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If your impact-based organization needs incredible executives, Visit YScouts.com now to find your next purpose-driven, performance-proven leader.
Episodes
Monday Aug 16, 2021
Monday Aug 16, 2021
Chris has held both sales and leadership positions in the investment management as well as executive leadership positions in the cannabis industry. In his current role, Chris is the Managing Partner of Phoenix Distributors, a sales and marketing as a service company for the cannabis industry. Phoenix Distributors focuses on helping Cannabis and CBD operators build efficient revenue streams by providing third party sales and marketing services for their products.
Previously, Chris was the Chief Operating Officer at Genius Fund, a $160 million cannabis focused private equity fund. In his role as Chief Operating Officer Chris was tasked with spearheading a ground up restructure of all Genius Fund portfolio companies to sustain operations with no additional investor capital. Prior to taking over the role of COO, Chris was the Chief Revenue Officer at Genius where he scaled and built a channelized salesforce across THC CPG products, CBD CPG products, wholesale CBD and THC commodities, and investor relations. Prior to entering the cannabis space Chris was in charge of investment sales for the New England region of the United States at Voya Investment Management.
Connect:
Phoenix Distribution:
Visit Phoenix Distro on the Web
Y Scouts is a leadership search firm that finds purpose-aligned and performance-proven leaders to help organizations achieve their missions faster. Ready to supercharge your leadership search and get the right person in your organization? Contact Y Scouts.
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
Ari Sherman and Jourdan Samel are Sales & Marketing executives in the natural products industry. Ari and Jourdan Co-Founded Hemp Health and natural foods brand Evo Hemp in 2012 to facilitate the evolution of the United States family farm. By establishing a supply chain of U.S. grown hemp, they’re working to revive the country’s agricultural system. The Evo Hemp brand was created to bring innovative hemp based consumer products to the U.S. market. Evo’s product line consists of both hemp food products and CBD infused products; and can now be found in over 3,000 retail stores nationwide including HEB, Whole Foods Market Globally, Publix, Fresh Market, Kroger, Safeway & Costco.
In 2017, Ari and Jourdan were recognized by Forbes magazine as a 30 under 30 member in the Food and Drink category. In 2018 They were recognized by Marijuana Venture in their 40 under 40 category as well.
Their mission is focused on reviving rural communities out of poverty through industrial farming. Recently, they announced their partnership with Native American Tribes across the country. These partnerships will highlight how hemp can be used as a tool for economic growth and prosperity in rural areas.
Connect:
Ari Sherman LinkedIn
Jourdan Samel LinkedIn
Evo Hemp Spotlights:
Evo Hemp Expands Retail Footprint in Whole Foods and H-E-B Supermarkets
Evo Hemp Partners With Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to Grow Organic Hemp
American Hemp Documentary, Staring Jourdan Samel and Ari Sherman
Y Scouts is a leadership search firm that finds purpose-aligned and performance-proven leaders to help organizations achieve their missions faster. Ready to supercharge your leadership search and get the right person in your organization? Contact Y Scouts.
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Colton is CEO of Flourish Software, a leading supply chain management and seed to sale tracking software solution for the cannabis, CBD, and hemp verticals. Colton’s career and expertise are at the intersection of supply chain operations, enterprise software, and analytics. He graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a BS in Industrial Engineering.
Resource Links:
Y Scouts is a leadership search firm that finds purpose-aligned and performance-proven leaders to help organizations achieve their missions faster. Ready to supercharge your leadership search and get the right person in your organization? Contact Y Scouts.
Sunday Jun 13, 2021
Sunday Jun 13, 2021
Eric is CEO at RYTE™ Brands, a portfolio company whose holdings include RYTE CBD, Moksha Chocolate, and LYTE (CBD Pre-Rolls). He launched RYTE online and in-stores in August of 2020, building out and executing RYTE's branding and product portfolio, DTC and Retail sales channels, and national marketing campaigns. Eric also works closely with RYTE’s portfolio partners to amplify their growth – providing retail trade guidance, strategic direction, and market insight.
In the industry since 2014, Eric has a wide-ranging background in CPG sales, manufacturing/processing, brand & product development, compliance, education, and testing. He regularly participates on industry panels speaking on a wide range of topics and has launched multiple brands and dozens of product SKUs into the market.
Before joining RYTE™ Brands, Eric led Wholesale/Retail (B2B) Sales at Balanced Health Botanicals, one of the fastest-growing brands in the CPG industry and parent company to both CBDistillery and BOTA. Under his leadership, monthly sales of branded products increased by 750% and overall corporate revenue increased from $10MM to $68MM. Fueling that growth was an increase in store count from several hundred outlets to over 5000+, with monthly sales in the Independent Channel growing from $125k to $1.2MM. Under his direction, national placement included products in Albertsons, ULTA, TJ Max, and Sierra Trading Post.™
Prior to joining Balanced Health, Eric was principal and founder at Full Spectrum Advisors, a boutique sales, marketing, and product development consultancy focused on the cannabis industry. Before founding FSA, Eric served as VP of Revenue for Sansal Enterprises in Pueblo, CO where he gained firsthand, “on farm” experience in cultivation and processing (not to mention cloning, harvesting, drying, and greenhouse operations).
Eric spent his early career on Wall Street, working for 14 years on the Chicago Stock Exchange at a sell side Broker /Dealer (Cheevers and Company) specializing in equity derivatives.
He carried his series 7 and 24 licenses while serving as desk principal. He attended Miami University in Oxford, OH, where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Marketing with Minors in German and Political Science.
Originally from Chicago, Eric is an avid Cubs and Bears fan. These days he can be found hiking around Boulder with his four kids, trail running, camping , or skiing the trees.
Helpful Links:
Y Scouts is a leadership search firm that finds purpose-aligned and performance-proven leaders to help organizations achieve their missions faster. Ready to supercharge your leadership search and get the right person in your organization? Contact Y Scouts.
Monday May 17, 2021
Monday May 17, 2021
J. Fife Symington IV is an entrepreneur and Arizona native with more than three decades of experience in greenhouse agriculture. He serves as Managing Director of Copperstate Farms, a vertically integrated cannabis company he co-founded in 2016.
Symington’s agricultural pursuits began in the early 90’s. After graduating with honors from Harvard University, Symington spent time travelling in Mexico where he was inspired to take vegetable production to the next level. He co-founded and developed several commercial scale greenhouse operations, including International Greenhouse Produce in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Nueva Agronomia de Nayarit in Jala, Nayarit, and Apache Produce in Nogales, Arizona. Collectively, these agricultural facilities encompassed 850 acres of covered greenhouses and shipped more than 175 million pounds of vegetables to the U.S. each year.
With an affinity for project development and innovation, Symington decided to explore large-scale cannabis cultivation in the early stages of the industry. In 2016, he transitioned his grow expertise from tomatoes to medical cannabis with the purchase of a 40-acre glass greenhouse in Snowflake, Arizona.
With a strong vision centered on economic growth and community welfare, Symington refurbished and outfitted the failing facility with the latest greenhouse technology and established Copperstate Farms. Now one of the largest cannabis greenhouse operations in North America and the largest employer in Snowflake with over 800 team members, Copperstate Farms continues to advance the industry on a positive level. The company owns and operates four medical/recreational dispensaries, and is the largest wholesaler in the state of Arizona.
Resource Links:
Friday Apr 23, 2021
Friday Apr 23, 2021
Kevin is an active businessman and entrepreneur in the startup tech community. While attending Indiana University, he founded the nation’s first collegiate hosted mini marathon. He went on to serve as Sr. VP of Sales for venture-backed ClassWatch until it’s $15M acquisition in 2011. Kevin founded Upper Hand in 2012 after seeing an opportunity as a Little League coach to revolutionize the sports and fitness industry. Kevin actively supports the startup and sports community as a TechStar Sports Accelerator mentor and overseeing a predictive analytics program with Butler University.
Resource Links:
Thursday Mar 18, 2021
Thursday Mar 18, 2021
Dr. Oram holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in environmental chemistry and engineering from the University of California Los Angeles and bachelor’s degrees in analytical chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Oram spent his research years studying the complex physical and chemical processes governing the fate of contaminants in the coastal environment. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and technical reports, has given presentations before local and international audiences, and is an invited member of several technical review and scientific steering committees. Dr. Oram’s research was instrumental in forming government regulations regarding water quality and assessing human health impacts of agricultural pesticides.
In 2009, Dr. Oram co-founded CW Analytical Laboratories to establish standardized testing and certification protocols to ensure the safety and quality of medical cannabis. CW Analytical Laboratories is now recognized as the most trusted analytical laboratory in California.
Dr. Oram and his lab were instrumental in developing cannabis regulations in California, Washington, and New Jersey. Specifically, Dr. Oram was an invited member of the scientific advisory panel for Washington’s Initiative 502 regulations.
Dr. Oram founded and operates multiple successful businesses in the cannabis vertical that currently employ over one hundred thirty full-time employees combined. Dr. Oram is also a significant contributor to Oakland’s Cannabis Equity Program where he incubates six equity-qualified applicants with infrastructure, financing, and business training.
Resource Links:
Thursday Mar 18, 2021
Thursday Mar 18, 2021
Born and raised in Michigan, Mr. Tolia attended the University of Michigan where he earned a BA in economics and BSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering, He previously held roles with investment banking firms Peter J. Solomon Company and hedge fund Midtown Capital before co-founding Bengal Capital Trading LLC, a Chicago based hedge fund.
While at Bengal Capital, Vinay was an early investor in various US multistate operators (MSOs) as well as other ancillary cannabis companies.
In 2018 he left Bengal to become the CEO of the Flowr Corporation. Mr. Tolia led the company’s go-public fundraise as well as subsequent financings as well as the acquisition of Holigen Holdings which gave Flowr a global footprint.
Vinay served as a member of the board of directors of Imerman Angels, a cancer support organization and his keenly interested in education reform and social justice.
In this episode, Vinay answers questions like:
- How do you manage life on the road as a husband and father while managing your day-to-day tasks in business?
- What about business management are you most passionate about?
- Who or what do you attribute your success to?
- What has your biggest success this year been?
- What was your biggest failure and why? How did you get through it?
Resource Links:
In this episode, John answers questions like:
- How do you manage life on the road as a husband and father while managing your day-to-day tasks in business?
- What about business management are you most passionate about?
- Who or what do you attribute your success to?
- What has your biggest success this year been?
- What was your biggest failure and why? How did you get through it?
Resource Links:
Thursday Jan 28, 2021
Thursday Jan 28, 2021
Giadha A. DeCarcer is the Founder and CEO of New Frontier Data, the authority in data, analytics and business intelligence for the worldwide cannabis industry. An entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in business strategy, execution, management and business development, DeCarcer’s began her career in banking, and progressed to technology, data analytics, intelligence collection and reporting, and emerging markets across multiple sectors, domestically and internationally.
DeCarcer has launched, built and operated four data-centric businesses, including disruptive technologies for the innovation behind Progressive’s Snapshot and Verizon’s Hum. She is considered an expert in strategic positioning and risk management in emerging high growth markets, as well as a seasoned professional in government and commercial intelligence data collection and analysis. These core focus areas, along with unwavering entrepreneurial drive, have defined Giadha’s career and her vision for New Frontier Data.
DeCarcer is an official member of the Forbes Technology Council; her work has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, CNBC, Fox News, CNN Money, Bloomberg, WSJ and many other top-tier news outlets worldwide, as well as in documentaries and books, including “Mary Janes,” “The Marijuana Show,” “The Great Green Gold Rush,” and “Breaking the Grass Ceiling,” among others. Number 7 on the list of the 20 Most Influential Women in Cannabis by greendorphin, DeCarcer has also been designated as one of The Most Powerful Women to Watch in D.C., is a two-time Stevie Awards Maverick of the Year recipient, a 2019 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist and Moxie Award nominee, and a winner of the Washington Business Journal 2019 Women Who Mean Business Award.
Her commitment to education and information sharing inspired her to create The InterCannAlliance (ICA) in 2018. The ICA is a New Frontier Data-led initiative to foster best practices and knowledge sharing amongst newly emerging cannabis markets, introducing what she has coined the “Nine Foundational Pillars” of a healthy and stable cannabis sector. Her continuous pursuit of knowledge has remained the ultimate constant throughout her life and career, also illustrated in her many mentoring and volunteering efforts such as the creation of Women Entrepreneurship Reinforcement (WeR), a program designed to mentor and coach female entrepreneurs establishing their first business.
