towards the beginning of his book, Jerry ran by some of the many hardships people could go through. A co-founder quitting, investors pulling funding, spouses giving up, and many more. Every one of these instances is not some theoretical experience and can happen to anyone.
Such are the moments to stare deeply into our own experience and ask ourselves some important questions. What are we made out of, what have we chosen? But more broadly, in what ways have we been complicit in creating conditions we don’t want?
“It’s much easier to look at the world and say, ‘Why are you doing this to me? Why is this happening to me?’ But that’s uninteresting.” – Jerry Colonna
Complicit Versus Responsible
In writing his book, Jerry used the word “complicit” purposefully. He says that it differs from “responsible”, in that being complicit is like “going along with” and also unconscious. And like Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung said, until we make the unconscious conscious, it will direct our lives and we will call it fate.
We can realize how we become complicit in creating such conditions by answering the question of how they have served us. After all, that which persists does so because it delivers something.
“We might maintain structures not in our best interest because they serve this sort of larger wish for love, safety and belonging.” – Jerry Colonna
To hear more about Reboot, warrior leaders with open hearts and more life-altering nuggets from Jerry, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
The founder and CEO of Reboot.IO, Inc. Colonna is a certified professional coach.
Colonna draws on his wide variety of experiences to help clients design a more conscious life and make needed changes to their career to improve their performance and satisfaction.
He established his coaching practice in 2007. Prior to this work, Colonna was a venture capitalist focused on investing in early-stage technology-related startups.
In 2002, Colonna became a partner with J.P. Morgan Partners (JPMP), the private-equity arm of J.P. Morgan Chase where he led the firm’s investments in companies such as ProfitLogic, Inc.
Colonna served as a director at ProfitLogic until its purchase by Oracle, Inc.
During his time at JPMP, his commitment to the non-profit sector increased significantly. In the fall of 2001, he worked with The Partnership for the City of New York to help launch the Financial Recovery Fund, a $10 million-plus program that made recoverable grants to small businesses impacted by the attacks on the World Trade Center.
He was named co-Executive Director of NYC2012 in January 2002, the organization designed to secure the City’s designation as the representation in the competition to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
In that year, he helped raise more than $6 million to further those efforts.
He joined JPMP from Flatiron Partners.
With his partner, Fred Wilson, Colonna launched Flatiron in August 1996. Flatiron became one of the most successful, early-stage investment programs.
During his tenure with Flatiron, Colonna was responsible for the firm’s investments in companies such as Geocities Inc. and Gamesville Inc. Colonna joined his first venture firm, CMG@Ventures L.P. in February 1995 as a founding partner.
CMG@Ventures was the first “Internet-specific” venture firm.
Prior to joining @Ventures, Colonna worked for ten years for CMP Media, Inc.
From 1985 to 1993, he served in a variety of roles at InformationWeek, including a three-year stint as its Editor.
Colonna also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees at Naropa University. Naropa University comprises a four-year undergraduate college and graduate programs in the arts, education, environmental leadership, psychology and religious studies.
It is the only accredited Buddhist-inspired university in North America.
He also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Tibetan Village Project, a not-for-profit, non-political organization dedicated to creating sustainable livelihoods for Tibetans through social entrepreneurship and educational opportunities.
He is also a director at the Good Work Institute, whose mission is to educate and connect a network of local community members and actively support their collaborative efforts to regenerate their places.
The recipient of numerous awards and a compelling speaker on topics ranging from leadership to starting businesses, Colonna has been named to Forbes ASAP’s list of the best VCs and Worth’s list of the 25 most generous young Americans.
A graduate of Queens College, Colonna lives in Boulder, Colo.
Links:
WIRED – This Man Makes Founders Cry
We hope you enjoyed Jerry Colonna on 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!
066 Marketing Assassin Rick Bennett
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Rick Bennett, Silicon Valley’s advertising and marketing secret weapon, joins us for the last installation of this four-part series on Marketing.
He specializes in guerrilla warfare marketing and has been the secret advertising weapon to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs for over 30 years. Two of his most spectacular successes are Oracle and Salesforce.com, working with both Larry Ellison and Marc Benioff, respectively.
