Episodes
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The Lesson:
Expressing genuine interest in learning, in a job, in what other people have to say, in showing up even when you aren't necessarily needed, this is a behavior which boardrooms around the world will want to vacuum up, as long as one makes certain they see it.
Notable Excerpt:
âOne of the things I've learned is that every human adds value to our collective story; you have to believe that. If you're really going to believe in making the world a better place, you have to believe that every human adds value. And if you believe that then you're open to having meaningful conversations with everyone no matter where they are in this moment in life, so I don't care if I'm on a bus, or a plane, or a train, or the street, or the slum, or the boardroom, I'm genuinely interested in learning from the people next to me."
The Guest: Carrie Rich believes in making the world better through business and leadership. That is why she co-founded The Global Good Fund ten years ago to invest in high potential, overlooked social entrepreneurs. Many entrepreneurs need access to capital to scale, so she went on to found and manage the Global Impact Fund, which is dedicated to investing in socially impactful businesses primarily led by black, brown and women founders. Carrie's fourth book, Impact The World: Live Your Values and Drive Changes as a Citizen Statesperson, was published by Wiley in May 2022 and is now a WSJ and Amazon Best Seller. Carrie is the recipient of the POLITICO Women Who Rule Award, Washington Business Journal 40 under 40, Entrepreneur.com Top 30 Start-ups to Watch, Stevie Award for Women in Business, Asian Social Innovation CEO of the Year, Social Enterprise Alliance 50 under 40, and Empact100. Carrie's fundamental message is about accessibility - everyday people can empower themselves and others. Episode Resources: Carrie Rich | TwitterGlobal Good Fund | WebsiteGlobal Good Fund | TwitterGlobal Good Fund | Instagram -
The Lesson:
Everyone can make an impact if they give 10%âeffort, time, money, etc. to ensuring that across all dimensions of life they are making a positive impact rather than a negative one. Sometimes it takes a hard look in the mirror, but it's always worth it in the end.
Notable Excerpt:
"[Do] an audit of your life across all the different categories. So career and job is one of them, but also your money, volunteering, your side-hustles, your family or the institutions you're part of, look at all your life and first start rating it by how much time are you spending on these categories and then whether you're having a positive-neutral-negative effect."
The Guest:
Alex has spent over 15 years working in the social impact space for one of the largest children's nonprofits. Save the Children and the Clinton Foundation. She now leads MIT SOLVE.
As a founding Executive Director of Solve. Alex has built and now oversees a fast-growing team whose mission is to drive innovation, to solve global challenges. How do they do that? Their team finds funds and supports the most promising social innovators in entrepreneurs all around the world.
To date solve has brokered funding commitments of over 60 million to their solver teams and entrepreneurs worldwide.
Episode Resources: Alex Amouyel | InstagramAlex Amouyel | TwitterYour Impact Life | WebsiteSolveMIT | Twitter -
Missing episodes?
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The Lesson: Numbers don't speak untruths, and for a female minority in a bro-business like Hollywood movie production, they're sexy that way. Saga Elmohtasen has produced hundred million dollar productions, but regardless of how successful she is, she doesn't let it go to her head, remembering that it's her roots and natural attitude that lead her to be successful.
Notable Excerpt: "I don't take any of my work seriously, with all due repect, but I'm serious about my work. Do you see the dicotomy here? At the end of the day I'm a daughter, I'm a sister, I'm an auntie, I'm way more than a producer, and I don't take any of it seriously but I'm so dang serious about the job. Being able to sever those two has been a lifesaver."
The Guest: Saga Elmohtaseb is a seasoned Hollywood producer, consultant and professor. With a passion for film, Saga has worked on box office hits such as The Devil Wears Prada, A Good Year,Eragon, Just Go With It, Jack & Jill, and Iron Man 2.
Saga is the president of Hollywood-Consulting.com where she works closely with clients on productions from development to completion. She has been a professor at Chapman Universityâs Dodge School of Film & TV for over 6 years now and teaches film & TV.
Episode Resources:
Saga Elmohtaseb | InstagramHollywood-Consulting | WebsiteAre you ready to start your health journey today? Go to viome.com/goodcurrency to get $50 off Viome's Full Body Intelligence test or bundle, the most advanced at-home health test currently available to consumers. Use Promo Code:
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The Lesson:
What if donating to charity was as simple as walking your dog? Oftentimes when things become easier, more people can participate, but it also drives greater enthusiasm among those already impassioned.