New Frontier Data, headquartered in Washington D.C., has been recognized in DCInno as one of 17 DC area startups to Watch for 2017 and PC Mag named the company one of just 15 Blazing Hot Tech Companies to Watch. Since the company’s inception in 2014, New Frontier Data has generated the most earned media of any reporting company covering the cannabis industry crossing 15 billion in earned media reach. As one of the winners of the Best in Biz Awards 2019, Most innovative Company of the Year, New Frontier Data is also at the center of the 116th Congressional discussion on federal legalization, providing vetted and unbiased data and analysis to regulators as they assess the potential socio-economic impact of cannabis federal legalization in the United States.
Giadha A. DeCarcer is fluent in five languages including French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Born in Italy, raised in France and Spain, Giadha earned an Associate Degree in Business Administration from Miami Dade Community College, a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations & Trade from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Arts degree in International Security from the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Interview Transcript
Max
Welcome back to Episode 53 of the Built on Purpose podcast with Max Hansen brought to you by YScouts where we higher purpose aligned and performance proven leaders. Today, our guest is Giadha DeCarcer, the founder and CEO of New Frontier Data. Giadha, is an internationalist born in Italy, raised in Switzerland, France and Spain. All places I can't wait to travel back to she has lived in six countries across the globe. She speaks five languages and has a keen appreciation for cultural and economic dynamics. Giadha an analyst and strategist by training, a serial entrepreneur by practice identified the lack of critical data and analysis through her own attempted cannabis industry research. Despite ridicule from her peers across banking, technology, energy and defense. She jumped at the opportunity to bring big data, the pillar in any modern burgeoning industry to cannabis. She has built her team of unparalleled experts from fields just as diverse as their own in 2014, New Frontier data started collecting data streams and cannabis, normalize them, and centralize them to provide vetted polished and actionable reporting to the industry before and better than anyone else worldwide. Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome Giadha DeCarcer.
Giadha 8:57
Max, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.
Max 9:00
Awesome. Well, I'm gonna start out let's start off for talking about New Frontier data. I just think it's, it's, it's awesome. I want to hear you know, kind of what you guys do. I obviously, the introduction gave a little, little, little piece or a little intro to what you guys do. But ultimately, what problem are you solving and kind of how did you arrive at this?
Giadha 9:22
Well, the problem the core problem is visibility and risk mitigation into this booming industry on a global scale. This is an industry that was born of a movement it was some stigma and transparency into it from a financial perspective, from an opportunity and risk assessment perspective was challenging. Arguably, it continues to be challenging. So what we've set out to be to do is leverage cutting edge technology such as Big Data technologies to begin collecting information in a responsible, objective and comprehensive manner, slice it and dice it. So study So that we can get to the point where we're providing actionable intelligence as close to real time as possible to again, stakeholders. Are those looking to become stakeholders in this now global sector.
Max 10:14
Awesome. And let me add a little bit on and I and I read a little bit on it, but I'd love to hear it straight from you. What How did you build up the skill sets to finally launch this company? Like, what were the building blocks of understanding and getting your feet wet in big data and getting confident enough to jump into a new industry and apply that those those skill sets?
Giadha 10:36
I mean, isn't the whole you fake it until you make it isn't that sweet spot. So if this is you mean, me personally, it was serendipitous I, I say with as much humility as possible that it almost feels like it was meant to be, I had very diverse careers that fit perfectly into new frontier data. So I started as a financial analyst with JPMorgan Chase, right out of college. So I really sort of got the opportunity to understand how financial analytics impact a lot larger company and a market when you're looking at more financial type vehicles or investment opportunities. I then, because of 9/11, I left banking altogether, because I was in New York. And as most of us in New York at the time, it had a massive life changing impact. So I left banking, and I decided that I wanted to join the war on terror. So I got my masters and I decided to go into intelligence collection, then really honing the skills on how do you turn human human, so human collected information into something that's actionable, all the way to the president and to our national security. And then after that, which was a gruesome experience, a very gratifying one, but certainly a very, very difficult career to have. I left after three, four years, and I decided to go into emerging markets. You mentioned I speak languages, I was very fortunate to travel the world. So I figured, you know what, I have financial analytics, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with intelligence collection at that point. And so I decided, you know, it was around the time when we were experiencing it, the financial and economic sort of crisis. And so a lot of US companies were looking at the BRIC nations is when the BRIC nations was really hot. So I was like, Well, let me go into emerging markets. When you combine experience in the financial industry, with understanding how to leverage technology and how to collect information for humans to turn it into intelligence and then understanding appreciating an emerging market, then you combine the three, candidly, you have new financial data, where financial analysts with high tech technology collecting information trade into intelligence for an emerging market. So serendipitous, is really the word that I would focus on here for for the answer to that question.
Max 12:58
Such an awesome story. So let's take me back to when you were when you went on your, your own search for data and cannabis, what did you find? What did you find? Was there anything out there was it was there a lot of bias?
Giadha 13:14
a lot of closed doors, and a lot of people looking at me like I was asking them to show me their undergarments. When I asked for data. And the industry remember that the especially the early folks in the industry, were not folks that weren't necessarily happy to share information with others, right? The industry was sort of operating for many years, decades behind the veil. So not only was there no information whatsoever, it's certainly all of this sophisticated, or I guess, mature market. Usual Suspects were not reporting on the industry, it was too taboo at the time. Countries like the Netherlands that I had really had an industry in one shape or another for decades, hadn't was not collecting any information on it. So that was out. academia had nothing, there was no interest beyond sort of, you know, your brain is a fried egg type of research in terms of cannabis. So it was there was a little bit of research, medical research in California due to sort of cancer and AIDS, etc. But in essence, there was really nothing that we could use from a financial reporting and micro macroeconomic reporting. So we really started knocking on doors, and we spent a lot of time a time building trust within the industry, so that folks would open up to us. So I, the first few years, I was attending 50 to 80 conferences a year, just to literally shake hands and meet folks and let them know that we were here to help them and help the industry by providing transparency, objective transparency, and that we're not going to do so at you know, giving away their competitive edge. It was hard.
Max 14:56
Yeah, I bet it before we before we went on the air. Giadha and I were talking about Y Scouts transition into cannabis, I think when we first started four or five years ago now, I think we were a little bit hesitant to put it out front and center, just because we didn't know, you know what the rest of the markets that we're working with banks. So, man, we've come a long ways and and this is a legitimate industry that has a huge market ahead. So, you know, one thing I want to ask is, you know, the international experience that you have, I think everybody that has traveled the world and has spent time in other countries and has seen, you know, different cultures, they start to understand how that, you know, kind of helps them in life and in business. How has it helped you in life in business being that internationalist living in so many different countries, and particularly the countries that you've lived in? are, you know, very, very modern companies that you've probably gained some incredible insights and perspectives from But tell me, tell me a little bit about your background and how that's helped in living in those different countries?
Giadha 16:07
That's an excellent question. Thank you for asking it. I guess they'd be too too strong points that I'd make there. The first one is appreciating diversity. I'm very proud of the fact that new frontier data, as it's at its birth, was already a diverse company, from a from a gender perspective, from an ethnic perspective, from a background perspective, from a political perspective, religious sexual orientation, you name it even more just for people, and then went on to be eight and then 15. And today, we're almost 50, we were always very diverse. And I think that part of that appreciation came from the fact that I had the opportunity to meet talent, extremely talented people in very different places. So there really wasn't a lot of cookie cutting sort of, you know, I wasn't really looking for a profile, I really was looking for talent, especially given that we were facing unprecedented challenges this industry was so new, the the questions were asking was so complex with no one else answering them. So right off the bat, I wanted to make sure that we had as close to a 360 view into this very complex environment. And so I was able to bring, I was able to appreciate and identify diverse talent, but that diverse talent was also able to connect with me, because I had that experience. So that I think was a huge, a huge benefit of the traveling I've had. The second one, the further along the way in the industry, I think that I was able to appreciate the fact that the industry will go viral and global, probably faster than some of my peers. I remember in 2015, and 2016.
So I remember in 2015, and 2016, when the industry was really at the stage where we still had small investors coming in the average check was maybe, you know, 50, or $100,000, a quarter million dollar check would be a huge deal. Everyone was going into cultivation. Everyone was looking at Colorado and California, to some extent some of the newer states. But you know, all the companies that had entered along with me in 2014, were certainly not looking at an international marketplace, they were really focused on planting their flag and strengthening their position in the very local market. Even ancillary services such as New Frontier data. I immediately started traveling, I went to my first international conference in Israel in early 2016. were identified the first company I wanted to acquire which was again an international had an international sort of angle, it was very much CBD and hemp centric. So I think that because my world My, my world was always sort of cross continental. And cross border II possibly. And I guess I did see the international element and opportunity way faster. We entered Europe before any of our peers in North America we're entering, and we started talking about Latin America before anyone else. And we were the first one to put out a global report. So I think those are the two aspects that probably benefited from my early my youth traveling my early stage traveling.
Max 19:35
Sure, well, and on that note, let's go to the other side of the coin. Obviously, your traveled has been inhibited a bit from COVID. How has that changed? Yeah. How has that changed? both personally, you know, because it sounds like you're the type of person that just gets charged up by being in a new place and traveling and taking that on as a challenge and enjoying the journey and in adventure of it. But how How has How has it changed both personally and professionally? Not being able to travel and you know, in getting these advantageous positions that you just talked about?
Giadha 20:11
Well, on a personal level, I must admit that traveling is exhausting to me. I'm actually an extreme introvert. I don't appear it I know people will say that Oh Giadha, you definitely you're an expert. Uh, no, actually, I lose energy fast when I try when I'm around people. So I've been able to recharge personally, massively because attending in 30,40,50 conferences a year, the Traveling is pretty tasking. However, from a professional perspective, it certainly has been challenging to keep up with some of the nuance, nuances on a regional basis. For instance, we are expanding into Europe, which is why I'm currently in Europe, by the way, and that one of the reasons is because you're the European market is becoming increasingly important, not only from a consumption perspective, but from a production perspective and export import dynamics that I that we will be discussing later this year and reports but but that are going to become very important on a global scale. But but the the, the, we have been fortunate However, in that the because we're now an almost six year old company, we were at a point internally, at least that we were able to focus internally and the market, the market externally sort of did not experience any massive shift. I don't want to say that the growth of regional markets slowed down, because as you know, cannabis consumption has actually gone up pretty much globally under the COVID app and the pandemic. However, when it comes to massive shifts in Dynamics and trends, we haven't seen that. So we've seen sort of more of a linear growth. Thus, we were fortunate that not that there was nothing really that required sort of this, this boots on the ground last year, because of the pandemic, I would say we will however, need to start traveling quickly this year, because we are beginning to see some pretty strong new trends, for instance, in Latin America, with Mexico and other countries, legalizing and of course, in Europe with a variety of bills and regulatory matters that are evolving. But we were lucky the one year I think gave us an opportunity to breathe and to strengthen and to really put our head down and study. But I think that pause is now short lived. I think it's time to get back out there.
Max 22:35
Sure. Sure. Yeah, it's coming soon. Speaking of cannabis consumption, I would love to hear maybe a glimpse into some of the trends that you see coming up like, and I'll tell you on the on the micro level for us, I'm in Arizona, in the US and Arizona legalized obviously, for recreation, and it was this past week, where now it's actually the dispensaries are opening up. And I've heard from people that have been to the dispensaries. I haven't been there any my clients this week since they've opened but the shelves are like empty. I mean, and they were preparing they knew that was coming. And so this is on a micro level. And I know we you know your company, this is the data, but I mean, it can let's get into like, What are you? What are you anticipating, as some of the trends as we start to see, you know, we're starting to see states and countries and you know, the like start to start to move towards recreational legalization.
Giadha 23:36
So the recreational legalization continues to be centric in North America. So the rest of the world is really much more interested at least for the time being in in medical applications of the plant, not to say that there aren't pockets of interest in adult use. And not to say that there isn't adults use all over the globe. But in terms of legalization, most of the countries outside of North America are very much looking at legalizing medical use before anything else. Again, with some gray areas here and there, there's quite a bit at least half a dozen nations that it's sort of their their loopholes. What we are seeing in North America, which continues to be sort of the most mature consumer market in the world when it comes to cannabis. One of the reasons because indeed there is a mature recreational adult use market is is the during the pandemic we've seen triple and quadruple the size of individual purchases. So certainly a very much a stock up type of trend, which is basically what you just mentioned. So you know everybody and everything off the shelves in fear that they'll run out and not have it. We were not necessarily surprised about this. In fact, when we started talking about this and predicting this
Max 24:56
Sorry, no worries.
