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Tyler Lucas and Nathaniel Thompson are making a difference in the lives of 4th - 8th graders. They are helping run Start-Up Kids a project founded by Gerhard Apfelthaler of California Lutheran University's School of Management, Maria Ballesteros-Sola and Vlad Vaiman of CLU. Note: Gerhard and Vlad have been on the show before. This project, now in its second year, is expanding as they move to the third year. Over an eight week period, these two, and others on the team, spend 30 minutes a week helping students realize their entrepreneurial ambitions. This project is so successful, one of the teams was asked to present their project at the opening of the 2017 New Venture competition at HUB101. Who doesn't love hearing energetic, passionate young 12-14-year-olds who want to change the world? The students learn marketing, design, product development, costing and take the classes very seriously. You'll love hearing examples of how enthusiastic the students are in their desire to improve situations they think will make a huge difference in the world. Like making a kid-friendly version of Instagram, because their parents won't let them log in to it. This coming school year sees the program expand to 5 schools. Over the eight weeks they are taught three models; Explore, Create and Build. One of the tenets they teach is not everyone has to be an entrepreneur. They explain there's plenty of room on the teams for workers and individual contributors. The biggest surprise for the guys? It was how much the students retained over the period of eight weeks. If you have a 12-year-old in your life, you might consider moving to Ventura County, so they have a shot at getting into one of these classes. If you are interested in putting one of these programs together in your school district, drop the guys a note.

Adam Hall has a background in real estate development and investment banking. His focus now is un-doing. Unthinking, undeveloping, it's turned into his life's mission. It's quite a turnaround in his thinking and has changed his life. He recently sat down with Mark and Patrick to talk his background, the formation of the EarthKeeper Alliance and what he's currently working (or unworking) on. Including: • His thoughts on land conservation, both on and offshore • How he defines 'undevelopment.' • What it means to be an Impact Investor • Ironically he talks about how to make sure that land conservation projects are not undone. • Adam explains how Land Trusts work and how they are proliferating across the US. • Our audience knows we love to talk about Dragons. The one that Adam deals with is regarding Property Right and Usage • He's encouraged by efforts in Santa Barbara like the SustainSB effort currently underway • Mark and Patrick love talking about the impact of our guest's ideas on Millenials and Adam helped us understand where they fit in this 'undoing' world. • He left us with this quote from Claude Debussy, "The music is the silence between the notes."

The Janik Brothers, both students at CLU, won the 2017 New Venture Competition held at HUB101. Five teams competed in a Pitch Competition. The NVC is a different type of entrepreneurial event. In this one, you're judged on your ability to pitch an idea. These brothers brought an unusual secret weapon to the event. They're magicians. They used magic in very clever ways to illustrate key points about their proposed business. It captured the imagination of the judges, and they walked away with first prize. Mark and Patrick (also a magician) had a great conversation with these two. They are a bit cagey about the actual business as it's still in the formative stage. We cover these topics: • What strategy they crafted for their presentation • What's WEAVE (that's the name of the business idea) • How their idea is unique • How you plan for a ten-minute pitch and a 10-minute QA • Another skill in their arsenal, having been on Speech and Debate teams in high school • How they're planning on using the $3K prize money

Robin Newman is the founder of Global Egg Donors, an egg donation program, based in Santa Barbara, specializing in the coordination of affordable egg donation procedures. She assists in finding and reserving a donor, clinic, doctor, flights, and accommodation in many countries. She's worked with parents in 20+ countries, traveling to 8 countries to take advantage of an exceptional donor, excellent medical facilities and the high-quality service of the clinics that she works with. Robin is a 2nd generation Santa Barbaran, who is proud that her grandfather led the Fiesta parade, back in the day. She's been running this program locally for 16 years. The program offers hope and solutions to so many people. It's now her life' mission to be of service. She, Patrick and Mark covered a lot of ground in the conversation including: • How egg donations began just 30 years ago • South Africa's role in her mission • The exact process by which this happens, with a compelling story of a recent donor • We learned that on average a female is born with 40,000 cells that will mature into an egg • The primary challenge to her Mission is resolved with education and awareness • She's currently working with eight clinics worldwide • There are 50 egg donor programs in the world (estimated) • The biggest surprise for her: that she's lasted as long as she has in this role and how the industry has grown • There's a sisterhood of donors - great stories here about what that feels like • She says that the challenges facing the Mission are that the laws are always changing and evolving, country by country • She's proud that she's been a part of bringing 800+ babies into the world In the image above, Robin is flanked by two donors

