It's All About the Questions

How does a woman nowhere close to retirement age create a company that is all about helping people ready to retire? Well Hannah Thomson will tell you all you have to do is know her granny. Inspiration is all around us. How we act on that separates the successful from the less successful. Hannah Thomson has learned to act on what she learns from the world around her and founded the highly successful retirement-focused company The Joy Club.

Not your usual kind of startup, this one focuses on virtual AND live events to inspire retirees, or those who want a bit more fun in their lives, to grab life with two hands and try something new. With over 5000 members in the UK alone, Hannah is on a mission to empower grandparents, and parents, to live the lives they perhaps put aside as they raised their families or grew their careers.

Take a listen as Hannah shares how her grandmother influenced the creation of The Joy club, what it took, and takes, to make it flourish and her vision for the future.

Hannah Thomson founded The Joy Club in 2019, inspired by her granny’s experience of ageing to focus on inspiring a joyful retirement for all. She previously held key roles in several award-winning startups, including femtech company Elvie where she was Head of Health and Strategic Partnerships.

Hannah has degrees in human rights and business practices in life sciences – and is a graduate of the Oxford University Fintech Programme. Her multidisciplinary background reflects her curiosity about the world and her passion to use technology to change it for the better.

When she’s not building The Joy Club, you’ll find Hannah trail running, sailing the high seas or training her Labrador puppy to be the perfect adventure buddy! www.thejoyclub.com

Do you know if you are focused on your brand essence or your brand ego? Do you know the difference between the two? How about story? Do you know how to use it for the right part of your brand?

Tucker Stine and I pick up our conversation in part 2 of our discussion about your bsuiness and personal brands and how they best interact and how they should not.

Tucker is a results-driven connector, personal and organizational brand architect, leadership coach and public speaker with over 25 years of success in building personal and professional brands, developing experiential marketing strategies, constructing strategic communications programs, advising emerging nonprofits and coaching keynote speakers, conscious-driven businesses and thought leaders through impactful storytelling. 

Tucker has worked with Fortune 100 companies, tech giants and global changemakers such as Microsoft, F5, Accenture, Azure, AWS and more, helping them reinvent leadership opportunities and strategic marketing initiatives to revolutionize their industry.  With one simple goal, to bring humanity back into the technology world.

He thrives as a valuable core team leader, industry mentor and catalyst for generational movements that ignite societal change through the power of voice. He has helped 250+ speakers and thought leaders take the stage, launch their businesses and share their global ideas for change, including the highly sought-after TED platform. His clients have been featured on TED, Goalcast, Upworthy, The Today Show, the Sundance Film Festival and hundreds of podcasts, resulting in over 100 million views combined.  With one goal in mind… to share a courageous, vulnerable voice and a powerful seat at the global table of conversation, every opportunity they can.

Tucker believes in the power of human connection, radical authenticity, and social impact through speaking, storytelling and thought leadership initiatives. He inspires his clients to follow that same path through their own words. One story at a time.

One of my most requested guests has come back on the show to talk how we can keep hope, have healing and know we have strength when it seems like none of that is possible.

Dr. Laurie Nadel talks about terminal lethargy, what tasks we need to schedule and if the body and mind really learn to accept a new normal.

Dr. Laurie Nadel is a psychologist who helps people recover from disasters, including the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001.  She continues to work with first responders who remain deeply affected by the event some 20 years later; she also directed a program for teenagers whose fathers were killed that day. 

A former journalist, she spent 20 years in TV newsrooms in London and New York with an assignment for Newsweek in Chile during a state of siege. This led to her founding the Committee to Protect Journalists, a human rights organization. Since launching her psychology practice 30 years ago, Dr. Laurie has helped individuals and organizations heal from trauma, including the Parkland school shooting teachers and survivors of Hurricane Sandy where she lost her own home.  

She currently leads free online support groups for firefighters and for individuals who are longhaul COVID survivors. She is the author of "The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes."

Do you check in with your customer? Ever? Too often what happens is focus shifts to getting new customers at the expense of the old. Think how annoyed we all get when Cable and Cellular companies offer bonuses or special pricing to new customers and existing just keep paying higher and higher prices. In a services industry you are probably missing out on increased revenue with increased customer satisfaction by doing regular business reviews with your clients. What do you do during those review and how often should you do them are just a few of the questions my guest Kris Blackmon, Chief Channel officer of JS Group and I discuss on this epsiode.

Kris Blackmon is the chief channel officer of industry consultancy JS Group. A veteran of the indirect sales channel, Kris has extensive experience in event programming, editorial and content creation, research and analysis, and community building. At JS Group, she consults on go-to-market strategies for organizations in the indirect channel and leads the content strategy team. Kris is a member of CompTIA’s Channel Development Advisory Council, producing thought leadership for vendors and partners. She sits on the board of Xposure Inclusion and Diversity Council and is a fervent advocate of DEI and allyship in the channel.