Giadha 24:59
So we Very much like what you saw in Arizona, there is sort of that stuck up mentality, in case you run off and run your runs out. But this is something that we began to discuss, in fact, in March early during the pandemic, because we were also beginning to talk about it potential recession, economic crisis. And during times of recession, economic crisis, sectors such as alcohol, tobacco, and chocolate and condoms tend to do very well. And believe it or not, recreational cannabis would fall in those categories. I think the pandemic and sort of heightened that further because of the potential because of the stress and anxiety that the pandemic itself was bringing to bear. And that's something that we've seen across the board. So consumption went up. The other interesting trend that's worth mentioning is, depending on the population group, depending on gender and age, an increase in edibles and flower. So a little bit of a decrease in vaping, which, again, not surprising, given sort of what we saw happen in the last 18 months with vaping, and the health, potential health risk and health questions around it. But certainly a very large sort of a, which had begun in 2018, with a spike in edible consumption. And a sort of return to flower, especially high quality flower. So this search for very high quality flower. And that's true across North America. And we've seen where that is true in other nations, we've seen that trend also. Sustained.
Max 26:40
Yeah, and speaking of So, you know, in the US, I think, you know, in just my travels across Europe, and I think when people travel Europe, I think smoking is a lot more tolerated, obviously in Europe than it is in the US. I think that there's, you know, some differences there. Is, is do you expect the same decrease in vaping? Is that happening worldwide? Or are you talking more in the US? I'm just I just interested in that, just just to see if there's a difference between the way Europeans look at vaping versus the US,
Giadha 27:11
So, that is a very much a North American trend for now. And to be candid with you. And we all were always very honest about, you know, if we don't have an answer, and we don't have a data based answer, we don't tell you we don't know, we don't have as much visibility in other parts of the world when it comes to the annual consumption, as we have in the United States and in Canada. That said, the information that we do have in from Europe and Latin America still does support those trends.
Max 27:37
What from your, if you can share what countries are really going to set a precedence, as you see. countries, I don't want to say get more lenient as far as medical, because medical is medical in it, and you have to go through the medical system, but you only think of what countries are leading the way what when you are going to send signals to you that the industry is really making progress in Europe, when they when what countries do want I mean, Germany, like who's leading the charge, in your opinion, like what are going to be the pillars that really lead
Giadha 28:11
from the regulatory perspective, in a in an initial sort of early stage consumption perspective, Germany, England, France, Spain, Italy, those are the those are the nations that sort of seem to have the largest opportunities, we are seeing an emergence in interest from Slavic countries. So the former Soviet nations that have northeast, Mediterranean nations are interested. I mean, the whole Mediterranean has high consumption illegally. So there is an emergence of sort of do, again, driven by this economic crisis, right. A lot of countries just like a lot of states in the US are looking at ways to mitigate the loss in revenue. And so taxation of something that is being consumed illegally is a no brainer. Something that is interesting in Europe, however, beyond the consumption, adults use or medical and medical is still most prominent beyond adults use for now is the interest from a b2b perspective, right? So large consumer packaged good companies, whether it is in food and beverage, or health and beauty are interested in entering the space to address consumption in North America and to address consumption in Europe. But there's some very large multinational companies that are looking to come up with new brands that are seeded with CBD infused products, and even THC infused products. So that's something that's interesting, across Europe that we're seeing that I would say is is fascinating to me. And that certainly shows that Europe is maturing as far as perception even if multinational corporation are getting up to speed faster than the individual concern consumer, then the shift is occurring.
Max 29:58
Got it fascinating. I'm gonna start switch gears a little bit, I want to go back to something that I think is awesome. I was super excited to have this conversation with you. What does it mean? And because of what I'm going to ask you, but what does it mean to be a woman and minority owned business or business leader? I mean, it's, you're such a powerhouse, I just want to go back to it. You talked about the diversity and everything that that we're in alignment. And that's important to really building, especially a global business doing what you guys are doing, but what does it mean to you? And then second, these might be together. And I could repeat the questions as you as you unfold your answer here. But I believe everybody's fighting something internally, not necessarily in a bad way. But what are you fighting? And what are you fighting against? Is there something that you're that charges you up? So they're they're kind of two separate questions, but I think you'll you'll, you'll crush them together?
Unknown Speaker 30:48
Oh, I The second part is certainly something that I'm gonna have to think about. Again, I fight for so many things on a daily basis, I guess that would be the first answer. Listen, as a business owner, regardless of your gender, or ethnicity or business founder, right? Because can my investors own the business, we all own the business, we're also employee owned. But as soon as the founder. It's, it's just it's a constant fight, right? Especially when you're in such a volatile high growth industry, one that had the type of taboos that the cannabis industry had. I mean, it wasn't exactly a walk in the park. And it still isn't, right. So that's true of any as a female and, and as a minority. And as an immigrant. Some of the things that I often find is credibility, right, I went crazy getting degrees from is some of the best companies some of the best academic institutions in the world just because of this constant feeling that I had to prove that I could be trusted that I was credible that I'm so and i think that that continues. It's something that many women and many minorities will say, I happen to also have an accent doesn't really help because it isn't exactly a British Oxford accent. So there's it when I pitch investors when I especially as we now begin to pitch very large investors, and we begin to work with very large multinational companies. When in North America, there's always a little bit of of that fight of Yes, I know, I'm a woman, yes, I wear red lipstick. And yes, sometimes I wear a very tight pink suit, guess what I still can speak to you and I can, I can sort of hang in here and be at par with you. However, internationally, I will say that being a woman or minority has helped me so the tables have turned a bit while it was excruciatingly painful, the first three, four years. It's not that we are an international company, my diversity and the fact that I'm a woman is actually helping. So there is a day of reckoning, I guess, as I say, in terms of what really drives me every day. It has changed over the years. At first there was this, this really wanting to there's, I've always been very loyal. And I have been very grateful to the talent and the folks that helped me early on. And so there was this massive need to sort of do right by them and make sure that we succeeded. There were a lot of sacrifices made early on by a lot of people. And so there was that drive of do right by all of them, including investors and and and team members. Today, I think I've returned to a little bit of my a pipe alpha, early youth drive where I just want to win. I think that they're we're in a unique position. And this may seem a little superficial. But we have gotten to the point where we're very well positioned to bring transparency into this industry on a global scale. And I think we can do it right. I think when I say win, it's not just making money, when I say win is I think we can truly elevate the discussion on a global scale whereby medicine is is is being allowed, whereby in jobs are being created, where there is social equity. And so those are the things that I begin to think about after six years, and it's exciting to be able to think of these things do you even believe for one minute in the morning, that we could have an impact on such macro level global matters. I mean, I was an international relations student undergrad so these are the types of things that I'm really excited about to see us take an active role and and and i and i think we can and I am working towards doing it. We are
Max 34:40
I I really respect the you know, the the idea of fighting credibility but as I was preparing to talk to you, I'm thinking you might have an accent but you you speak five languages. So you could be talking about me and five, you know, four other languages that I don't even know what you're talking about per se. I mean, I know a little bit but So you're not fighting credibility with me. In fact, the interview with you today for me is helping build my credibility, just so you know. So. So I'm gonna move on to some other probably a little bit more personal questions, but I think you'll, you'll enjoy them and so of the audience, but is there a particular motto that you live your life by?
Giadha 35:24
Do it. And I know Nike has its Nikes. But hey, I live by, just do it. I've learned early on in life that fear is is probably one of it fear and envy, right or hatred. But for me fear because I'm lucky enough I don't think I I have had much much envy or hatred in my life. But fear certainly. And I decided deliberately that this should be no fear regret, this is something that's awful. So just doing things not to do it thoughtlessly, obviously, not to be, you know, careless, but certainly to just do it, talking and talking about it, thinking about it too long talking about it too long. I it's frustrating to me. And I feel like it can be a waste of time. So the model for me is, if there's something that we need to do when it just do it. And then if we need to go back and tweak the tweak, but just take that step forward.
Max 36:17
Got it, love it. And then you talked about winning, which hits home for me, because when I when the when the gloves come off, and I really think about what are we sometimes if I'm frustrated and moving the business forward, or at the end of the day that when I think about what what am I, What's pushing me? and I say the same thing I want to win. But and and I can trace that back to you know, playing a lot of sports and being competitive. And there's a big difference that I had to learn over time, and being competitive in business and being competitive in sports. But what When did you first starting wanting to win? Like what was it? Was it did you? Did you play an instrument? Did you compete? Like Was there anything like early in your childhood that started you down this feeling of like I want to win? or How are you raised? Like, is there something I just want to go back to like, that really connected with me and I, you know, I gave you some of the reasons. For my early childhood. Most of it was sports related but wanting to win. And for the right reasons. It's wanting to win, it's wanting to achieve certain, you know, goals and hit certain pylons with your company, not only not just making money, but that is part of it. But what was the starter or the driver of wanting to win early in your life?
Giadha 37:27
I don't know that anyone's ever asked me that question in such a manner. So very, very helpful question. Well, I, I moved every three years growing up, which is why I speak the languages. But with that came a certain level of solitude and independence and autonomy. Every time I shift countries, I had to learn a new language. And as such that getting getting up to speed with everyone else and not feeling like I was left behind was I guess my first I need to win. That said, I think I was born competitive period. In terms of the sports I always played loner sports began, again, the language barrier. So I'm a runner, and I to this day I run. I remember I was in relays and I wanted to win, I wanted to run against the male team and school and I did, and we won. So there was a little bit of there was certainly competitiveness. But if I had to say one experience in my life that wasn't so young, that truly turned things around and made it that sort of ignited that that drive if not passion. early on. When I moved to the United States, I went to community college for about five years. Again, that was the last language I learned English. And I only knew Romance languages. So this one was the hardest for me. And I was older. So having moved here at 16/17 to pick up in your language at that point was certainly a little more challenging than when you're five or six or seven. So it took me a long time to just get my associate's degree. Again, it's a two year degree and it took me almost five years, but I wanted I really, I was very perseverant. And I remember, my goal was to transfer to a to a really good school, I actually wanted to transfer to an Ivy League school. And I took Esau which is English for Spanish or other languages for many years. And finally I was able to take in normal English and I even got to an honors English class, my last year, all with the same professor from Israel to the honors. So I asked her for a recommendation when I applied to Harvard, Yale and University of Pennsylvania and those were the only three schools I applied to. I also took the SAT like 57 times, literally I kid you not. So when I did that, I provided the time you thought it was all typed, and we literally mercy you know, the typewriter and I sent it again with the forms and the next day she came to the seminar and she she called did class to attention and she said that she wanted to discuss Something that was really important. And it was the understanding of not reach, overreaching in life and not to set yourself up for failure. And she used my application to Harvard, Yale and University of Pennsylvania, as an example of overreaching and setting myself up for failure. Something triggered inside of me that day, the humiliation first and foremost was huge. And the lack of confidence from someone who I thought I had made proud, having gone from Israel to honors, was crippling inside. And I did get into Penn. And I sent her a postcard from it. And from that, beyond, it's been sort of this thing of like, I don't care how many times people tell me, I can't do it, I'm gonna win.
Max 40:46
I love it. Thank you for sharing that. For those of the for those of you that are listening, and are thinking about ever giving up this is she learned English last out of all of her languages, and then went on to to be successful, you know, in the academia, world, and obviously successful in business. So thanks for thanks for sharing that. And take an SAT 57 times. I mean, there is perseverance.
Giadha 41:14
Maybe we feel less but I took it certainly a couple of dozen times I kid you not I took I took this at, at least across the two years period. My first score was 790. And I'm pretty sure you get like, what 600 points for getting your name right. took me a while It took me a while.
Max 41:35
I have a feeling here a pretty humble person. So I appreciate this. When thinking about what's your bit, what would you say your biggest professional accomplishment is today, and I have a feeling you're you always think moving forward. Like you've you're humble you're you feel well accomplished to a certain degree. But I know you have your eyes on something moving forward. But let's stop and just think about what what has felt like the biggest professional accomplishment today.
