Episodes

Tina Karras is an independent writer, musician, and a long-standing prominent buyer in the alcohol industry. Southern California is the largest market in the USA for alcoholic beverages, and Tina is well-connected in all aspects of the industry. After procuring sponsorships and streamlining the bar program at the legendary Roxy Theatre, she began working with the concessionaire Best Beverage Catering, which services major music festivals like Coachella and Outsidelands, music venues like The Roxy Theatre, Universities like Stanford and UC-Berkeley, and much more. Her start in the alcohol industry actually came by accident when Tina moved to Los Angeles with literally one guitar and two suitcases to pursue her dream of being a singer-songwriter. Working in restaurants and, eventually, music venues was Tina’s way to pay rent, and now she’s using that experience to run Tina’s Vodka. Tina’s Vodka is made from organic corn, non-GMO, American-made, fantastically smooth, delicious, and at …

BEST OF: Steve Nudelberg: Massive Action = Massive Results, Sales Leader First Aired: 5/12/2020 Excited to welcome Steve Nudelberg to #thePOZcast! Have you ever wondered what separates top performing sales professionals from the rest of the pack? The top sales professionals know that the difference between good and great performance requires a set of disciplines and best practices that will drive you to new levels of success. Whether it is a keynote speech, a Sales Bootcamp or a custom training program, we help sales professionals, leaders and managers examine their process and then create unique and actionable items based on their specific culture and environment, to GROW SALES! Massive Action = Massive Results Steve Nudelberg is an author, expert sales trainer, consultant, keynote speaker, and serial entrepreneur. Steve created On the Ball – a company that invests time and talent in emerging businesses and corporate teams to help them grow. Steve is an energetic powerhouse who…

It’s that time once again– welcome to The POZcast #BestOf Miniseries! This is our Best of North Star episode, where we bring you the most impactful North Stars, or guiding forces, that our very special guests have shared with us over the past year on #thePOZcast. This is always a hard selection process for my team and me because there’s so much insight into what these highly successful folks center themselves and their mission on. Still, it always comes down to what resonated the most with me personally. So sit back, enjoy, and check out the full episodes for those guiding mantras that really stuck to you down below! This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: (Guests in order) Kevin Smith Jevon McCormick Howard Bloom Sarah Dusek Alan Patricof Drixxon Kyser Avery Akkineni Jasiri X Todd Kaplan Luke Anderson Manda Kailimian Emeka Nnaka Dave Scatchard Part 1 & Part 2 If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review:   https://ratethispodcast.com/thepozcast #thePOZcast is brought to you by our…

It’s that time once again– welcome to The POZcast #BestOf Miniseries! This is our Best of Greatest Advice episode, where we bring you the best of the best advice that our very special guests have shared with us over the past year on #thePOZcast. This is always a hard selection process for my team and me because there’s always so much great advice, but it always comes down to what resonates the most with me personally. So sit back, enjoy, and check out the full episodes for those pieces of advice that really stuck to you down below! Full Episodes, In Order: Luke Anderson Howard Bloom Connie Steele  Chris Do Shelly Zalis Brian Scudamore Jasiri X Liane Hornsey Kathleen Griffith Dave Menz Stephanie Synclair Jay Rosenzweig Chris Jericho Perfecto Sanchez Kevin Smith If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review:   https://ratethispodcast.com/thepozcast #thePOZcast is brought to you by our friends at Interseller – the prospecting + outreach platform of recruiters and sellers. Wheth…

First aired 7/2022 Check out part 2 of my exclusive Veecon coverage from Minneapolis this past May 2022. No one background, industry, or way of life can describe the community that makes up VeeFriends… BESIDES maybe that everyone is a character, as you’ll come to see in this part two of my time documenting Veecon. From daredevils like Simon “Wild Wallaby” who sold a good portion of his belongings to get into the VeeFriends NFT game, to established industry veterans like Tom Bilyu of Impact Theory, who was on his way to speak about at a panel with Steve Aoki (no big deal) about their upcoming NFT collaboration. I got the pleasure of covering a WIDE range of different VeeFriends from different backgrounds. I also got the pleasure of reconnecting with POZcast Alumni like Matt Higgins, and another pretty cool guy named Gary that was pretty popular at this event for some reason… There’s even more packed into this episode than I can fit in a quick description, so be sure to check this …

