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Show Notes:
Christian Hyatt, Founder of Risk3Sixty, discusses the top three or four things that chief information security officers at sub-enterprise firms are most worried about right now. He explains that these concerns include the business environment, threat actors, cybersecurity regulation, nation-state actors like Russia and China, and phishing campaigns. He also highlights the unique bridge between cybersecurity and information technology coming to a head with the recent CrowdStrike incident.
Advice to Clients on Cybersecurity
Christian suggests that independent consultants should ask clients questions or warning signs to raise their concerns and consider consulting a cybersecurity expert. He suggests that clients are looking for someone who is a good listener and not operating off fear, uncertainty, and doubt. By listening to clients' needs and concerns, consultants can offer advice on implementing best practices on their existing toolset and spreading security awareness. Christian emphasizes that many big enterprise tools, such as Office 365 and Google Suite, have built-in security, covering many bases. Independent consultants should listen for how well implemented their tools are, listen for business problems they have, and offer security assurance. Offering advice on implementing best practices and spreading security awareness can help firms understand how security is impacting their business and make informed decisions about investing in security measures.
Cybersecurity Due Diligence
In the context of due diligence, Christian states that it is important to consider the company's internal infrastructure, including its cloud-based and on-premises systems. This can help identify potential red flags and ensure the company's sustainability and scalability. For example, if a product company is being acquired, it is crucial to ask about its application security, product security, and scalability. Additionally, understanding the company's mastery of its own product and its ability to scale without the team is essential. Another key factor to consider is the company's internal infrastructure, whether it is cloud-based or on-premises. Integrating with the acquiring firm can impact the cost of the process.
Cybersecurity for Independent Consultants and Boutique Firms
Independent consultants and boutique firms with a few employees should also take cybersecurity precautions. Some good tools for small businesses include G Suite or Office 365, which have built-in tools for file share sharing, email security, and internal messaging. These tools help protect against cybersecurity attacks that originate from email. Installing antivirus tools like CrowdStrike and Sentinel can help prevent attacks at the endpoint level. Blocking and tackling security processes, such as using file sharing platforms like OneDrive or Dropbox. It’s also important to identify areas where money changes hands and take protective measures. Creating an offline backup of key files once a month can help protect against ransomware attacks. Office 365 or G Suite can also be used to store files in the cloud, with tools like spanning for Office 365 creating backup copies of cloud storage. Exploring the full suite of options available to small business owners can help them get coverage for their biggest risks.
Employee Training on Cybersecurity
The conversation turns to the importance of raising employees' awareness of phishing dangers. He recommends using tools that periodically send white hat phishing messages to test employees' skills. Christian suggests that small businesses should focus on creating a culture of awareness and vigilance, letting candidates know about potential scams and asking questions if they feel uncomfortable. There are several tools available for security awareness training, including Curricula. Additionally, he suggests using YouTube videos as part of training, as they can be more effective than expected. By implementing these tools, businesses can create a culture of vigilance and prevent employees from clicking on suspicious links.
The Origins and Growth of Risk 3 Sixty
Christian started his firm as an independent consultant eight years ago, with a trajectory of impressive growth. He initially had one client, a $30,000 one-off engagement, but from there eventually grew the business to 60 clients. Christian shares a few of the tactics behind the growth, including his shift towards cybersecurity. He focused on a few cybersecurity services that had great demand and packaged them as multi-year deals, and recurring revenue. He also learned that organizations have huge compliance requirements. They built a SaaS platform to help them manage the information. They invested in the SaaS platform and started selling it as a subscription. Today, their services are tech-enabled services, where companies often outsource their entire programs to them due to the need for human labor. Christian made strategic decisions early on, scaling the business around recurring revenue streams, over-delivering, and building a good culture. He centered around those activities that felt risky at the time, saying no to big contracts that didn't fit within his revenue stream. He also explains how a book by Gino Wickman, Traction, and The Entrepreneur Operating System, helped him shift the responsibility for business development off of his shoulders to other members of the firm.
Recruiting Talent for Risk3Sixty
Christian hired a West Point graduate to become an ops manager. He believed that hiring great people was a risky move but ultimately helped build a sales function and complement the founder's role. The company also hired a strategic partner with Georgia Tech to hire top students. Despite the early hires, the success of the company can be attributed to the smart people who pushed the founder to think more like a leader and helped him see the future. The company's success can be attributed to the excellent people who helped him make decisions that he wouldn't have made on his own.
The Structure of a Successful Company
Christian’s company has 60 employees, and a top-down structure consisting of an Executive Leadership Team (ELT) consisting of six members: the CEO, President, Head of People, the Chief Operating Officer, the Chief Revenue Officer, and the CTO. The CEO focuses on mission and metrics, breaking down the vision into KPIs and measurables, and making sure everyone understands it. He also works on brand equity through social media, podcasts, and speaking events. He also talks about how he approached pay bands and benefits to attract talent and maintain retention. The CEO manages the ELT, ensuring they are motivated and have the same vision. An initiative Review Board was created to address pent up projects or initiatives that were not previously budgeted. This allowed people to request new projects or initiatives outside of budget season, providing a pressure relief valve for strategic initiatives.
A Successful Marketing Philosophy
Christian's marketing philosophy focuses on teaching good concepts and adding value to people, rather than being an influencer. He uses content such as videos and white papers to add value and engage people, leading to more leads and engagement. He initially used LinkedIn outbound to find open job opportunities and reach out to hiring managers, but found that more people would ignore him than respond. Christian shares his teaching methods on LinkedIn, YouTube, and a newsletter. For cybersecurity-focused content, he hosts a weekly cybersecurity executive brief on YouTube. He also has a marketing team that helps with content creation, and practice leaders who produce content regularly, called media properties, on LinkedIn. Each member of the team has a dedicated content pillar, and it's up to them to create content that resonates with the audience. A marketing team supports them with video editing and accountability. Christian initially did it all himself, using a video editor tool and recording videos and writing white papers.
Timestamps:
03:14: Cybersecurity precautions for independent consultants and small firms
08:10: Cybersecurity awareness training for small businesses
13:51: Growing a consulting firm through strategic decision-making and recurring revenue streams
18:19: Scaling a consulting business by hiring a leadership team
22:24: Leadership decisions and team structure
26:55: Using LinkedIn for business growth and content creation
Links:
Connect with Christian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianhyatt/
Check out his book: https://risk3sixty.com/stos
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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Show Notes:
In this panel discussion, Lisa Carlin, director of Future Builders and author of the newsletter Turbocharge Weekly, and strategy execution specialist introduces the three panelists, who discuss the challenges of traditional strategy development, including volatility, uncertain business environments, and significant digital and AI disruption. The panelists, Will Bachman, Founder of Umbrex, a global community of independent management consultants, Alex M.H. Smith, breakthrough strategist and author of No Bullshit Strategy, and Rob McLean, investor, philanthropist and co-author of two books on strategy, discuss the challenges of traditional approaches to business strategy.
The Problem of Business Strategy
Rob emphasizes that, previously, strategies were deterministic and assumed certainty in business plans. However, increasingly, there is global uncertainty, and risk and probability should be included in a strategy. He mentions that there are assumptions about uncertainty that don’t hold true. He also highlights the fast change and that the cadence of strategy is changing, but despite this, many enterprises are locked into three and five-year plans. Alex explains why he believes that many businesses lack understanding of effective strategy development and deployment. He emphasizes the importance of making precepts accessible, engaging, interesting, and usable for medium-sized businesses. He believes that traditional strategy is not bullshit but has limited purchase as it doesn't address the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. Will shares his experience with 500 conversations per year with clients seeking consultants, and he shares the main trends in what clients want from consultants and states that it has not changed dramatically over the years, but he also stresses the need for alignment, clarity, and action. Alex identifies the importance of substance and the ability to convert to action. He mentions the difficulty of achieving engagement, encouraging action, and the underemphasis of style in communications. He suggests thinking about strategy as a motivational discipline. Alex suggests that focusing more on sexing up the strategy can make a significant difference in making progress. He suggests that if strategy is viewed as a motivational discipline, it is essential to motivate people to do it. He believes that making the strategy “sexier” will bring stronger results in engaging and motivating buy-in.
Problem-solving, Strategic Intent and Strategic Development
Robs talks problem-solving as a driver of strategic development. The identified problems are viewed through different lenses to achieve a 360-understanding. He mentions the greater premium on new data, and on trials and experiments, and mentions strategy that includes peeling back layers of uncertainty, putting people in a position where they can make decisions and evolve the strategy. He uses an example from Amazon to illustrate this. He also points out that strategic intent is often confused with strategy, as strategy is an integrated set of actions that build value and competitive advantage. Rob shares his experience with the concept of continuous development, and how businesses have changed the timeline on strategic development and clarity on the future. Alex states that medium-sized businesses face a challenge in understanding strategy literature, as it is often constructed to be relevant to large, polar businesses like Amazon. This makes the strategy literature inaccessible for single-brand founders or CEOs, as it is often too broad. This gap in communication between the concerns of large companies and those running small businesses makes it difficult for the latter to effectively develop and communicate their strategies.
Business Strategy in the Context of Technology and Culture
The discussion revolves around the impact of AI on consulting and strategy building. Lisa mentions a top-rated technology podcast, which emphasizes that the number one difference will be strategy and that the most significant impact of AI will be on product managers. Will builds on the use of AI for strategy consultants. He explains the difference between skills and services that rise in status and which ones are lower in status and where using AI is applicable. He offers examples on both using an energy storage company as an example.
Dark Room Consulting
Lisa brings the discussion towards “dark room” consulting where the consultants and executives operate in private before disclosing the strategy to the company at large. Alex explains why he prefers this approach, stating that while it may not be politically beneficial, it can provide a sense of involvement and ownership for a radical, meaningful move. However, this approach can also lead to a slightly autocratic approach, as seen with Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, who were both successful business leaders but also tyrants in their own businesses.
Rob talks about the workers’ strategy as bifurcating, and he shares an example from McKinsey where they used AI, and that employing “dark room” tactics can work well however working closely with the front line is also important in strategy building. Will shares a story from his days as a submarine officer that clearly demonstrates the benefits and need of front line work a consultant needs to do. This also involves gathering information, and Alex adds how this allows everyone to feel involved, while maintaining the core idea and decision-making back to the people who lead the company. While this approach may not be as democratic as some may prefer, it is essential for businesses to adapt and evolve to stay competitive in today's competitive market.
Q&A Session
The conversation opens up to questions and panelists are asked to share one recommendation. Rob suggests a problem-solving approach that recognises uncertainty, a tolerance for ambiguity, and taking steps forward feeling the stones beneath the feet. Alex states that, if a change in results is desired, changes to strategy must be made. Will focuses on implementation, stating that strategy implementation, or execution, or transformation is in high-demand and notes that increased resources in these directions are needed to make the change happen. The conversation covers a variety of areas including strong leadership vs. dictatorship, helping people feel comfortable with uncertainty, the need for monitoring and evaluation improvement during implementation, and the importance of measuring the impact of their work, particularly in implementation. And finally, the audience shares their key takeaways from the discussion.
Timestamps:
05:43: Strategy development for small to medium-sized businesses
10:11: Strategies for effective communication and implementation in business
17:01: Strategy in a rapidly changing world, with a focus on dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity
25:08: Strategic planning for businesses of varying sizes, with a focus on the challenges of scaling and the importance of industry knowledge
31:04: The impact of AI on strategy development and execution
37:13: Strategy development, emphasizing the importance of gathering insights from frontline employees and changing meaningful aspects of the business to improve results
42:46: How to handle uncertainty in business strategies
47:33: Implementing strategies with uncertain outcomes
Links:
Connect with the other two panelists on LinkedIn:
Robert McLean: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-mclean-412268ba/
Alex M. H. Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-m-h-smith/
Connect with Lisa Carlin on LinkedIn Connect on LinkedInFor for more like this, please subscribe to Turbocharge Weekly: Fast-track your strategy. 3 tips in 3 minutes from 50+ implementations. Join 8,000 leaders now. https://info.theturbochargers.com/register-turbocharge-weekly
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com. -
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Show Notes:
In this episode of Unleashed, Will Bachman discusses cold outreach with David A. Fields. David advises that cold outreach is a last resort tactic and should not be included in the mix of marketing strategies. Instead, he suggests that consulting firms should focus on the five marketing musts to build their network.
