Action and Ambition

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Christoph Bertsch Transforms Health And Nutrition With Vejo, A Pod-Based Nutrition Delivery System, The First of its Kind Dec 03, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Action & Ambition with your host, Andrew Medal. Today’s guest is Christoph Bertsch.

Christoph Bertsch founded Vejo in 2015 after going through a personal journey to improve his health. Through building Vejo, Christoph uncovered many facts about the food industry, ultimately realizing that Vejo would have to develop its entire ecosystem to provide accessible, personalized, and convenient nutrition.

How did Christoph get to where he is now? (0:24)

Christoph was never employed. He was somewhat the black sheep of the family.
He went straight into building his own business.
By 21, he had his first business and software company in Germany. The company is still around.
A couple of years later, he started a fashion brand that is still around in Europe.
In 2008 he started a company that became the world’s market leader for explanatory. Videos.
Christoph is a free spirit, and he likes to build companies. He enjoys living on the edge.
He finds it attractive to see the stages from the wild beginnings of businesses and create structure within them.

Who is Christoph’s target market? (6:21)

Christoph believes that they have started a bit of a niche.
In the beginning, they did not know much about the impact of nutrition on the human body.
They said if they can move the needle for an Olympic gold medalist, they can move the needle for anybody.
They focused mainly on athletes at the start, and they bought it to another level.
They took athletes’ blood and looked at their biomarkers with doctors, which they had as staff.
They made the personalized cleanse routines and wrote them food edit schedules too.
After three months, they retook blood work and looked to see if they could improve their overall health.
They wanted to cut inflammation down in their body, and they saw that it was working.
They don’t just throw some vitamin B or C into your body without knowing what your body needs.
They carefully and scientifically measure what you need, remeasure, adjust as you go through the plan, and always monitor the impact nutrition has on high-end athletes.
They started forming teams, and more high-end athletes join daily, including some celebrities have joined the program.
They created their product line, which is now on the mass market, so everything started in a tight niche for high-end athletes, and now it is available for the masses.

What is the vision that Christoph wants to accomplish? (17:45)

Right now, they are trying to survive until the Christmas business, where they usually sell out of the product.
They have ordered 10,000 of their products and 3.000 have already been sold.
Christoph wants to see that speed up and how the business continues to grow in Germany.
They hit a milestone recently for their purchasing revenue projection four months from now.
Building a global supply chain has been challenging, but they are getting it done.
They have a community of users that appreciate it when the company is transparent with them.
The mission of the company is to get a device in every person’s hand.
When you work out, Christoph’s company has the stuff you need to take it further in terms of personalized nutrition, and for older people, it helps them understand their body and what it needs.
The brand has become global wellness, health brand and with fitness and health comes happiness.
They aim to survive the holidays, and next year they want to expand to 7 more countries.

Vejo

Vejo is the world's first pod-based nutrition delivery system. More than a blender, this smart, rechargeable & portable device pairs with nutritious & 100% natural blends prepared in 30 seconds. They believe that health begins with your nutrition and your ability to access healthy food whenever - wherever.

Resources

Connect with Christoph: LinkedIn

Vejo: Website

Connect with Andrew: LinkedIn

Jonah Allen Explores The Symbiotic Relationship Between Water And Light To Bring Clients Beautiful Photographic Images Dec 02, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Action & Ambition with your host, Andrew Medal.

Jonah Allen is a photographic artist based in Northwest Florida who focuses on the relationship between water and light. Jonah's artwork is collected around the USA, and Allen is a rising entrepreneur.

You’re going to love this episode. Let’s get to it!

How did Jonah find success in such a niche business? (2:02)

Jonah says he lives an incredible life. He forgets the line between his passion and his career.
He is always chasing waves and the relationship between water and light daily. It is a pretty incredible thing to do that.
Jonah lives 100 steps from the beach by lifestyle choice.
He grew up landlocked in Atlanta, Georgia, and he always felt disconnected from that so he moved down to the ocean.
It enables him to work because the beach is where he does, it’s where he makes his images, and it also allows him to surf and just live an overall lavish lifestyle.
Jonah does other artistic mediums, too, but his sole focus is making photographic images.
Jonah calls himself a photographic artist, not a photographer because nowadays, everyone is a photographer if they have an iPhone.
Every day people are bombarded by images from advertisements and social media.
We see thousands of images every day, so for Jonah, a photographic artist is someone who puts themselves in fascinating places and situations to make intentful photographs.
A photographer is someone who is traditionally hired by a client to make images for that client.
Jonah makes the images that he wants to make and then sells them to people who collect them as art pieces.