It was great to catch up back in October with some of my favorite LinkedIn folks and friends, Erin Riska, Joel Lalgee, and Liam Darmody! Erin is a fractional talent strategist, full-cycle recruitment partner, and freelance writer, providing foundational and supplemental talent acquisition support to small companies as they scale. Joel is a contract recruiter, podcaster, and, more recently, a consultant to hiring tool Hirewell aiding in business development guided by his personal expertise. Last but never least, Liam is a hot sauce aficionado. I could leave it off there (it’s in his LinkedIn header, folks), but in reality, he is SO much more– he’s a seasoned operations leader with over 15 years of experience building & scaling marketing, sales, customer, & people operations at technology companies.  This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: We talk about employee branding and the obstacles to getting employees to share their experiences working with a company. Since employees are unsure of wh…

BEST OF! Presents, Kevin Smit! Kevin Smith: From Clerks to NFTs & The Future of Indie Filmmaking Aired June 23, 2022 Kevin Smith is an American filmmaker, actor, comedian, comic book writer, author, YouTuber, and podcaster. His first big break was in the film industry, after winning the Filmmaker’s Trophy at Sundance Film Festival in 1994, for low-budget comedy buddy film Clerks. He also notably wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted in as the character Silent Bob of stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob, in Clerks, as well as multiple follow up movies such as Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Clerks II (2006), and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019). As a podcaster, Smith co-hosts several shows on his SModcast Podcast Network, including SModcast, Fatman Beyond, and the live show Hollywood Babble-On. He is known for participating in long, humorous Q&A sessions that are often filmed for DVD release, beginning with An Evening with Kevin Sm…

Andy Krainak is the President of VeeFriends, Gary Vaynerchuk's massive NFT ecosystem. He started as an intern at VaynerMedia back in 2013 and, since then, has become an essential player in the growth of this incredible brand. Find out more at www.VeeFriends.com. Juliette Blake is the cofounder of Miss O & The Miss O Cool Girls NFT. Miss O and Friends is a safe socialization brand that is dedicated to changing the current narrative for girls, focusing on empowerment and building self-esteem. Learn more at https://www.missocoolgirls.xyz/ These two Web3 stars joined me for a live on stage for #thePOZcast experience in December 2022 at NRVLD Miami Art Week at the Surfcomber Hotel. Big shoutout to Pavan and DJ Uzon at NRVLD for believing in me to create this fantastic show. Check out how they are building web3 culture through community and education: https://www.bellwetherculture.com/ And this show would not be possible without the support of Jason Kolker at Nobody Studios, Learn more …

Chris Jericho is an acclaimed wrestler,  actor, musician, author, podcaster, and television personality. He is one of the most popular performers in the history of the wrestling business and was named one of the top five most charismatic WWE performers of all time by wwe.com. In January 2019, Jericho signed with All Elite Wrestling and is an integral reason why AEW is the hottest wrestling promotion in the world today. A podcast innovator, Jericho read the future and started the “Talk Is Jericho” podcast in 2013. Past guests include Dennis Miller, Larry King, William Shatner, Mike Tyson, Kevin Smith, Chris Tucker, John Cena, Gene Simmons, Stormy Daniels, and Slash. The podcast has currently amassed over 275 million downloads over more than 850 episodes. Chris is also the lead singer of the internationally successful rock band Fozzy, whose seventh album, “Judas” has over 38 million streams on Spotify. Always the innovator, after Jericho’s initial two NFT series SOLD OUT quickly over…