Giadha 42:01
The talent that I was able to bring together and I say I and I say that and I shouldn't because it's we write it really has been. We started with four why I started by myself then it was two than it was four and now we're over 40 people across the world. But, but I do still keep the little part of me that says you know what, Jenna, you brought this team together. And with the help of others, but you did and that that, to me is a great accomplishment because the talent of the company is what drives us. Um, I early on, I was not a micromanager. Like, you wouldn't believe OCD control freak, you name it. But I call I call myself a war General, right? Because at a time of war, mistakes cost lives. And so I made that analogy. We have evolved and and certainly I'm no longer that word general. I don't have to be there's incredible talent around me that now leads lives with me. But it's, it's, it's kind of awesome to see. It really is like it's I never thought I could bring that many interesting and unique and intelligent and driven people together in a rather risky journey. This this is still today a risk, like, obviously much less risky than it was five years ago. But there's still it's still an emerging market and you know, so. So that I would say is my feeling my greatest accomplishment. And you're right, my greatest accomplishment, I believe is yet to come beyond.
Max 43:36
But man, our worlds just collided as professionals, obviously our entire business is built off of the premise of talent being the number one priority, and really building businesses. So not surprising that that's where you went with the, you know, with the biggest professional accomplishment. What about on a personal side? What would you say you by the way, you've mentioned some good ones. So I'm not discounting anything you've said. But personally, like a personal accomplishment that you look at, like you'd say, that was one of the biggest for me personally.
Giadha 44:08
It's gonna sound a little I don't know if it's gonna sound a little petty. I'm gonna say it anyway. I'm nothing if not honest to the fault. Honesty is our core value number one core value New Frontier data. When that incident occurred, I was waitlisted the school one the English teacher, one I went to, I went to university Pennsylvania, yell straight out, say thank you, but no, thank you. But Harvard, Harvard wait listed me and I had seen the movie with honors early on in life. And I had this sort of vision of you know, one day I want to go to Harvard, I was finally able to go to Harvard as an executive for an executive program. December of last year, now well, the year before last. And it was probably one of the most humbling experiences I've ever had. The type of individuals that I sat across and next to I couldn't believe I was there I mean from soon to be president to incredibly successful multinational executives to scientist and folks that have really, that should get Nobel prizes for peace and a variety of other things. And I, it was a very short program, but to me was something that I always wanted to do. And I guess I'm very academically driven. So on a personal level, being able to do that, while working, and while driving forward without sort of stopping to work. I was very excited to take that off my bucket list.
Max 45:41
As you should,
Giadha 45:43
I think I'm done with studying there now, because it also, after nuts not been in school for like, 15 years, I kind of was like, What the hell was I thinking, Jesus work what.
Max 45:54
So, on kind of that note, and this might fall in line with it, what person has had the greatest impact on your life and why?
Giadha 46:05
I mean, this is gonna sound a little cliche, but it's the truth. I mean, my mother, my mother, with her presence, and my father through his absence. And you know, and not to get too personal. But I think that the parent dynamic as many of us, as is true for many of us, a truly shaped me, my mother very early on, as early as 10 years old, sort of, remember this as if it was yesterday said, you always need to be autonomous and independent. And the few things that my father ever said to me early on in life, because after that he wasn't around was, knowledge is power. He didn't say it in English, but it basically translated to that, because I could do he had, he had, I believe, nine he spoke then languages, I had three different degrees in two PhDs, which is why education is so in trenched into me, but sort of the idea of being autonomous, that being strong and independent certainly came from my mother and this this need to, to know and to use knowledge, as my strength is definitely driven by by my father while he was around.
Max 47:12
Awesome. Well, I have a very strong mother too. So I can, I can relate to that. And I know I do have some Italian friends and their mothers are usually very there, they have presence presence was a great word that to bring the table there.
Giadha 47:27
That's one way to put it. Yes.
Max 47:30
So I'm going to I'm going to switch gears just a little bit. But. So before, I'm going to take it into some sort of some rapid fire questions, that'll just be kind of short and a little bit light. But before doing so, I want to kind of go back and just see from your perspective. COVID-19, I always talk to the guests that I've had lately, I've always want to, like reach in and find out what good things have come from COVID? Like, what is it? You know, obviously, you haven't had to travel as much. And you said, That's personally kind of taxing on you. So it's probably allowed you to I'm just making some assumptions to do some things personally that you haven't probably done or maybe never did. But what are some good things that have come of COVID. And I always try to concentrate on the positive side, there's obviously a lot of challenges and things that have come up COVID for people and some very unfortunate things, but what are some things that have come positively from the COVID-19 challenges?
Giadha 48:27
So I assume you mean for me personally, not for our company? Yeah, you spending time with my family. I mean, one of the reasons I came to Italy was because I wanted to make sure that my entire family was close by I think the is the crisis at this global scale. When many of us are used to being in different states, hell, in my case, we were in different countries, literally, like we see each other over the holidays. And that other than that, it's FaceTime and zooming. But the this pandemic and and I sort of took it I living in Washington, DC, I actually very early on last year felt that the the situation around election was going to make Washington a little bit of a HUBZone. And so I literally just under the umbrella, we can all work remote, I left and I got all my family together in one place. So one great thing is sort of it pushed us and now that we are close together, not to say that we're all in the same house, but we're very close and literally within five minutes we can see each other I don't think we're going to go back to not I think it reminded us after after living apart for most of my adult life, I think there's a renewed appreciation for being close to family. Not just in a time of crisis, but just periods. So that's one big thing. I I'm pretty I've been pretty high stress and high strung for the past six years. Starting this company was a challenging endeavor. But the COVID-19 answer, as you said, the non traveling did allow me or it forced me I'm not really sure which of the two just to be in a little more introspective and to kebab can take better care of myself, not just for me, oh Lord, I need to be strong and healthy, I can't, you know, I, my immune system needs to be strong, I need to work out more, which I've done in the past, but more meditating, sleeping better, drinking less, to say I was drinking that much, but literally like not at all. And I and that is again, a shift that I hope I can maintain. Because the introspection the meditation every morning, well, it's all it's helped me manage my stress associated with everything that's going on. It's also given me a tap of a kind of equilibrium that I had not had before. So I would say that those those two things, I think we're triggered by this pandemic, for me and my family.
Max 50:58
Awesome. Well, let's just dig in on that a little bit further, are there, which you spoke of some of them meditation for for mental, and physical well being, but any other rituals that you have stuck with or that you have now that really help you as a person and as a leader, you know, whether it be what you do in the morning, or just rituals that you that you have two different types of workouts, anything like that, that really helped you to perform better as a person and as a leader.
Giadha 51:29
I have one. So I've never presumed to be a yogi. Because I don't know yoga. But I do like to stretch. And I do like to meditate. And I like to read about metaphysics I consider myself a spiritual person, I was raised very religious, and I'm today I think, more religious or more spiritual than religious. Every morning, the first five minutes of my morning, literally, I could still be in bed, I stretched my entire body just sort of and take very deep breath to sort of wake up my body first. And then I spend a few minutes just setting I guess, one could say an intention for the day. affirmation. And I literally, it's, I do it before anything else. Like as I open my eyes, I don't want to waste one second of breath of life without a clear intention of what I'm going to do that day. And it's, it was something that was triggered recently, during this pandemic that I had done on and off, and now I just do it well, religiously. I guess. I even though it's not a religion. But yeah, I have helped me set the tone. I know that Yogi's do it, I don't do it or thinking matter in a way that it's as it's supposed to be done. But the idea of setting an intention for yourself for the day, I think is very powerful.
Max 52:54
Well, thanks for sharing, there's a, you know, the last three or four guests, they've kind of poked around in this topic. And I've learned a lot and and I guess not ironically, there's been some sort of alignment in, in the thought of really getting things straight in your mind in the mornings. Ian Lopatin is the chairman of spiritual gangster. He's really into breathing in the mornings, with along with some other stuff. But so thank you for sharing that. I'm going to go through this, by the way, I will say has been one of my favorite conversations like Time flies, and I'm sitting here like, Okay, how do I bring this to a close? Because there's so many, I probably only got through the questions that I kind of structurally have in my head, I probably only got through about 20% of the questions. So there's so much more that I could ask, but and I'd love to selfishly, but for the sake of time and to respect your schedule and everything you're doing. And by the way, she's in Italy right now. So it's what time is it there?
Giadha 53:58
It's about 7pm.
Max 54:00
Okay, 7pm. So we're just getting started about 10am here. But so one, this is kind of selfishly, I want to ask, but hopefully there's other people that are listening that want to know this question, too. So out of all the traveling that you've done, and the places that you live, like I said at the beginning, they're all places that I can't wait to travel back to some of my favorite places, or some of the places that you live, personally. So what is what's your favorite city in the world? And why that you've been to?
Giadha 54:27
Oh, man, that's such a hard question. It's a really hard question. And I have been asked that before, and I really struggle. Because it depends, and I'm sorry to say that but I'll name a few of my favorite washington dc Believe it or not, despite the chaos that it's recently been through is a city that is very dear to my heart does it because of the education I got there, and the friends I have there and my company was born there and the opportunity that it represents is the capital of the nation that gave me everything. I am today professionally. I love Washington DC. It also happens to be a very European looking city for someone who grew up in Europe, and then was sort of shifted over to Miami, I had a very difficult time in Miami. So Miami would not be on that list. But DC certainly is. I love I love Rome. I love Florence. I mean, those are obviously I'm Italian. And so those are, those are the cities that that truly means something to me. And they're just beautiful in terms of the history they bring to bear. And it's really live museums. But to go a little further away from that in terms of truly beautiful places. I had the opportunity to travel to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, as well as Thailand, Phuket. And I cannot think of more. I at least personally have not seen more natural beauty than I have seen when I went there. Truly in incredible, beautiful places. So I would say those, those are the 10 there is one one last one that I will mention, which is kind of unique for those who have not gone to Petra. And can. I'm someone who's traveled a lot. And that took my breath away. It certainly should be considered one of the wonders of the world doesn't really qualify as a city. But it is certainly a place that I would suggest people go It's really amazing.
Max 56:32
I would second that. I'd say one of the most amazing experiences I ever had with my wife was in Cannes for the firework show. We did we didn't even know that was happening there. We were traveling and we were getting they're showing us to our hotel at the JW Marriott i think is where we're staying. And they asked he said by the way, you're going to watch the fireworks show tonight. We're like what fireworks show? And then what a question to ask because now we will go back and watch the fireworks show they have. I think it's over four or five weeks, each country puts together a firework show over the Bay of Cannes, and it's choreographed to music. It's one of the most amazing things you'll ever see. I'm sure you've probably seen that.
Giadha 57:11
I know. But I tell you what, I'm going to make it my business. This is something amazing.
Max 57:18
It was amazing. I mean it when once they told me about it, and then we were out at the beach club, watching them set it up. I mean, they have barges all over the water with a bunch of police around it because it's the other barges full of explosives, but it was one of the most breathtaking taking things you'll ever see in your life. Like it will like bring you to tears without many fireworks with music. And just it was amazing. So Alright, well I'm gonna move into the rapid fire questions. You've been an amazing guest. I'm going to start kind of bringing us to a close but what we're now going to move into kind of some some quickfire questions. What book Have you read more than once? Or what is one of your favorite books?
Giadha 57:54
Hmm. I feel like well, I read his news and intelligence reports these days. I can I can tell you I read many of our reports more than once. And some of them are actually not in English. One that I have read multiple times is called Landry. They don't the night of times that it's it's I don't know that if I was ever translated in in English, but it's a childhood favorite of mine. And I've read it in this adult as well. I I actually don't read books multiple times, if I do is for recreational purposes. And I must admit that I don't read for recreational purposes as much these days. So I would say that's the only one that I can say for sure. And the reason why I have read that one more than once is because that is the book that got me into reading. I used to hate reading until a teacher in Spain differentially save forced me to read this book. And that changed me. So yes, let me get on.
Max 59:03
Awesome. What's your favorite song?
Giadha 59:09
Hmm.I have quite a few Live To Tell I wrote an essay in college about it by Madonna. That's one of my favorite songs.
Max 59:20
But what is your favorite word?
Giadha 59:24
strength.
Max 59:26
What is something on your bucket list that you're waiting to check off?
Giadha 59:30
I had to jump off a plane. I have to do it. I'm a little afraid of heights. I just have to face it. Remember fear? No fear.
Max 59:38
If you could teach one subject to schoolchildren, what would it be this is you've been through a lot of school and a lot of different places. But so this is coming from somebody that's been in the international school system. So what would it be one subject to school children? What would it be?
Giadha 59:54
I don't know if it's a subject that Max and I don't know if there's one word to explain. But learning that the the idea of learning to be kind and listening and instead of understand others around you, I don't know what that's called. But I think we need more of that. And I don't know if that's a subject in school.
Max 1:00:18
Almost like emotional awareness. Yep. Are you a morning or night person? I mean, given the fact that I've talked to you at night and given I heard your morning routine, I'm now confused.