How did Jonah get to the business side of his art? (5:43)

Jonah’s primary source of income is the sales from his prints.

Jonah states that it was not easy starting.
However, he says that anything worthwhile is not easy.
Jonah started to make images when he was 25 or 26.
Ten years ago, making his images, he never thought he would be an artist or photographer.
He fell into it because he saw an opportunity where he lived.
It took him around three years to get to a point where he is generating a significant income.
Jonah does not have a gallery. In the art world, you have a middle man, or you have an art gallery. They take about 50% if they make a sale.
Jonah operates with some art galleries, but most of his sales are generated himself. He does not have his gallery. He does it all online.
He says it’s mostly about marketing and having systems in place that enable you to scale your marketing.

What marketing strategies does Jonah use? (7:24)

Technology has removed the middle man. You can now see technology driving creative businesses in the future.
Marketing as a visual artist, it is hard to create a specific brand for yourself.
Jonah says right now; there is a golden opportunity for creatives.
There has never been a time where artists have had more access to getting their work out there than now.
As an artist, you are trying to get your art, your message, your value proposition in terms of business out there to as many people as you can.
Through social media and websites, you can find your audience and make a living off that audience.
It takes a substantial amount of time; it is not something that happens overnight. It’s a slow grind and slow build before it becomes something big.
In marketing, you have seeds, nets, and spears. You can plant many seeds that will eventually sprout, whether they are referrals or advertising, but you are planting seeds.
With nets, your message to a lot of people about what you are about, and spears are your targeted outreach to specific people of influence who you want to work with, want to get to know, and what your dream is.

Jonah Allen Studio

Jonah Allen Studio is a fine artist based in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. Jonah's work is layered by landscape, ocean, surf, and outdoor subjects.

Resources

Connect with Jonah: LinkedIn

Jonah Allen Studio: Website

Connect with Andrew: LinkedIn

How Laura Cole and Todd Renard are turning digital marketing for small business on its head Dec 01, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Action & Ambition with your host, Andrew Medal. Today’s guests are Laura Cole and Todd Renard.

Laura Cole is passionate about helping businesses connect with their customers. As Vice President of Marketing for Vivial, she uses her entrepreneurial spirit to lead Vivial’s marketing functions, including internal communications, research, branding, public relations, advertising, sales support, go-to-market product strategy, and corporate brand vision.

Todd Renard is the Digital marketing executive for Vivial with an established performance track record for innovation and execution, balancing strategy, tactics, and logistics. Developing innovative digital products that help organizations grow their business is his passion. Todd had spent the last 20 years identifying, evaluating, and bringing to market product and partnership opportunities for leading advertising technology companies.

You’re going to love this episode. Let’s get to it!

What has kept Laura and Todd at Vivial so long? (2:13)

A lot of their clients also ask this question.
It is not abnormal when they are sitting in a boardroom talking to a potential client for them to receive this question.
They then go around the table, and all employees would mention their tenure with the company.
Most employees have very similar tenures with Vivial. Vivial has won Best Places to Work several years in a row for many of their locations, offices, and honestly, the whole company.
Vivial’s employees are a happy bunch, and they love what they are doing.
It’s turned into a culture that breeds innovations and autonomy.
They are fortunate across the board to have employees that have been there a long time and are dedicated to the mission.
For Todd, another thing has been that the people he works with, although the company refers to themselves as an agency, they are also a development and solution shop.
They build many of their products, and they can only use other products and services only to use different products and services reinvent what they are doing.

How have they been able to leverage COVID-19 to be advantageous for the company? (11:11)

They do not think that they have leveraged COVID much.
Unlike many businesses, they were not impacted in the same way by the pandemic.
From a product road mapping standpoint, they have been thinking about the product set well before the pandemic hit businesses hard.
They are always thinking about the value that can be provided over just building out features.
When the pandemic hit, it became much more critical that they did not focus on the less meaningful things and instead focused on the things that could make a difference.
In the DNA of Vivial employees, they have a focused need to help small to medium local businesses.
So when the pandemic hit, the company was thinking about what they could do to help everyone struggling.
They did things like predominant advertising programs, for example;
They approached many businesses that they knew were hit hard and said that instead of canceling their program, they offered to reduce their plan until they found themselves back in a position to continue their original program.
So they retracted without canceling or pausing client programs during the time, so they were continually invested in their success.
Vivial has reacted well to the environment, and their clients have appreciated that.