Recorded Live @ Peter's "The Bank of the Future" during Miami Art Week 2022. I have gotten to know Peter well and have spent time with him in NYC and Miami. He has inspired me in so many ways. It was truly an honor to have him as my 250th guest for this very special live recording. The video can be found on our youtube page (soon) www.youtube.com/thepozcast. I was also lucky to have my incredible wife Ilona by my side and our good friends Evan and Yelana to share the experience. And I would be remiss not to thank my producer Chris Mueller for his hard work on this and every episode. And lastly, to Chris Adamo for first introducing me to PT! For those unfamiliar, Peter Tunney is a legitimate force of nature with boundless creative energy, spreading his positive messages in unconventional ways and delivering works of art to a worldwide collector base. He creates in almost every medium: paint, collage, wood, photography, found objects, and discarded materials. His nontraditional life, …

Drixxon Kyser is the creator of The Circulate App and cofounder of AMA-Zentech. Circulate is an aggregate of black-owned businesses that helps you find local businesses to support, which can be searched and sorted by category. Drixxon built the app and AMA-Zentech alongside his sister Olivia, currently a Rutgers University student. He’s only 19 years old but has already dealt with his fair share of challenges in the business world, including a controversial situation with Sean Combs, aka P Diddy.  This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: The idea for circulate app was spawned through a conversation between Drixxon and his sister about the murder of George Floyd. They were discussing whether or not he would have been murdered had he been at a black-owned business, which then transitioned into a conversation about how difficult it is to find black businesses to begin with. At age 15 Drixxon and his family were homeless. This was a tough time when Drixxon wasn’t yet thinking about business, b…

Alan Patricof is an American investor and one of the early pioneers of the venture capital and private equity industries. He is the founder of Apax Partners, Greycroft Partners, and, originally, Patricof Company Ventures. Alan started his early career managing the Gottesman pulp and paper fortune and focused his efforts on the new private companies in the portfolio. In 1967, he invested in New York magazine, a new publication, where he served as the founding chairman of the board. Then, in 1969, he raised $2.5 million and founded one of the first venture capital firms, Patricof Company Ventures. In 1977, he founded the private equity firm Apax Partners. Finally, Greycroft was founded in 2006. You can check out more about Alan in his book “No Red Lights.”  This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Alan’s investment strategy recently has been focused on the aging market. Through Primetime Partners, Alan supports the founders and organizations that create meaningful new products, services, and …

First aired 8/20/21 Laura Gassner Otting is a professional motivational keynote speaker and Washington Post best-selling author. Laura’s 25-year resume is defined by her entrepreneurial edge. She served as a Presidential Appointee in Bill Clinton’s White House, helping shape AmeriCorps; left a leadership role at respected nonprofit search firm, Isaacson, Miller, to expand the startup ExecSearches.com. She founded and ran the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, which partnered with the full gamut of mission-driven nonprofit executives, from start-up dreamers to scaling social entrepreneurs to global philanthropists. She is the author of Mission-Driven, a book for those moving from profit to purpose. This Episode’s Heavy-Hitters: Laura became a member of Bill Clinton’s campaign after she realized law school wasn’t for her. She dropped out, and then “did what everyone does when they’re in a bad position in life” and “dated a guy that was awful.” Thankfully, this awful guy introd…

Jasiri X is the founder of 1HOOD Media, an activist, and a renowned recording artist, among many other titles. Jasiri X is the first independent Hip-Hop artist to be awarded an Honorary Doctorate, which he received from Chicago Theological Seminary in 2016. Jasiri first hit the world stage in 2007 with his viral song Free The Jena 6, and since then, he’s gone on to affect real change in many arenas outside of music. He has performed his music from the Smithsonian to the Apollo Theater and has discussed his views on Hip-Hop, race, and politics at leading institutions across the nation, including Harvard University, University of Chicago, NYU, Yale, and Stanford, among others. In 2016, he was commissioned by The Open Society Foundation to travel to Columbia to create a film (War on Us with Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist Rhymefest) that highlights the international effects of US drug policy in South America. One of his generation's most important political voices, in 2017, he rece…