Notable Excerpt:
"One member didn't just go across the United States, but he started in Key West and went to the northwest tip of Washington state, diagonally, 4,500 miles and he was 11-years-old. When you have things like that, and not just people doing incredible feats, but people who walk their dogs every day and tell me what that means to them, we've had people lose over 100 pounds, we have parents who do it with their kids... it's been an incredible honor to be a part of this community"
The Guest:
Gene Gurkoff is the founder of Charity Miles, an app that enables people to earn money for Charity when they walk, run or bike. Charity Miles is regularly featured as one of the top health and fitness apps, and is the #1 charity app. It has won several awards, including a Webby and the People's Choice award at SXSW.
Gene is also a marathoner, avid Bruce Springsteen fan, husband and father.
Episode Resources:
Charity Miles | InstagramCharity Miles |TwitterChariry Miles | LinkedInAre you ready to start your health journey today? Go to viome.com/goodcurrency to get $50 off Viome's Full Body Intelligence test or bundle, the most advanced at-home health test currently available to consumers. Use Promo Code: CURRENCY50
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The Lesson:
Philanthropy comes in many forms, and from many faces. Whether it's the lifestyle we try to live, the purchasing decisions we make, the parents we were born to, or the careers we're pursuing, there's a role for everyone in leaving the world a better place than when we found it.
Notable Excerpt:
"There're so many choices we make, and I'm not saying you have to make 1,000 choices a day that are directed towards social impact, but planting that seed in your consciousness that you want to be here on Earth as a vehicle of social change for the better really starts to, in the most beautiful of ways, affect your decision making. So while most people think of social impact as big philanthropic gifts and massive moves from your investments into impact investing, I really think about it like a lifestyle."
The Guest:
Rachel Gerrol is Co-Founder & CEO of NEXUS, the leading global network of next-gen philanthropists and impact investors with 6000+ members from over 70 countries representing families with a combined net worth of over $650 billion.
Rachel has organized 40 NEXUS summits across 6 continents, including an annual summit at the UN and regional summits at The White House and No. 10 Downing Street. She led the âMedia for Social Impact Summitâ at the UN for 5 years and worked closely with the Obama/Biden Administration to create the renowned âItâs On Usâ campaign to stop sexual assault on campus.
Rachel is recognized internationally for her work on next-gen philanthropy and has been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Forbes, Vanity Fair and more. She serves on the Board of Directors of Birthright Israel Foundation, on the Next Gen Council of the USC-Shoah Foundation and on the Governing Committee of Lifestyles Magazine.
Episode Resources:
Rachel Gerrol | FacebookRachel Gerrol | LinkedInThe Nexus Summit | InstagramNexus Global | WebsiteAre you ready to start your health journey today? Go to viome.com/goodcurrency to get $50 off Viome's Full Body Intelligence test or bundle, the most advanced at-home health test currently available to consumers. Use Promo Code: CURRENCY50
Join us and over 400,000 like-minded people who have already discovered the Viome difference. Get personalized and precise recommendations on how to optimize your health and help you function at peak performance.
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The Lesson:
Newman's Own brand pizzas, pasta, lemonade, salad dressing, etc. has raised $600 million through its for-profit operations and its purpose-driven foundation, in what is now its 40th year of operations since Paul Newman first bottled up his homemade salad dressing, caused a market craze, and then gave away all the money he earned that fiscal year. Now following the actor's death in 2008, the foundation gives away all the profits and royalties from its sales in order to support childrenânutritionally and otherwiseâthat face adversity.
Notable Excerpt:
"We look at food as one of the essential school supplies. It's hard for a child to learn if they aren't well-nourished, and when a kid grows something, I can tell you they love everything they grow; but it's even more than that. That's critical but it's also changing the system and that's really what our foundation is all about is really thinking about the ecosystem change."
The Guest:
Dr. Miriam Nelson is an international leader, scientist, author and social entrepreneur renowned for her extensive research, policy work, and civic action in public health, childrenâs wellness, sustainability, and food systems. In her current role as the President and CEO of the Newmanâs Own Foundation, the private foundation founded by legendary actor Paul Newman and funded by 100% of profits and royalties from the sale of Newmanâs Own food and beverages, she is leading the Foundationâs new and more focused mission to nourish and transform the lives of children who face adversity.
