•. David Sauers’ ah-ha moment was in a portable toilet•. “My story touches on … the lessons learned from creating a niche brand”It’s every parent’s worry: At a festival with your very young children when one of them announces they need the bathroom. Yet the only toilets to be seen are those smelly, wobbly, fiberglass, one-person-if-you’r-skinny portable outhouses. David Sauers had that moment more than 20 years ago and out of it came a career change from local banking executive to entrepreneur marketing a better outdoor toilet experience.David Sauers, co-founder of Royal Restrooms LLC, offers his story in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.Mr. Sauers created a franchise-based company that rents roomy portable toilets with running water to wash up, air conditioning and even breath mints.Over the 20 years he’s been in business, Mr. Sauers has expanded — by franchising — to 50 offices across the country. “My story touches on entrepreneurship, the power of building partnerships, and the lessons learned from creating a niche brand that continues to thrive,” he says.For more information please click here.
•. John Chan helps avoid digital campaign pitfalls •. “Fundamentally, marketing is sales at scale”(Total Recorded Time is 11:18)Owners and operators of small businesses who are thinking of digital ad campaigns, ought to check first with experts.That’s what John Chan does — helping businesses market via platforms like YouTu8be and Meta.Mr. Chan joins us for this Bizgnus Interview to explain how to avoid pitfalls in digital campaigns.“Fundamentally, marketing is sales at scale,” Mr. Chan says. John Chan is an entrepreneur, known for his expertise in web/UX design and digital marketing. He dropped out of university when he was 19 to start his own web design consultancy. Since then, he has co-founded 2x Growth Agency, which specializes in helping e-commerce and direct to consumer brands grow and scale with paid ads and ad creative development.For more information: www.2x.agency
•. Serial entrepreneur Peter Wasmer shoulders the hassle•. “A revolutionary business process automation platform”(Total Recorded Time is 23:13)Scheduling, dispatch, invoicing, payments, and just plain old customer communication — it can almost drown the pool guy — unless.That’s where Peter Wasmer, a serial entrepreneur, spotted a unique niche — automating so much of the non-pool stuff.Peter Wasmer joins us for this Bizgnus Interview. Calling himself a “passionate innovator,” Mr. Wasmer says his cutting-edge solution is already that empowering from California to Florida, pretty much across what might be termed America’s “pool country.”“I’ve developed and scaled SaaS (software as a service) platforms that simplify complex processes, save time, and drive profitability for my clients,” says Mr. Wasmer.He says his newest company, ProValet, is “a revolutionary business process automation platform designed to transform the pool service industry.”For more information please CLICK HERE.
•. Sue Pats says going it alone has many rewards•. “I am passionate about sharing knowledge”(Total Recorded Time is 21:00)Woody Allen could have been speaking for many solopreneurs when he said, “Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon.”Freelancers, contractors, consultants, temps — all one-man-bands of one type or another — add up. In the U.S. alone, there are an estimated 41 million of them.Sue Pats, herself a solopreneir, says it doesn’t have to be a lonely, bare-bones life.She’s selling support and education for solopreneurs and joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.“I specialize in unique marketing approaches, including the use of AI tools and done-for-you services,” she says. “I am passionate about sharing knowledge in an engaging and entertaining way.”For more information: www.nubeginning.com
• The drawer of Rolexes no longer cut it• “This feeling of being alive transforms you”(TRT is 10:32)When a drawer of Rolex watches doesn’t make you feel whole, something ought to be done.And Mo Issa says he did it by making small changes to rediscover himself, embrace simplicity, and focus on a sense of deep fulfillment.What were those steps and why does he think they can help others?Mo Issa joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews to explain.“While I haven’t found all the answers, I do feel alive again,” he says. Mr. Issa adds that, in his opinion, “this feeling of being alive transforms you, and whether you know it or not, you have started transforming the world.”He has written three books, the latest entitled “The Midlife Shift: How I Left the Rat Race and Found Myself,” (Kimo Pub Press, November 2024).“My story is more than just about personal growth—it’s about showing others that it’s possible to dedicate oneself to self-awareness, tackle societal expectations and the pressures that come with them, and create a life of purpose.”For more information: www.mo-issa.com
* Angela Fowler helps businesses tap that market Plus tips for grilling tri-tip (Total Recorded Time is 16:49_ Like thousands upon thousands of Californians, Angela Fowler loves to cook the beef known as tri-tip on her backyard barbecue. “I love getting out there and barbequing,” she says. “People don’t realize that a blind person can do that.” Ms. Fowler is a blind accessibility consultant who says that “an accessible business is a prosperous business.” Her Yuba City-based company, Real Life Access, uses that as its motto. Angela Fowler is our guest on this episode of Bizgnus Interviews. She says her company offers training and in-depth coaching along with practical steps organizations can take to make their products and services accessible to people with disabilities “and user-friendly for everyone.” For more information: www.reallifeaccess.com
•. Fixing the entry-level jobs turnover problem •. “The results have been amazing” (Total recorded time is 19:48) HONESDALE, Pa. — When Michael Neal set up his optometry practice in rural Pennsylvania, he was focused on his patients even as a problem was growing out of sight. The problem is one that many small businesses of all types face: employee turnover, especially in entry-level jobs. Finally, something had to be done. “I have changed the way I hire for my practice and the results have been amazing,” he says. Today, while still seeing patients, the doctor is busy running a new business that he says helps small businesses with staffing through the use of psychometrics. Michael Neal talks about his solution in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews. His new company is called Build My Team. He says it models how companies like Disney and the Four Seasons hire. As it moves beyond the health care industry, his company has clients in more than 40 states and Canada. Mr. Neal says he identified the performance factors that predicted long-term employee success including speed of learning and the applicant’s mindset. In changing how he hired, he says the practice began to retain employees for longer stretches and there was more energy in the practice. For more information please click here.
