On today’s episode, our featured guest is Frances Cole Jones. Frances is the author of How to Wow: Proven Strategies for Selling your Brilliant Self in any Situation, and Wow Your Way Into the Job of Your Dreams. She is also the creator of Interview Wow, which is an iOS app. Forbes voted Frances' blog one of the top 100 websites for women. In 2014, Speaking.com voted Frances one of the top five speakers in communication. She's an etiquette expert, a job interview expert, and a body language expert.
Frances founded her company, Cole Media Management, in 1997. The company's focus is on helping clients catch their customers' attention and keep their trust. She helps prep her clients for TV and print interviews, IPO roadshows, investor meetings, and internal meetings. In today’s episode, Frances joins us to talk about improving your communication skills, business growth strategies, and the role of meditation in her life.
I am so thrilled to introduce today’s featured guest, Julia Landauer. Julia is a two-time champion NASCAR racer from New York City. Since making history at the age of 14 as the youngest and first female driving champion from the Skip Barber Racing Series, Julia has explored and won in all types of racing, from go-karts, to formula cars, to stock cars. Now at 25-years-old, Julia has her NASCAR license and is making history with her wins in a local NASCAR series in Virginia.
In the K&N Series, Julia finished fourth in the series championship, becoming the highest-finishing female in the series’ 62-year history. Julia is the only woman among 11 drivers picked in the 2016-17 NASCAR Next Program that highlights future stars. As she climbs the NASCAR ladder, Julia uses her racing platform to continue advocating for women in sports and STEM, for education and following your dreams despite hurdles. She is a graduate of Stanford University and was recently selected as one of the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees.
Today Julia joins us to talk about her story of becoming a professional race car driver and how she followed her dreams despite the doubt from others in her life. She believes in building an authentic brand and truly believing in yourself to follow the path that is best for you.
On today’s episode, our featured guest is Stephan Sherman. Stephan is the founder and Creative Chief Officer of Super Evil Megacorp, which is a gaming and eSports developer. The company’s first title, Vainglory, quickly rose to become the world’s largest mobile eSport app after it’s global launch in early 2015.
In less than a year, Vainglory has held live competitive gaming events around the world, and it has received numerous accolades, including Apple’s best apps in 2014 and 2015, the Apple design award at World Wide Developers Conference, the IMGA’s best technical achievement at People’s Choice Awards, and the Tabby Award for best iPad game.
The company has also raised more than $41M in funding and is based in San Mateo, California. Prior to founding Super Evil Megacorp and running it’s creative design and programming, Stephan worked as an engineer and programmer for the last 15 years at companies including Riot Games, Slipgate Ironworks, and Gazillion Entertainment.
Stephan joins us today to talk about the two different business models within gaming and what the future trends will be for the industry. He also shares the specific growth tactics Super Evil Megacorp used to grow the business and why partnering is such an essential component to building up a company. Stephan leaves off the conversation with his final piece of guidance to any new or potential startup founders, encouraging them to simply give it a try.
Today’s featured guest is Patrick Freuler, the founder, and CEO of Audicus, which offers high-tech, affordable hearing aids by selling them straight to consumers, online. Audicus is changing the way hearing loss is diagnosed and treated by providing remote hearing test solutions, which they do by offering free hearing test apps on desktops and iOS. This unique model is truly disrupting the hearing aid industry. In fact, it is so disruptive that Audicus has become the leading eCommerce retailer of hearing aids and has saved consumers more than $30 million to date.
On top of that, Patrick recently pitched to Sir Richard Branson on Necker Island alongside only a handful of companies in the Extreme Tech Challenge. Patrick was born in Switzerland but he was raised in and went to school in Brazil and Amsterdam. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from MIT and before Audicus he worked as a private equity healthcare investor at Bain Capital and also as a Strategy Consultant at McKinsey.
Patrick joins us today to talk about the three things that everyone should know about Audicus, including how they are streamlining the hearing aid acquisition process with a consumer- centric focus. He shares how Audicus is revolutionizing the hearing aid industry by taking a completely new approach and offering consumers an alternative to purchasing hearing aids. Patrick outlines exactly how they were able to grow Audicus by tapping into the tech- enabled, younger consumer segment with their unique business model. The press and word of mouth that the company received from this approach was what really put Audicus on the map.
Ultimately, Audicus is all about bringing people together by taking a consumer-based focus to their branding. Patrick also shares how they aim to educate their consumers to take healthcare decisions into their own hands to have a drastic improvement in their quality of life.