In addition to authoring the bestselling Strong Women books, a series of ten including five New York Times bestsellers that provide evidence-based strategies to help woman live strong and healthy lives (more than one million copies in 14 languages), she has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific studies, research papers, and policy reports, many of them introducing groundbreaking findings.
Dr. Nelson has been quoted extensively and included as a featured expert in the press, including on The Today Show, Nova, and National Public Radio, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Politico.
Episode Resources:
Newman's Own Foundation | InstagramNewman's Own Foundation | TwitterNewman's Own Foundation | LinkedInAre you ready to start your health journey today? Go to viome.com/goodcurrency to get $50 off Viome's Full Body Intelligence test or bundle, the most advanced at-home health test currently available to consumers. Use Promo Code: CURRENCY50
Join us and over 400,000 like-minded people who have already discovered the Viome difference. Get personalized and precise recommendations on how to optimize your health and help you function at peak performance.
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The Lesson:
Wellness isn't just about getting enough sleep and exercise. Some maladies need our permissionâour precise focus, attention, and sympathy, in order for our biological tools to do the work of healing us.
Notable Excerpt:
"I believe if I give myself permission to receive what you (God) are giving me, then I'll have predictable peace, purpose, and pollination for the rest of my life. And I've never craved anything but that. These are my new drugs of choiceâI think it was Degas who said, "I don't need drugs, I am drugsâI am drugs in a human form. We are a walking pharmaceutical of spirituality, but man alive do we not open up the medicine cabinet which is the heart space, open it, and allow ourselves to receive the medicine."
The Guest:
Dr. James Rouse is a naturopathic doctor, award-winning author, media personality, and sought after speaker whose enthusiasm and passion for wellness inspires others to optimize their personal and professional lives.
His passion for helping others live life optimally extends to creating healthy food products. Dr. James is co-founder and product formulator for Healthy Skoop, a functional nutrition line. He is also the co-founder of The Well & Company, a lifestyle company and community that is igniting a self-care revolution.
Dr. James has authored 13 books (and counting), including the recently released, Mind Body Life Mastery.
Episode Resources:
Dr James Rouse | InstagramDr James Rouse | FacebookDr James Rouse | WebsiteAre you ready to start your health journey today? Go to viome.com/goodcurrency to get $50 off Viome's Full Body Intelligence test or bundle, the most advanced at-home health test currently available to consumers. Use Promo Code: CURRENCY50
Join us and over 400,000 like-minded people who have already discovered the Viome difference. Get personalized and precise recommendations on how to optimize your health and help you function at peak performance.
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The Lesson:
Making friends and influencing people, as Carnegie described it, can be approached in several ways, but Zoe Chance feels that the modern influential person is the person whom people want to say yes toâachieved in part by influencing others, and in part by influencing the self; influencing our inner dialogue between the intuitive mind and the rational mind, which she calls the Gater and the Judge.
Notable Excerpt:
"Almost all of us struggle with trying to influence other people or trying to be influential, and many of us have mixed feelings because when we think of influence tactics, we think of the really super creepy used car salesman architype. What we want is to have an influence on the world, ideally a good influence, and honestly we don't want to have to work so hard that we feel like we're pushing people. We ideally want to be in relationships with people who like us, and who want to say yes to each other. We have a good idea and we bring these good ideas to each other."
The Guest:
Zoe Chance is a writer, teacher, researcher, and climate philanthropist. Sheâs obsessed with the topic of interpersonal influence and her science-based but fun and life-changing book is called Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen. It is being published in more than 20 languages.
Zoe earned her doctorate from Harvard and now teaches the most popular course at Yale School of Management (Mastering Influence and Persuasion). Her research is published in top academic journals and covered in global media outlets. She speaks on television and around the world, and her framework for behavior change is the foundation for Googleâs global food policy.
Before joining academia, Zoe managed a $200 million segment of the Barbie brand, helped out with political campaigns, and worked in less glamorous influence jobs like door-to-door sales and telemarketing. She lives with her family in New Haven, CT.
Episode Resources:
Zoe Chance | TwitterZoe Chance | LinkedInZoe Chance | WebsiteAre you ready to start your health journey today? Go to viome.com/goodcurrency to get $50 off Viome's Full Body Intelligence test or bundle, the most advanced at-home health test currently available to consumers.
Use Promo Code: CURRENCY50
Join us and over 400,000 like-minded people who have already discovered the Viome difference. Get personalized and precise recommendations on how to optimize your health and help you function at peak performance.