What is the biggest obstacle when it comes to customer retention? (22:02)

You have to find ways to figure out how involved a customer wants to be.
When you get that wrong, and you believe a customer wants to be engaged, but it’s apathy, and they aren’t engaging, it’s because they don’t think there is value.
For some programs that Vivial runs, the client needs to be engaged, and if you don’t have that voice of the business owner, you can miss something.
Misjudging how engaged a client is and wants to be is an essential factor in customer retention.

Vivial

Vivial has been providing marketing products and services to small and medium-sized businesses across the U.S. for over 100 years.

Vivial's mission is to help you grow your business, whether with our easy-to-use and affordable local online marketing technology or a custom marketing campaign that we create, implement, and monitor for you.

Resources

Connect with Laura: LinkedIn

Connect with Todd: LinkedIn

Vivial: Website

Connect with Andrew: LinkedIn

Angie Tebbe Storms The Wellness Industry With Her Holistic Evidence-Based Wellness Products Starting a Cult Movement for Healthier Products for Humans Everywhere Nov 30, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Action & Ambition with your host, Andrew Medal. Today’s guest is Angie Tebbe.

Angie Tebbe is the Co-Founder of Rae Wellness, a cult-favorite collection of affordable, evidence-based wellness products. Since its founding in September 2019, Rae has experienced triple-digit-growth by building off of a unique and successful launch strategy as well as maintaining an attainable and affordable presence. Rae was sold exclusively online and quickly garnered a robust digital company among consumers, allowing them to expand their footprint with Target nationwide in January 2020.

You’re going to love this episode. Let’s get to it!

How has Angie mitigated toxic workplace cultures through her brand and personal life? (1:22)

Angie believes it the authenticity of her brand and who Angie is as a person that helped her move forward and start a movement through her brand.
Two years ago, Angie was at a place where she had an impressive corporate career and with two lovely sons at home.
But she was decreasing her priority list, and she was not taking care of her wellbeing.
Angie had an opportunity to think about what wellness meant to her personally and professionally together.
She thought about how she could bring that together not just for herself but for others going through what she was.
Angie grew up in a holistic household. Her mom was a nurse, and her dad was into Reiki in Homeopathy.
She says fondly that they were the weird family meditating on the lawn in Fargo, North Dakota.
She wanted to honor that with her brand, she left her corporate career to pursue her well being.
She sought to do that in several ways, supplements included.
She believes there is no amount of kale that can replace what women naturally put out. And so, she believes in the power of supplementation.
What she found, however, was that everything was either way too expensive or in the form of something like gummies containing a lot of sugar.
She did not find any brands that spoke to her about what she wanted and needed at that point.
It’s what sparked her idea for her brand, and she put her head down and pursues it daily.

What challenges has Angie faced since starting her brand? (4:51)

The first two years of building a company are quite crazy.

Everybody starting a company would tell you that they were prepared for the fullest, most unforgiving, but fulfilling two years of their lives.
Angie states precisely what it is; you need strong commitment and tenacity; you have to have an incredible mission.
Angie does not believe that just after two years, you are no longer in a startup. She believes startup is a continual process, and your aspirations have to be high.
You do sometimes need to ask yourself if this is going to happen, but what is essential for a new leader of a new company or brand, you have to love the process of building it.
You have to be motivated by the challenges, and you have to be tethered, and you cannot forget why.
The why you started in the first place is very important. It’s your ‘North Star’ on the bad days and your ‘North Star’ on the perfect days.
Angie believes it takes a different level of love for the process, commitment, and tenacity.
The years will keep coming, and you must see it as the journey it is.
What Angie has found a combination of how she grew up and honoring what she knew about the holistic approach to wellbeing through everything she learned has made starting her company a very fulfilling journey.

Rae Wellness

Founded in 2019, Rae Wellness quickly became a cult-favorite among women for its affordable pricing and innovative formulas. The brand delivers products that are vegan, non-GMO, and free from gluten, added sugar, artificial preservatives, harmful fillers, and colorants. Rae is also championing nutrition, wellness, and confidence for the next generation of women by providing 5% of all revenue to Girls Inc. – the nonprofit organization that inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold through direct service and advocacy.