Why Cold Outreach is Inefficient
David emphasizes that cold outreach is remarkably inefficient for most consultants, as it is often slow to close and has a long sales cycle. He suggests that firms should experiment with cold outreach to find the best approach based on client feedback and experience. David also shares some historical insights about cold outreach. Cold outreach tends to respond better when closer to product sales when hardcore selling messages works better. David states that, when selling expertise and experience which is trust driven, cold outreach doesn't work well.
The Aggressive Reframe Approach
Aggressive reframe, which involves asking for something rather than just asking for it, can also work well for cold outreach. David suggests that most consulting firms think they should differentiate versus competition, but this is not how they win business. David explains what the aggressive reframe approach is and how it works for consultants.
The 111 Messaging Effective Outreach Technique
David discusses the effectiveness of 111 messaging, a technique developed for cool contacts in your network core. This approach is particularly effective for cold outreach on LinkedIn, as it requires some modifications. He explains that 111 messaging is a way to construct messages to people, focusing on the other person and their needs. It is a right-side-up email, one line, and one question that must be easy to answer. The 111 approach is designed for cold outreach and works well on LinkedIn. The message should be one-sided, one-line, and asks one simple question. The message should be short and simple, and the recipient should be able to answer the question easily. David shares the response rate from this technique, which is better than any other engagement technique, and offers examples of simple questions to ask.
How to Use Cold Outreach Effectively
David talks about using cold outreach correctly in acquiring clients. He believes that it is not efficient enough to get leads, as it requires a long sales cycle and a high close rate. To do cold outreach correctly, he suggests viewing it as the first step in a three-year process of winning clients and think of it as an investment in gaining future clients. David shares his tips on how to engage someone connected through LinkedIn who may be a potential client. The best practices in messaging are discussed, including keeping messages short to the point and focused on a topic that meets the needs or interests of the recipient. David also shares a story about using focus groups and how companies can be encouraged to launch products that nobody wants. He talks about the Ben Franklin approach, which involves asking for a small favor instead of trying to give a favor, such as asking for help on articles, webinars, research, podcasts, or other activities.
How to Use Content as Lead Magnets
The conversation turns to the concept of lead magnets, which is content that people can download and engage with on social media. David offers the example of his two published books which have generated millions of dollars in business. He believes that a book is a lead magnet, but it is not free on the website. He suggests that the best way to convert people who consume content into clients is by creating an opportunity for them to join in and engage in conversation. It is suggested that, instead of just putting content out there, it is important to create engagement and opportunities for people to join in and interact with the content.
It is recommended that, if someone comments or downloads a piece, there are steps that need to be taken to reach out to that person. Higher engagement approaches, webinars, and podcasts that generate a conversation have been more successful than just putting content and lead magnets out there. David discusses the importance of making it easy for people to reach out to a firm. He believes that longevity and having published around 500 articles in addition to books contribute to this success. He also mentions that they do not engage with their tribe members, but rather let them know about the Boutique Consulting forum and he discusses models for engaging with tribe members.
Timestamps:
04:55: Cold outreach techniques, including Ben Franklin approach and 111 messaging
10:03 Using 111 outreach for consulting firms to re engage with leads
17:16 LinkedIn outreach strategies for connecting with potential clients
20:37: Lead magnets, cold outreach, and converting blog subscribers to clients
26:35: Creating opportunities for conversation in content marketing
32:24: Cold outreach effectiveness with client success stories
Links:
Sales Benchmarks: https://www.davidafields.com/important-sales-benchmark-for-your-consulting-firm/
Website: www.davidafields.com.
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com. -
Tish Baldez, a leading expert in management consulting, has worked with small and mid-sized consultancies and 20,000 professionals worldwide. She shares the trajectory of her career from an independent consultant to a managing partner and leader at P31 Consulting LLC, a training program for professionals in management consulting, life science, IT consulting, finance, banking and more, and how they became a 100% referral-only business.
The Foundations of the Consultants Training Program
Tish introduced the foundations for consulting skills program about a year and a half ago, which enables small businesses hiring new analysts, consultants, and engagement managers without formal structure training on how to do consulting or work in a consultative way. The program focuses on providing foundational skills, storyboarding, and teaching how to synthesize data and communicate it meaningfully for clients. The program is currently running multiple sessions a year in the US, UK, and Latin America. The P31 Academy offer to help scale up and accelerate the learning curve of consultants, allowing them to be more effective and successful.
Storyboard Presentations for Consultants
Tish also trains 30-40% of their people on how to storyboard presentations in the traditional consulting way, teaching the principles of how it works and why it works. They also have a special version for scientists, medical professionals, and people working within Life Sciences or data science organizations, helping them become business fluent. This program helps them understand what they’re presenting and translate it into language that is meaningful for their audience, making it easier for them to make decisions and take actions based on the presentations.
The Foundation for Consulting Skills Program
The foundation for consulting skills is a 100-day experience that combines online, self-directed, and self-paced learning in addition to a combination of in-person and virtual-led instruction with expert consultants. The program includes a three-day intensive, where participants work independently for a few weeks, then come together for a three-day intensive in different locations in the UK and the United States. The remaining weeks involve small group exercises and one-on-one coaching and group coaching sessions. The focus is on major transformational bills, such as skill development, practical application, and theory. The program ends with a celebration of completion. One unique aspect of the program is the incorporation of neuroscience, which is intentional about engaging the brain and getting synapses going to ensure learning sticks and becomes habitual. The program also uses brain exercises to activate both the left and right side of the brain. The program is fun, engaging and conducive to adult learning, with participants finding it challenging but ultimately gaining the necessary skills.
Breaking Down the Consulting Skills Program
The program typically has 20 participants, with four coaches in the room, two of whom serve as facilitators. Each pod is assigned to a coach, who ensures that the participants receive individual coaching and feedback. This approach helps maintain a one-to-five ratio, ensuring individual coaching and that participants feel comfortable participating without feeling overwhelmed. The program begins with framing the problem, teaching the hypothesis-based problem-solving model, breaking down analysis and synthesis into separate pieces. Storyboarding is introduced, with the principles and reasons behind its effectiveness, as well as articles and papers that have been studied and proven effective. The program also emphasizes content and messaging, with key messages supported by evidence. The final presentation is a case-based course that covers various industries, including science, data science, finance, and accounting. The purpose of the case-based training is to provide a good foundation upon which the participants can apply their skills.
The Demographic Profile of Attendees
Tish discusses the demographic profile of attendees, which includes people coming out of college, mid-career professionals, and robots. They initially intended to cater to individuals who were hired by their consultancies and needed training for their skills. However, they found that many consultants from industry had never been taught how to do consulting, leading to a need for foundational training. Tish also talks about the pricing for their programs, including a course that specifically addresses the unique needs of these experts, scientists, and medical professionals, who need to learn how to translate their brilliant work into meaningful messages that make sense for the business.
The Key Values of a P31 Coach
Tish discusses the role of facilitators in their business. They are looking for experienced consultants with a background in management consulting to facilitate effective training. They believe that consultants should not just be great lecturers but also be able to identify learning opportunities for the participants and make adjustments accordingly. The company has a core team with a leader in the UK, overseeing Latin American business, and overseeing the United States and Asia Pacific.The focus is on business transformation, not just skills development. The company aims to help consultants build relationships that last a lifetime, ensuring they bring value on an ongoing basis. As the business world has changed, the training they provide has evolved. One key aspect of their training is staying relevant and ahead of clients. Tish mentions that COVID-19 has changed the way they interact and engage with clients, and the skills needed to be effective have evolved.
Timestamps:
05:35: Training consultants for business fluency
09:46: Incorporating neuroscience into training programs to improve retention
13:25: Intensive three-day training program for consultants
18:23: Training programs for consultants and scientists to communicate effectively with business audiences
23:54: Hiring subcontractors for training with a focus on experience and relevance
28:26: Staying ahead in business by providing value and building relationships
Links:
P31 website: https://p31-consulting.com/
P31 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/p31-consulting-llc-us/
P31 Academy: https://www.linkedin.com/company/p31-academy-for-consulting-performance-excellence/
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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In this episode of Unleashed, Michael Rubenstein discusses the importance of organizational culture in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Michael's expertise is broader than organizational culture; he offers a bird's eye view of an organization to help move it to the next phase in their evolution which includes: Strategy, M&A, Value Creation, People and Culture, etc. It’s all about moving an organization to the next phase in their evolution and includes: Strategy, M&A, Value Creation, People and Culture, etc. He believes that culture is the key to a successful integration and that it often goes unnoticed. He suggests that when assessing a company's culture, it is essential to identify the culture elements of the current company and the target company, and identify any gaps.
Key Points in Assessing Company Culture
To do this, Michael recommends conducting self-assessments and assessments of both companies, as well as conducting interviews with stakeholders such as leadership, employees, customers, and suppliers. These interviews can help identify critical issues that could be problematic or could be beneficial. A culture diagnostic is a process that involves asking open-ended questions about how decisions are made within a company. This can include whether the organization is meritocratic, where instructions come from the top, or more empowered, where people have more autonomy in their roles. It is also important to consider whether the decision-making process is customer-driven, or operationally driven.
Unpacking Elements of Company Culture
Michael states that culture is a complex concept that encompasses behaviors, norms, and rituals. Behaviors involve people working together, collaborating, hiding information, and doing things for the greater good or their own benefit. Norms are standards that hold individuals accountable for values, self-integrity, and communication within an organization. Rituals are important and often involve stories and networking opportunities.
The Benefits an Organizational Diagnostic
An organizational diagnostic can help identify gaps in culture, which can be useful in assessing the current state of the organization and the target acquisition company. A visual representation of the organizational diagnostic can help identify gaps and areas for improvement. For example, if the company being acquired is more advanced than the current one in terms of collaboration, it can help probe and identify areas for improvement. Michael explains that a case study can help assess the impact of a mismatch between cultures and the success of a merger. In a successful merger, culture was a key factor, as the acquiring company focused on taking the best people, processes, and models from both organizations. However, in a failed merger, the acquiring company ignored the value of the best people and processes, leading to a loss of billions of dollars in acquisition costs.
The Importance of Culture in Organizations
Michael discusses the importance of culture in organizations. He suggests assessing gaps, identifying positive aspects, and assessing alignment. He emphasizes the need to create a sense of unity and use language that is meaningful. Rubenstein also suggests soliciting input from stakeholders about creating a future state and creating a cultural strategic weapon. Culture is crucial as it is unique and cannot be duplicated by competitors. He suggests using a culture lens to frame people processes and tools, and building initiatives around this. Michael's practice is a boutique advisory firm that focuses on culture across various industries. He believes that culture can either facilitate or kill any other initiative, whether it's about strategy, change management, or continuous improvement. In conclusion, culture is a crucial aspect of any organization, and it can be a powerful tool for fostering harmony and success. By addressing cultural gaps and fostering a culture of alignment, organizations can create a more successful and successful future state.
Timestamps:
00:12: Organizational culture in M&A deals, including diagnostic tools and assessing gaps
05:50: Organizational culture, behaviors, norms, and rituals
13:01: Culture in M&A deals and its impact on success
Links:
Email:[email protected]
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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Lisa Carlin, founder of Future Builders Group, discusses her experience in consulting and the need for a more passive income stream. She has over 50 strategy execution projects and programs that focus on business strategy, project management, and change management. Lisa believes that achieving scale in these areas requires changing the focus of the business and execution messages to what is important to the culture. In this episode, Lisa talks about developing and running a membership community.
Building a Subscription Business
The TurboCharge Hub membership offers a platform for functional experts to learn how to develop and execute strategies. The group is currently launching its own website called TurboChargers.com, and she meets with members twice a month on Zoom. One of the biggest lessons learned from her experience is the importance of understanding the client's pain points and tailoring their solutions accordingly. As people join, Lisa learns about their ideal customer profile and their biggest pain points, which allows her to provide key messages to the market.