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The Lesson:
Listeners will know that Tony and Tobias feel that blending professional, personal, and spiritual passions is the key to aligning them to your purpose. The lesson here is that this benefits yourself and others, but it also makes you feel aliveâit is the way that all aspects of yourself can communicate with each other.
Notable Excerpt:
"Business is at the lowest rung for me; it's a tool, but anybody who knows me well will tell you that I am a terrible business person! I leave money on the table all the time! So for me, I think that's actually not a terrible business person, I think it depends on your lexicon, it depends on your lens. So if that lens is to wake up every morning and to like the person you see in the mirror and be excited and motivated to go out and to be involved in the world, and that allows you to feel expansive, that allows you to bring your gifts to the world, it gives you a sense of confidence and a sense of purpose, that's a great business decision even if it's not necessarily the greatest financial decision."
The Guest:
Robbie Tombosky serves as the CEO of GVNG and is the founder and managing partner of Sage Philanthropy Advisors. With over two decades of experience in philanthropic entrepreneurship, Robbie has incubated and launched scores of successful impact projects that integrate corporate values, employee & customer engagement, and meaningful influencer partnerships for the benefit of our shared world. Robbie also serves as a Rabbi at a prestigious temple in Beverly Hills, sits on numerous boards, is a sought after teacher and speaker.
Episode Resources:
Robbie Tombosky | InstagramRobbie Tombosky | FacebookGVNG | WebsiteSage Advisors | WebsiteAre you ready to start your health journey today? Go to viome.com/goodcurrency to get $50 off Viome's Full Body Intelligence test or bundle, the most advanced at-home health test currently available to consumers. Use Promo Code: CURRENCY50
Join us and over 400,000 like-minded people who have already discovered the Viome difference. Get personalized and precise recommendations on how to optimize your health and help you function at peak performance.
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The Lesson:
What makes an entrepreneur? Humanity. We are all entrepreneurs. Our entire lives are a sequence of people trying to sell us ideas, opinions, values, as well as goods and services. People are always creatingâideas, opinions, and objects of value. We do it to ourselves. We have to constantly sell things to our own mindsâthat we are strong, capable, handsome, beautiful, or the next pastime, the next 5-year plan, the next self-reinvention.
Notable Excerpt:
âEvery day we get out of bed and we just have a day, and the day happens. But it's those days where we get out of bed and we set an intention of what kind of day we want to have, that's what we manifest. And so it's having the practice to make that a habit, and whether that's starting the day saying, what kind of day do I want to have, or what do I want for my business, for my relationship, all those things are intentions, but you can't just set the intention and wait for something to happen, that's just a wish. But if you set the intention and then you take action, that is the formula for manifesting."
The Guest:
Bill Glaser has been a serial entrepreneur since the age of five, when he went door-to-door selling vegetable seeds and greeting cards to make money to buy toys. His career began as a financial advisor with storied Investment Banks before founding his own financial firm and then founding several companies as an entrepreneur. His latest booming venture, Outstanding Foods, celebrates plant-based foods and how addictively delicious they can be.
Episode Resources:
Bill Glaser | LinkedIn
Bill Glaser | Instagram
Outstanding Foods | Website
Outstanding Foods | Instagram
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The Lesson:
Having her own children, encouraging better workâfamily life balance in the office, and understanding the difficulties and urgency parents go through when they need a service related to their toddler, Jen Saxton knows that you don't become one of the most successful enterprises in the baby industry by ignoring the human element of the job. In fact, Saxton details that the more she went through as a parent, the more she realized that the baby industry needed a change to reflect the stress and difficulty of being a parent.
Notable Excerpt:
âMy second company now is more like an Angie's List or a Care.com, so we're like a tech platform or a marketplace that connects mom with all these services, lactation consultants, sleep consultants, car seat installers, night nannies, you can find them all on Tot Squad. And it's about helping moms. Like when I was a new mom as I was going into Facebook groups like 'can anyone recommend a sleep consultant?' and then I got like 80 comments.
Now I've got to go Google these 80 people, and then you've got to like call and email them to see when they're available, and then, what's the difference between the $300 and the $3,000 lady, and by the way I'm going on two hours of sleep because I've got a newborn at home, and it was just a horrible experience!"
The Guest:
Jen Saxton is the Founder & CEO of Tot Squad, a baby services marketplace that connects new parents with health, wellness and safety services like car seat installation, babyproofing, doulas, sleep consultants and more.