Resources

Connect with Angie: LinkedIn

Rae Wellness: Website

Connect with Andrew: LinkedIn

Jay Ives Teaches Business Owners How to Adapt and Evolve Their Marketing Strategies to Better Serve Their Consumers and The Communities of the World Nov 24, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Action & Ambition with your host, Andrew Medal. Today’s guest is Jay Ives.

Jay Ives is the founder of Jives Media. Jay lives at the crossroads of storytelling, design, data, and tech. As a lifecycle marketer, his goal is to strengthen the relationship between businesses and customers by turning engagement opportunities into meaningful, profitable moments. From Fortune 500 organizations to high-growth startups, Jay has led marketing teams to increase awareness, activation, and retention by better understanding their customer.

You’re going to love this episode. Let’s get to it!

What advice has Jay been teaching during the pandemic? (1:16)

Jay says the stats are as follows; there are about 30 million small businesses that employ nearly 60 million workers in the U.S.
One in 5 small businesses has shut down since January.
Jay wants to do as much as he can to help these local businesses.
The truth of the matter is that they’re not getting the proper funding from the government right now.
Many businesses are figuring out how to pivot and position themselves in this new socially distanced world.
For Jay, it has been exciting being in the trenches with them to figure out a game plan.
Jay helps them figure out how to grow their digital presence during this global pandemic.
Jay’s teamwork on the digital marketing side of things for people. They educate them on how to observe data to figure out which channels are and aren’t working.
They are working to increase brand awareness at a holistic level.

What trends does Jay see coming in the future? (8:54)

Jay believes that people are going to continue to rely on digital media more now than ever before.
People are spending a lot of time at home; screen time is increasing.
This might not necessarily be the best thing for our mental health.
For marketers, that is an excellent thing for them to take note of.
Behaviors are also changing, with a lot of his clients historically, some of them did well on weekdays, Monday to Friday.
With people spending more time at home, they are sometimes working more or better on the weekends and vice versa.
Consumer behavior trends and employee set work times are changing and adapting.
Jay believes it will only continue to evolve over the next few months and years.

What is the legacy that jay wants to leave behind? (14:36)

Jay wants to show people that there is a lot of good that can come out of helping these small businesses.
Small businesses fail; people fail.
Going back to that 30 million small business out there, they have a ton of impact and influence on the market, public health, and communities.
We need to get out there and help support them in any way you can.
If you are a small business owner, this is the time to adapt and evolve and do this quickly.
Thinking back to the great recession of ‘08-’09, many of the world’s most significant companies were birthed during that time.
Looking back, Jay believes there will be a ton of great ideas and companies that are generated through the COVID-19 period.
Business owners must just move quickly and aggressively.
They must keep finding new ways to market, new ways to engage clients, and win customers.

Jives Media

Jives Media is a full-stack digital marketing agency that helps businesses large and small with web design, hosting, search engine marketing (PPC & SEO), and social media solutions.

Resources

Connect with Jay: LinkedIn

Jives Media: Website

Connect with Andrew: LinkedIn

Josh Luber Took his Love of Sneakers and Turned it Into A $1 Billion Business. Now His Love Of Sports Cards Is Fueling His Next Venture Nov 24, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Action & Ambition with your host, Andrew Medal. Today’s guest is Josh Luber.

Josh Luber is the co-founder and CEO of the disruptive stock market-modeled online sneaker marketplace, StockX. Within a short timespan, Josh has transformed sneaker resale and turned StockX into a $1 Billion business. Luber founded many online companies before StockX, including Servinity, that went bankrupt due to the financial crash in 2008. Luber worked a consulting job after that, and in 2012, he used sneaker sales data to launch Campless, the precursor to StockX. He is also the founder and CEO of Stealth Trading Card companies and is moving on to his 5th and 6th startups.

You’re going to love this episode. Let’s get to it!

What was the process like for Josh while starting his businesses? (3:32)

Looking back, Josh says he had some kind of corporate job between each of his startups. His life also changed exponentially between each of his startups as he started a family. Starting a business is always a risk for everyone involved, and anything that happens during a startup can change how it goes drastically. Josh’s last startup had to shut down before exiting because of the crash in 2008-2009. Josh was in Atlanta during that time, and it had a terrible job market; he eventually took a job in IBM, which had him move to New York. As a strategy consultant in NYW, the city was a jumping-off point for capitalists, which ended up becoming StockX. As a startup guy working in IBM, it’s a good company because it’s the definition of big corporations and bureaucracy. If you find yourself in that position, you have to start working and looking for stuff to do on the inside. Josh believes that if he never went to work at IBM, StockX would’ve never happened because it allowed him to accumulate enough taste and skill level with data to ask the right questions. So even though his experience at a Law firm and IBM might look like anomalies on Josh’s resumé, they were both massively helpful in all of his endeavors.