Lisa also shares her lessons learned from her own experiences, such as being clear on the ideal customer profile and understanding the key message. By learning from her clients and focusing on their needs, she hopes to help others build their own successful memberships.
Key Steps in Recruiting Members for a Subscription Business
Lisa shares how she built a following, which included learning more about building a strong brand, and reaching out to B2C and B2B communities. She started doing podcasts, signing up for conferences, and having a lead generation machine set up on LinkedIn. This has been effective in growing her LinkedIn profile and inquiries. She met with people she knew would sign up. The next phase of people signing up was people who heard her on a podcast or at a conference. The audience is mostly business leaders, CEOs of medium to large organizations, and entrepreneurs with a strong innovation flair. Lisa has also learned to hone her writing skills and set up a newsletter. The community now consists of 7300 people, mostly CEOs of medium to large organizations and entrepreneurs.
Working with a Podcast Agency
Lisa discusses their experience with a podcast agency and the results she has received from it. She shares information on fees and services, which involves developing a podcast profile and reaching out to potential clients. The agency also offered the opportunity to choose the podcasts she wanted to produce and post them on LinkedIn as native content and as YouTube clips for their YouTube channel. She also mentions that she has not considered offering a special discount code for listeners of the podcasts, but she is interested in taking on affiliates to distribute their software. She is also interested in partnering with consultants to help spread the message that understanding culture is essential for success.
The Benefits of the Digital Funnel
Lisa shares her experience with the digital funnel and the benefits it provides. She has a cohort of about 40 subscribers, some of whom are clients and colleagues, and some are paying members. She uses Tekmatixs software, based on a system called Lead connector, which includes an education platform. The platform allows users to sign up for a newsletter, access a lead magnet, or resource, and eventually become paying members where they can access the modules, master classes, and playbooks of frameworks. The system also includes access to Tekmatixs, which is an affiliate link for those interested in trying the system. Group coaching sessions are also available for users to take and participate live. Lisa also shares her experience with email marketing and conversion rates.
Working with a Podcast Agency
Lisa discusses their experience with a podcast agency and the results she has received from it. She shares information on fees and services, which involves developing a podcast profile and reaching out to potential clients. The agency also offered the opportunity to choose the podcasts she wanted to produce and post them on LinkedIn as native content and as YouTube clips for their YouTube channel. She also mentions that she has not considered offering a special discount code for listeners of the podcasts, but she is interested in taking on affiliates to distribute The Turbocharge Hub. She is also interested in partnering with consultants to help spread the message that understanding culture is essential for success.
The Benefits of the Digital Funnel
Lisa shares her experience with the digital funnel and the benefits it provides. She has a cohort of about 40 subscribers, some of whom are clients and colleagues, and some are paying members. She uses Tekmatix software, based on a system called Lead connector, which includes an education platform. The platform allows users to sign up for a newsletter, access a lead magnet, or resource, and eventually become paying members where they can access the modules, master classes, and playbooks of frameworks. The system also includes access to Tekmatix, there is an affiliate link for those interested in trying the system. Group coaching sessions are also available for users to take and participate live. Lisa also shares her experience with email marketing and conversion rates.
Becoming a Speaker at Conferences
The conversation turns to getting booked at conferences and identifying potential speaking engagements. Lisa finds that it's easier to pitch her content when people are in a defined niche, such as change management or AI. She also participates in mastermind groups, where she speaks to 15 CEOs at a time and shares her material with the group. This process helps build reputation and attracts more subscribers. She discusses the various conferences on functional areas such as strategy and project management culture and mentions that industry players and executives typically attend industry-focused conferences, such as the auto industry or waste management conference. She mentions that there are various industry associations, such as marketing and finance associations, that focus on project management and transformation, and virtual conferences that offer virtual speaking opportunities.
Lead Generation Success
Lisa shares how she has gained 7,000 subscribers on her newsletter. She mentions SkyLead, a tool that can target a group of people who have commented or liked a post. She shares results on a tactic where she received a 72% rate on connection requests. She has also used SkyLead to send connection requests in three different ways: direct email, direct connection request, and in-mail messages and she shares the results. She also mentions that the messages are incredibly sensitive to the length of the connection request, which can sometimes lead to a 10% decline in response rates or acceptance rates by adding three words. She concludes by emphasizing the importance of short, concise messages in connecting with people who have commented or liked her posts.
Lead Magnets and Email Strategies that Work
Lisa shares her experience with experimenting with different methods, such as sending lead magnets or emails, which had varying degrees of acceptance. One example was sending an email message to someone who agreed to subscribe to her newsletter, which she found to be more effective than sending a direct message. She also mentions a passive approach to managing connections.
Her goal is to provide value to her connections and make it easy for them to unsubscribe if they want to. She talks about the platforms she uses to increase the number of connections and convert them into subscribers. She also emphasizes the importance of providing value. SkyLead allows users to send connection requests, emails, and both free and paid in-mails. It also offers a built-in algorithm to ensure that messages are only sent to people who have not been previously connected with the platform.Timestamps:
06:06: Marketing and growing a membership business for functional experts
12:18: Podcasting for business growth, with a focus on strategy execution and culture change.
17:42: Digital marketing funnel for education business
24:22: Growing a community through newsletters, conferences, and mastermind groups
30:53: Speaking at conferences, lead generation, and newsletter subscribers
37:04: LinkedIn automation tool Sky Lead, with 72% connection request acceptance rate
43:46: LinkedIn connection requests, email newsletters, and automation tools
50:42: Using LinkedIn's Skylight system for automated messaging
Links:
Website: http://www.futurebuildersgroup.com/
CEO Guide: Boost Your Productivity with AI Tools for Strategic Initiatives: https://learnadmin.futurebuildersgroup.com/grab-your-ceo-guide-boost-your-productivity-with-ai-tools
5 Future Trends in Change Management https://learnadmin.futurebuildersgroup.com/grab-your-5-future-trends-in-change-management
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Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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Show Notes:
Jeremy Greenberg discusses the AI-powered audience simulator built by the Avenue Group. The tool allows users to provide a set of custom instructions for different audience segments, like research or interviews. It allows users to ask questions of qualitative and quantitative nature, and within minutes, results from simulated respondents are obtained. The tool mirrors the sentiment of collective segments and audiences, similar to chats or LLMs on a one-on-one basis. This tool is useful for collecting the opinions of celebrities, for example, Steve Jobs, highlighting the immense power of LLMs in capturing the distributions of the underlying population.
Creating an Audience
Jeremy discusses the process of updating the front end and the first section of the tool. He states the importance of setting this to create an audience, which is the global population interested in a specific topic, such as Americans drinking Coca Cola. This audience is then used to create sub-segments within the audience, each with its own criteria. For example, if the audience is comprised of decision-makers who decide on software for small businesses, they can segment them into different countries.
The Creation of Segments
The second section of the tool allows for the creation of segments. These segments can be categorized by industry, such as executives responsible for sourcing and procuring uniform rental services. For example, if the audience is comprised of executives in the food service industry, they can create a segment with one trait, such as "work in the food industry." The third section allows for the addition of more traits, such as "work in the food service industry," to further narrow down the audience. This allows for more targeted and targeted marketing efforts.
An Example of Segmentation
Jeremy uses the example of the janitorial services industry to identify the three segments. They create a review section that outlines the different traits and elements that comprise each segment, with a sample for each and a percentage base of the total. The group is asked questions about their current use of uniforms and key buying criteria.
Jeremy recommends starting broad and going deeper with research, such as asking about the company, title, years in the industry, demographic information, and other relevant details. Open-ended questions can be added to gauge the industry's knowledge and understanding. For example, asking about the company's history and the number of vendors they work with could provide valuable insights.
Quantitative questions can also be added to gauge the wallet fragmentation and the primary vendor's satisfaction level. For example, asking about the number of vendors they have for uniform rental services could provide insight into the distribution of the wallet. Additionally, asking about the top three criteria for selecting a vendor can help determine the industry's competitiveness.
The Inspiration for Building the Tool
The inspiration for building the tool came from research in academia. He cites a podcast called "Me, Myself, and AI" where they talked about research they’d done and hypothesis tested on price sensitivity related to income and brand value, which demonstrated that AI can understand these factors. They also wanted to understand the distributions of different responses, mirroring the reality of the world. To achieve this, they worked with an advisor and member of a research team at the Wharton School. This allowed them to learn how to use the tool in more advanced and creative ways. The tool is currently being developed and is in the process of being bolted up with all its features and capabilities.
Analyzing Responses from Segments
Jeremy talks about the process of creating a tool for analyzing responses from different segments. He discusses the importance of creating a sequence of events within the tool, such as creating 60 different personas and interviewing each one individually. The tool also ensures that subsequent respondents are aware of previous responses to avoid repetition and create a distribution that is representative of the actual segment. The results of the survey can be viewed in Excel and Google Sheets, with column headings that represent traits and the segment response. The questions include the industry, company, title, years in the industry, and number of vendors. Jeremy explains how the tool provides information on the internal consistency of the responses.
Conducting Research and Comparing Data
Jeremy emphasizes the importance of getting comfortable with the tool's accuracy and comparing it with their own data. He believes that this will be a significant impactful tool for conducting research. He also mentions that the panel industry faces challenges in getting surveys and finding people, and the power of these models is strong. He believes that the future of the survey tool will likely involve collaboration with various organizations, such as consulting firms, research firms, and researchers from various industries.
For listeners interested in signing up for the beta version or to be put on the waiting list, email: [email protected]
Timestamps:
00:25: AI-powered audience simulator for market research
06:09: Creating segments and adding traits for a target audience in market research
14:14: Uniform rental services, including vendor selection criteria and annual spend
19:11: Building a tool to simulate human responses using AI, with a focus on understanding price sensitivity and brand value
25:09: Vendor selection for uniform rental services
29:42: Using AI to improve survey research with demos and beta program
Links:
Demo Video: https://us17.campaign-archive.com/?u=66d85c8e8b72aebc12535cdfa&id=c98ffd78d4
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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Show Notes:
In this discussion, Professor Bryan Caplan discusses the science and ethics of housing regulations and the argument for housing deregulation, which he believes benefits everyone across the political spectrum, including lower costs and more equity.
Barriers to Radical Housing Deregulation
Bryan believes that to achieve radical housing deregulation, it would require convincing a large audience of people that it is a good idea. He explains that most people don't see the connection between letting people build and low prices, and there is a hypersensitivity to the harms a building can cause. The conversation also explores issues of environmental regulations and renewable power, and opposing forces lobbying to keep current housing regulations in place, such as community activists and the construction industry.
Housing Developers and Zoning Laws
The discussion turns to various types of regulation and barriers faced by developers, including zoning laws, which are often used to separate industry from commercial and residential areas. He talks about the expression “the zoning tax”, used by economists. Bryan believes that abolishing these regulations would be the best solution, and that, unfortunately, there is a slippery slope in allowing owners to preemptively stop someone from using their property as they want, it stymies action of any kind, and it can lead to laws that are overreaching and, most often, unnecessary. He talks about the law of nuisance and the burden of making a lawful complaint should be the responsibility of the complainer and not of the court to mitigate potential complaints in advance.
Historical Preservation and Housing Regulations
He discusses the issue of historical preservation regulations, which may not necessarily lead to the demolition of historic buildings. Market forces play a role in preserving historic buildings, as people often value them and don't want to tear them down. However, if there is a significant difference between the value of renting office space in historic buildings and the extra value from turning them into residential spaces, the market is spoken. He mentions that every historic building was built on the rubble of a previous, more historic building. Bryan states what he believes is the best, most easy solution to this problem. He also offers an example of why the motivation to preserve many historic buildings is quite ironic.