Listeners wanted her back for more of her wisdom and I agreed. On this part 2 of a conversation with Amy Biddle she shares three strategies she has used to create advances in her business and life year after year. We also talk about her upcoming book, Acquire, Convert, Repeat.

And during this epsiode Amy shares how her goal and purpose changed and how that changed everything for her.

Amy Biddle has been obsessed with digital and traditional marketing since 1999. "I was an English major," she confessed. "But when I discovered marketing, I finally had a reason to pay attention to numbers, too. Now I'm really a geek. I do words fused with data that strategically advance the bottom line."

Having started her journey in content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO), Amy has been consultant to over 10,000 business owners, advising small business owners how to create content that is both human friendly and search engine friendly. 

She designed and led an ecommerce business program that facilitated over $20 million in revenue with participants.               

She's managed paid marketing with budgets of $50 per day to $20,000 per day, managing ad strategy for companies selling everything from cat toys to SaaS.

Amy publishes a monthly newsletter for ecommerce business owners with customer lists of over 5000 names. Learn more at https://amybiddle.me/ .

The biggest downfall to any brand is not what you think. It's not a failure in service or product delivery. It's not even a scandal.

Tucker Stine has been helping brands of all sizes avoid and recover from what is the biggest downfall for many years and he shares the answer on this epsiode.

We also talk about branding to different gernations, brand accelerators and how to use them and how changing the face of a brand, think Alex Trebek, doesn't have to signify the downfall of the company. There is a lot to unpack in this epsiode so have a notepad handy and share your take away.

Tucker is a results-driven connector, personal and organizational brand architect, leadership coach and public speaker with over 25 years of success in building personal and professional brands, developing experiential marketing strategies, constructing strategic communications programs, advising emerging nonprofits and coaching keynote speakers, conscious-driven businesses and thought leaders through impactful storytelling. 

Tucker has worked with Fortune 100 companies, tech giants and global changemakers such as Microsoft, F5, Accenture, Azure, AWS and more, helping them reinvent leadership opportunities and strategic marketing initiatives to revolutionize their industry.  With one simple goal, to bring humanity back into the technology world.

He thrives as a valuable core team leader, industry mentor and catalyst for generational movements that ignite societal change through the power of voice. He has helped 250+ speakers and thought leaders take the stage, launch their businesses and share their global ideas for change, including the highly sought-after TED platform. His clients have been featured on TED, Goalcast, Upworthy, The Today Show, the Sundance Film Festival and hundreds of podcasts, resulting in over 100 million views combined.  With one goal in mind… to share a courageous, vulnerable voice and a powerful seat at the global table of conversation, every opportunity they can.

Tucker believes in the power of human connection, radical authenticity, and social impact through speaking, storytelling and thought leadership initiatives. He inspires his clients to follow that same path through their own words. One story at a time.

As if the title wasn't enough to suck you in there is more from this much requested repeat guest. Her latest book's title is You Don't Suck - Your Copy Does - 60 Kick-Butt Lessons on Copywriting, Business and Life and it definitely delivers.

Be preprared for a high-energy listen as Carline talks about what makes an A-List copywriter, how to appreciate who you are and what you have, how to deal with bad things happening and not let them derail you and even a little bit about bras and the wisdom of finding the perfect one only to have it discontinued!

CARLINE ANGLADE-COLE still wakes up every morning shocked – and happy – she’s found a job that pays her so well for doing something she loves!

After 12 years in the direct mail industry working at Phillips Publishing Inc. (now Healthy Directions), Carline ventured out on her own and launched Cole Marketing Solutions, Inc.

When she began her copywriting freelance career in 1999 – her goal was simple: Make a decent income and have the flexibility and time to raise her 4 kids with her firefighter husband, Mickey.

Along the way, she managed to create multi-year controls for leading clients in the health industry including: Health Resources … True Health … Healthy Directions … Boardroom … Biscayne Labs … Schweiz Health … Vitamin Research Group … and NeoGenis – just to name a few …

 … consulted and helped international clients break into the American health market …

 … oh – and got a shot at launching Oprah’s “O Magazine” in the direct mail arena!

Not too shabby for a mom – and now grandmother of 3 boys – who works in her basement wearing a t-shirt, shorts and bedroom slippers!

Recently, instead of throwing a traditional 30th anniversary party with her husband – Carline decided they should celebrate – not the day – but the entire year!

That year of travel included spending weeks in Japan, Guatemala, New Zealand, South Africa, Haiti and Jamaica – along with some fun times in New Orleans!