What was the data that Josh saw that made him start StockX? (10:12)

Josh says that it is extraordinary that what is happening in terms of data in the trading cards right now is almost identical to what was happening in the sneakers in 2012. It’s the big reason Josh has decided to leave StockX to go after trading card companies was because of the similarities for sneakers at that time. In 2012 there was no price guide, there was no Beckett for sneakers, no Kelly Blue Book, and as sneakers became more mainstream, that became more and more of a problem. Sitting in IBM, deep in the data space and having collected sneakers his whole life, and always following the sneaker market, Josh was also just searching for side projects. He thought about trying to get his hands on some sneaker data and seeing what he could do with it, and eventually, he figured out how to collect eBay data. It became clear very quickly that no one was doing real analytics around the resale market at that time. People were still using eBay sold auctions to understand the price of a pair of sneakers, the value of them. It was a very insular, fragmented market at the time. Using the data Josh collected, he looked at what he could build around it, and no one else was doing that.

What is the impact that Josh wants to have? (39:47)

Josh was happy about this question because most people usually ask him what’s the most expensive shoe he owns, and he’s gotten tired of answering those questions. For Josh, it’s about the process, and all the success he has had with StockX is impressive, and he’s excited that that success allows him to do it again. With the age his kids are now, Josh is excited because growing up, the word entrepreneur did not exist. Going after your dream and making a business, a career from something you love to do was rare. Josh was lucky that what he loved as a kid has grown into the two biggest things in culture and commerce. But it was the actual process of starting up the business and building it that he enjoyed the most. He hopes that his passion for that will reflect in his kids and show them how to create value—hiring people, creating jobs, and helping the world.

StockX

StockX is a Detroit-based online marketplace and reseller of sneakers, streetwear, handbags, and collectibles. Acting as a live bid/ask marketplace for the most hotly anticipated drops.

Resources

Connect with Josh: LinkedIn

StockX: Website

Connect with Andrew: Linkedin

Dr. Shawn Dill and Dr. Lacey Book Help Over 700 Businesses Boost Their Revenue With Tried And True Strategies That Create a Lasting Impact On The Community They Serve Nov 21, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Action & Ambition with your host, Andrew Medal. Today’s guests are Dr. Shawn Dill and Dr. Lacey Book. Dr. Shawn Dill and Dr. Lacey Book, D.C. are coined as small business superheroes for helping more than 700 businesses boost their revenue with tried and true strategies. They grew and scaled a multi-million dollar franchise and specialize in helping service providers pivot into lucrative entrepreneurs with an innovative strategic methodology that teaches marketing, sales, and mindset skills. Their goal is to help transform service providers’ business to create a lasting impact and value on the community it serves by developing relationships.

You’re going to love this episode. Let’s get to it!

Was Shawn practicing while he was in Costa Rica? (1:48)

Shawn graduated from chiropractic college when he was 24 years old.
He says, just like any 24 years old, he thought he knew everything. There are no more life lessons you feel like you can learn.
He moved to San Jose, Costa Rica, without even thinking about it and not speaking Spanish at all.
After one year of practicing, Shawn was broke, struggling, and did not even have pennies to rub together. He had to learn some more significant life lessons through that.
Shawn dug his heels in and decided not to give up. After that, he started to become quite successful.
They ended up with four chiropractic clinics in San Jose, Olive Waylon, and Li Mon.
Shawn Dill was also known in Costa Rica for being the author of the law which regulates chiropractic practices.
When Shawn arrived there at first, there were no regulations, and chiropractors could do whatever they want.
Shawn took it upon himself to get a law together, lobby it, get it passed through congress, and eventually signed by the President to protect patients from unlawful and unethical practices.