Environmental Building Regulations
Bryan addresses the environmental regulations that new builders face when building new buildings. He believes that current environmental protection laws are counterproductive, as they prevent developers from building in areas with favorable climates and reducing carbon emissions. Instead, he suggests making it easier to build in areas with good conditions, such as Southern California, where the weather is good and housing units can be built for millions of people. He talks about the importance of privatizing government land, particularly in the US, and suggests that developers should focus on what people want to pay for rather than environmental philosophy. He also discusses the lack of research on building codes and standards, which are often focused on land use regulations and safety regulations. He believes that the free market can ensure quality products, and explains how licensing, certification, and insurance companies play a role.
Accessibility Requirements in Housing Regulations
The conversation turns to accessibility requirements, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Bryan suggests a voluntary system where developers can target specific markets for ADA accessible buildings. He also discusses the challenges of building skyscrapers and density regulations in the United States. He argues that while technology has allowed for the construction of tall buildings, getting government permissions to build them is difficult, especially in desirable areas. He suggests that if skyscrapers could be built closer to desirable locations, it would make living in these areas more affordable. Density regulations are another issue, as 80% of residential land is zoned for single-family homes. This makes it difficult for builders to build multi family homes, which is often expensive due to the paperwork involved. However, if housing is cheap enough, it is possible to have spacious apartments and entire floors of skyscrapers at a reasonable cost. Bryan also discusses the difference in cost per apartment or per square foot between single-family and multifamily housing.
Building Costs and Economies of Scale
Building costs can be influenced by economies of scale, with skyscrapers being more expensive per square foot. Research shows that, averaging over the United States, regulations roughly doubles the cost of housing, with San Francisco and Manhattan having the worst regulation costs. Deregulating a small part of New York City could lead to skyscraper development almost immediately due to high prices in surrounding areas. However, if all the land was deregulated, then building skyscrapers of a certain height would no longer be profitable if there were many skyscrapers in the area and housing costs had been lowered. Overall, the cost of housing per square foot in a neighborhood depends on factors such as land, labor, structure, and regulation.
Community Engagement and Developers
Community engagement and public hearings are crucial for developers to build a building, as they must negotiate with the community to determine the benefits they will provide. However, many complaints are unmet, leading to delays and potential financial losses. A book called Neighborhood Defenders provides transcripts of land use meetings in Massachusetts, revealing that the complaints are often from paranoid homeowners, not wealthy homeowners, who fear disturbance or the neighborhood's character. The democratic process, while effective, puts the power to veto progress in the hands of paranoid people who don't speak for anyone but themselves.
Local Politicians and Housing Developments
Local politicians often claim to focus on increasing the tax base and lowering housing costs, but they often face criticism for their actions. The most simple-minded emotional arguments often prevail, as politicians are not there for the long term and may prioritize re-election over long-term goals. The antipathy for the housing industry is rooted in the fact that it is a big business, and housing is the second most vital necessity after food. Despite this, housing is often maligned, as it is the second most vital necessity after food.
Affordable Housing Regulations
Bryan discusses the concept of affordable housing requirements and their various versions. He identifies three common approaches: subsidizing demand and strangling supply, rent control, and public housing. The most common approach involves government subsidies for poor people to buy housing while restricting the supply. The least common approach is taxing the housing industry to produce different types of housing, which can make unsubsidized homes even more expensive while making affordable ones less expensive. Public housing, on the other hand, addresses the issue of not having enough housing and produces more housing. However, this approach generally faces issues such as high costs, lower quality, and poor maintenance by nonprofit sectors.
Noise and Nuisance Regulations
When it comes to noise and nuisance regulations, Brian compares the old system to the new system. Bryan suggests that there was a better system during the period without regulation, where complainers could take recourse to the courts. He also mentions the homeowner association (HOA) as an intermediate market system for handling complaints. HOAs are flexible and limited to one area, allowing residents to be aware of the rules in place and decide whether they want to buy in or not. Bryan closes the conversation with a brief discussion on the ratcheting of regulations, economists, embedded interests, and political psychology.
Timestamps:
00:23: Housing deregulation, with insights on opposition forces.
04:42: Regulations and their impact on development, with a focus on zoning laws, historical preservation, and the role of the government in decision-making
12:29: Preserving historical buildings and environmental regulations
16:19: Government regulations and building codes, with a focus on the free market and insurance companies setting standards
21:05: Regulations and their impact on affordable housing
27:35: Housing costs in New York City, with a focus on Astoria
32:21: Skyscraper construction costs and community engagement challenges
37:44: Affordable housing requirements and their impact on development
43:02: Housing regulations and their impact on affordability
48:12: Regulations and their challenges in society
52:54: Housing regulation and special interests
Links:
Website: http://www.bcaplan.com/
Email: [email protected]
Substack: http://betonit.substack.com/
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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Show Notes:
Maria Isabel Rios discusses the importance of making a firm work for you, rather than working for your firm. She emphasizes that firm leaders often immerse themselves in their firm in service to growing the firm to make it successful. Maria Isabel suggests that a better way to be a firm leader is to make your firm work for you. This involves finding ways to evaluate your firm, add value to your life, and bring success into the picture.
A Formula to Make Your Firm Work for You
A formula for making a firm work for you includes identifying key areas of importance in your personal life, and looking at your consulting firm's purpose, values, and intentions. Then, you can look at how these elements can intersect. The formula should be tailored to your needs and preferences, and should be specific to your goals. For example, if you want to spend one weekend day with family, zero work, every week for the next 52 weeks, this can be a more specific goal. Another example is a firm leader setting their goals for financial success, which can be a specific percentage of their income that goes into their retirement account. By making these personal intentions specific, you can create a formula that works for you and your firm.
Personal Intentions and the Intersection with Work
Maria Isabel discusses the importance of identifying personal intentions and focusing on what brings joy to oneself then move on to the intersection with a firm. She describes five models of intention for firms and how this intersects with personal goals. Maria Isabel gives examples of firm leaders intentions and what they want in their personal and professional life, and how they make both work. She suggests that, by focusing on these models, individuals can better understand their intentions and make decisions that align with their goals and objectives. Maria Isabel explains how the different models work in both professional and personal life.
Shifts and Growth in Business Models
Maria Isabel talks about the concept of a shift in business model. She shares examples of clients who are overworked and need help to reduce their hours and focus on a healthier lifestyle. She emphasizes that independent consultants often have an embedded model in mind, which often involves working long hours for high profits and success. However, when clients feel burnt out, they may need to consider the happiness the firm life brings to the firm leader. To make a shift, Maria Isabel suggests that clients should consider their personal intentions and work backwards to determine how to achieve this. This could involve taking larger projects or creating more sustainability in their pipeline. Additionally, they should strategically shift the model of how they deliver to reduce the firm leader's role in delivery. Maria Isabel also touches on other aspects of the firm's role, such as building a reputation as a thought leader or creating an online course to generate revenue. By planning ahead and aligning activities to achieve these goals, clients can create a sustainable firm that can deliver on their desired lifestyle. Maria Isabel emphasizes the importance of being intentional about what they want and not automatically taking on more projects and hours each week.
Timestamps:
08:07: Prioritizing personal intentions and defining firm goals for the next 3-5 years
15:55: Building a business model for impact vs. financial gain
23:32: Scaling consulting firms sustainably, prioritizing firm leader's well-being
30:35: Planning and intentionality for consulting firms
Links:
https://www.davidafields.com/mondaylive
Website: https://www.davidafields.com/blog
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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Show Notes:
Lindsay McGregor discusses her firm's focus on building high-performing organizations. She explains that the highest performing organizations motivate people in a specific way, unlocking play, purpose, and potential for the problem they're solving. The firm trains leaders to be inspirational and consults with organizations on designing their operating models. She shares a story about how the firm explained the deeper concepts of play at work and how implementing these concepts of play was worth millions of dollars to the fund's portfolio managers every year. Play is often seen as something we do during our hobbies, but when we feel engaged by what we're solving, we perform at our best.
Utilizing Play Concepts for Growth Management
Lindsay talks about the tools used to facilitate the play process and shares a sample engagement with a client who was the founder of a tech company that had scaled rapidly and the former processes no longer worked. Lindsay shares examples of the challenges faced in managing a team due to the rapid growth of the organization, including issues of talent retention, burnout, and AI adoption. To address these issues, Lindsay’s firm found three simple, easy-to-implement routines: goal checks, health checks, and skill checks. She shares a story that demonstrates the benefit of problem-solving activities. She explores each routine and explains that, by focusing on these strategies, companies can ensure their teams are equipped to handle the demands of their rapidly growing environment and maintain a competitive edge.
Outcome-related Goals, Process-related Goals, and Idea-related Goals
The conversation moves to outcome-related, idea-related, and process-related goals in a company. Lindsay emphasizes the importance of tracking process metrics and idea metrics to track how many ideas or experiments are being run. Aggressive goals can lead to increased effort, but it's crucial to manage experimentation and work smarter instead. For example, a tech company's recruiter had to fill double the number of jobs in the coming quarter than she normally does. By breaking down her goal into six categories, AI helped her create five sub-goals that focused on working smarter, not harder. This allowed her and her leader to focus on creatively adapting their approach.
Team Alignment, Strategy, and Outcome Goals
In some organizations, having a senior leader join the goal meetings and challenges can be powerful, as it allows senior leaders to help block the team and identify blockers that are outside of their control. This creates a sense of understanding and cooperation between the team and the executive. The quarterly health process and skill check are essential for ensuring the right goals are set and the team has the necessary skills to accomplish them. Motivation in the workforce is a key factor in achieving success. A study found that people who learn valuable skills on the job and have good work-life balance are more motivated. However, many find learning new skills difficult, as it is often seen as a big training or time-consuming process. Lindsay talks about the problem of skills gaps and how to deal with this issue. Lindsay also mentions the benefits of remote work culture, which can be great but requires more intentional skill building and offers a few approaches to team skill building.
Vega Factor Certification for Consultants
The discussion revolves around the firm's resources and tools for consultants to access, such as goal checks, health checks, and skill checks. One of their current offerings is a platform called Factor, which enables consultants to run goal checks, health checks, and skills checks. They train and certify consultants to do these checks with their organizations. The certification and training process for using the platform is a six-part learning session that goes deep into how to conduct these checks. The platform is designed to help consultants and leaders retain top performers by putting in place good processes, making it easier for them to problem solve with their teams. Lindsay talks about the popular training sessions, including how to solve problems cross-functionally and how to make cross-functional collaboration and problem-solving easy for high performers. One of the leaders mentioned that this way of asynchronous problem-solving brought depth, breadth, and lightness to his job. He was able to go deeper into the problems, look at the solutions, and make informed decisions. In conclusion, the firm's platform offers valuable resources and tools for consultants and leaders to improve their work and retain top performers.
High Performers and the Play Processes
Companies need to focus on retaining high performers and fostering a culture of play, purpose, and potential. High performers are more likely to leave a company that is bureaucratic and dysfunctional, while non-high performers are more likely to stay due to the perks and benefits they receive. Millennials are more skeptical than ever about the value of work, and they tend to see it as a transactional decision. However, high performers know that work can be meaningful, important, and impactful. To help them realize this, companies should focus on fostering a culture of play, purpose, and potential.
The Genesis of Vega Factor
Lindsay explains that the firm’s journey began with researching what makes a high-performing company and culture. They wanted to understand if there was a quantitative, productive way to build a high-performing culture. They measured hundreds of factors from psychology and business best practices across thousands of people and hundreds of companies. They found that employees from companies like Home Depot and Lowe's answered questions differently and that their performance management systems and leader behavior were also different.
The research was conducted through market research firms, where they found that employees from companies with similar systems answered questions differently. They also found that when the survey was administered internally by the company, there was a consistent increase in positivity, which they believe occurs because people don't trust the anonymity of their survey. The firm's website offers screenshots, interactive tools, and tips for implementation. They also provide links to download research.