•. It’s not only battlefield bravery •. “Embrace discomfort and try to be brave” (Total Recorded Time is 12:34) Jill Schulman - a former Marine Corps officer and expert in positive psychology — says there’s a science to bravery. And it’s not just bravery on a remote battlefield but can be the bravery to leave a safe and comfortable job for the toil and uncertainty of striking out on your own in business. “Embrace discomfort and try to be brave,” she says. “I know it is scary but anything great in life is on the other side of something really challenging.” Jill Schulman joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews. Ms. Schulman is founder and principal of Breakthrough Leadership Group. She is also the author of the forthcoming book, “The Science of Bravery,” due out in mid-2025. For more information, please click here .
•. Many leaders overlook a basic part of the foundation (Total Recorded Time is 19:11) For some leaders, arriving at work leaves them feeling that something’s a bit off. Could it be the culture? And not something that’s been growing for months in the break room’s fridge. But more like the essence of the organization. According to our guest, many leaders just don’t know if their organization’s culture is helping or hindering achievement of goals. Laura Hamill, a leadership consultant based near Seattle, has seen it time after time: a mismatch between what leadership thinks should be happening and the rest of the world. As an organizational psychologist, ex-Microsoft director, and Limeade cofounder, through her firm Paris Phoenix Group, she advises companies on how to transform their cultures. What are the steps that need to be taken? Laura Hamill is our guest on this episode of Bizgnus Interviews. Ms. Hamill is also host at the Happy at Work podcast and has written a new book about fixing company cultures, “The Power of Culture: An Economist Edge Book,” (The Economist Books, November 2024). For more information: parisphoenixgroup.com
•How to break the blockages to success •Eight stories to ponder (Total Recorded Time is 16:16) NEW YORK CITY -- It’s called “faction” and entrepreneur and author Bob Kaplan uses the writing style that combines fiction with facts for a new approach to leading and evolving. Change is hard, Mr. Kaplan notes. The challenge is to get whatever is blocking change out of the way, first by identifying the inside-your-head blockages. To raise their game, leaders cannot just work on form or technique, he says. Typically, they also need to raise their mental game, adjust it in some way. Mr. Kaplan’s new book uses eight short fictionalized real-life cases that bring that struggle for self-improvement to life. His new book is “GRAPPLING: Leaders Striving To Improve,” (River Grove Books, August 2024). Mr. Kaplan earned his doctorate in organizational behavior from Yale and lives in New York City with his wife, Becky. His previous book is “Fear Your Strengths—What You’re Best At Is Probably Your Biggest Problem.” For more information: www.kaplandevries.com
• Wisdom boils down to eight things • “Is wisdom life’s goal?” What is wisdom? Is is common? Or rare? Through interviews with 60 wise individuals across North America, Dr. Laura Gabayan says she has uncovered eight essential elements that define wisdom. Ms. Gabayan outlines her research in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews. Ms. Gabayan has distilled the interviews into a book that she calls “Common Wisdom.” “Is wisdom life’s goal? Or is wisdom something you should incorporate into your life?” Ms. Gabayan asks. After arriving at the final themes, she and her two research assistants arrived at the following list: • Resilience—the ability to weather through difficulties. • Kindness—being friendly, generous, and thinking of others. • Positivity—the practice of being optimistic in life. • Spirituality—a belief that there is something greater than being human. • Humility—to be humble and modest. • Tolerance—having sympathy for those around us and for other beliefs or practices that differ from our own. • Creativity—the ability to think about problems differently or to look at scenarios from a new perspective. • Curiosity—a desire to learn and an interest in those around you. Each interviewee was found to have at least two themes, she says. A majority had at least five themes, but only one person had all eight. Dr. Gabayan is a physician and medical researcher who has received multiple research grants and awards for her work. She has also published dozens of papers cited by hundreds of researchers. She attended UCLA for her schooling and is now affiliated with the UCLA School of Medicine. The only daughter of Kurdish immigrants from Iran, she attended eight schools prior to attending high school and settling in Los Angeles. For more information please click here.