First Aired 4/22/22 Todd Kaplan is the Chief Marketing Officer at Pepsi. In his role, he oversees all brand creative, communications and commercial execution across Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Zero Sugar, while building a long term strategy and new product innovation for the brand overall. He has implemented a unique “culture in, brand out” approach, which has led him to develop big cultural moments, like bringing J. Lo and Shakira to the 2020 Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime show, making history as the first two Latina artists to headline the event. More recently, he put together the 2022 halftime show with landmark Hip Hop and R&B acts like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J Blige and 50 Cent. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Todd started the first student-run ad agency in the country after observing how poor marketing and targeting was in on-campus advertising. Todd’s entry point into Pepsico was approaching Indra Nooyi at a speaking event at his Alma Mater, Yale. He i…

Sarah Dusek is Co-Founder of Under Canvas, the leading US adventure-hospitality company offering luxurious glamping accommodations just minutes from America’s most popular and iconic national parks. In 2017, Under Canvas received a spot on the coveted Inc. 5000 list, and Sarah was named to the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women list from Ernst & Young. Under Canvas has set an unprecedented new standard in ecological development while redefining experiential hospitality in a meaningful way. Sarah believes passionately in empowering women to reach their full potential and enabling them to grow in their leadership. This commitment extends to her broader mission to help grow scalable, sustainable businesses that have the power to transform communities, cities and nations. Most recently, Sarah launched Enygma Ventures, a private investment fund focused on investing in women-led businesses in Southern Africa.  This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Sarah sees glamping as a great way to open up th…

FIRST AIRED 1/30/21 On E131 of The POZcast, I’m joined by Jordan Harbinger, who hosts the Top Ranked iTunes podcast, “The Jordan Harbinger Show” with over 11 million monthly downloads. Jordan and I kick it off by talking about his early career, and his first endeavor into coaching and helping people learn the art of networking through The Art of Charm. What started out as a course in networking whilst completing law school turned out to be one of the most successful early podcasts about relationship building and self-improvement. In 2018, Jordan and his partners at The Art of Charm went their separate ways, and Jordan was left to start a new platform completely on his own. That same year, he had amassed a huge following, leading to his recognition by Apple. Jordan and I discuss some of my favorite interviews that he’s held, as well as some of his most memorable moments. From Kobe Bryant to Anthony S. Luciano recounting mob hits coordinated against the pope, Jordan has dissected his…

Hung Lee is a founder, curator, and recruitment industry professional with nearly 20 years of experience. He stays on top of the pulse of the recruiting world through his Recruiting Brainfood newsletter and community, which he curates himself. Before Recruiting Brainfood, Hung founded WorkShape.io– a revolutionary recruiting platform for Software engineers. His earlier companies include VC consultancy @HungLee and location-based community app 300 Notes. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Hung went through a car accident as a young man that left him bedridden for a year. During this time when he couldn’t move or work, he intensively thought about his life and gained motivation to do more due to his inability to move. Although Hung was originally somewhat anti-establishment and anti-capitalist in his beliefs before that accident, he realized that he had a responsibility to pay for his medical bills and life in general, decided to bite the bullet and get a corporate job, and set his sig…

FIRST AIRED 1/27/21 In this very special episode of The POZcast, I’m joined by Grant Cardone, Mr #10X to discuss life, business, and his newest challenge in shooting the most recent season of Undercover Billionaire on Discovery+. We open up talking about the show and his experience, and unravel his decisions and motivations in the process of building a monstrous business after turning over all of the resources he has worked his entire life to obtain. Grant talks about some of the split-second decisions he made that “saved his ass” early on in the competition, as well as some realizations that he came to early on in this 90-day challenge that would both haunt and motivate him throughout the challenge. We also dug in to one of the most important resources he was able to keep utilizing throughout the show– his family– and how that support drove him to keep pushing through the challenges. Once we finished talking about the show, I was able to ask Grant about some of the tenets of his …