Timestamps:
04:43 Using goal, health, and skill checks to improve company performance
09:35 Goal setting and performance, with a focus on problem-solving goals
13:04 Using AI to help teams work smarter, not harder, and improve team health through goal setting and problem-solving
17:40 Teamwork, motivation, and skill development in the workplace
23:30 Apprenticeship-based learning in consulting and remote work culture
28:50 Using AI to improve team performance and retain top performers
34:35 Motivating high performers and millennial employees through problem-solving processes
Links:
The website: https://www.factor.ai/
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com. -
Dr. Ron Razmi discusses his book, AI Doctor: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, which focuses on the applications of AI in various areas of healthcare. Ron talks about AI as a foundational technology that uses statistical methods to analyze data and understand its meaning. It can be applied to various areas, such as coding and documentation, and can create algorithms to analyze heartbeats and detect abnormal rhythms.
AI Use in Diagnostics
In diagnostics, AI can be helpful in analyzing clean structured data, such as radiology files from CAT scans or MRIs. AI can be trained to identify bleeding or abnormalities on these scans, but it must be trained on specific abnormalities. Currently, AI excels in radiology due to the digitized and structured data, but it's not as effective in narrative formats. Ron states that AI's applications in healthcare are vast and deep, and while it's still in its early stages, it has the potential to revolutionize various sectors, including healthcare.
AI Tools in Radiology and Triage
AI is increasingly being used in various fields, including radiology, dermatology, and sound AI. In radiology, AI tools are helping radiologists identify potential issues that might have been missed in traditional workflows. There are applications that read CAT scans for bleeding and stroke in acute settings, allowing radiologists to quickly identify and treat stroke patients. This helps in regaining function and ensuring patient recovery. AI can also aid in triage, prioritizing tasks based on urgency.
AI in Dermatology
In dermatology, AI applications can help diagnose skin lesions. Additionally, sonar technology can be used to monitor people's activity and detect falls. This passive data collection method allows AI to analyze the signals and take action, reducing the need for manual data entry and manual data input. This technology is particularly effective for elderly individuals who may not want to be monitored with cameras, as 50% of falls occur in the bathroom. This technology is particularly useful for those who prefer to stay home but still need constant monitoring, such as those in assisted or independent living facilities.
AI in Cardiology
In cardiology, AI tools can help read EKGs, which are crucial for diagnosing heart conditions. Historically, algorithms have been used to read EKGs, but they were often basic and inaccurate. AI has shown great promise in finding abnormalities on single lead data collection, as it can discern the rhythm of an EKG from a live core or smartphone application. This field-based data collection could significantly reduce the simple analytic and downstream work needed by clinicians in the medical staff.
AI in Therapeutics
AI takes action in therapeutics, such as providing assistance to patients with mental health issues. AI chatbots can interact with patients who need help and provide frontline assistance until they see a mental health professional. Generative AI has improved natural language processing capabilities, which has been a problem area for AI in healthcare due to the heavy use of medical jargon in doctor's notes. This will allow for more efficient interactions with healthcare consumers and better guidance in their care. However, there is still much work to be done in this promising area.
Technology and Medication Adherence in Healthcare
The conversation turns to medication adherence, which is a significant problem in healthcare. Long-term studies show that people who have had a heart attack are more likely to stay compliant with their medications, with the refill rate for statins being the highest documented rate. However, most people do not follow their prescription advice. Technology is part of the solution to this problem. AI technology can potentially analyze data and interact with patients at the appropriate moment to ensure they are aware of the needs, issues, and dates of medication use or the lack of, which is crucial in healthcare.
How AI Helps Doctors
AI applications in healthcare can help alleviate the burden of documentation work for physicians and nurses. One example is the use of AI in critical care settings, where doctors often spend time typing notes into the electronic health record, which can lead to missed information and negatively impact the quality of care. AI can also analyze conversations using natural language processing, which can identify the meaning of words and improve communication. For example, AI can listen to conversations and extract key elements that need to be documented, allowing doctors to focus on the patient and generate notes in their preferred format. AI can also perform downstream tasks, such as prescribing medication, making referrals, and creating prior authorization letters. This could save time for medical staff, preventing them from seeing more patients and making them less productive. Another use case could be for AI to assist nurses in creating notes for patients based on interaction with them, reducing the time spent documenting. This could make a significant difference in the quality of care and well-being since it allows medical professionals to focus on the patient instead of taking notes.
Evaluating AI Healthcare Applications
Ron’s book goes beyond cheerleading and emphasizes the business and clinical barriers to adoption. He talks about the importance of evaluating the business model of AI products or applications, considering the incentives of buyers and the potential for job loss or revenue reduction. As an investor, he suggests considering the pain points that AI could address, such as staff shortages and burnout, and how AI could help medical centers and pharmaceutical companies improve their clinical trials. Ron also discusses the importance of understanding the value proposition of AI products in medical settings. He shares his experience as an investor in the healthcare AI space, advising companies and funds on identifying great use cases and evaluating barriers. Ron recommends reading sources like healthcare AI digests, health tech news, and interviews with experts to stay informed about trends and the latest AI applications.
Timestamps:
04:00 AI applications in radiology and dermatology, including AI-assisted diagnosis and triage
10:54 Using AI to analyze passive data collection from sonar/radar in indoor environments for health monitoring, including fall detection and heart rate measurement
15:12 AI in healthcare, particularly in diagnostics and therapeutics
21:22 Using AI technology to improve medication adherence
26:40 AI applications in healthcare, including documentation assistance and quality of care
34:41 AI in healthcare, investment considerations, and product evaluation
39:44 AI in healthcare with a former doctor turned investor
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronald-m-razmi-md-2b55b8/
The Book: AI Doctor: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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Show Notes:
The Benefits of Somatics
Divya Agarwal, founder of Vivekam, explains what somatics is and what the benefits are. Somatics is a term used to describe body-based techniques that can be used with the body to build more body/mind awareness, manage emotions, and respond more effectively. These practices involve using techniques such as breathing, generating heat, and visualization practices to sense oneself better and improve self-awareness.
These practices can help individuals feel more connected to their emotions and be present in various situations, such as negotiations or job evaluations. Mindful presence, which has been emphasized in mainstream literature and coaching, is another way to be present. However, there is a growing trend towards using “embodiment” (the quality of being/feeling the body) as a way to enter presence. Some simply techniques to build embodiment involved breathing exercises, visualization exercises, and body scans.
Divya explains that somatics works at the nervous system level. Over time, these practices rewire the body and teach the nervous system to respond differently, making it easier to come into presence and calmness.
Building Embodiment with Somatics
Divya discusses the difference between exercise and somatics. She touches on the concept of embodiment, or being embodied, in relation to exercise. She believes that being in the body allows us to be more present and feel emotions such as anger, joy, anxiety, and fear and to manage those emotions. Divya states that the more we are embodied, the more we can be aware of emotions (since they show up as sensations in the body), and then choose how we respond with those emotions. Body-based techniques like breathing and visualization can help manage these emotions.
The science behind starts with some basics of the brain and nervous system. To keep it simply, understand three areas: the amygdala (base of brain, often called "the reptilian brain"), the sympathetic nervous system, and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system responds to reactive stimuli and triggers the amygdala into action (fight, flight, or freeze), while the parasympathetic nervous system allows us to be calm and relaxed. The goal of body-based techniques is to help us be in the parasympathetic mode more effectively and more easily.
The Parasympathetic Nervous System and Heart Variability Rate
Divya talks about the importance of the parasympathetic nervous system in maintaining a healthy balance and resilience. She mentions heart rate variability, which is a biomarker that reflects the variations in the amount of time between your heartbeats. The more variation your heart has, the higher your HRV. Higher heart rate variability indicates that the heart can have and manage different intervals of time. Those in the medical field will discuss how high HRV is good and indicates that there is balance in the nervous system between Sympathetic and Parasympathetic nervous system response. In short, high HRV is an indicator of someone's capacity to have higher resilience. The nervous system is connected to our whole body as a response mechanism to our outside world.
Practices to Improve the Parasympathetic Nervous System
Divya introduces three practices to build embodiment. The first practice involves rubbing hands together, focusing on the lower belly and noticing breath. The second practice is box breathing, which involves inhaling for a count of four, retaining the inhale, exhaling for your own count of four, and retaining at the “bottom of the exhale.” Over time, as one develops the capacity for expanded breathing, you may increase this to 4 in / 6 out, 6 in/ 8 out etc. She encourages reflection on what may be noticed during these practices. Divya states that it helps people remember their physical container around the mind and brings awareness of a deeper breath. She also mentions that shallow breathing, which involves inhaling and exhaling at the chest level, is not effective to bringing a parasympathetic response.
Divya also shares a meditation practice, focusing on the bones of the body.
Somatics Coaching Benefits
The conversation turns to the importance of paying attention to the body over time and the parasympathetic nervous system. Divya believes that each person has the right and responsibility to operate from a place of choice or knowing why they're doing what they're doing. This involves understanding and managing emotions, which can be challenging in professional environments. Body-based practices, such as somatics, help her clients slow down, be more present with themselves, and manage their emotions effectively. Divya explains how her coaching practices help her clients in a variety of common business situations.
Divya’s coaching practice focuses on different use cases, such as manager level professionals who have received feedback and are looking to improve their performance. She uses body-based practices and competency-based coaching to help individuals embody and emit a greater sense of calm and clarity. She believes that this calmness can lead to better outcomes, leadership, and communication with team members.
Timestamps:
07:25 Embodiment and body-based techniques for managing emotions and improving nervous system regulation
14:36 Heart rate variability and its connection to resilience, with exercises to improve HRV.
20:23 Breathing techniques for relaxation and mindfulness
25:43 Mindfulness techniques for executives to manage stress and stay centered
32:23 Body-based practices for self-awareness and emotional management
39:58 Using body-based practices for self-awareness and leadership development
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/divya-agarwal-co/
Read more on the business website: http://vivekam.co/
Learn more from this video on HRV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP3Bd7_25Oc
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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Kathy Hines, former Chief Marketing Officer at brands like Dickies and Vice President at brands like North Face and Kipling ,shares her experiences. She started her career in career management consulting at Bain and later went on to Nike, where she gained foundational experience in lifestyle and sports marketing. At Kipling, she led marketing strategy and E-commerce. She then led marketing and strategy for the North Face in Europe. After a four-year stint in VF Europe, she returned to the US and took on the role of global chief marketing officer for Dickies in Texas, where she was also responsible for licensing. Her experience at VF has given her a broad range of skills and experiences.
Developing a Professional Marketing Plan
Using a sports and lifestyles brand as an example, Kathy shares her process for developing a professional marketing plan. She begins by identifying the brand's aligned corporate strategy and working closely with the leadership team to understand financials and operational opportunities. The team then collectively develops long-term objectives, such as being the leader in performance and lifestyle apparel across key markets.
For example, strategic choices include improving gross to net profits, targeting specific geographies, such as the UK, China, and the US, or focusing on elevating iconic products to consumers. The latter approach allows the brand to ensure it is the best in the world at that product. The marketing strategy should align with these strategic objectives and align with the brand foundations, which include the purpose of the brand, brand values, and brand personality.
The Importance of Brand Foundations
The brand foundations are essential for the marketing team to align on who they are and why they exist. These foundations include the brand purpose, the brand values, which define the brand, and the brand personality, which guides the direction of the brand in terms of the brand and design guidelines which are visual manifestations of the brand, while the tone document informs global communications, PR, and social media. The marketing plan should also include a clear vision for the brand, a clear mission statement, and a clear communication strategy. By focusing on these areas, the marketing team can create a comprehensive and effective marketing plan that aligns with the brand's long-term objectives and strategic choices.
Examples of Brand Purpose and Its Place in the Marketing Plan
Kathy shares several examples of brand purposes, including Kipling's brand purpose of making happy, and Napapijri’s brand purpose of Unlimit the Future. These examples demonstrate the power of brand purpose in shaping a company's identity and strategy. A marketing plan can be a singular page or a series of sub-chapters, with the brand purpose at the top. The purpose is the pinnacle of the brand, defining its values, personnel, and personality. Sub-chapters can include marketing-related details and strategic choices to align the brand foundations with corporate strategy. If the brand purpose is a one-page manifestation, subsequent pages can further explore the brand purpose, values, personality, and how these factors inform communications in PR, social media, and ecommerce. These drill-downs are crucial for ensuring alignment with the brand's overall vision and strategy.