Tim Goldstein is a neurodiversity communication specialist. His Aspergers diagnosis answered a lot of questions and changed his life's work. Now, he spends his time advising Human Resource departments, talent professionals and managers who are trying to incorporate 'Aspies' (as they self-identify) into the workforce. Tim says that he's 'on the spectrum' which refers to being on the Autism Spectrum. He's a highly accomplished entrepreneur and engineer. He, Mark and Patrick had a lively discussion and opened up the conversation to better understand the proliferation of Aspies in industry Topics included: • What is neurodiversity vs. neurotypical • Working in the bicycle business for 20 years and developing a solid business background • He was only recently diagnosed, four years ago. • How people communicate and how the provides a challenge for Aspies. This speaks to the words used, the tonality of the speaker and the body language. Aspy's can frequently misinterpret these signs. • Learn the Greek word: Alixrethmia, which means "no words for emotion." • What poor executive control and poor impulse control can do when working with Aspy's. • Tim wrote a book to capture all of this insight called, Geeks Guide to Interviews: 15 Critical Items for the Technical Type • His Temple Grandin story. She's one of the heroes that's brought Aspergers out into the mainstream conversation with her TED talk. • His discussion about the percentage of technical workers that have Asperger's, according to industry reports. It's much higher than you'd imagined • A few famous people who have/had Aspergers include; Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

Dani Natcher has a fun job. She helps businesses throw parties to build awareness and introduce the team to the public. She does this as a community ambassador for Yelp, the publishers of crowd-sourced reviews on millions of businesses. When we learned that Dani has such a unique job, we had to have her on the show. Dani works diligently with businesses and her 'Elite Squad,' which is comprised of active Yelper's who write consistently on the site. They're invited to events, product demonstrations and given the opportunity to meet founders and owners of local businesses. This conversation with Mark and Patrick led to some interesting insights into Dani's personality, her work with Yelp and what it's like being a recent graduate of Antioch University. Dani describes herself this way, "I am a very self-driven individual with an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for building, promoting, and creating small businesses." • Just received her Batcher's Degree in Marketing from Antioch, where she graduated with honors • She's a local from the 805 (Newberry Park) • Why does she wear a pendant of the state of California • What the Elite Squad is and how it works • Why Yelp has local ambassadors in communities • Her tips on local businesses that she sees doing a great job with their customers and the community: Good Cup on the Mesa, Educated Car Wash, and Pacific Press • How an event she produced at Brass Bear Brewing in Santa Barbara helped launch that brand locally. • She talks about her other projects, including XMO, Extreme Mobility Camps for the Blind • What does she look for when she walks into a business for the first time? The answer may surprise you. Dani is also volunteering for TEDxSantaBarbara 2017's event on November 11 at the New Vic Theater. She's the Food and Beverage Captain, helping to connect the local craft food scene to the event. We're looking forward to some innovation and fun as a result.

Jamie DeVries is a teacher, mentor and the founder of Kids Helping Kids. He also started the San Marcos Entrepreneurship Academy (SMEA), where they are empowering tomorrow's business leaders. In 2010 he received the Distinguished Educator Award in Santa Barbara. Jamie has 130 kids in SMEA and on a recent weekday evening at the Impact Hub in the Funk Zone of Santa Barbara, 20+ teams presented business ideas in the form of a tradeshow. It was an exciting night, and the student entrepreneurs got the real life experience of presenting, pitching and justifying their ideas to the general public. The conversation ran the gamut and covered the many years that Jamie has been at San Marcos, including; • The story of the founding of SMEA • How he had the baton passed to him from starting as an economics teacher - and how economics was a perfect prerequisite for teaching entrepreneurialism • How they worked with Tom Reed (Also on this show) to create a Penny Drive which leads to the founding of Kids Helping Kids in 2003 • How they went from raising $100K to over $2.5M a year • How the kids compete for positions in SMEA • "Kids do it all" was the answer to how does it all work? • There were some interesting side stories about how Kids Helping Kids has moved beyond the walls of the high school to Nicaragua and Bombay (Mumbai) • The difference between SMEA and the virtual enterprise programs in other schools. • He talked about the role of TED talks in the classroom (which I loved to hear) This was an inspirational episode for me (Mark), as I'd spent the previous evening at the tradeshow for SMEA and was excited from those interactions and had plenty of questions for Jamie.