David Shapiro founded Semkhor over 25 years ago to explore the intersection of art and technology. He attended Columbia College to study English and East Asian Philosophy and then became a licensed doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He used his background in medicine to open up six acupuncture clinics. During graduate school, he also started Semkhor to develop a website to present information on natural medicine and as a way to pay for school. Since its early days, SEMKHOR has expanded into a sophisticated infrastructure that encompasses a visual effects studio, an accredited VFX training program, a top-tier talent network, an associated Speaker Series, and integrated Blockchain and Commerce technology.  This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: David got interested in Eastern Culture and Medicine through his immersion in Taekwondo back when he was growing up in Kansas. He worked out with the police force that would train there and got more interested in mind and body connection through…

FIRST AIRED 3/31/21 Thrilled to welcome Lindsay Kaplan to episode 138 of #thePOZcast. Lindsay is the Co-founder of Chief, the private network designed to connect and support women in executive leadership roles. Previously, she was an early member of the Casper team as the VP of Communications and Brand. She has a knack for creativity and a clear vision for the advancement of women in the workplace by bringing talent together to form a powerful community. She is also a mom who speaks to the stress and challenges of being a mother with a full time job during the pandemic. This Episode’s Heavy-Hitters: Lindsay breaks down why the conditions parents have to operate under during the pandemic isn’t normal and shouldn’t be normalized; how parents are struggling in the workplace more than ever Sometimes, self care is a bottle of wine, a bowl of cheerios, and a good long cry in the bathtub How Lindsay and her team at Chief were able to take on the Glass Ceiling Breaker art piece, which ho…

Angela Antony is the Founder and CEO of Scoutible, the world’s first game-based hiring platform, which uses machine learning to track soft skills through gameplay and uncover the best candidates for a job. Angela spent nine years at Harvard, focusing her psychology, business, and law degrees on labor market issues across society. After Harvard, she worked at the White House under Obama as part of the National Economic Council. During that time, she was writing a book about her Harvard research titled Invisible Handcuffs, which ultimately became the primary research underlying Scoutible. Scoutible was recently named one of Inc Magazine’s 8 Most Innovative Startups of the Year, and Angela was named to Inc’s Female Founders 100 list. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Before she started Scoutable, Angela launched a startup called Beanstockd Media, which taught her “invaluable lessons on what NOT to do in a startup.” Although she felt it was a failure at the time, she now looks back at it…

Stephynie Malik is the founder and CEO of SMALIK Enterprises. Stephynie started her first global company, MalikCo, by bootstrapping the company with $1,500 and a cell phone, building it into a global software integrator, designing and delivering customized business solutions, optimizing performance, productivity, and profitability for her clients. Some of her past clients include Accenture, Ernst & Young, American Express, United, Nike, LinkedIn, PWC, and Deloitte to name just a few. Stephynie’s consulting, coaching and crisis resolution styles are unique, based on proven strategies and methods that achieve the desired outcomes elite athletes, high net worth, and high public profile individuals are looking for. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Stephynie was emancipated when she was just 15 due to her mother’s mental health problems, which left her unable to properly take care of Stephynie. Within a month of auditing and investigating a Venture Capital firm that she was hired to help…

Krish Ramineni is the co-founder & CEO of Fireflies.ai, a fast-growing startup based in San Francisco. The company has had a breakout year with its AI Voice Assistant that transcribes meetings, creates notes, and completes tasks. Krish launched Fireflies.ai to overwhelming demand and success in early 2020, at a time when we could certainly use all the assistance we could get as we figured out the new world of work. Prior to Fireflies, Krish was one of the youngest product managers at Microsoft, working on cutting-edge machine learning and growth engineering initiatives. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Growing up, Krish was raised by a father who was a film and real estate entrepreneur and a mother whose family was mostly full of doctors. Originally, Krish thought he wanted to work in medicine; but as he got older and started college, he realized he could have more of an impact in the tech industry. When Krish took his job as a project manager at Microsoft, he originally wanted to …