Segmentation in Marketing
Kathy discusses the importance of segmentation in marketing, stating that while it is important to understand a brand's core consumer base, it is also crucial to consider the potential of the audience and the growth of that audience. For example, if a brand is rooted in an extreme sport, and the core consumer is an extreme athlete, branching out from there to less extreme athletes who do not compete, or a consumer who is inspired by the sport can help unlock and grow the brand by connecting the core consumer to concentric circles that ripple out from the center.
Price Strategies in Marketing
Price strategy is another important aspect of marketing, often set by the product team. However, when a brand has a multi-geographic product, it can lead to price and brand differences as well disruption to brand cohesion. To address this issue, a cross-functional team from product design, merchandising, marketing, and leadership teams should conduct a full pricing study to understand the brand's potential. In ecommerce, it is essential to be cautious about discounting the product to maintain a healthy, profitable business. Ecommerce growth often drives top line sales through occasional sales, but if the product is discounted, the rest of the market will follow, making the brand less profitable and less desirable. Full price sell-through is another key metric for identifying a strong brand. This indicates that a significant percentage of the product is selling through at full price without any discounts, which is a strong indication of brand health and helps avoid market degradation.
The Importance of Monitoring Metrics
Kathy emphasizes the importance of clear tracking of KPIs and simple KPIs and to collect data that can be informative. One favorite metric for brands is Google brand interest, which is an intuitive index measuring search volume for the brand. By tracking this consistently, businesses can see whether interest is increasing or decreasing, which is important for understanding brand health. Additionally, tracking global brand interest allows for a more accurate understanding of geographic differences. A regression analysis from Google suggests that increased consistent increase in Google brand interest is directly tied to increased sales for the brand. Brand engagement is also important in social channels, as high engagement indicates people are interested in the content being posted. Full price sell-through is another key indicator of a brand's success. Lastly, tracking direct-to-consumer offerings through ecommerce or retail can help determine if the customer base is growing or if there is a growing number of opt-ins to communication. By focusing on net new people, businesses can ensure their total pie of customers grows each month. Kathy mentions that the degree to which a marketing technology stack is included in a marketing plan depends on the brand's unique circumstances and the technology partner team.
Strategic Partnerships in Marketing
Strategic partnerships can manifest in various ways, such as collaborations with emerging designers, faster go-to-market processes, agency partners, and effective partnerships with wholesale retailers. Agency partners, if treated as an authentic member of the team, can be magical. By addressing these partnerships in a comprehensive and effective manner, brands can create unique and valuable products and experiences.
Blu Moon Marketing
Kathy’s company focuses on three areas: private equity portfolio companies, consulting companies, and public and private companies. She assists in due diligence, diagnostic phase, and client work for private equity funds. Her company also provides additional support to consulting companies by assisting with pitches and client work. They also offer project-based support for public and private companies, focusing on business strategy, marketing strategy, segmentation, go-to-market strategy, budget analysis, and design.
Timestamps:
04:01 Business strategy and marketing plan development
08:58 Brand purpose, values, and personality for various companies
13:28 Brand segmentation and its importance in growing a brand
20:17 Pricing strategies and metrics for brand health
25:25 Tracking KPIs for brands using Google brand interest, social media engagement, full price sell through, and customer base growth
30:09 Marketing strategies and partnerships
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-hines-1194851/?originalSubdomain=uk
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com. -
Show Notes:
Dimitris Samouris discusses the development of a tool called Junior, an SaaS tool built on large language models and speech to text models. It leverages AI to help process primary research workstreams, particularly in the due diligence process, especially for primary interviews.
How Junior Works - A SaaS Tool to Clean Transcripts
Junior helps automate a significant portion of the administrative tasks associated with research execution, allowing users to focus more on the big picture answer rather than the execution side of things. The tool provides a highly accurate transcript of each call, including the name, segment, company, customer size, date and time of the interview, call status, and review status. The call tracker is a knowledge repository that displays the names, segments, job title, company, customer size, country, date and time of the interview, call status, and review status. The call screen is a customizable project management tool for running the call workstream. Junior has three parts: a call drawer, which has three parts: verbatim transcript, clean transcript, and audio file backup. The first step is to chunking the verbatim transcript into relevant question and answer pairs, then cleaning those pairs for colloquialisms and repetition interruptions. This process typically strips out about half of the text in the verbatim transcript, making it more digestible.
The Benefits of Using Junior - Workflow Tools for Consultants
Junior allows users to create a clean transcript of a call and then convert it into a call summary. The tool has two components: a stats box that extracts every numerical data point referenced in the call and stores it in one place for review after the call, and a set of key takeaways that are AI-generated summaries of the key points of the call. The tool leverages information from the beginning of a project, such as a scope document or interview guide, to help guide the summary. The tool also offers workflow tools specifically designed for the consulting industry to help get to the slide output faster. One of the main features is Ctrl. F. This feature helps users find relevant quotes and questions related to the topic, such as contract structure, pricing, implementation, and renewal processes. This feature is particularly useful for human consultants who may struggle to trace quotes due to sanitization or paraphrasing issues. An AI native spreadsheet table automates data input for questions that need to be tracked systematically across research or used in market models. It allows users to set up questions and track transcripts, with the source information attached for verification. The data is exportable into Excel for further analysis. Junior also has a chatbot that handles transcripts for consulting and investment research use cases. It produces structured answers with evidence attached to each argument, providing a comprehensive data access and customization tool.
Pricing and Signup for Junior
The presentation also touches on the pricing and signup process for clients, including six of the top 10 consulting firms, boutiques, and private equity funds. The pricing is $100 per transcript, which typically gets billed back to the client as part of the research expenditure along with the extra networks used to source calls. Overall, the presentation emphasizes the importance of auditability and traceability when using Gen AI tools in procurement research. Junior saves time on analysis and synthesis for clients who are already paying for interviews on big alpha sites or GLG. The tool is priced at an extra 100 dollars per interview, but it can be refunded back to the client. The signup process involves reaching out to the company, who spin up a new instance for each user due to data security concerns. The platform can be set up within a day of reaching out.
Timestamps:
01:02 Using AI to automate due diligence process, including transcription and summarization of calls.
05:53 Using AI to summarize and analyze audio calls for consulting industry research
09:02 Ctrl F functions
12:57 AI-powered tool for analyzing audio interviews and providing structured insights
14:26: SWOT analysis capabilities
Links:
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.myjunior.ai/
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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In this episode of Unleashed, Ran Harpaz, founder of Lettuce, discusses the importance of an automated tax and accounting system for businesses and that Lettuce is entirely focused on independent consultants. Independent consultants who make over $100,000 per year often overpay their taxes by $10,000 or more. Lettuce is a FinTech software company that helps these professionals incorporate their business into the right S corporation with the IRS, open a business bank account, run bookkeeping, run accounting, predict and file taxes, all done automatically through software. The company offers two levels: Pro (300 dollars a month) and Premium (700 dollars a month). The service includes accounting, bookkeeping, tax preparation, and tax preparation.
Tax Strategies for the Independent Consultants
Ran explains how many independent consultants are often double taxed as sole proprietors due to the IRS's coordination on annual tax returns. He offers an example to demonstrate how this works. Ran also discusses the concept of an S Corp and its implications for tax calculations.
He mentions that Lettuce exists as a software solution that does this daily on every dollar, as income fluctuates throughout the year. This automated solution monitors every payment, calculates and withholds the right amount automatically, and keeps the balance to the IRS constantly close to zero. The S Corp also offers more advanced tax strategies, such as retirement matching, qualified business income deductions, and better healthcare premium payments. Once an S Corp is established, it can unlock all the tax strategies typically available to corporations. The tax system and everything around it are well optimized for corporations, and larger organizations have a finance department, FEMA, and tax experts. While the savings on Social Security and Medicare may be capped, other benefits like retirement and healthcare premium payments open up once an S Corp is established.
Using Retirement Plans as a Tax Strategy
Ran discusses the advantages of using retirement plans as a tax strategy for individuals, particularly those with limited liability companies (LLCs). They mention that having an SEP IRA or a defined benefit plan can provide tax-free income, but it also comes with higher limits. The speaker emphasizes that this becomes a multivariable optimization problem, as individuals may want to save more through retirement, allocate more to Social Security, optimize for salary distribution, maximize expenses, and consider factors like business use of home and mileage.
He suggests that these tax strategies should be solved by software products rather than human efforts. He explains that Lettuce is a replacement for QuickBooks accounting bookkeeping packages. Instead of having multiple software solutions, Lettuce provides a single solution that includes incorporating LLCs, making S corp elections, running books, opening a dedicated bank account, and managing payroll processing.
How Lettuce Offers Tax Accounting Solutions
Ran also mentions that Lettuce can handle payroll for individuals who hire employees. They focus on serving businesses of one owner, as they are the essence of the business. The free business bank account is provided by TransPecos Bank, a Texas bank, FDIC insured, and provides the infrastructure for keeping money safe.The company is offering accounting and bookkeeping software that helps with automating quarterly taxes, which are a requirement for people. The software handles complex tasks such as forecasting, withholding the right amount, filing, and payment. It also handles complex transactions like multiple jurisdictions or income from Canada. The company has partnered with a CPA company to serve their specific market segment, offering additional services when needed. This includes offshore investments and rollovers from past investments. The company is also working on rolling out an AI accountant to answer customers' questions 24/7. They are training and fine-tuning the AI engine on specific tax code areas, providing answers as good as human but faster. The AI will be released in the next couple of months, and the company expects to receive positive feedback from users who want guidance and information without having to call a CPA.
Timestamps:
03:45 Tax savings for independent consultants
09:39 Tax strategies for small business owners
17:44 Financial management and accounting software for independent professionals
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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Salah Zalatimo, former Chief Digital Officer at Forbes, discusses the history of magazines and digital transformation. Magazines have been around for a while, with many well-known brands being founded around 100 years ago. Technological innovations have enabled new businesses to launch, such as the Direct to Consumer (DTC) boom and the cheaper printing costs around the turn of the last century.
A Short History of the Magazine Industry
Salah talks about the background of Forbes, which was launched around the Great Depression, and goes on to why the magazine industry was much like VC Investing today, and how it changed with the advent of the internet. The tension between maintaining journalistic integrity and separation was a challenge. However, the internet revolutionized the way magazines operated, leading to many magazines going out of business in the past 20 years.
Integration with the Digital Media Space
Salah started his career in 2001, drawn to the digital media space after experiencing the first broadband connection and discovering Napster and music. When he arrived at Forbes, he found it to be one of the few companies that successfully adapted to these new business models. Forbes had more traffic and audience than any other magazine and competed with some of the largest information and news websites in the world. He joined Forbes in 2016 and discovered that their adaptation to the new business model was kind of outside their capabilities. Forbes adopted a new business model in 2016 when they acquired True Slant, a platform that allowed writers to write articles and receive a revenue share on the content. This aligned the incentives of all stakeholders in the content creation process, with writers and publishers trying to generate more revenue and being paid based on the success of the content. Forbes adapted this business model to their own newsroom, increasing their content production and SEO significantly.
How Forbes Maintained Zero Liability
The Google algorithm, which was maturing at the time, was a link-sharing system, making it difficult to lose a lead in SEO. Forbes was one of the first companies to dramatically increase their content production and SEO, leaving everyone behind. This led to a virtuous cycle where writers had their own social media accounts and audiences, which added to putting Forbes ahead of the curve in terms of adaptation. However, content production still operated as a newsroom, and digital transformation was needed to adapt the business model. Salah explains why tension arose between traditional journalists and freelance journalists and how Forbes maintained zero liability for user-generated content..
Problems Facing The Digital Media Business Model
The digital media business model is facing a number of problems, including misaligned incentives and the need for a more efficient business model. Digital advertising is the primary way to monetize the media today, and traditional newsrooms focus on journalistic excellence and fact-checking. Salah explains how Forbes addressed this issue which incentivized writers to optimize their content for new distribution channels like Google and Facebook. This led to a dramatic change in the way Forbes worked and enabled them to grow.