Giadha 1:00:31
We're both we're both confused my entire life. I've been a night owl. In the past year, however, I've turned into an early morning person coming to the south of it, and I'm in I'm in rural area, South Italy here. I learned now get up with a chicken. And so I'm becoming and maybe it's because I'm getting older, but I'm now definitely more of a morning person.
Max 1:00:52
Awesome. If you could change one thing about the world right now, what would it be?
Giadha 1:00:57
Oh, Lord. You keep them light. Hmm. That's judgment. I like to stop judging each other. I don't think it's really helping anybody.
Max 1:01:09
Awesome. Well, I'm going to leave you the last word. But before I do, I'm going to kind of close this out. This has been the built on purpose podcast with Max Hanson brought to you by Y Scouts where we higher purpose, purpose driven and performance proven leaders. I'm gonna give the last word did Giadha, give us the last word?
Giadha 1:01:27
Well, first and foremost, Max, this is a really fun interview. very thoughtful. So thank you for that. I've generally enjoyed it. And then I would leave any listener, especially women, minority, right. And you know, and folks out there that are that feel that they're facing challenges and want to achieve something that I would leave them with, you can just do.
Max 1:01:49
Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing. And if you're listening, please be sure to share the podcast and thank you for being a guest today, Giadha this was amazing. I'll be sure to follow up with you and I look forward to reconnecting down the road sometime soon.
Giadha 1:02:03
Thank you.
Max 1:02:04
Alright, talk to you soon. Thank you. Bye
Friday Dec 04, 2020
Friday Dec 04, 2020
Josh McCarter, CEO of Mindbody, dives into what drives him, his triumphs, and his appreciation for life changes. Press play to discover more! 'Mindbody emerged from the simple idea that small business owners deserve the time to focus on what matters most: their customers. Our software has transformed that vision into the world's leading wellness services marketplace, linking hundreds of thousands of passionate health, wellness, and beauty professionals to the millions of clients they serve.'
Interview Transcript
Announcer: [0:00]
Welcome to the built on purpose Podcast, where on each episode we interview exceptional leaders, entrepreneurs, authors, philosophers, and straight up interesting people to explore their outlook on life, work and leadership. And now, here's your host, CEO and co founder of Y Scouts, Max Hanson.
Max: [0:26]
Welcome to Episode 52. The Built on Purpose podcast with Max Hanson brought to you by Y scouts at Y scouts we deliver purpose align and performance proven leaders. Speaking of today, our guest is Josh McCarter. Josh is currently the CEO of mind body, the world's largest wellness marketplace. Some interesting statistics on Mind Body include they have over 70,000 fitness, beauty and integrated providers running on their platform. They have 1.3 million plus users per month. Is that correct? With three and a half million workouts in services book per month, generating more than 1 billion in transactions per month. Wow. Prior to mind, body, mind body Josh is a well traveled serial entrepreneur and successful business leader. Outside of work. Josh has served on numerous boards, most notably the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and young presidents organization. Josh has an adventure have traveled to more than 50 countries and traverse the US on his Harley. Josh, welcome to the built on purpose podcast.
Josh: [1:25]
Thanks, Max. It's great to be here.
Max: [1:27]
Well, let's start out I want to talk a little bit about the mind body mission is to leverage technology to improve the health and wellness of the world. It's frickin awesome. Tell me a little bit more about that.
Josh: [1:36]
Yeah, so our purpose statement is actually to help people lead healthier and happier lives by connecting the world to wellness. And so that's obviously a big remit. When you think about all of the different wellness activities that the people can take on. And certainly during the pandemic, if anything we've seen is that the world is not well, the people that are getting, you know, impacted by COVID, in many cases have underlying health conditions that could be avoided if they practiced a better wellness regimen. So you're despite the fact that COVID really impacted the wellness industry. We're really optimistic about the tail winds that we'll have coming out of it.
Max: [2:11]
Yeah, I mean, just when I think about, you know, company's missions and purpose statements, just to be a part of a company that's doing something that's providing so much good in the world is so powerful. So yeah, super lucky to have you on the show. And I'm glad you're in that role.
Josh: [2:25]
Yeah, thanks, Max.
Max: [2:26]
But let's I want to jump into the obvious. And I did I told you kind of when I'm walking up here, I was watching a video. It was I think it was a CNBC interview. And he was talking about the you know, some of the obvious stuff, given the COVID environment, you know, gyms, salons and spas reducing capacity and you know, an upwards of 50%. I find it absolutely fascinating on what you guys are actually doing as a company in pivoting your you're investing in your infrastructure and building your technology and making those pivots. Let's talk about those pivots. I think it's a it's really cool.
Josh: [3:00]
Yeah. So as a global provider to the wellness industry, we started seeing the industry shutting down in January and February overseas. And then about a month later, it hit us here in the US. So think about like March, mid March. And as that happened, everybody started thinking, Man, how are we going to stay connected with our customers? How long is this going to last. And in the fitness industry, it was relatively easy to see a line of sight that you can do virtual wellness, you can have a virtual fitness class or a one on one instruction. And we have actually been building out a platform and a strategy around delivering something was fully integrated with our software for fitness businesses to be able to use to do video on demand to do live streaming, and some other ways that they could stay in touch with their with their members. Well, that obviously got accelerated. We were planning on releasing that at our bolt conference in August, and we ended up accelerating it and we got it out the door in May. And so the the focus on that was really trying to you know, give our customers an alternative to zoom that they could have fully integrated with their business management system. Because you can imagine if you're doing zoom versus something that's integrated, you know, it's not behind a paywall. So how do you sell those classes, it's not tied into your CRM system. It's not tied into your marketing systems. And so that's one of the things that you know, mind body has has become known for is really building this all in one solution for wellness businesses. And we just look at the virtual side of things, as an extension of that platform. And now we really predict that the future of wellness is going to be what we call a hybrid model, where you will be doing classes in person, but you're also going to have to deliver virtual classes that may be on demand, it may be streaming, it's been really interesting to see how in certain markets, people are more interested in on demand. And in other markets, they're more interested in streaming. So we think everybody needs to have both capabilities. And then over the next you know, year, it'll probably settle out and we'll see what happens as we get more through the pandemic.
Max: [4:51]
That's interesting. So in a way it almost it almost fast forwarded some of your plans that you kind of had in motion.
Josh: [4:57]
Yeah, in a way. Absolutely. And I think that it was it wasn't as much of a pivot as it was an acceleration. Now we also serve the spa and salon industry and you can't do virtual haircuts and you can't do virtual massages. And so that industry, what we focused on was what we call a low touch client experience. And so if you think about going into, you know, any salon or spa right now, you're not sitting in the waiting room like you used to, you know, we used to have nice lounges and areas that you could hang out, maybe sit in a massage chair, you're not doing that now. And so what we've done is a way for people to notify the business, through messaging that they're there, they're ready, they can get checked in, they can go straight into a chair, they can go straight into a room, they can do all of their payments, and they're tips through a mobile phone, much like you would do with with an Uber, and then all of the rebooking, we're driving actually through an AI NML product that we purchased last year.
Max: [5:44]
Okay, that sounds convenient. I can't wait to wait to use that I've actually used the platform before I met you. I was scheduling back and you could go to yoga studios, scheduling yoga, and realize that I was using the system. So in we talked a little bit about this personally, but you've you have a dev team in India and just trying to talk about where it's a company geographically spread out, how has that started to adjust? And what what are some of the pivots that you have made as an internal team?
Josh: [6:14]
Yeah. So I think the the first part is, is just the pandemic itself has caused you to reassess your overall real estate footprint pre pandemic, we had 14 offices. And you know, now we still have 14 offices, but nobody's going to the offices. In fact, the only office that we have open right now is in Sydney, Australia. Our UK offices were open for a couple months, last couple months, and then they shut down a week and a half ago when the UK went back down on lockdown. So right now we're reassessing our real estate footprint really trying to say, Okay, what makes sense in this new hybrid work model, we we surveyed our team, almost half of the team said, Hey, you know, either we don't want to come back full time, or we want to come back in some kind of a hybrid fashion fact, that thing was closer to 75%, when you put everybody together. And so that makes you really look at your real estate differently and say, Hey, do I need all of this space, even with social distancing, that's not going to last forever. So say, it's another year. And the surprising thing for us was that we were able to keep up productivity, we thought, you know, Hey, everybody working from home, and especially for those, you know, parents that have young kids that they're being, you know, they're working, and they're being teachers as well, we thought, Man, our productivity is going to fall out. And we found just the opposite. And so that's been, that's been a great learning for us. And so we are going to lean and we think it's actually a benefit to offer to our customers and prospective recruits is the ability to have flexible work arrangements. And then with India, you know, we're looking at ways that we can tap into different talent pool, certainly, you know, India is known for a lot of things, and tech development is one of them. And as you get to a certain scale, like us, you know, we're operating in over 120 different countries. And so we're competing with companies that are already developing in, you know, Eastern Europe and in South America and India. And so, frankly, to be cost competitive, we also have to tap into some of these other labor pools. And you know, interestingly, the way that our business has grown, some has been organic, some has been through acquisition. So around the country, we have different pockets of developers that have come from different acquired businesses. And so the it's already distributed development that's happening now, and are what we call our center of excellence in Puna. India is the only place where all of the disciplines are actually housed in there working on all of the products. And so we acquired a business there last year, that only had about 40 people in it, they were kind of a dedicated developer for mind body. And we've scaled that now to about 150. I bet by the time we exit next year, it'll be 250 to 300.
Max: [8:35]
Yeah, you know, and as as preparing for this, and just kind of reading through some stuff. You always remind yourself when you're a world wide company, there's, you know, countries are operating differently. And this pandemic is different, but how is it? How, what are some big differences that stick out to you different markets and end users in different countries, where you see a lot different type of activity versus the US because of the because of COVID?
Josh: [8:57]
Yeah, I mean, I think the first part is, is how do the countries respond to it? Right. And, you know, certainly in some of the Asian countries like Singapore, and Hong Kong and China, they went hard on crack down, and they really stamped out, you know, COVID much better, frankly, than we've done here or what we've seen in Europe. And so some of those countries, like I was just giving a report today Thailand's up 24 25% from last year, whereas the US is down 35% in New York and California are down 55% compared to last year. And so so that's one thing is is just how the original approach happened, you know, whether they enforce masks and social distancing and how they close different, you know, markets. Now as things are coming back online, you know, people seem to be doing it fairly consistently. So it's, it's all about cleanliness, right? Like you don't want to go work out or get your hair cut or go on to a massage table if it hasn't been cleaned and disinfected. So So that's kind of universal. Number two is we're definitely seeing distancing so in the, you know, in the gym setting, it might be shutting down certain machines like you know, in the big box gyms where they've got, you know, 50 treadmills, they're doing every other one or every two. And in some cases, I've seen this more in Asia than in Europe. And here, they're actually putting up Plexiglas in between the areas so that it's really like your own kind of cube that you're exercising. And if you're on some type of a cardio equipment, and then in the, you know, and more of the boutique fitness, the yoga polities and spin, it's really all about capacity. And so what what's happened is, is, you know, most markets when they reopen, I think California honestly was the most extreme anywhere, I've seen it 10% capacity. Imagine you had a yoga class with 20 people, and now you can have two, you're not even gonna open your doors to do that, right. And so, so what, what we've seen is, is that, you know, most states are getting and countries 25% capacity, 50% capacity. And so the ones that start seeing more traction, the, you know, the entrepreneurs that run these businesses have to get creative. They're thinking of, what can I do outside that don't have limitations on outside, maybe before I only had four or five class times during the day. But now I can offer 10 class times during the day, they're going to be smaller classes, but I can keep the revenue coming in and making that work. And then you know, of course, we've talked about virtual and that's another way that people are driving revenue during these times.
Max: [11:08]
Yeah, by the way, when I go to the gym, prior to COVID, and people didn't have a towel, sweating on equipment. Question was like, What are you wiping the equipment off? There's certain positive things that COVID has.
Josh: [11:24]
Yeah, for sure.
Max: [11:25]
One is cleaning your equipment when you work out? Yeah. Tell me about. Tell me about your journey becoming the CEO of mind body. You know, I know I saw you this summer and you had just become CEO, right? Probably in press releases. I didn't see it. I was probably paying attention to stupid politics. I should have been reading press releases, but So congrats on that I was in August, if I believe is correct. Yep. And so my, I guess what I want to get into here is, you know why when we look at companies, especially when we hire leaders, for companies, we usually see a visionary and then an execute or Yep. And it is come, you know, come to mind, as I look through kind of your profile that I think you're the combination of both, which is kind of rare. But what is what is further evidence of this is you bought so you are running, you're the CEO and co founder of Booker, correct? Yep. And that was for how many years?