Thanks to the amazing writer’s life – during that year of travel – Carline still managed to write copy for clients and have one of her most successful fiscal years ever!

Carline specializes in creating home-run copy to launch new products, revive struggling product lines, and help clients to maximize their revenues.

Having sold a business I can tell you that it is not just all about business issues like M&A, finances, contracts, staff, clients, branding and a few other things. What many never talk about is the emotional impact leading up to a sale, during negotiations and after the sale that can derail a deal before it gets to close.

My guest is a serial entreprenuer who has written and spoken about the emotional side of selling a business and it is spot-on from my experience. The book also includes case studies of other sale experinces.

Take a listen as we discuss the emotional impact on staff and owners, perils and pitfulls to consider when making a sale and questions to ask yourself before you start your company and after you think the thought you are ready to exit.

Jamison West has been a serial entrepreneur for 25 years. He built Arterian (formerly JWCS), an MSP that he grew from a one-man shop to forty staff through both organic growth and the acquisition of 4 other IT Services companies.

He went on to Co-Found 3 SaaS companies including Teamatics, SmileBack, and TimeZest and currently serves as a fractional CEO for SmileBack and Chairman of TimeZest. He enjoys his role as a Strategic Coach and Consultant for several clients in the US.

His background includes:

• Founding and operating companies in the SaaS and IT Services space;
• Participating in and moderating professional peer groups;
• Coaching and Consulting for organizations in the SaaS and IT Services verticals
• Speaking on a range of topics from Cloud to M&A to People.

​Jamison currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and travels constantly.

Everyone talks about goals when they are starting out but do all goals matter equally? Are some dreams versus goals? Do all goals need to be done right now or do some need to wait because you need to look at them some more?

My guest, Michael Nelson, is a serial entreprenuer who knows a few things about success, failure and goals that matter and don't.

Take a listen as we talk about the book he finally wrote after clients and friends urged him to, why willpower is not the answer to achiveing goals, how to figure out what goals need an asterisk next to them and how to determine what matters for you.

Michael Nelson is the author of Goals That Matter – The Deceptively Simple System to Achieve Every Dream. Michael is an entrepreneur and a real estate investor. Having created a system to achieve his goals, Michael started sharing it with clients and friends who found a great deal of success with their goals. Having led hundreds of people through his goal setting system, he decided to write a book to share it even further. Michael’s book is a must-read for every person who desires to take their life to the next level.

At 29, Michael started his first company. The dotcom bubble set him back, but he learned from the experience and started another. TLC Tech (a technical support company) providing Managed IT Services, is thriving for one reason. He developed his goals.

But writing them down was not enough. It was when he realized how to use them to really matter and move the needle, that things began to change. Now, having built TLC Tech into a 7-figure success, he wanted to continue to grow. The key to it all sounded a bit cliche, but once he truly mastered both professional and personal goals, is when he found happiness and balance. It was a turning for Michael and his company.

His book, Goals that Matter, added another element to his life. It was his passion project. Helping others through coaching and public speaking has allowed him to pass along the tools he used. Seeing success in others has been extraordinary.

With 27 years’ experience and a positive outlook, he is a role model for every driven individual looking to take the next step in their life. And achieving every dream.

What if you could turn upside down how you think about adding new partners and clients? What if you decided to create a business to help others do that? And what if that wasn't how you originally thought of your company?

Take a listen as I interview Dina Moskowitz, Founder and CEO of SaaSMAX ParterOptimizer as she shares her entrepreneurial journey and the pivots she learned to make along the way to success.

Dina Moskowitz is recognized as one of the IT Channel’s top influencers and innovators. She is Founder and CEO of PartnerOptimizer by SaaSMAX, an AI-powered partner marketing platform that analyzes millions of historical data points to help you create your ideal profile. Dina and was recently ranked #20 out of more than 2800 Channel Executives and in 2017 awarded the Cloud Girls Rising Trailblazer Award. She has been featured in the VAR Guy’s Top 50 Channel Influencers and recognized by CRN as a Women of the Channel Power 50 Solution Provider, by UBM Tech Channel CRN as one of the Top Women in the Channel (2016, 2015, 2014). Dina served on the CompTIA Vendor Advisory Council and now serves on their Business Applications Council.

Dina has led or provided consultation to cloud-based, SaaS and other technology companies throughout her career. Prior to PartnerOptimizer by SaaSMAX, she was CEO and founder of Critical Digital Data Solutions Inc., which developed cloud-based data storage solutions. Dina regular presents at Channel conferences. She is a member of Cloud Girls, Board Member of the Cloud Software Association, Judge and mentor for San Diego Women’s Hackathon and other San Diego start-up organizations, and a strong advocate of women in SaaS
and IT.