Challenges Managing Freelance Writers
The newsroom faced challenges in managing freelance writers and managing quotas, which created stress. As a technologist, it was clear to Salah that many of these tasks could be simplified, automated, and made more consistent and flexible. To improve processes and outcomes, the company looked at the publishing platform as an opportunity. WordPress, the most widely used platform, is meant for smaller publications, and it couldn’t handle the volume of Forbes. By aligning incentives and improving processes, Forbes was able to grow and thrive in a time when other digital media companies were either losing money or going sideways.
How Forbes’ Platform Was Improved
To improve the platform, Forbes evaluated various third-party options and found that there were many components available in the market that could be customized and further developed for their platform. They considered AI and automation machine learning. To gather insights, Forbes hired data scientists to analyze content performance and identify patterns. They discovered that certain headline words had a 40% higher ranking in Google than comparable synonyms, and placing images after the first paragraph dramatically increased completion rates. They also developed a proprietary viral early warning system called views, which could predict with 95% accuracy whether an article would go viral within the first 15 minutes of publication.
Publisher Challenges
One of the biggest challenges faced by publishers is first-party data collection, which is crucial for their success. Forbes didn't have any connection between the different platforms and sharing, Salah explains how they overcame this issue and what the signifiers are of a post going viral. The impact of this was dramatic and clear, as Forbes could create bots that automatically posted content to social media platforms based on these patterns. This allowed Forbes to focus on the highest likelihood of success articles and increase throughput on social media accounts for specific topics.
The New Publishing Platform, Birdie
Salah discusses the development of a new publishing platform called Birdie, which introduced machine learning and AI tools to improve the quality and reach of writers' content. The platform was named after BC Forbes, the founder of Forbes. The AI elements in Birdie included a headline score, article length optimization, image placement, and content complexity. However, the first version of the platform was not well-received by the newsroom. To address this, the team tried to integrate the AI tools in a more fluid way, using a push button system where users could request suggestions for headlines. This allowed writers to feel more empowered and better at their jobs. Birdie's digital transformation was an efficient way to manage writers, build quotas and KPIs into the platform, and receive suggestions and reminders. This eliminated the need for manual intervention and improved the reach of pieces.
Salah emphasizes the importance of maintaining the human element of the digital transformation process. He believes that it is not just about optimizing how something is written but also changing someone's livelihood and something they have been doing for a long time. Maintaining the human element and coming at it from an empathetic standpoint would have allowed for faster progress and saved stress.
In conclusion, Salah Zalatimo advises companies tackling similar digital transformations to lean into the people they will be affecting early on, consider the words used and the choice of words, and consider the AI powered versus AI assisted versus AI enabled aspects.
Timestamps:
02:07 Digital transformation in the magazine industry
07:13 The history of magazines and their adaptation to technological changes
13:04 Forbes' successful adaptation to digital media
18:52 Forbes' digital transformation and content creation model
23:49 Digital transformation in a newsroom
29:23 Improving Forbes' publishing platform using AI and automation
34:36 AI-powered content creation and viral prediction at Forbes
40:09 Implementing AI tools in a newsroom with empathy for writers
Links:
https://www.ooblek.xyz/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zalatimo/
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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Show Notes:
In this discussion, Will Bachman interviews Henry Oliver, author of the forthcoming book Second Act about late bloomers. Oliver has a background in English literature and marketing. He worked for an MP and later in employment marketing.
Defining a Late Bloomer
Henry’s interest in late bloomers came from his work in employment marketing, and during his research, he found a wealth of talent in an older demographic. During the course of his research, he found that cognitive ability is the number one predictor of job performance regardless of age. A late bloomer is someone who is no longer expected to achieve anything significant. However, Henry states that many people start a successful career late in life. Henry’s book is structured as a series of short biographical sketches that illustrate themes such as the right people, networks, influence, being at the right place, the right time, and meandering career paths that many high profile leaders, including Margaret Thatcher, are prime examples of the late bloomer.
The Focus on the Book
His decision to focus more on the biographical sketch approach was influenced by his background as an A talent and employment brand consultant. He believes that the book should be focused on more than just the social science approach, as it allows him to explore the complexity of life. The concept of inefficient preparation, as discussed by Henry, is a concept that has been gaining attention in recent years, especially with the emergence of AI. He talks about the meandering career path of Calvin Coolidge. He explains that many people are considering how to prepare for different careers. However, he emphasized that this approach is not necessarily always the best career strategy, as it can lead to inefficient outcomes. One example of this is Dwight Eisenhower, who was a young soldier during World War One and was kept in America to train on tanks. Despite the shrinking army and the lack of pay at the end of the war, Eisenhower continued to study military strategy and find mentors, which eventually paid off with the advent of World War Two. Henry mentions that many people have a meandering inefficiency in their careers, and if they can find a way to switch into a more challenging job, it can pay off well. This combination of a wait-and-see approach and serious planning can help individuals make the most of their time and achieve their career goals.
How to Make Networking Work
Henry talks about the problem of focusing on building a network and why it’s important to find the person with the right influence for whatever it is you want to do right now. He shares an example of this with the story of Margaret Thatcher’s leadership election in the conservative party. Henry discusses the importance of corporate culture in shaping one's career trajectory, and how the culture helps or hinders how you work. He cites studies of young men sent to the Second World War. The study found that a more ambitious, fast-paced environment with strong leadership and opportunities for development can lead to better performance. He also talks about the detrimental effects of a toxic environment. The discussion turns to putting yourself in the right place in today’s work environment. The most fundamental piece of research that Henry found is about hot streaks, where people produce their best work over a long period of time.The study found that people have an explorer phase, where they try out different ideas and move around the world. This is followed by the exploit period when they take action to take steps connected to their primary interest. In today's world, there are no universally-accepted answers to what constitutes an "exploit phase." It depends on the individual's career goals and the circumstances they are in. Steve Jobs, for example, was an example of someone who dropped out of various fields to pursue what eventually became Apple.
The Importance of Exploration and Perseverance in Career
The book emphasizes the importance of active exploration and perseverance over a sustained period. It emphasizes that people cannot simply move to a new location and hope for success. Instead, active exploration involves attending social events, meeting people, and participating in self-study programs. Second acts involve investing in self-improvement or relationships. Henry emphasizes the importance of live practice and building skills, which can be broad and involve socializing, learning, and networking. He suggests that the rule of 10,000 hours of deliberate exploration should be expanded to include practicing in new areas, including networking and meeting new people. He also believes that it is essential to be prepared to take opportunities. Henry talks about the importance of right timing and the concept of increasing your luck surface area. He gives the example of Ray Kroc who turned McDonald's into the biggest business in the world. At 53, he was a milkshake mixer salesman at McDonald's when he discovered a small family restaurant that had perfected the fast food kitchen. Henry explains how Ray Kroc increased his luck surface area to turn a family business into an international franchise.
Why Extraordinary People are Good Examples
While his book presents examples from extraordinary individuals, Henry believes that the lessons drawn from social science and famous figures can be applied to people of all levels. He stresses the importance of understanding the details of these individuals, such as Vera Wang's story, which highlights her personal struggles and the need for encouragement. Henry states that the internet is full of stories of late bloomers, but they often do not provide a detailed account of how they achieve their success. While his book does offer examples of ordinary people who have achieved their second act career, he believes that digging into larger examples can provide a deeper understanding of how late bloomers work and how they achieve their goals. Henry has been focusing on the social science side of human interaction over the past decade. He has been researching and writing about network science, sociology, economics, and psychology to understand how someone can transition from a hack journalist to the creator of the dictionary. He was surprised by the importance of networks and how being in the right group of people can make a huge difference.
A Word or Two on Writing Motivation
Henry talks about the inspiration and researching information for his book. His motivation for writing is to provide a platform where people can read great works and benefit from them. He believes that reading literature not only helps in understanding human interaction but also helps in understanding power dynamics and ambition. For example, he believes that Jane Austen's novels, like Emma, can be useful for understanding human interaction in modern office life. Henry's substack Common Reader, which includes literature, brings in other topics to help readers better understand human interaction and decision-making. He believes that reading Shakespeare can be useful for questions of power, ambition, and leadership. Henry discusses the importance of having a sub-stack for writing and how it can generate more ideas as you read.
Timestamps:
04:04 Career development and the concept of late bloomers
10:59 Building meaningful networks and finding influential connections
16:44 The importance of influence and being in the right environment for success
22:55 Career development and finding one's passion
28:10 The importance of deliberate exploration for personal growth and development
32:16 Luck, opportunity, and success
37:44 Late bloomers and their inspiring stories
44:58 Literature and its relevance to modern life
48:45 Late bloomers, talent, and career development
Links:
The Book Second Act: What Late Bloomers Can Tell You About Success and Reinventing Your Life
Twitter https://twitter.com/HenryEOliver
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-oliver-5165b189/
Substack https://www.commonreader.co.uk/
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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Show Notes
Craig Callé talks about third party risk management (TPRM), with an emphasis on cybersecurity. TPRM is a subset of Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC), which aims to help organizations achieve their objectives, address uncertainties, and act with integrity. TPRM is crucial as over half of all data breaches occur through insecure third parties. Companies need to understand their third party relationships and monitor them more carefully, which requires a variety of tools and processes. Craig explains that TPRM can cover a variety of risks, including cybersecurity, but also financial viability, compliance with privacy, sanctions and other regulations, reputation management, supply chain issues, and alignment of ESG and sustainability objectives.
Defining GRC and Third Parties
Craig explains that GRC is a broad category that includes TPRM, but also enterprise risk management (ERM), business continuity or operational resilience, policy management, controls compliance, privacy and ESG. ERM typically includes a risk register, which compiles all the potential threats that can affect a company, and it is crucial to building a more predictable and measurable system to achieve its objectives at the lowest possible risk.
He mentions that the term “third parties” should include not just vendors and suppliers, but also often overlooked entities such as outsourced service providers, software as a service (SaaS) apps, cloud hosts, contractors, ecosystem partners, technology partners, and financial counterparties.
GRC Frameworks
He mentions that a lot of the governance aspect of GRC work involves picking a suitable framework and building a program around it. For example, in cybersecurity, a popular standards body would be NIST, and he mentions a few others that give leaders a roadmap apropos to achieving high standards of operation.
Organizational Relationships
The head of GRC is responsible for ensuring that the organization operates within its control frameworks. For example, in a Fortune 500 company, the executive responsible for GRC might report to a Chief Risk Officer, if there is one, with a dotted line to the board audit and risk committee.
Since many TPRM programs have an exclusive focus of cybersecurity risk, the head of TPRM often reports to the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).
Third Party Risk Management Responsibilities
The head of third party risk management is responsible for several processes, such as onboarding new third parties, periodic audits, ongoing real-time monitoring, reporting functions, and investigating and dealing with incidents and responses. However, the responsibilities depend on the organization’s level of maturity and the complexity of the process. Craig offers a few examples to clarify the complexities that have to be taken into consideration, including the fact that risk management processes can be seen as blockers, and additionally, offers a tip on how to overcome this issue.
Software for Third Party Risk Management
Craig talks about the importance of selecting the right software for clients, highlighting the pros and cons of a best of breed approach versus a multi-module suite. Craig mentions examples of TPRM workflow automation platforms, including ProcessUnity, MetricStream, ServiceNow, LogicGate, BitSight, and many others. These platforms facilitate questionnaires and other assessments issuance, response review, routing of issues to specific people or groups within an organization, risk scoring and reporting to stakeholders.
Cyber risk ratings, which have been around for over 10 years, are now a natural complement to workflow platforms. Ratings provide objective data that help triage the community of third parties by quantifying vulnerability to data breaches. They provide easy-to-digest results that don’t require an IT certification to understand, based on FICO-like scores or letter grades.
He explains that companies may want to share data across modules, although some organizations can be siloed and don’t realize opportunities to collaborate. For example, if a company has both privacy management and TPRM software, there is a natural logic to connect the data map required by privacy regulations to the third parties that might hold customer data. He also emphasizes the need for an advisor to understand the customers’ problems and inherited solutions, as well as the timeframe and budget constraints. Ripping and replacing existing solutions is rarely feasible and desirable.