Maybe it’s time to re-think your relationship “I found myself burnt out, frustrated” (TRT is 11:00) Everyone knows the old saying that “money cannot buy happiness.” But what about having fun with your money? Financial wellbeing coach Erin Gray helps people come to terms with where they are financially. In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Ms. Gray says she’s teaching others, especially women, what she learned the hard way. Ms. Gray says she spent 40 years thinking that “chasing money would eventually lead to happiness and fulfillment.” Not so in her case. The former certified financial planner and chief financial officer of her family’s company finally had a panic attack. “I found myself burnt out, frustrated, and disconnected from the joy of living,” she writes. For more information: generatealifewelllived.com
•. Here are tips for small businesses •. “Boy are you exposed” Why haven’t you enlisted artificial intelligence in your marketing efforts? Las Vegas marketing master Mitch Carson has been at the tip of the spear when it comes to AI and marketing. In this episode of Bizgnus Interviews, he offers examples from his experience of marketing in the 21st Century with AI. But the first hurdle he has to cross is far more basic than artificial intelligence. “Marketing is not transaction one time, it’s an on-going effort,” he says. “If you’re dependent on Facebook only as your lead source, boy are you exposed.” Mr. Carson is an early adopter of AI. “I produced events last year on ChatGPT here in Las Vegas,” he says. “We were the very first to produce live events educating people about the benefits of ChatGPT.” He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California. He later returned to school to earn an MBA with an emphasis in marketing. He says he has trained more than 600 speakers, authors, coaches, consultants, and CEOs. “Many have gone on to be bestselling authors,” he says, while “many have been able to experience a life transformation.” For more information: https://www.mitchcarson.com/
• Nonprofit takes mentoring to a new, international level • “Most of us are mentoring all the time, we just don’t realize it” (Total Recorded Time is 17:42) When an organization’s leaders give informal but special attention to those with potential but less experience, it’s often called mentoring. But can something so informal be organized? Yes, says Deborah Heiser, who leads just such an organization. The Mentor Project began casually when Ms. Heiser, an applied developmental psychologist. talked with a small group of friends about the need to match students with top experts in a vast array of fields, centering on the “STEM” fields of science, technology, engineering and math. The non-profit organization now provides free mentorship to students in elementary school through university. “Most of us are mentoring all the time, we just don’t realize it,” Ms. Heiser says. The Mentoring Project, which she co-founded, started small but has grown quickly. “It moved from 10 (mentors) to 60 to 80 to a hundred,” Ms. Heiser says. “Our organization was built on mentors who didn’t have a way to connect with mentees,” she says. “We’ve been doing it for about five years now and we’re in five countries.” She says it’s not just the students who benefit from the program. “The benefits of mentorship for entrepreneurs is tremendous,” she says. Ms. Heiser is the author of the new book, “The Mentorship Edge,” (Wiley; 1st edition, November 2024). For more information: www.mentorproject.org and www.DeborahHeiser.com
• Supply chain expert Art Koch offers tips to be prepared • “We have to do a lot more education and training” (Total Recorded Time is 16:15) Assuming President-elect Donald Trump succeeds in imposing massive tariffs on goods imported from other countries, some manufacturing may move back to the U.S., or at least closer to the nation, says Art Koch, an expert in supply chain management. But don’t look for any sudden significant increase in domestic manufacturing simply because the trained workers are not available, he says. “We have to do a lot more education and training,” he says. “I don’t think it can be turned around in a short time.” How should companies be preparing? Art Koch offers ideas in this Bizgnus Interview. Mr. Koch is the author of the new book, “The Supply Chain Revolution: Unlocking the Sustainable Profit Chain,” (Business Expert Press, June 2024). For more information: https://arthurkochmgt.com and https://arthurkochmgt.com/the-supply-chain-revolution/
• AI shows the need for leadership • “Some people are truly afraid of it” (Total Recorded Time is 18:00) Edgar Allan Poe missed out on artificial intelligence, dying in 1849. Had he written his poem “The Raven” nowadays, it might have gone like this: “While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some AI,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door. Only this and nothing more.” But for many business leaders today, AI is no specter, but rather just something to deal with, says Robert Hunt, who leads CEO peer groups and provides executive coaching. As to that pecking away by AI, Mr. Hunt has some immediate advice. “I think it's … a novelty and it's exciting -- and fearful to a lot of people,” he says. “Our job as leaders is like any transition, any new thing, to cast a vision of how it fits into our vision because some people are truly afraid of it.” Robert Hunt talks about AI and other leadership issues in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews. Mr. Hunt is a partner with Renaissance Executive Forums Dallas and leads CEO peer groups, provides executive coaching, and leadership development. His new book, co-authored with Salem Thyne, is “Nobody Cares (until you do),” Advantage Media Group (September 2022). For more information: http://www.refdallas.com/