What does their program look like? (3:40)

Shawn and Lacey started again as chiropractors with an office in Dublin, California. It was called the Specific Chiropractic Center.
When Shawn came back from Costa Rica, a place they only use cash, Shawn said he wanted to start a cash only Chiropractic office. No insurance, high price point, and does particular types of techniques.
The model turned into a very successful business, causing other chiropractors to start taking notice of it.
They grew from one office to over 1415 offices across the world. They were opening their 15th one in the United States just the other day.
It’s a chiropractic franchise, and in the chiropractic industry, that is unique.
For them, all the trials, tribulations, ups, and downs they faced taught them all that they know.
It also made them realize that they could teach these concepts to others. They have now branched out and are teaching it to any service professionals who want to learn.

What are some fundamental pillars that they teach and tips that they can give? (11:26)

They teach three distinct areas—marketing, sales, and mindset.
Shawn and Lacey are firms that believe that you need to have strategies to combat obstacles as they come at you.
For service providers, one of the biggest obstacles for them is their mindsets.
A lot of service providers come out of school or starting their business, and they get hooked on their struggles, mostly if their product arent not selling at the start.
Relationships are also vital in a business setting. You have to have all partners on board with the same mindset.
You can have one person who’s a go-getter and entrepreneur and then a person that comes from the 9-5 job, saving every penny, etc. That way, they balance each other out.
One of the biggest ‘hiccups’ that they ran into from a business standpoint was their relationship with each other.
A quote Lacey likes from Michael Port says, “All business problems, our problems in disguise,” And she feels that this rang very true with her and Shawn when they first got started.
Shawn and Lacey both come from those two different worlds mentioned above, and she feels that their strengths came mainly from their differences.
Openness and a willingness to compromise are key factors in trying to make a business work between partners.

Black Diamond Club

The Black Diamond Club is a platform for service professionals who struggle with the business aspect. It lets them join a community of like-minded entrepreneurs and service professionals committed to building bigger businesses, higher incomes, and better lives.

Resources

Connect with Shawn and Lacey: Website

Black Diamon Club: Website

Connect with Andrew: LinkedIn

Stephane De Baets Owns St. Regis In Aspen, A Real Estate Empire, And Is A Blockchain Enthusiast. Hear His Insight On What The Future Looks Like Nov 21, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Action & Ambition with your host, Andrew Medal. Today’s guest is Stephane De Baets.

Stephane De Baets is a Belgian investment, real estate, and hospitality entrepreneur. He is founder and president of the international asset management firm Elevated Returns, which controls the Aspen St. Regis Resort in Aspen, Colorado and other commercial properties in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.,NA

You’re going to love this episode. Let’s get to it!

Where is Stephane right now? (1:00)

Stephane used the pandemic to take stock f his private life.
In his family, they decided that COVID-19 has taught them that quality of life is something to cherish and promote.
They took the painful, but right decision to leave New York and move to Colorado.
They bought an old estate from John Denver, Stephane always had assets in Aspen Colorado because they bought a property there 10 years ago.
Re super excited to live in the historical estate, it has original stained glass from John Denver and his fireplace.

How does Stephane cope with periods where tourism is low and so revenue is low too? (6:14)

Your timeline during such events is elastic. You don’t know how long the crisis might last or if it’s going to get worse.
Always try and prepare for these moments. Make sure that you have capital, tour revolves alone, or that you have a really good relationship with your banker.
Make sure that you have some kind of cash flow.
This is to make sure that you can sustain a lack of economic activity for a prolonged time.
The moment you receive a call from your banker that says you are being put in default, it’s a really horrible feeling.
The second thing you need is a great team because you are going to ask those people to sacrifice.
You need to be able to ask for a lot of compromise from your team and then reward them on the back end when the properties recover.
You also need to listen to the market. There’s a fight you can win with perseverance and practice.
Be clever over how you run your property, however, if the government says there will be no traveling to mountains, you can be the smartest man on earth and not have a solution if all of your properties are in the mountains.
You will just have to accept your fate and huddle through the crisis as much as you can.

What vision does Stephane have for his real estate company and how is he playing the field? (15:21)

They are trying to not chase the pie in the sky as Stephane put it.
Everyone says that there will be cheaper stocks flushed out tomorrow.
But Stephane says that if you’re an owner and you can hold on to even a default position and kick the can down the road, you’re going to do it.
There’s a lot of factors, but Stephane doesn’t think just anyone is going to accelerate bankruptcy.
During the pandemic, no one knows what the next administration is going to do.
Someone could come out tomorrow and say amnesty or normal interest payment or you don’t need to pay rent until the pandemic is over.
Stephane’s approach is trying to figure out how you can create a win-win situation.
What does the owner need today? And what do they want from the owner?
Stephane promotes and puts a lot of the business’ profits into consumer funded beta.
Stephane believes in a healthy consumer/business relationship you should be able to tell your consumer if you help me out today because I need it I can give you a better deal on the product later on.
He believes with technology you can create instruments that are perpetual, transferable and have a nice price for discovery.