Jen is a serial entrepreneur with 10 years experience in the baby industry. In 2020, she successfully exited her baby gear cleaning business with an acquisition by BabyQuip, where she continues to serve as an advisor. Credited by The New York Times as having created a new industry, Tot Squad has raised $3M+ with its âjuggernaut aspirationsâ to transform the baby world. Jen's work with Tot Squad has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, NY Times and more. Jen serves as a regular contributor on parenting topics for CBS The Doctors and for New York Magazine / The Strategist.
Episode Resources:
Jen Saxton | Instagram
Jen Saxton | LinkedIn
Totsquad | Instagram
Totsquad | Website
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The Lesson:
For some people, especially those shot into stardom through acting or professional sports, it's easy for the passion they have for their craft to proceed without a deeply-rooted purpose. When one day that passion is no longer available, they have nothing to look inward at to find a new path through life.
Notable Excerpt:
âEven if it felt like a purpose, sports in general, it still ends at a very early age for a lot people too, you still have a whole life, you're still defined and to keep exercising your passion. So what does it translate into? It's interesting even like, pro guys, I've seen it, it's like "how did that happen?" And then there's some others that have really successfully transitioned to other businesses, or broadcasting, or coaching, and they've been really successful at it, so it didn't matter really what, but it was something they fell into."
The Guest:
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Jai attended the University of California at Davis on an athletic scholarship, playing collegiate baseball for the Aggies from 1988-1993. Wanting to continue a career in sports, he moved to Los Angeles to gain the âmailroomâ experience by working at several talent agencies.
Jai settled at Writers & Artists Agency in 1996, where he was promoted to Talent Agent, working with a variety of clients, ultimately segueing from sports to traditional entertainment and representing actors, writers, and directors. Highlights of the stint at Writers & Artists included working on the James Gandolfini team and the meteoric rise of the hit series âThe Sopranos,â to nurturing Eva Mendes into an in-demand star. Jai moved over to famed Brillstein Entertainment Partners (fka at Brillstein-Grey Management) in 1998, to become a Manager and ultimately more entrepreneurial. He successfully guided an A-List client roster that included talent, producers, and financiers, ultimately leading the content packaging and financing department. He was involved in over 100 film and TV transactions, credited on 25+ films and helped raise over $300 million in project financing.
In 2020, after 22 years at Brillstein, Jai exited to launch the timely Oakhurst Entertainment with select clients and investors. The mission is to produce premium content yet meet the voracious appetite of consumers demanding socially impactful content that makes a difference. The core focus areas are curating content with values, delivering to underserved audiences, all the while creating a strong call-to-action. Oakhurst has already produced several films with a full development slate on the horizon tackling themes of mental health, immigration and climate change. Jai was profiled in The Hollywood Reporter as âone of the top 35 executives in Hollywoodâ and has been featured in The New York Times, Variety, and The Wall Street Journal. Indiaspora Forum recognized him as one of the "100 Influential Indian American Leaders in the USâ and the Asian American Business Development Center named him one of the âOutstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business.â
Episode Resources:
Jai Khanna | LinkedIn
Oakhurst Entertainment | Website
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The Lesson:
Being a good person, growing alongside one's parents, enjoying the journey, not letting the highs be too high and the lows be too low, these are lessons for us all, but for serial entrepreneur Carter Reum, they have helped build a flourishing portfolio of profitable businesses, a strong personal foundation, and a life of gratitude.
Notable Excerpt:
âI always say respect the process, but I think I'm going to add enjoy the process. It really is respect the process, meaning if you do the right things the right results tend to follow. But one of the things my brother and I learned from our first company was... that the highs are never that high, and the lows are never that low, and it's really a defense mechanism... but by learning that muscle you tend to modulate it, and one of the things we found is that we actually don't celebrate the highs enough.
"It is about the journey, and it is about enjoying it, but you've got to enjoy those good days. At M13, at our all-hands every week we do gratitudes where we just stop and people can submit them and we read them, we do to enjoy the journey, because win or lose at the end of the day you can have a lot of fun."
The Guest:
Carter Reum is a Partner and Co-Founder of M13, a venture capital platform that invests in and incubates cutting edge consumer technology businesses. M13 now has over $1BN over 3 funds and is currently launching its 10th incubated business co-founded with Tony Robbins and Peter Diamondis. M13âs portfolio includes, Ring, Daily Harvest, FabFitFun,Transfix, Rothyâs, Lyft, Capsule, Shef, Thrive Market, Cue, Capsule, Rho, Shef, and many others.