Josh: [12:14]
I started that in 2010, or joined it in 2010, I was a spin out from a company I was on the board of they had started building a technology module in that business that we thought could have some real legs. And so we I ended up leading the spin out of that and raise the capital, and then built that for eight years. We sold it to mind body in April of 2018. And then I joined mind body at that point is Chief Strategy Officer
Max: [12:38]
Gotcha. And then he went from chief strategy officer to President and then right promoted to CEO?
Josh: [12:43]
Yeah, yeah. And it was, it was an interesting kind of timing, because we sold in April of 2018. Mind Body was a public company at that point. And then we ended up announcing that we were taking the company private with VISTA Equity Partners in December of 20 2018. And so that was really totally unexpected to me. And frankly, to the rest of the management team, it wasn't you know, we had no view that that was, that was the outcome that was going to happen for mind body. And when VISTA came in, you know, they assess the management team, they were talking about kind of their longer term vision. And they asked me to step in as president. So I did that in in early 2019. And then, as we started going through, they've got a big playbook that they run with all of their companies, their best practices, and frankly, it's really good. And, and so I was kind of the lead sponsor be as President, I was the one that was kind of the senior most person ensuring that we were executing against that playbook.
Max: [13:36]
That's awesome. Crazy times to be promoted as CEO. Yeah. When all of your customers were shut down. Yeah, yeah. But, but I think they picked the right guy. Yeah. Thank you. So I'm gonna move on a little bit. switch gears. Tell me about your nickname shooter..
Josh: [13:52]
Yeah. So you know, I've had a couple of nicknames in my life. None of them have ever really stuck for very long. So shooter was from when I was at a company called arbetet, where I was one of four partners. It was a technology distribution company. And this place was like the Wild West. I mean, we were selling computer we called them commodities. It was basically data center equipment, servers, and storage and memory and hard drives and so forth. And this was very much like a brokerage. When you walked into the office that everybody had three or four screens, we were taking data feeds from distributors around the world. And we were always just like, it was always about closing deals and how much GP Did you book that day and you know, very much like a, you know, the boiler room kind of mentality. And and so I came in and very quickly became one of our top salespeople, I was VP of Biz Dev, I was one of the partners, but everybody all the way up to the CEO had their own book of business. So I had to build my own book of business. And so I came in and I just I started, you know, shooting down deals, they were saying, you know, hey, you keep shooting down these deals, and you're making it happen. And so that's where I got my nickname shooter. And then you know, I'm sure at one Christmas party or something, somebody was drunk and they're like, shooter McGavin thought oh man, now I gotta ditch that This nickname because you remember that guy from Happy Gilmore? That's not that's kind of damning with faint praise.
Max: [15:06]
Very true. Very true. We'll get into the Christmas party story too. I'm just kidding. So another, what is a motto that you live your life by, like, obviously, I personally know you, but I think it'd be fun to talk about this. And share with our audience.
Josh: [15:20]
You know, the one thing that I that I always agree with, is, if you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right. And, and to me, it's really about how to live your life with intentionality and purpose, right, as you're thinking about things you want to achieve, you've got to have a positive view of it. Because if you think oh, man, I'm not gonna be able to get that done, and I got, I can't get the team together to build that, or nobody's gonna buy it, if I build it like that negativity, you know, if your glass is half empty kind of person, that's what your life is gonna be, it's gonna be half empty. And so I really think this idea of, you know, putting positive energy out in the world doing things that you know, where you are really striving for things, bringing people along, building people up, and carrying them along for the ride and having them carry you to when the appropriate times. That's, you know, I think that's a great way to live life.
Max: [16:10]
You know, and, and that's what makes you an amazing leader. Tell me, just just looking across, I always like to talk about what I call about life resumes. Yeah. So into thinking about your life experiences and resumes, tell me about what would be maybe one of your top experiences, and then we'll talk about maybe something that was maybe, you know, maybe one of the worst experiences, but best learning experiences from it.
Josh: [16:35]
So yeah, so I'll break it up into a couple of things. So life experiences, probably most challenging my dad died when I was 12. And my daughter got diagnosed with Type One Diabetes when she was four. So both of those were life experiences that you never wish on anybody. And, you know, certainly changed the course of my life. And interestingly, though, you can look at both of those and say, Man, really horrible, you know, things to have happen. And, you know, again, going back to life is what you make of it, I think that I've actually turned those things into positive, things become very independent, you know, as a result of not having a dad and my mom was a huge influence in my life. And then with Charlie, you know, her type one has given us like, a different sense of purpose. And for my wife and I, we've gotten really deeply involved in charities, we've raised millions of dollars for it, I'd never wish it on anybody's kid, it's a horrible disease to have. But it's also something that, you know, as a family, we've it's kind of united us around something, some, some commonality. And so that's, that's really positive. And then on the other side, like positive things in my life would be really, you know, I look at my wife and think about my marriage, we've been married for over 20 years. And she's a great life partner, she brought me you know, two amazing kids and has supported my career and been, you know, just the best that I could have asked to have her as a partner. And then on the business front, I think, you know, the two things that I would say that are, you know, highlight So, you know, or one highlight was certainly selling Booker and, you know, you have as an entrepreneur always this desire to build something that is meaningful and makes a difference, and then that somebody is actually willing to pay for it. Right. And, and so that happened, and we sold the business again in 2018. And so that was great. And, and then lowlights, I would say, you know, usually have to do when you have to make some really tough decisions about your business. There was a time at Booker where I had to go through a downsizing and, you know, say goodbye to about 100 employees, and that was really challenging. You know, now here with COVID, we also had to go through a massive restructuring in what we planned for it, and in March, we executed it in early April, and we ended up having to let go of 600 employees and furlough 200 additional employees and you know, no matter how you're wired like doing something like that is just horrible. And imagine having to do that remotely right like this was we're doing it over zoom calls and emails and so forth not something where we can actually look these people in the face they're getting let go for no fault of their own. They did nothing to deserve it. But we you know, we're staring at the real prospect of you know, losing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Max: [19:13]
Yeah, yeah. Well, switching gears a little bit Do you feel like in in we've never talked about this but you feel like you've found your purpose in life and business?
Josh: [19:23]
Yeah, it's a good question. So um, interestingly, I had a coach years ago when I was at the the technology company Arbor tech. And I felt at that point that I was a bit lost like you know, here I am, I'm in my 30s making more money than I knew what to do with every we had you know, we were fastest growing company in the US and entrepreneur, multiple placements and eight Best Places to Work in Orange County. And, and I still felt lost. And so I got a coach, a guy named Vance Caesar out of Orange County, and part of his program was really thinking about kind of your beliefs and your values, and then thinking about your purpose. And so part of his you know, process was you will Write a purpose statement. And think about it. And it actually took a while to kind of get there as you start because you have to kind of clear your mind right to be able to think about, okay, what am I put on this world to do? And so I came up with a purpose statement. This was when I was probably I'm 47. Now, so I was probably 30 to 33 then, and, and that has been something that has helped me like kind of figure out, hey, am I on track or not? And, and the statement itself was to live and experience life as an adventure, building rewarding friendships and partnerships along the way, while enhancing my life and the lives of those around me. And so it's it's a, it's a pretty big, you know, you can fit a lot into that, right? But it does help me think about like, hey, am I doing things that am I enhancing my life and I am I enhancing the life of those around me, it could be my employees could be my family, it could be my business partners. And you know, also thinking about, you know, really living life as an adventure like I like, you know, like you said, I've traveled to over 50 countries, I love riding my Harley, you know, and I also just, like, you know, kind of doing fun things and different things. And you know, I don't want to live a state life, you know, we're all only on the earth for so long. And I want to look back and say, Hey, man, I've lived my life without regrets. I've done everything I set out to do and more. And, and I've also impacted people in a positive way,
Max: [21:14]
ya know, and I've seen it. He recently came over to my house for Halloween, and he was Joe exotic. There's a picture of this online. So we'll talk about but he still has a mustache. You guys can't see this. But he still has the mustache from the costume doesn't have the handlebars. But he had the best Joe Exotic out. There was actually another guy that showed up is Joe exotic. And he had him beat and the other guy had a knee brace on. Yeah. So he had some extra gear.
Josh: [21:40]
And his name was Joe.
Max: [21:41]
And his name was Joe. Yeah, he still he didn't he didn't hold a candle to, to this. But on a serious note, I think I have met, how I came to know Josh is I hired a head of sales that was working for mind body. And she came over and work for me and kind of made the introduction. And I just kind of poked around. And I asked her name's Christine. And I asked Christine about Josh. And she said, and he knows how to have a good time. And so I asked, you know, some stories and and, and now that I've gotten to know him, it really holds true. But let's dig into that a little bit. I mean, you, you know, you seem to always have a good time, obviously, you're getting a lot done at work, you're making a lot of big stuff happen on the work front, but you always I feel like you balance it well. And you do it naturally. It's not like you're having a good time. And it's an artificial, you know, good time, I think it's all across your life, but talk about why that's important, and how that comes naturally for you both inside the office. And then personally
Josh: [22:40]
Yeah, so I think that, you know, fortunately, I've just got a positive disposition. And I think I'm just naturally wired like that. But there's also a part of it, which is, man, when you're grinding as hard as we do building businesses and so forth, you've got to have a release, right? You have to have something and you know, people talk about work life balance, or work life harmony, but it's real, like, if you're just grinding away, you know, 7080 hours a week, and you're not able to unplug and spend time with your family and develop friendships and you know, go out and see the world, then I think that you know, ultimately you're going to crumble or your your relationships that are the most important are going to deteriorate, right your relationship with your spouse or with your kids and so forth. And so that's one thing that I've always really, you know, tried to try to invest in. And then when it comes to the work side, you know, I want people to see me having fun, right? Like, I mean, I'm not going to be hammered at a holiday party or stumbling over, but I'm going to dress up like a total idiot. I've got more holiday pictures of me in you know, a Christmas tree suit or dressed up as the Grinch or like all of these different things, just to have fun and to be able to lead by example, and tell people like, Hey, man, don't take yourself so seriously. Like, if you know if you can laugh at the CEO, you can come up and take pictures with me like it be accessible, right? And right now like this mustache that I'm growing. I'm growing it for Movember. And so this is something I've sponsored at the company, I usually do a matching donation for whatever we we raised for the Movember foundation. It's focused on men's health this year, they focused a lot on first responders and mental health of men in particular, that are obviously struggling as everybody is with with COVID. But, you know, I reached out to the team, you know, in our Slack channel, we have a wellness Slack channel, and I kind of challenged the team. I said, Hey, guys, you know, I'll match everybody's donation up to x, and let's grow out our facial hair. Let's post pictures of our progress every week. And and it's just something to have fun, right and be able to laugh about.
Max: [24:31]
Yeah, yeah. No, and going back to things you participate in. You know, since Charlie was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, you obviously joined the nonprofit to help drive awareness and money. And I really admire that about you. You also were both in YPO. But you've been on served on the board. And so you really one that serves and puts a lot of time and you put in what you you know, get out and so where did that come from? I mean, where did you start? Thinking that way of like to put you know that much time and effort in something in order to get something out?
Josh: [25:05]
Yeah, it definitely happened later in my life. And it was around that time that I started seeing my coach because that was also when he was the one that suggested I joined YPO. And it was also at the same time, more or less the Charlie got diagnosed. And so, you know, my wife and I were saying to each other before all of that, man, we can't believe what a charmed life we're leaving, we're so blessed. We've got you know, we have solid job, we've got our health, we've got good income, we have good friends like and we were living in Corona Del Mar at the time. So you know, right next to the beach, and just a beautiful lifestyle there. And when Charlie hit it, just when her disease hit, it really kind of rocked our world. And immediately, like the very first thing I did was I tapped into my YPO network because we weren't able to get her into Children's Hospital of Orange County, she got like the the pediatrician said, Hey, we think she's got type one. But the only way you're going to know is if you go there, and we couldn't get a bed. And so luckily, two of my forum mates were on the board of chalk, I gave them a call they got us right in got us connected with the President. And so, you know, we saw from that really, you know, one they now why did they get involved with chalk, because, you know, one of their sons had a brain tumor. And so it just started getting us to think a little bit more lenient, less selfishly and more about how can we bring great things to the world. YPO has been transformational for me. And one of the blessings that I've had from that is that my forum made a guy named Mark Moses. He, I think, you know, Mark, yeah, he started the father, daughter and father son programs in YPO. And I took Sydney to this when she was my oldest, who's now 19, when she was seven, in California. And it's basically an extended weekend where you bring fathers and daughters of the same age together, and you bring resources in child development resources to talk with you about how to help your kids grow up, don't solve all their problems for them, how do they develop leadership skills and grit, and then also have one on one time with them. And so I ended up taking that he started, you know, building that program out, I took it and ran it for eight years, with both of my kids at different areas. And so that was one where I look back, like as much as I was giving to other dads, about 25 dads and daughters that would come to each of these, I was getting so much back in return in terms of teaching my kids about leadership and giving back and also the relationships that they build, especially with social media. Now my kids have, you know, friends that are in Jordan and Israel, and then you know, the Philippines because of these type of events.