AI has become an important tool for parsing through voluminous data to identify critical facts, although human involvement remains an essential element in the process.
Predicting Improvements in TPRM
Craig believes that over the next decade, the focus of third party risk management will involve high-level orchestration across CISOs, risk officers, and procurement people, perhaps led by what he calls a Chief Third Party Officer, or CTPO, leading to a more comprehensive view of not just risk, but also third party performance. He thinks third parties deserve the same level of scrutiny that a Chief HR Officer would apply to employees and job candidates.
Timestamps:
05:15 Third-party risk management and GRC
11:57 GRC roles and responsibilities in a Fortune 500 company
16:10 Third-party risk management processes and responsibilities
21:59 Third-party risk management software and techniques
27:26 Third-party risk management and platform automation
32:21 GRC and third-party risk management
Links:
Company Website: https://sourcecalle.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigcalle/
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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Show Notes:
In this conversation with Will Bachman, Ivan Oransky, a co-founder of Retraction Watch, shares his experience as a medical journalist and with Retraction Watch. Ivan explains that his friend and co-founder, Adam Marcus had uncovered a massive story about scientific fraud in Western Massachusetts, where an anesthesiologist had made up all clinical data. Adam, who was managing editor of an publication called Anesthesiology News got the scoop on the story, and Ivan, who was impressed with the story, suggested they start a blog about retraction notices, it turned out there were far more happening than previously thought. 13 and a half years later, Retraction Watch is still going strong and has a large audience. Adam and Ivan are volunteers but have four staff two of whom run a database of retractions that was recently acquired by CrossRef, a nonprofit that tracks scientific data and papers. The other two staff continue to contribute to the journalism work they started 13 and a half years ago, while Ivan and Adam still supervisor edit and direct it.
How to Evaluate an Article
Ivan shares his advice on how to evaluate an article in a medical journal or any published article. He emphasizes the importance of showing one's work and examining the evidence used to reach a conclusion. He explains that, when looking at articles, it is crucial to consider the original sources, citations, and the journal's track record of quality. He also emphasizes the importance of humility in making claims and not making pronouncements about things he or she doesn't know anything about. He also warns against trusting credentials to suggest expertise, as it can be misleading, Ivan shares the example of a time when he was asked to peer review papers about COVID-19, simply because he had co-authored a letter about retractions of work. However, he is not an expert on the subject. Ivan believes that an expert should only be asked to peer review papers that they believe are likely to hold up or should not be published.
Leading Causes of Retraction
Ivan explains that factors that commonly lead to a retraction. Two-thirds of retractions are for misconduct. This number is consistent across various works and he goes on to explain that there are several definitions of misconduct to take into consideration, including fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism. About 20 percent of the time, it’s due to a what’s known as honest error, and Ivan offers a few examples.
The deeper cause is the requirement that researchers must publish in certain places to get a job in academia, tenure, promotion, and prizes. This drives people to do all sorts of things, and while this drives most people to work harder and try to work more efficiently, others may take a different approach. In fact, Ivan states that 2 percent of researchers admit to committing misconduct.
The Replication Crisis
Ivan talks about the replication crisis, which has been a topic of interest in the social sciences and hard sciences. When Retraction Watch was first launched, there were about 400 retractions from journals a year. Last year, there were more than 10,000, a big increase despite the rising number of papers published. The root cause of this issue is the same problem: replications are not new research or findings and should be cherished and prized, but they are not. Big journals don't like to publish replications, so they don't reward new research. To get into a big journal, researchers need to publish new research, which is simple behavioral incentive economics.
The discussion turns to incentives for people to write about scientific misconduct and fraud. Ivan states that, while there is more incentive not to write retractions, he cites a page on Retraction Watch that has dozens of stories from people committed to revealing issues with research, including well-known figures. These individuals face legal risks, such as lawsuits, and are usually not paid for this work.
The conversation also touches on the potential negative repercussions of challenging senior professionals in their field, such as professors or presidents of universities. However, most of these individuals do not work in science anymore, or their career trajectory is not dependent on pleasing or failing to displease senior members of academia. These individuals often publish on sites like PubPeer, which allows users to leave comments on published studies. This helps expose the issues and claims in the media, helping to raise awareness and support for those who need help.
Retraction Watch offers resources and social media platforms for those interested in learning more about the topic. They welcome feedback and story tips, and they are open to sharing more information about their work.
Timestamps:
01:03 Scientific fraud and retractions
04:41 Evaluating credibility in scientific articles and peer review
09:10 Research retractions and the root causes
13:05 Replication crisis in science and the challenges faced by those uncovering fraud
17:18 Academic misconduct and whistleblowers
Links:
Website: https://retractionwatch.com/
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com. -
Show Notes:
Melanie Espeland, a TEDx speaker and executive coach with 17 years of experience in strategy, operations, and coaching, she’s former McKinsey, and in this episode, she discusses the importance of executive presence and how to achieve it.
Communication in Executive Presence
In this workshop, Melanie explains that executive presence is important because it provides access to insider discussions, meetings, events, and happy hours. Access is crucial for success, and influence is essential for those with a purpose or vision. Executive presence allows for a balance and integration of power, authority, respect, trust, warmth, and likability.
Melanie also discusses the concept of compassionate authority, which she sees as a combination of power, authority, respect, trust, warmth, and comfort with the people you are speaking with. This external communication and ability to share thoughts and feelings are key to achieving executive presence. By understanding the value of executive presence and its impact on success, individuals can better navigate their roles and achieve their goals. Melanie explains that executive presence is a complex concept that varies across different personalities and people. There is no one-size-fits-all formula for expressing presence, as there are different ways of expressing it. Steve Jobs and Michelle Obama are examples of individuals with different styles, each with their own unique qualities. However, there are common threads or levers in executive presence that can help individuals build their personal and professional style that aligns with their strengths and personality.
Building Executive Presence
A structured approach to building executive presence consists of two pillars: the literal (physical, tangible) and the figurative (mental, emotional). Under each pillar, there are three common threads or levers: voice, body, and appearance. Voice refers to the speaker's voice, verbal communication, body language, posture, and physical presence. Body language, posture, and physical presence are also crucial. Application is the first impression, and it is important to consider how our appearance may impact our professional image and relationships. By understanding these common threads and levers, individuals can develop a unique and authentic executive presence style that aligns with their strengths and personality. The figurative pillar of executive presence is relevant for mid to senior level professionals as they move up the ladder. Authenticity, confidence, and vision are important for connecting with others and understanding one's strengths, weaknesses, wants, intentions, and motivations. Authenticity is crucial for connecting with others and making them feel comfortable. Confidence is different, as it involves feeling confident in oneself and being clear on one's goals. Vision is crucial for building an executive presence, especially as you get more senior.
Effective Communication for a Large Audience
To communicate effectively in large audiences, it is essential to understand media skills, such as how to talk to the media and communicate ideas consistently and coherently. As you become more senior, you will be thrown into meetings and need to control what people leave with. These six common threads or levers of executive presence can be divided into two pillars. By measuring up in these areas, you can identify areas where you have more opportunity. Exercises can be done together to practice these skills at home, starting with voice and body exercises. By focusing on these areas, you can develop new skills and improve your executive presence.
How to Improve Verbal Communication
Melanie discusses the importance of voice and body verbal and nonverbal communication in executive presence. One technique that often surprises people is tongue placement exercises. She believes that the body is an instrument that needs to be controlled, rather than controlled by it. They encourage participants to try these exercises at home and see if they stick better after practicing with them. Tongue placement exercises help improve diction, projection, and warmth in speech. For example, in American English, the tongue tends to be in the middle, which can lead to a more accurate and clear voice. This is particularly beneficial for those who may be uncomfortable with their accent or question their pronunciation. Projection is the distance sound travels from the mouth, which is different from volume. This helps give the voice gravitas and resonance, giving it authority and warmth. Melanie provides various exercises that can improve diction.
In conclusion, voice and body exercises are essential for improving verbal and nonverbal communication. By practicing tongue placement exercises, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of their voice and body, ultimately leading to improved communication and overall performance.
Breathwork for Executive Presence
Breathing is crucial for a great voice and overall executive presence. Proper breathing is essential for delivering sound effectively and enhancing one's overall appearance. To achieve this, it is essential to focus on two aspects: maintaining proper breathing and mouth position during speaking. Filler words, which can be annoying or insincere, can be a common issue. To avoid these, it is essential to have more air coming in and out of the body, allowing for more air to be absorbed and not gasping for air. Melanie explains breathing exercises that help individuals can develop a better understanding of their breathing and voice, ultimately improving their overall communication and overall presence. She emphasizes the importance of proper breathing in order to maintain powerful, engaged, and present speech. T
The speaker encourages practicing this exercise at home, aiming to breathe in through the nose on 123 counts. If the exhale is short or uncomfortable, it may indicate that the speaker needs to work on their breathing technique. This can be likened to going to the gym to train your body..
Understanding the Confidence Flywheel
To gain more confidence, it is essential to have a sense of ease within oneself. People who have presence tend to appear grounded and confident, having clarity and ease about their actions. To achieve this, one can trick their physicality into ease, which affects their mental and emotional state. Techniques like breathing techniques can help reduce cortisol, heartbeat, and adrenaline, making the body think they are at ease. This change in mental and emotional state leads to increased confidence. The confidence flywheel can be used to showcase confidence, which in turn uplifts the confidence of the audience. The more confidence the audience has in you, the more confident your audience will be in you. However, the flywheel can also go in the opposite direction, making you appear nervous or unsure, which can lead to subconscious feedback and doubt.
Tricking the Body into Confidence
Melanie discusses the concept of tricking your body into confidence and using code words to trick your brain into bringing up past feelings or emotions in the present tense. This exercise involves thinking about a specific experience where you felt grounded or at ease, and thinking about your life as if it were a movie with a screenshot of that moment. The exercise involves walking through all five senses, including sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. Write down this information and create a code word cheat sheet for future reference. Once the memory is created, name it or give it a name, such as "Thailand." When applying the exercise in real time, remember the code word and the feeling of being at ease. The more specific the code word, the more powerful it will be. It's important to have nuanced language in your speech to avoid overtaking the activity or presentation. Try using different code words or memories for the same feelings, and record yourself on Zoom or with a partner or friend to see how it works.
An additional tool for using code words leading into confidence is using physical objects that remind you of the code word. For example, a cool stone on the beach can be placed on your desk, in your hand, or in your pocket before a big presentation. Pictures can also be helpful in remembering a day.
Pacing for Public Speaking
Melanie discusses the importance of pacing in speaking, particularly when someone is nervous. This can be achieved by having water next to you, as it is an elegant way to pause and recalibrate yourself. Breathing exercises can help slow down speech speed, as people often use filler words or keep talking quickly. Breathing exercises can also help slow down speech by taking deep breaths while taking a sip of water. To slow down, she encourages reading slowly and even more slowly than usual. This allows the body and mind to connect and understand that they can speak more slowly. Recording yourself reading at different speeds and practicing at different times can help determine the best pacing for your speech. Lastly, Melanie suggests verbally numbering points to help your audience follow along. For example, if you have three points to make, you can use data to make it easier for your audience to understand what you're trying to say. This helps give your audience a structure to follow along.
Melanie moves on to share certain techniques to communicate well with others, including how to politely interrupt, how to indicate engagement, dealing with verbal fillers, and how to encourage conversation. This is followed by a Q&A session.
Timestamps:
01:23 Executive presence and communication skills
04:43 Executive presence and its components
10:24 Building executive presence through voice and body exercises
16:16 Improving English pronunciation with tongue placement
18:41 Tongue placement for clear speech
24:39 Proper breathing techniques for clear communication
30:06 Proper breathing techniques for clear communication
35:03 Voice and body exercises for executive presence and confidence
37:43 Using ease and code words to boost confidence
43:07 Using code words to enhance memory and relaxation
47:09 Using physical objects for memory recall
49:43 Speeding up speech and managing pace
Links:
Website: https://www.melaniesespeland.com/
Website: https://espelandenterprises.com/
Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.
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