An investment banker at Goldman Sachs, in 2019, Carter and his brother Courtney were appointed the first-ever Executives in Residence for the City of Los Angeles, created in an effort to merge the arts and entertainment industries by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Carter and his brother are the authors of the national bestseller Shortcut Your Startup (Simon & Schuster) that shares business insights to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Episode Resources:
Carter Reum | LinkedIn
Carter Reum | Instagram
Shortcut Your Startup | Website
M13 | Website
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The Lesson:
There's no place in the structure of a business where someone should be exempt from help, vulnerability, and failure. Whereas some people coach and write about how to crush vulnerability, prevent failure, or avoid help, Deborah Riegel, who writes, speaks and consults with the biggest firms and biggest journals, helps people understand that utilizing lived experience, and available help, can provide a better foundation for success in the work place, team cohesion, and work-life balance.
Notable Excerpt:
âI helped found the Univ. of Michigan's first improv comedy troupe, and so I was able to take the background I had in preparing for a presentation and then mix it with 'well what do you do if you can't prepare?' So that theme of helping people think about preparing and helping people have sort of a scaffolding for what to do when you can't prepare, has been a through-line of my professional career since I was 17, and I'm now 50."
The Guest:
Deborah Grayson Riegel is a keynote speaker, executive coach, and consultant who has taught leadership communication for Wharton Business School, Duke Corporate Education, Columbia Business Schoolâs Women in Leadership Program, and the Beijing International MBA Program at Peking University.
She writes for Harvard Business Review, Inc., Psychology Today, Forbes, and Fast Company, and has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
She is the author of âGo to Help: 31 Strategies to Offer, Ask for, and Accept Helpâ and "Overcoming Overthinking: 36 Ways to Tame Anxiety for Work, School, and Life" and consults and speaks for clients including Amazon, BlackRock, Google, KraftHeinz, PepsiCo, and The United States Army.
Episode Resources:
Deborah Grayson | WebsiteDeborah Grayson | LinkedInDeborah Grayson | Facebook
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The Lesson:
A dog-eared moment in the early American Civil Rights movement, the racially-motivated murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American child, and its subsequent acquittal, always inspired Keith Beauchamp to fight for better criminal justice, and to elevate man's consciousness so that such events no longer need dog-earing because they no longer happen. Frederick Zollo, catching Keith's infectious enthusiasm, felt he could lend his talents to a similar end.
Notable Excerpt:
"She [Emmett's mother] used to say to me all the time, Keith we must continuously tell Emmett's story until man's consciousness is risen, only then will there be justice for Emmett Till. I truly believe that she had the blueprint to man's liberation when it comes to racial progression in this country."
The Guests:
Frederick Zollo is an American film and theatre producer. He has produced more than 100 plays in New York, London, and On-Tour. Zollo is a 20-time Tony nominee, winning the award seven times. He is also known for his film work on Best Picture Oscar Nominees Mississippi Burning (1988), and Quiz Show (1994).
Keith A. Beauchamp is an activist and award-winning filmmaker. He began his lifeâs work at the young age of 10 after he saw a Jet magazine that contained a picture of Emmett Tillâs dead body and was told the story behind Tillâs murder. In 1999, Beauchamp founded Till Freedom Come Productions, a company devoted to socially significant projects that can both teach and entertain. He has devoted the past twenty-six years of his life telling the story of Emmett Till and has traveled extensively between New York, Chicago and Mississippi to investigate the historic murder.
On May 10th, 2004, the United States Department of Justice re-opened this 50 year-old murder case citing Beauchampâs documentary âThe Untold Story of Emmett Louis Tillâ as both a major factor in their decision and the starting point for their investigation.
Keith Beauchamp has been featured on '60 Minutes', ABC World News Tonight 'Person of the Week,' Court TV, MSNBC, 'Good Morning America,' CNN, BBC as well as in hundreds of publications around the world including
He is currently the producer of the feature film âTill,â which is being co-produced by Frederick Zollo, Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Broccoli. Beauchamp is also a frequent lecturer at colleges and universities around the count
Episode Resources:
Keith Beauchamp | Twitter
Keith Beauchamp | Instagram
Emmett Till | Documentary
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The Lesson:
People who don't know how will tell you you need to conform, or let go of indivisible parts of yourself in order to succeed. For Brett Claywell, it was his homely, North Carolina attitude of goodwill and neighborliness towards others which Hollywood men told him had to be left on the cutting room floor. From pursuing basketball, to acting, to gaming and live-streaming, there was never a shortage of people telling him he was making the wrong choice.