Max: [27:27]
That's amazing. It's amazing I am I'm being coached by a guy that's partners with Mark Moses right now really
Josh: [27:32]
funny.
Max: [27:34]
So when thinking about all this, because this is I love talking about what makes people great leaders and this humbleness, and this, this giving back and just everything that you the authenticity that you bring to the table as a person makes you a good leader. But when were you first called to be a leader, because everything you're talking about was kind of happened for you a little later in life. Yeah. And I frankly, I've only really had conversations about business stuff and YPO stuff that's more recent, and I've never really dug in going back into your life. Like when were you first called to be a leader? What did you do that got you into that position?
Josh: [28:05]
So I'll tell you two quick stories. So the first one is, is that I didn't even know what leadership was when I was a kid. And one time I was with my grandma, I was probably seven or eight years old. And we were messing around some kids from the neighborhood and I in her backyard, she had this big kind of big property with an orchard on the back of it, and I start picking up some oranges, and I'm throwing them against the garage at the back of the house, making a mess. All the kids are laughing and everything and my grandma comes out, she starts yelling at me, what are you doing? Don't you see the mess that you're blah, blah, blah. And so I was like, man, the kids scatter, right? They all go running everywhere. My grandma comes and grabs me and pulls me into the garage and she says, Josh, you're a leader, you can't behave like this. Because you can lead people to do good things. And you can lead them to do bad things. And you're obviously leading kids the wrong way. So he's like, so she grabs a broom and a mop and something else and gives it to me and she says now go lead your friends to go clean up all that mess. It's like that that was literally the first time where I realized that, hey, maybe I do have a leadership quality, but it's you know, when you're a kid, you just kind of Don't you know, you don't think about it as much. You know, I was fortunate that you know, I worked as I mentioned, my dad died when I was 12 I got my first job when I was 12. And so I was working, you know, first detailing cars at a Volkswagen dealership in San Diego. And then I started working in a bike shop and within like two months, the guy laughed and basically said, hey, you're managing the bike shop, you know, I'm gonna go do these other projects. And so pretty much I was managing that I was started managing people at 14 years old. And and then in college, I sold cars and I just kind of kept every job I had, I was able to, you know, rise up through the ranks through performance pretty quickly. And and that's kind of how the leadership team it wasn't. You know, I always tell people, my companies you know, don't wait for somebody to tell you that you're a leader you you have the opportunity to exhibit leadership every single day. And you know, also make sure that you know, you're you're not always the one that's kind of the squeaky wheel because Sometimes that's not the kind of leader that people want. They want the steady leaders, the people that are they can always rely on. And, and if you're at the right shop, they're going to recognize that and they're going to value that. And you're going to get promoted based on that.
Max: [30:13]
And what type of leader do you think you are at this point?
Josh: [30:16]
Yeah, I mean, I usually subscribe to the servant leadership, you know, concept, I did hear a new version of it called empowerment leadership, which I like a lot. Because the idea you know, is that you need to have the right team, build the right team, and then empower them to be successful. And you know, for me, I always say, my job is to clear the land mines, like, I've got to make sure that you've got, you know, you're the domain expert in your area, I need to make sure you have all the tools necessary and the runway necessary to go be successful. And, and so that's, that's really I try to hire the best people and get out of their way.
Max: [30:51]
Yeah, that's a that's a good way to go about it. For sure. What are some fun leadership lessons that you've learned over the years?
Josh: [30:58]
Leadership lessons? You know, so a few so one, I heard from Robert Smith, who's the the chairman and CEO of VISTA who now owns mind body. And and I love the saying it's be a learn at all, and not a no at all. And I think that that's something that you know, you can you can really take in a lot of different ways you can take it in your personal life, and you can take it in, in your business life, that that's certainly one. You know, we have a value at mind body that's humble and helpful. And I think that, you know, I've seen that leaders that are the opposite of that, like, if you think of the opposite of humble and helpful man, that's really not a leader that you're going to want to, to work with. And and then I also think that you know, this concept of really hiring the best people and building a team and letting them be successful and get out, get out of the way. And also giving them the accolades for the work, you know, like I I try when I'm talking when I'm doing a board presentation, or when I'm talking with other folks, it's not about me, right? It's not about my success. It's about Jimmy success for bringing this idea forward and opening up a whole new market for us. And so those are, you know, some things that I think that especially younger leaders, a lot of times don't think about, because they are thinking about, hey, how do I stand up above from the crowd? And, you know, I just appreciate on our team that we do have a culture of people that, you know, at every level level, from a, you know, manager to a director to a VP, you know, they don't always try to take credit for what's happening. It's always a collaborative effort. They're giving, you know, praise to their team. And I think that that goes a long way when you're developing your leadership skills.
Max: [32:27]
Yeah, no, I 100% agree. I think anytime we look at companies that have their what we see is great values. There's always a learning value. Ours is relentless learning. Yep. And yes, it's it's terrible working for no at all. Yeah, especially super talented people. They just shut down, they could bring in new ideas. It's it's stifling innovation. So
Josh: [32:48]
well, that's that's one thing I you know, in terms of, you know, leadership thing, where I've seen people fail with leadership, it's always been people that come in with that I'm a no at all, I'm the smartest guy in the room. Because a few things happen. Number one is, is that they don't retain people that are smarter than them. They don't even think about recruiting people that are smarter than them because they either don't want to be challenged, or they think they know everything better than anybody else. So why why are they going to stretch for that, you know, a plus player in a perfect area, or particular area, my uncle told me, you know, early on, he said, and he was a very successful entrepreneur. He said, you know, a good CEO surrounds himself or herself with somebody that makes up for their weaknesses. And, and I thought that was really smart. And then later, you know, I drew a corollary, because of somebody that I worked with, it was, you know, always the smartest guy in the room? And I said, Yeah, but, but you also have to recognize, right, you have to be humble enough to recognize where you're strong and where you're not. And frankly, a lot of people don't.
Max: [33:47]
Yeah, no, absolutely. Let's begin a hiring. I'd be remiss if I didn't talk a little bit about hiring. So how do you like I guess this is both we this can go towards mind body. And you personally, I would have to say, some of your success has been from being able to hire talented people, right? What do you what is it that you do? Is there a certain you know, certain interviewed styles or anything that you do in particular, that helps you be so effective at hiring great leaders?
Josh: [34:15]
So I would tell you that again, it's about the team, right? Like, it's not me, that's just doing the interview process. I've always had kind of like a battery of of interviews. Usually we'll target specific people to focus on certain areas. And so if we identify like, we're recruiting a CFO right now, our CFO is retiring. And so we have an outside agency that we're working with, and they've brought, you know, a handful of different candidates to us. And so I think by the time that we would get to even like bringing somebody to our board, they're going to talk to 10 different people in the company, because especially a role like a CFO or a president. It's just vital that you know a number one is fit right like is there a fit is there a core values fit is there a culture fit They're, you know, kind of a skill fit. And, and so one person in a 45 minute interview cannot assess that right? And part of it is, is how do you bring the I want to bring people along in that decision. So that it's they don't feel when somebody comes in that it's like, oh, hey, Josh, you know, pick this person, and now we got to go work with this person I want them involved in the decision making. And it's also kind of a recognition that, you know, somebody else might pick up on something in an interview that you don't because you didn't ask that question. Maybe they were going down a different line of thought. And so, you know, I would say that there's only you know, when I look back, I think I've made two or three hires that I deeply regret. And that's after hiring, you know, I mean, hundreds of people, but you know, probably 50 executives during my career. And so I think that's a pretty good hit rate,
Max: [35:48]
ya know, and going back to that relentless learning mentality, I always feel like, interviews are won or lost. And the questions that candidates ask when you open it up, like, hey, do you have a question? The types of questions they asked whether they're like, no at all questions, like pointing things out, or if they're truly curious questions. Absolutely. But speaking of curious, what do you what are you curious about now? What are you most curious about now?
Josh: [36:10]
I mean, I think, you know, two things. One is, is kind of a What is this world look like? And specifically in the wellness industry after the pandemic? You know, the industry reports say that 25% of the industry is going to be gone. And so, you know, what I wonder is, okay, well, how fast is it bounce back? Right? And what does the new normal look like for the, you know, for the wellness industry? Are we still going to be operating on, you know, reduced capacity? Are we going to be operating, you know, with just kind of hybrid models, and virtual and so forth? And so I think that's like, you know, that's one area that I'm, you know, I'm curious, and then probably as everybody that you know, depending on the time that you're listening to this would be curious about is, hey, where do we land with the election and everything that's going on in, in politics right now?
Max: [36:52]
Yeah, no, absolutely. In what do you find? Obviously, you've done a lot of things, right. You're very humble person. But what do you found? What do you find most challenging in life right now? I mean, work in life,
Josh: [37:03]
I think, I mean, so most challenging would be, I think, just the division and everything that exists today, even with among my own friend groups, you know, you get into certain, you know, whether it's politics, or, you know, globalization or climate warming or trade, there's very, there's so much polarization now that, you know, trying to find that common ground is is definitely challenging. You know, the, you know, the other part that I look at and think what I'd really like to see this get, you know, get settled, is, is just, you know, as we're thinking about the the broader competitive landscape, you know, when we look at peloton and what's happening there, and you have a lot of people that are saying, hey, it's all about virtual in the in the future. I don't think it is, man. I think that technology is important, but I think the community is even more important. And, you know, again, some of those same forces that are you know, pulling friendships apart are also kind of pulling communities apart. And so I think that that's another challenge that we've got as a as a society is, you know, how do we bring communities back together and and and do that the wellness community has always been kind of a very tight knit community. And we just had our bold conference today, we had over 1000 people attend that. And it was great to kind of just hear the stories of you know, of survival and struggle and grit and everything. That's, you know, that's been happening there. So yeah, so those are a couple things that I challenged by, I will tell you, like, jokingly, but one of my biggest challenges in work is I'm horrible with Excel, it is just something that I've never been good at, and I've never taken the time to get good at it. And now I have you know, a bunch of people in FPA and data science they can, they can do all the Excel work for me.
Max: [38:39]
I think one thing that's changed, even since I've known you is you traveled a lot for work. Yeah. And I think you you're the type of person that you you just it was part of the job. Yeah, but I think you actually enjoy it. Yeah. So you've had to change your lifestyle, which has been good for me, because I get to see you around town right more often. But it's been quite a shift. You correct?
Josh: [39:00]
Yeah, it's been a huge shift. I mean, I'm normally you know, racking up a couple hundred thousand miles a year, gone 50% of the time. And so, on one side, it's been great to be home. You know, last year, my daughter was a senior in high school. And so we got to spend really an extra six months together. And you know, before she took off to Cal Poly. And so that was great. And, you know, I'm home now I'm cooking most of our dinners. I love grilling, we got a smoker and a grill. And so I'm always out there, you know, doing that. But it has been a challenge also just being home more and you know, it's because I really miss the team. Like I miss seeing people I like going on, you know, trips meeting my you know, taking out the the top performers and all of our offices going and doing town halls and so forth. And so now we've just had to adapt to be able to do that with zoom. And you know, it's definitely not the same but it's better than nothing.
Max: [39:49]
Yeah, I think you're like me, I think when people will appreciate when you come out to see them more in the near future once we get further down this and I look forward to that because I'm the same way Old school and the right way where you know, you make it you make the trip to meet somebody face to face, shake their hand, maybe not shaken. Maybe an elbow bump these days. Yeah, but that's, but no, I agree. So tell me speaking of COVID. And so I talked to you, obviously, pretty often throughout it, what have been some COVID like blessings for you like this? I mean, obviously, this hasn't been great for a lot of people. But I think when you there's things that certain people take away, that it has forced them to maybe think differently, what are some things takeaways for you that have been positive? I mean, more time with your family? Yeah, with your wife?