Greg Van Ness is the CEO of Tolman & Wiker Insurance Services and one of the show sponsors. We enjoy Greg's visits to the studio, as he always leads us in a masterclass on some subject related to business. This episode is about how the conversation about culture colors most areas of business. He uses examples from his work at Tolman & Wiker to illustrate key points. The culture at the firm is largely responsible for the winning the #1 Best Place to Work in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties by the Pacific Coast Business Times. This award was based on direct feedback from their team members. Greg says that culture is the foundation of delivery for clients as they are focused on the customer experience first. Their culture embodies a high regard for people and a strong concern for results. We talked about how culture affects recruiting. Listen to this show with Vlad Vaiman about Recruiting and Attracting employees; he insists it is 100% about your culture. Here's some of the items and Mark, Patrick and Greg talked about: • Why you have insurance in the first place • Why recruiting is as much about selling the firm as it is about qualifying the candidate • Their 3 point checklist for cultural fit, of potential candidates • His impression of the quality of people coming into the field. The answer? He's impressed. • How they handle training and development of team members • Have you ever heard of Malware Insurance • We talked about Risk Management in an earlier episode and revisited it to discuss - How you identify the risk - What insurance to buy - How to prevent (accidents) - How to assume it (risk) - How to transfer it (risk) • What's the hidden risk in most busineeses? • What's the role of TEDTalks in the workplace?

Robert, John and the third partner Alexis, won CLU's Startup Weekend for their RepWatch idea. This included a $10,000 prize, and they're on the way to getting their product into the market. This interview goes through the process of how you navigate the Startup frenzied opening hours through the various phases that lead up to the final judging on Sunday. The big surprise for them was how much self-growth they've experienced. They learned that not only was it easy, but they enjoyed interacting with prospects. The challenge (Dragon) for them is finding time for the business. For this past year, they've still been going to school. Robert is also the President of the California Luthern Entrepreneurship Club. Note: Alexis was not in this conversation. The conversation with Mark and Patrick covered a lot of ground, including: • What is Startup Weekend? • How the weekend blends technical and non-technical people • How you include the business model, business plan, pitch deck, market validation, prepare to present to judges and building a team into the 54 hour process. • How they got out of the facility on Saturday to do market validation with real potential clients • The idea of RepWatch is to create a wearable sensor that can track physical activity and report back to physical therapists to monitor compliance. • They learned that 70% physical therapy clients don't comply with their prescribed treatments. • Listen as they explain how, by Sunday morning, they needed to pivot after a conversation with one of the mentors. • How they'll spend the $10,000 and what other things they won • It took a weekend to generate the idea, and at least a year to expand on the idea and build the business. • Oh, yes, remember up until just a few weeks ago, they were also full-time students. • Then we learn that they've won $45K from other competitions.

John Goerke loves coffee. He loves it so much he's dedicated his life to making sure you get the most enjoyment out of every cup. His focus is on how to make the coffee experience 100% perfect every time. This means, quality product, zero waste, and an environmentally friendly process. John is a conscious capitalist and the founder of both Caribbean Coffee Company and bona Field Brewing Co. As chief brewologist and Founder; John is transforming the beverage industry and making the world a more wonderful place, one cup of cold coffee at a time. John has a great story of how his business has morphed from coffee service to local businesses to one of the premier suppliers of cold draft brew coffee in the United States. All from here in the 805. He's got a secret method that allows him to say with certainty, that the cup you enjoy 90 days after brewing will taste exactly as excellent as one experienced in the first 5 minutes of brewing. John also runs Caribbean Coffee and recently celebrated their 30th anniversary. He and Spencer Weiner have been sponsoring TEDxSantaBarbara for the past several years. We love having their coffee at our events. Mark, Patrick, and John covered a lot of territory in this conversation including: • Starting the business in 1986 • What his favorite part of the job (was and is) • The story of ROCO - Santa Babara Roasting Company • How he went from specialty coffee to food service • "I'm all about authenticity." • When he asked himself how he could make cold coffee better • The technology behind Bona Fide (well, what he can talk about) • Did you know that coffee and wine have something in common? • How he took his method for brewing and storing the coffee in kegs and found a way to deliver it hot or cold, instantly. • His work with Amazon and getting coffee kegs online (see here) • Why he thinks that stadiums could be a real market • Why you don't want to be afraid to pivot • Guess how big the coffee market is. 46B$