Notable Excerpt:
âThe word immature has been thrown at me a lot through my life, and now at 44 years of age I'm happy to be immature because it allows me to interact with my children, but that was always kind of like an arrow that was slung at me... Early on in my career, one of my producers said I had to lose the North Carolina in me. I fought really hard to do the oppositeâto be successful, but to maintain who I was. I would rather inject NC into Hollywood than lose NC to be successful."
The Guest:
Brett Claywell has had a two-decade career as a fan favorite on popular television shows like One Tree Hill and One Life to Live. Throughout it, he has been involved in hundreds of film and television, as well as digital content productions, producing and directing major live broadcast events starring some of the biggest names in entertainment.
Brett was an early visionary of the competitive or televised gaming industry, co-founding Tiltify, now the worldâs premiere charitable crowdfunding platform for live-streaming. He launched HMBL (pronounced humble) House in 2019 to capitalize on a void in premium livestream content, leading HMBL House to be a major creative force in developing and producing new remote content models throughout the pandemic. In 2021, he co-founded SOLIS to utilize emerging technologies to further amplify his team's ability to build organic communities and generate authentic dialogue between talent and a global audience of content consumers.
Episode Resources:
Brett Claywell | Twitter
Brett Claywell | Instagram
HMBL House | Website
Solis | Website
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The Lesson:
Perhaps it's no surprise that professional acting takes a toll on one's emotions, but taking over the roles of emotionally-troubled characters is all the more challenging. What can professional actors share to others about confronting despair of the past, gratitude for the present, and anxiety of the future?
Notable Excerpt:
"I heard this once, I made friends with my anxiety and turned it into my engine. But you have to be careful because it can sometimes overpower and then worry will steal (your energy). Anxiety and anxiousness is something I've always worked with to move myself forward... When you're in a more vulnerable place, gratitude can hit you like a Mack truckâthe attitude of gratitude is the key to daily living (or at least) it certainly helps when you get off track."
The Guest:
Amir Arison is a well known actor, director and activist. Best known for his work on the NBC/Sony/Netflix international hit series The Blacklist as tech-wizard Aram Mojtabai. Other TV credits include recurring & guest appearances on Law & Order: SVU, American Horror Story, as well as many others including the current HULU limited series THE DROPOUT.
He is the recipient of the Mendez Award from MIFF, given to an individual in the entertainment industry who uses their platform to give back. He currently teaches workshops and directs/performs for multiple organizations including The New School, Pace University, YoungArts, United Arts Partnership, NBC directorâs diversity showcase, Broadway for All, Broadway Workshop, Bridge Builders, Hole-In-The-Wall-Gang-Camp, and Angelight Films.
Be on the lookout this Summer and Fall 2022, where Amir will be starring on Broadway as 'Amir' in The Kite Runner.
Episode Resources:
Amir Arison | Instagram
Amir Arison | Facebook
Amir Arison | Twitter
Kite Runner | On Broadway
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The Lesson: Many major chronic health disturbances like depression and inadequate sleep are treated in the west with self-serving temporary crutches like prescription drugs. When Yona Shtern was taking over the helm of a publicly-traded wellness wearable company Hapbee, his normal understanding that he could create value for investors flipped after having the first good night of sleep he could remember using their product. Now, he sees his powers of growing a business directly correlates to the number of people he can helpâveterans, prison guards, caretakers, and it's giving him new purpose.
Notable Excerpt: "I wasn't able to sleep at night, quite frankly. I became a believer because I became a user, and then something really unforeseen happened to me. I was maybe in the chair for two weeks when I started getting LinkedIn messages from people saying they had tried the product and that it had changed their lives, and if there was any way they could help us out. I felt I had a responsibility to get this into the hands of more people, and figure out a way to change people's lives."
The Guest: Yona is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully scaled disruptive businesses in technology and consumer goods. He was CEO of Arrive (digital parking), CEO of Beyond the Rack (e-commerce marketplace) and Board Member at Swap.com (resale marketplace). Today, Yona is the Chairman and CEO of Hapbee â a publicly-traded company whose wearable wellness technology is on a mission to improve the lives of 10 million people.