Josh: [40:34]
Yeah, definitely those, um, you know, I think some other you know, positive takeaways. One is, it just kind of reinforces that, you've got to be agile in your thinking. So your, you know, your comment about, you know, always growing and so forth, we have a value that's consciously evolving. And so, you know, for us thinking about consciously evolving through the pandemic, it's both ours, our software, it's how we're managing our team, it's our office footprint, it's all of those things, we, frankly, have become so much more efficient as a business as a result of this. And we're able to, you know, we had, we had to think about the business fundamentally differently. And it's kind of like, hey, if you were given a blank slate, how would you redesign this business to be successful going forward? And, and so I think that that's been you know, for me, one of the the great takeaways from this is, is that, you know, you can have a quantum paradigm shift, you know, this was forced on us by COVID. But, you know, think about how do you reinvent yourself and, and know that there's always a, you know, there's always opportunity to improve and, and so I think that that's something that we've seen, that's been really positive coming out of COVID
Max: [41:42]
Yeah, amazing. So what's one thing that you wish people would stop saying? I mean, and I always think at COVID I write for me it's like the new normal Yeah, just kind of you know, the new normal is just normal for me, but anything that like sticks out?
Josh: [41:57]
I haven't heard it in a bit, but unprecedented. God that words are crazy, right? Like if I hear unprecedented again, it'll all go nuts. The other one that's like, no, it has nothing to do with COVID. But it's also started dying down. But you know, years ago, I used to go to the UK quite a bit. And I always laugh because they had the you know, keep calm, you know, Mind the Gap, keep calm carry on. Now you started seeing keep calm, whatever, everywhere, right? They had, you know, everything had sayings. And that just drove me nuts. Because I didn't feel like I could escape it.
Max: [42:29]
What do you think in the, in the future, going back to wellness and fitness, from what you're saying? And kind of what I think too, is people are always going to want to work out and people are always going to want to be, you know, part of a community. Yep. Do you think this comes back? The wellness industry comes back stronger at some point. I mean, that's, that's what I'm gathering from. Yeah, like very strongly, but yeah, about that.
Josh: [42:52]
I think so. I mean, we were sharing just today that like in Australia, that, you know, has done extremely well, I mean, they're an island, they can, you know, lock down a lot better than, than most other places can. But they've really bounced back, you know, better than than most of the England we call the English eight countries that we do a lot of business in. And what they're seeing is, is that their per location bookings are higher than what they were before. And what we think that is, is that people have just been bottled up, right, like, if you think about the amount of services that you forego during a year, if you're not going to a gym, you're not going to spa you're not going to salon, now all of a sudden, you probably got some money that saved up or you've got credits at your, you know, at your gym, or you know, your spa if you have a membership. And and I think people are going back and taking advantage of that. But I also think there's one other part, which is, you know, there's been a spotlight put on health and wellness during this and and, you know, I was just watching the news last night, and they were talking about, you know, how people with type two diabetes or people that have cardiovascular issues and so forth, that they're likely the ones that are going to be getting the vaccine first, right? And so you think about that, and you go, yeah, they are definitely the target. That should get it first. But man, I don't want to be in that category. I want to be healthy, I want to, you know, be able to, you know, live without, you know, worrying about some of these comorbidity issues. And so I do believe going forward, that people are going to be more, you know, thoughtful about their health. You already see like Millennials are very engaged. I think Gen Z is going to be there. You know, baby boomers were the ones kind of early on with the, you know, Jane Fonda and VHS and now they're a big component of our business. And as Gen X, you know, that we're in. As we start aging out and we start getting more into our retirement years, I think we're gonna be, you know, a lot more conscious of our own health than our parents were. And just like, our parents are a lot more conscious of their health and working out, like my mom does yoga all the time, she can do a headstand, I can't imagine that she's 72 years old. I was worried about her breaking her neck, but you know, she's, she's incredible. And so and I think about like the difference between her and her mother. So I think that it's something that over time, just generationally, it's not even going to become an A, you know, a thought it's just going to become part of kind of what society does.
Max: [45:04]
Yeah, that's what I think about the travel industry too. I mean, everybody that's used to traveling, it's just pent up and they want to travel so many places, I would say I'm the same way. And that opens up, I'm traveling probably more, just in case something happens again. Speaking of traveling, so you've you've traveled to 50 countries. Yeah. What have been, what's what's been your favorite place to travel to? And kind of why I mean, just in somebody that's traveled that many countries, that's that's kind of what you never talked about.
Josh: [45:31]
Right? Yeah. I mean, they're all unique in different ways. I would tell you that India, I thought was going to be one and done check the box. I went there for the global wellness summit with my with my family. We loved it and want to go back, we did the Golden Triangle. And, you know, we went to it's a ogra, Delhi and Jaipur. And so we saw the Taj Mahal and so forth. And I was just blown away by the vastness of the of the country. It's kind of like going to the US and saying, Oh, yeah, I know, the US and you went to Texas, right? Like, that's kind of like the space that we went to it wasn't, you know, you didn't see Miami, you didn't see New York or San Francisco or LA. And so now, you know, I really want to go back and explore India, my mom who has gotten really into yoga, she got into a major car accident, could not get help, here in the US from Western medicine was basically becoming a cripple, and went over to went over to India. And she lived in, I forget exactly the part she was in, but it was basically an aerobatic hospital for a month and a half. And she came back walking, doing yoga, all of the arithmetic, you know, treatment that she had. So I think that that's something that I want to explore it at some point in my life. But there's a lot of places I haven't been, you know, I've been going to 50 countries. You know, I haven't been to Israel. I haven't been to Jordan, I haven't been to Peru to Machu Picchu. So those are some of the places that you know, I'd like to go.
Max: [46:49]
Absolutely. It's been a bucket list stuff. So in your profile, I mean, obviously you traverse across the US on your Harley. Yeah. Have you done a lot of that? What are some other things that you would like to do on the the bucket list side of things? I know this is a sometimes a tough question.
Josh: [47:04]
And yeah, yeah, I mean, I there's definitely more countries I want to go to I just you know, I listed some of those. I'd love to do another you know, trip on the on my Harley somewhere, you know, kind of long distance. I'd love to drive a Formula One car. I've never done that before. So you know, doing something with a car. I've always wanted to get my pilot's license. And so that's something my wife's, she has to she has a father and a stepfather. They were both Navy fighter pilots. And so she's not thrilled about me wanting to do that. So we'll we'll see if that ends up happening. But she gives me a lot of leeway on my Harley. Not sure which is which is more dangerous. Right?
Max: [47:38]
Tell me what it is about. I've written motorcycles. I grew up riding dirt bikes and written a Harley. It's a long story. I had a friend getting axed on a Harley. So I just promised I'd never ride a Harley. So I've never had that experience of really going on long trips on Harley's, but what is it about riding a Harley, that is get you in the zone that is most fun for you, you know,
Josh: [47:56]
I think there's a couple things. So the first is, is I just I love the feeling like it's like freedom, right. And, you know, I always envisioned myself as like, you know, a cowboy back in the 1800s driving across, you know, going across country on a horse, but I'm on an Iron Horse this time, right and, and so you see parts of the you see parts of the country that you wouldn't normally do, I love road trips, but you know, I wouldn't normally go off and take a weekend and drive around, you know, certain areas like I like I do on my on my motorcycle. I love the smells. It's really funny. Like I say this, my wife's like, You're like a dog or something right hanging your head out the window. But like, I love the smells, when you go through you smell the wild wild flowers, you smell the pines, you smell like all of that. And, and that's great. And then the last thing is, is that it's like it's really my Zen place, it's like the only place in my life where I can be 1,000% present, because you have to be man, you're you know, when you're zipping along, you know, I go a little too fast on time. So you know, so you're going along at 90 miles an hour, you stuffs coming at you super fast. And that pothole that is 100 feet in front of you is going to be on you and you know half a second. And so you're always scanning you know everything in front of you. And so you have to be present. So I'm not thinking about my earnings release. I'm not thinking about a board meeting. I'm not thinking about you know what any of these things, it's just you're 100% present and so for me, that's what I love about it,
Max: [49:14]
man, amazing years were typical guys that really like to go fast, right? You know, do things cars, but Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna go into some rapid fire questions. Sure. What's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
Josh: [49:27]
Well, now that I live in Arizona, the first thing I do is I have a glass of electrolytes because I wound up in the hospital one one day after working out and not having had electrolytes. So that's the very first thing I do now.
Max: [49:39]
What about a book that you've read more than once?
Josh: [49:42]
Um, you know, so I'm not a big book reader. And so I would say that probably the one and I recommend this book to a lot of young leaders at mind body is Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I think I think that's a great one.
Max: [49:57]
Awesome. What person has had the biggest impact on your life?
Josh: [50:02]
Well, I break it up into into three on on who I am as a person and a human, my mom for sure. Because I mentioned my dad passed away and she raised me I was not an easy child, you know, at that point at 12 years old impact on kind of like my life and and the happiness that I have and how I live today is my wife. Absolutely. We've been friends since since junior high and didn't start dating till after college. And then on business was my uncle. And he, you know, was a serial entrepreneur also went bankrupt. And you know, so I saw the high highs, the private jets and the house in Aspen and I saw the man I'm destitute right now and then came back and built a company and took it public. So really, you know, talk about grit and determination. That was something I learned from him.
Max: [50:47]
Yeah, you've talked a lot about him. And in our conversations, yeah. If you could teach one subject to children in school, what would it be?
Josh: [50:54]
Grit. I think it's, it's really one of the things that people you know, need to have if they're going to be successful in business, especially if they're going to be, you know, entrepreneurs. And I also think it's in life too. Like, it's, you know, we think about the pandemic, right, like, if you're not able to handle adversity and be able to muscle through it, and so forth. It's, you're gonna have a challenging time right now.
Max: [51:18]
Absolutely. Are you a morning or night person?
Josh: [51:21]
Morning.
Max: [51:21]
I thought that Yeah, what's the most spontaneous thing you've ever done lately?
Josh: [51:31]
You know, I gotta say, I'm not super spontaneous. I'm definitely more planned. You know, I mean, the normal times we plan out our life, you know, six to nine months ahead of time. So I think the most spontaneous thing I've probably done was, you know, take it take a day off, and I went did tactical training with, you know, with an ex marine? That was the most spontaneously got did.
Max: [51:52]
If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
Josh: [51:55]
I think just kind of all of the division that's happening right now, you know, and the lack of discourse and and, you know, engagement positively, like, I always like to assume positive intentions, you know, and that, you know, that there are ways for people to bridge their differences without being so polarized. And I just, I feel right now, like, as a as a society, we're becoming a lot more polarized. And, and I just, I wish there was more room for dialogue. Awesome.
Max: [52:21]
Awesome. Well, I'm going to start winding it down. I think. I try to keep these to about 45 minutes. Yeah, totally. Listen to them. But you're listening to the built on purpose podcast with Max Hanson, brought to you by why scouts, you can find all of our past and future podcasts at yscouts.com Josh, I'm going to give you the last word, what advice do you give everyone as we face an increasingly challenging COVID? environment?
Josh: [52:45]
What advice? Well, man, that's a good question, Max. I think that, you know, right now, it's, it's you got to have patience, because this is not going away overnight. And, you know, I think that it's it's important to, you know, pay attention to what your local, you know, municipalities are saying about how because everywhere is different, right? Like how you're going to deal with it here in Scottsdale is going to be really different than if you're in Boise or other places. And so, I don't think that there's a, you know, one size fits all approach to this. And so I think that people just need to have patience and recognize great progress that we're seeing on the, you know, on the vaccines. And so hopefully, you know, by the time we're in summer, we're at a point where people that want to get vaccines can and for those that don't want that, that there's at least therapeutics that are out there. So I think it's patients and everybody right now has been so pent up that there's a lack of patience, and I think that's what we need.
Max: [53:36]
Awesome. Awesome. Well, thanks again for today. It was wonderful having you on the show. And I look forward to maybe do it again sometime. Yeah.
Josh: [53:42]
All right, Max. Thanks, man. Thanks, Josh. I appreciate it.
Announcer: [53:48]
Thanks for listening to the built on purpose Podcast, where on each episode, we interview exceptional leaders, entrepreneurs, authors, philosophers, and some straight up interesting people to explore their outlook on life, work and leadership. You can hear any of our previous shows 24 seven right here on Star worldwide networks or wherever you get your podcasts.