“I like to do Marketing that causes emergency board meetings and CEO firings at my competitors.” – Christopher’s favorite expression from Rick Bennett
Sharing Best Practices
Having worked together in Silicon Valley, Lochhead considers Rick as one of his “Masters.” Rick is one of the advertising senseis in the field who has been humbled by the experience but is highly regarded in the industry. To Christopher’s surprise, Rick also shared how he extracts one-liners from one of his bestselling books, Niche Down: How to Be Legendary by Being Different.
Rick Bennett, dubbed as The OG (Original Gangster)—a modern-day technology Adman—has successfully implemented uniquely-crafted marketing campaigns. He stressed the importance of one-of-a-kind advertising.
“Ellison’s law states that you are not allowed to say anything that one of your competitors would say—whether in website, email, anywhere—so I insist on enforcing that to my clients too.” – Rick Bennett
Guerilla Marketing: Making Generals Surrender
Rick shared some important insights about guerilla marketing. One of the goals of guerilla warfare is to make the generals of the opposing army make mistakes.
“My ads will attack your competition like a pack of speedy, crazed wolverines” – Rick Bennett
He said, “Demoralize the generals of the opposing army, then they’ll make mistakes. You have your investors to say, ‘Hey we have a winner here’ and you have to make the employees feel that their boss is kicking ass.”
In the end, marketers should aim for a campaign where you make opposing generals psychologically surrender, even before any battle has begun.
To hear more about the interview with Guerilla Marketing Guru Rick Bennett, download and listen to the episode.
BIO:
Rick Bennett specializes in guerrilla warfare marketing.
He’s been the secret advertising weapon to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs for over 30 years.
Two of his most spectacular successes are Oracle and Salesforce.com.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed Rick Bennett on 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!
065 The Power of Niche Networks w/ Gina Bianchini
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Gina Bianchini is a pioneering entrepreneur in social networking and the founder of Mighty Networks. Today, she speaks again with her bro Lochhead. They talk about building digital communities and why the future is about creating niche networks.
“The more and more isolated that we all feel in our daily lives, the more valuable each and every one of these niche brands and businesses that can create compelling experiences.” – Gina Bianchini
Mighty Networks from a Year Ago
Mighty Networks has always been a platform for creators with a purpose. They cater to people—brands and businesses—that want to bring people together and build relationships. In turn, community members can learn and access content together while creators get paid what they are due.
All of that while helping other people become the best versions of themselves. Which is pretty cool because this is the job that everybody wants today.
On Building Niche Networks
Gina came to realize that the notion of finding one’s niche has become fundamental in social networking. That is, people are not only hungry for discovering their niches. They seek people who can put up niche networks.
“We’re all desperate for smaller, more specialized ways of building relationships, having amazing experiences and gaining expertise. The people that can put that together for us will win in a way that has just not been possible before.” – Gina Bianchini
Niche brands, businesses and creators with a purpose are creating their own worlds to help people. Gina says that the faster we all get to that world, the better off we all will be.
The Value Created by Mighty Networks
In a previous episode, Joe Pine shared with Lochhead the difference between being a company that people save time with and one that people spend time with. He says that Mighty Networks is very well on its way to becoming the latter. That is, if it isn’t already.
“Who you bring together matters as much or more to their experience with your brand and the kind of time they wanna spend with your brand as any single thing that you can do as that creator, as that brand.” – Gina Bianchini
To hear more about niche networks from Gina, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Gina Bianchini (Twitter: @ginab) is an entrepreneur, investor and the CEO and founder of Mighty Networks, a new type of social network platform for creating communities.
An early pioneer in social networking, she was CEO of Ning, which she co-founded with entrepreneur and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.
Prior to Ning, Bianchini was co-founder and president of Harmonic Communications which was acquired by Dentsu.
She has also held positions at CKS Group and Goldman Sachs & Co.
She graduated from Stanford University in 1994 and has been featured on the cover of Fortune magazine, on Charlie Rose and appeared in many top business publications.
Links:
Strategy + Business – The global village needs walls
We hope you enjoyed Gina Bianchini on 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!