Yona was also Start Up Canadaâs Entrepreneur of The Year in 2014 and is a frequent speaker to management students at McGill University (his alma mater), Yale and at many start-up and business conferences.
The Product: Hapbee is the next generation of wearable wellness technology. Hapbee is a chemical free solution to help with sleep, performance, and mood, all without side-effects. Unlike other wearables that simply monitor your health, Hapbee gives you the power to actively change it.
LGC listeners can receive a 10% discount on Hapbee with promo code "goodnews" to be applied at checkout. Visit hapbee.com/goodcurrency
Episode Resources:
Hapbee | Website
Hapbee | Facebook
Hapbee | Instagram
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The Lesson: If someone wants to start an e-commerce platform to sell goods or services online, there are literally thousands of tools ranging from simple drag-and-drop interfaces that the biggest luddite could use, to the most comprehensive panoply of features for enterprise-level operations. But for charitable or non-profit work, even though the market cap and market velocity are similar to e-commerce, the tools just aren't there. Dominic Kalms has built several platforms capable of allowing people to set up a non-profit project for whatever social good they're trying to achieve, as easy as using Shopify.
Notable Excerpt: "There're 1.7 million non-profits, and starting a non-profit is hard. The average costâlabor and time is very prohibitive, I mean you're talking $20,000-plus, on average, to start a non-profit. To get the IRS to approve a non-profit, that's 6-8 months, on average, and if you want to be compliant across the federal, state, and local jurisdictions across the United States, there are over 200 documents that need to be filed. So I thought to myself 'there's got to be a better way,' so what I did with GVNG is I raised a round of venture capital financing and we built a digital one touch solution for instantly launching, running and managing your own non-profit project, or donor-advised fund. Over the last 5 years we've powered thousands and thousands and thousands of non-profit projects, we've processed millions of dollars of non-profit capital through our system.
The Guest: Dominic Kalms is a venture backed entrepreneur, philanthropist and public speaker with an expertise in financial tech, charity and non-profits. He has created two revolutionary philanthropic platforms, B Generous, and GVNG, a venture-backed platform that facilitates the creation of instant charitable giving accounts. He has raised over $50 million in venture and philanthropic capital during his career.
Dominic has spoken at many global forums on philanthropy (e.g. Nexus Global Summit, Social Enterprise Summit, TechCrunchâs Ventures Summit, Capital One Stories of Impact, TEDx etc). Dominic is also a member of The Forbes Nonprofit Council, NEXUS, SUMMIT Impact, and he is an Ambassador for the Global Citizen Forum.
Episode Resources:
Dominic Kalms | LinkedIn
GVNG | Website
B Generous | Website
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The Lesson: Prisons in the U.S. bury people. And they rely on the burying of those people to sever the connection they have with society's knowledge of their existence, which in turn allows the prisons to bury them in a vicious cycle. But it turns out that even if it's mere voices that escape those walls; poems, songs, art, all escaping without a person on stage or on the street attached to them, that's enough to create a two-way connection with society that leads to a life and a voice beyond prison, and restorative justice, and not justice by diminishment.
Notable Excerpt: "I would say 'yeah I'm starting this program in a prison,' and the first question everyone asks is 'are you scared?' and I'm like 'why would I be scared?' So seeing this disjunction between what people were thinking about what I was doing, and what I was experiencing in there, for me I started to think this whole system of burying people, like "the disappeared", depends on people not knowing who these people are in a deeper way, and so it became a kind of calling really to say 'how can I play some small part in, not shining a light on, but allowing this light to come out?"
The Guest: Bidhan Roy received his Ph.D. at Goldsmith College, University of London, where he studied English literature and post-colonialism He is the founder of Words Uncaged, an organization which provides a platform for incarcerated artists and writers to engage with the public through book publishing, art exhibits and digital media. Words Uncaged has programs in 5 prisons and on death row in the U.S., serving more than 2,000 men and women, and uses storytelling to foster empathy for and understanding of, others, and to promote collective and individual healing. Dr. Roy is also the director of the Calstate Prison Graduation Initiative, which allows incarcerated men and women to receive BA degrees while serving time.
Episode Resources:
Words Uncaged | Website
Words Uncaged | LinkedIn
Words Uncaged | Instagram
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