Elevated Returns

Elevated Returns is a digital asset management firm specializing in; capital partner replacements, equity monetization, and recapitalizations for class A properties located throughout the U.S, South East Asia, and Europe. We are one of the first companies to successfully structure, implement, and execute the tokenization of a trophy asset, the St. Regis Resort Aspen, Colorado.

Resources

Connect with Stephane: LinkedIn

Elevated Returns: Website

Connect with Andrew: LinkedIn

Prof. Ashok Wahi’s Love and Knowledge in Science Propels him Forward in the Business Industry as he Invents Simple yet Scientific Solutions to Everyday Problems Nov 19, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Action & Ambition with your host, Andrew Medal.

Ashok Wahi is the Chief Inventor and CEO of Trutek Corp. He is the inventor of NasalGuard® patented technology for the filtration of microscopic particles from entering nasal passages. He has acquired several patents in the US and internationally for this unique electrostatic topical gel that acts as a preventative method for the effects of breathing contaminated air. Since then, over twelve million units of NasalGuard products have been sold worldwide so far.

Before Trutek, he has been a senior consultant to Fortune 25 pharmaceutical companies, hospitals/medical facilities, and higher education institutions in the US for over 40 years. He has specialized in designing state-of-the-art R&D and high-tech laboratories.

You’re going to love this episode. Let’s get to it!

What are Ashok and his business about? (0:13)

Ashok is an entrepreneur, even though he is an undergrad in Engineering and has a Master of Science degree. He is an entrepreneur at heart.
He likes recognizing problems everybody comes across and then solves it.
And since nobody has bothered to recognize the problem and solve it, Ashok can smoothly go after its intellectual property.
He began his life, breaking up toys and mixers, irons, and heaters, but he would not be able to put them back together again.
This stayed with him for many years. Through education and experience of many years, he has been able to put things back together again.
He says he likes taking problems apart and putting them back together in a solved, simplistic and scientific way.
He’s a science graduate at heart as well as an entrepreneur, and that is why he is not giving people fluke solutions. He’s not trying to rip people off to make as much money as he can.
He does not lie to his customers about needing his products; he has science and technology, backing up his products’ statements.
The company he cofounded is called TruTek because it is true technology, true to its core, and it’s true to what it says it’s supposed to do.

How did Ashok acquire his Patents? (6:47)

Getting his first patent in an uncharted area of science and technology was somewhat comfortable.
If you can identify the area you are going after, it is not too difficult to make a patent for that technology.
Ashok likens it to find a massive piece of land that you can build a house on top of, a flat piece of land that no one else has noticed.
For Ashok’s first patent, he has a patent attorney as a partner who said he would do all of Ashok’s patent paperwork, put it into files, and get the license in return for 22.5% of the profits.
This seemed like a great idea to Ashok initially; he figured 22.5% was an excellent low but great pay to pay for the work the attorney was doing.
He was providing Ashok with a secure patent and making sure others could not get into it too, which initially would have cost him something like $5,000-$10,000.
That would be the price from a small law firm that would represent your claim to USPTO and write a professional claim and then go through filing before going into prosecution. After all of that, you would have about a 70% chance of actually getting the patent.
Ashok also explains that it is more expensive and harder to get additional patents on the same technology that you created.
Ashok has half a dozen patents of Nasal Guard itself. The first was on the fundamental idea of the product; after that, he developed the product and had to patent that then.
Method Patenting is one of the strongest patents you can have on a physical product.
So once Ashok had his first two patents, he just kept building them from there as he developed his products.

What is Ashok’s vision for his business, and how has he stayed motivated for so long? (16:43)

Ashok is driven by his want and need to create a global good that will help many people.
Ashoke also finds ways to keep people away from him or medicate them, in a pop a pill fashion that many consumers like.
An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.
His idea for Nasal Guard was if dust particles in the air can increase the number of asthma attacks a person suffers, he created something that limits the particles entering the consumer’s nose and therefore preventing attacks.
With the fires on the west coast, Ashok and his company donated Nasal Guard products for the firefighters to protect them from inhaling all of the smoke and dust from the event while they fought at the front line.
His Nasal Guard is an invisible filter that will stop microscopic and submicroscopic particles that tend to go right through a mask.
So it all comes down to Ashok just wanting to help people live better, healthier, and more comfortable lives.