• Dan Handel explains the kinship that exists between forests and spatial design • “We have a good chance of actually being in a better place” (Total Recorded Time is 20:00) HAIFA, Israel -- They stand there for 50, 100, even 500 years until felled by chainsaw, fire, disease or storm. These are the trees of our forests, which cover fully one-third of the land of the United States. And while you think you know your local woody areas or even forests, Dan Handel really knows forests and how they impact how we live – and how people are impacting forests Dan Handel joins us for this Bizgnus Interview. Mr. Handel is a writer whose work focuses on research-based projects with special attention to underexplored ideas, figures, and practices that shape contemporary built environments. He is an optimist, despite the daily reports of hurricanes, floods and massive wildfires. “The crises we are facing … are at least a crisis of the imagination,” he says. “And when I say a crisis of the imagination is that because we collectively act in certain ways it accelerates the crises but at the same time we could reconsider some of our assumptions … in science and public policy. When we get there, we have a good chance of actually doing things differently and being in a better place.” His new book is “Designed Forests: A Cultural History,” (Routledge; November 2024) which, according to its publicist, “explores the unique kinship that exists between forests and spatial design; the forest’s influence on architectural culture and practice; and the potentials and pitfalls of ‘forest thinking’ for more sustainable and ethical ways of doing architecture today.”
• Brian Brady is creating a multi-part detective series • “As a native San Franciscan, I enjoy writing about my favorite city” Remember Nash Bridges? How about the Continental Op? Sam Spade? Or, surely, Dirty Harry. All were — or are — fictional detectives working the crime beats of San Francisco. They were created by authors who set new standards for the genre, including Dashiell Hammett who could be considered the foundational author of detectives and the “city by the bay.” It might be time to add Brian Brady to the list of authors who have picked the hilly and often foggy streets of San Francisco as the locale for their books. But unlike many of the other authors, Mr. Brady knows real crime and the real streets of San Francisco. He’s been a cop and even chief of policies suburban Novato. Add a stint as head of security for NBC Universal in Hollywood and you have a background that has now created two San Francisco-based crime thrillers with a third headed into its final editing. His new book is “Hiding in Plain Sight, (Palmetto Publishing, April 2024). It is the second of a planned trilogy as he develops his characters and plots. The first book is “Oh. What a Tangled Web.” “As a native San Franciscan, I enjoy writing about my favorite city,” Mr. Brady write. “The city is rich in architecture, sports, tradition, and characters.” He says his characters are based on real people with a bit of literary license.
• A “life of thrive” is possible instead • “We facilitate learning pocket-sized techniques” (Total Recorded Time is 14:51) Feeling stressed out at work or at home. Or both? Sara Thornhill hears you. As a rape survivor who is divorced twice and having come out of the closet later in life, Ms. Thornhill says she understands the upheaval that’s possible through big life changes. But flip the coin. She says healing is a birthright, that a “life of thrive” is possible for everyone, regardless of circumstances. “We have strategically cultivated an inclusive culture to serve all humans, especially marginalized members of the LGBTQ+ community worldwide,” she says. Please click here to watch the Bizgnus Interview: https://youtu.be/UNXfqchFOzE Please click here to listen to the interview or to download the audio file for later reference: “We lead LGBTQ+ women to healing from heartbreak by reviving their power within,” she says. “We facilitate learning pocket-sized techniques clients can use anywhere to process stress and improve daily happiness, so they can bring the best versions of themselves to their own lives.” Ms. Thornhill is chief executive officer of Sara Webb Says. She lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, and travels internationally for workshops and speaking engagements. For more information: https://linktr.ee/sarawebbsays
• Why the business owner might be the biggest problem • How to get out of the way of success (Total Recorded Time is 21:00) HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Bradley Hamner says he’s seen it again and again – entrepreneurs who’ve built their companies into firms generating a six-figure top line, but which seem stuck, unable to grow much larger. A serial entrepreneur and founder of the BlueprintOS program, Mr. Hamner coaches other small business owners to develop systems that “run like a well-oiled machine and free the owner from day to day operations.” In his guest appearances and keynotes, Mr. Hamner speaks primarily to business owners and visionary entrepreneurs. He calls it solving the “Rainmaker’s Dilemma” – where the founder/owner is the weakest part of the business because he or she has stretched too far. Mr. Hamner also hosts the Above the Business podcast, with over 4,000 downloads monthly. For more information: blueprintos.com