TruTek

Trutek Corp. is a company active in Intellectual Property Development, R&D and Manufacturing of Topical Allergy Prevention Products, Nasal Particle Blocker, Cold&Flu Block, Skincare Products (such as Eye, Hand, Face & Body Moisturizers), and Hair Conditioners based in Somerville, NJ USA.

Resources

Connect with Ashok: Instagram

TruTek Corp: LinkedIn

Connect with Andrew: LinkedIn

Eliot Buchanan Disrupts Normal Business Models with His Innovative Company Plastiq, Which Processes over $2 Billion Worth of Sales in Goods and Services Yearly Nov 19, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Action & Ambition with your host, Andrew Medal. Today’s Guest is Eliot Buchanan.

Eliot Buchanan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Plastiq. Eliot is responsible for defining the strategic vision and industry-changing innovation at Plastiq. He is a creator of disruptive business model innovations and has been actively engaged in several ventures driven by that imperative.

You’re going to love this episode. Let’s get to it!

How did Eliot get into FinTech? (0:40)

FinTech has become quite a trend in the business world.

Admittedly, Eliot did not initially choose FinTech but instead chose a problem that he found interesting, and it so happened to be financial services.

Eliot grew up in Canada and came to the US for school, and one of the problems he ran into was that he had no credit score.
If you are new to the US, one way to establish a credit score is by getting a credit card. As a student, this is what Eliot did to build his score almost ten years ago.
Credit cards had been around for over 60 years at the time, and so Eliot tried to pay his tuition payment and was very surprised when he was not allowed to pay that way.
That was the lightbulb moment for Elliot and seeded Plastiq in his mind and excited Elliot to innovate within financial services.

What obstacles did Eliot encounter during his journey? (4:11)

One thing Eliot experiences in financial services was that companies that were already successful often have compliments for the incumbents versus replacements.
To compare it to say, the transportation industry, which has many pain points people wouldn’t argue with.
However, in the financial industry, some disruption needed to happen to the incumbent way of life in the financial sector.
Most successful FinTech’s are not trying to replace the incumbents. They like the incumbents and getting along with the system.
Like any industry, there is a lot of bureaucracy and red tape based on partnering with large organizations.
Once partnered with a large organization, those incumbents help you grow your business instead of work against you.

What are some things Eliot things are going to blow up in the next few years? (18:57)

There are several brands that consumers are loyal to in terms of their products and services.
A lot of these brands and products that people use daily are not traditional FinTechs.
Looking at the larger tech companies like Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google, customers willing and have a desire to run banking or their financial lives through the brands and services that they love, even though they weren’t historically a banking tech or in FinTech.
Eliot believes there will come an exciting tipping point in what people look for in managing their finances.
This is because so many people complain about their banks, asking consumers which of the brands they use they trust the most, ranking from top to bottom, their bank would usually be one of the last names mentioned.
There’s been a steadily increasing trend of people getting comfortable doing payments and banking from non-traditional banking methods.

How does Eliot keep morale going in his team during the pandemic? (28:20)

Eliot said at the start of things he was trying to add too much for morale-boosting.
They were doing happy ours, virtual lunch cat cafes, or virtual yogas, and people took advantage of those during COVID.
He said he eventually just tried to make sure his employees were separating their home and work life and still taking their lunch breaks.
He also enforced the first Fridays of every month where people would work only half days, and the rest of the time, they must not touch their work.
So just trying to keep that normality and balance because if people are not happy at home, they are not going to be very useful at work.

Plastiq

Plastiq is a service that lets individuals and businesses use debit or credit cards to pay vendors that don't otherwise accept those payment methods.

Plastiq facilitates one-time or recurring payments for bills such as rent, mortgage, utilities, daycare, homeowners association fees, and other expenses. You add a debit or credit card to your Plastiq account and charge it in the bill’s amount, and then Plastiq pays the company on your behalf via a method that the vendor accepts: ACH, wire transfer, or an old-fashioned paper check.

Resources

Connect with Eliot: LinkedIn

Plastiq: Website

Connect with Andrew: LinkedIn

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