Episodes

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 …

FIRST AIRED 10/21/21 Brett Berish, is the owner of Sovereign Brands and the CEO of Belaire, a collection of French sparkling wines that have become globally recognized as America’s fastest-growing French sparkling wine brand. In a few short years, Belaire Rosé has become the best-selling French Rosé in the U.S. At Sovereign Brands, Brett Berish has established many notable brands, including Armand de Brignac Champagne, rated the world’s top champagne. In 2014, Berish famously sold the luxury champagne label “Ace of Spades” to Jay-Z. Brett Berish is also CEO of Bumbu Rum (an award-winning rum), McQueen and the Violet Fog, and Villon. He launched the “Self-Made Tastes Better” campaign to celebrate artists who have challenged convention and paved their own path to success. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Brett’s father had been in the alcohol industry for over 45 years, and although he never wanted Brett or his brother to get involved in the industry themselves, his passion for the in…

Al Cini is the managing partner and the creative force behind the Brand and Culture Alignment Toolkit®. Al builds high-performing teams, is educated in quantitative social psych, and has decades of large-scale project management experience for real-world companies like Apple Computer, Inc., Merck & Co., and NBC Universal. His latest development is the PRŌ-FIT™ Team Building, Blending & Bonding Workshop, which provides practical and tactical tips and advice that you can use to bring out the best in your team. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: When Al was younger, he says he was much more scatter-brained and all over the place. Early in his career, he observed a colleague who was an excellent project manager, and started to learn how to execute effectively with teams. From his time working in television, Al created a framework for what makes a commercially viable show. In order for someone to fall in love with a show, they have to meet 4 characters that each meet a particular personal…

FIRST AIRED 8/26/21 Tyrel Kirkham is the Vice President of Brand and Marketing Strategy at the Detroit Pistons. Before joining the Pistons in 2020, Tyrel ran different merchandising and venue services at staple organizations like my New York Mets, The Brooklyn Nets, and the Los Angeles Rams. Beyond being a merchandising wizard who learned from the ground up how fans interact with teams from his days back in ticketing, Tyrel has developed an incredible intuition for brand building and shaping. At the Pistons, he works on campaigns that celebrate the rich history of Detroit, often alongside Superstars like Big Sean, who recently signed on as a Creative Director. This Episode’s Heavy-hitters: During his first internships, Tyrel would work 40-60 hours for the Mets for free, only to go home and earn a paycheck at his grandparent’s business. The moral of the story; do what you need to to get your foot in the door! During his early days in ticketing and merchandising, Tyrel got precious…

Oakland McCulloch is a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the U.S. Army. During his 23 year career in the Army, Oak McCulloch held numerous leadership positions in the Infantry and Armor branches. His operational deployments include Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia and Iraq as a General's Aide-de-Camp, the Congressional Liaison Officer in support of operations in Bosnia and the Operations Officer during a peacekeeping deployment to Kosovo. He’s also assisted in disaster relief operations for Hurricane HUGO in Charleston, SC and Hurricane Andrew in South Florida. Oak is also the author of “Your Leadership Legacy: Becoming the Leader You Were Meant to Be” where he breaks down years of professional experience in leadership. He is a regular speaker on the subject of leadership and believes it’s the responsibility of today’s leaders to pass down the torch of positive leadership for a better tomorrow. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Although his father didn’t finish the 5t…

FIRST AIRED 9/15/21 Amy Malin is the cofounder of Trueheart and the Trueheart social impact search engine, a new platform that allows people to change the world with every search. Trueheart donates 80% of their net profits to six deserving non-profits who work to save lives, feed the hungry, protect the planet, promote animal welfare, fight for equality and support our youth. For the last two decades, Amy has worked at the intersection of Hollywood and philanthropy. Amy’s expertise is connecting celebrities and purpose-driven brands with deserving nonprofits to raise millions of dollars for their noble causes while creating global media campaigns that shine a spotlight on their wonderful work. Amy is a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. She hopes to help make the world a safer and more loving place for her children’s generation. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Volunteering made Amy realize that everyone has some form of pain or trauma that they …

Jay Rosenzweig is an internationally renowned social impact entrepreneur, humanitarian, trained lawyer, and leadership strategist. The founder of Rosenzweig & Company, Jay is an expert in designing, building and attracting world class teams. He consults with public and private companies, including large global corporations; emerging growth to mid-sized businesses; professional services firms; and private equity and venture capital firms. Jay has also been immersed in global human rights causes for well over two decades, and has been internationally recognized for the Annual Rosenzweig Report on equality, which he has published for the past seventeen years. Rosenzweig’s Annual Report has received endorsements and contributions from a wide range of leaders and personalities such as Justin Trudeau, Alyssa Milano, Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Cuban, Deepak Chopra, Van Jones, Zainab Salbi, CEO’s and Board Chairs of major corporations and many more. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Jay caught th…

FIRST AIRED: SEPTEMBER 17TH, 2019 Today I want to switch things up a bit and talk about a very important topic, mental wellness. This is more than a hot topic, its reality and we all need to do a much better job in looking out for ourselves and each other, especially in the workplace. I’ve known my guest today Eric Kussin, an expert in this space, for probably 25 years as we grew up in the same neighborhood in Long Island. We were never really close but always respected and admired each other. In the last few years we connected deeper professionally and the synergy has been fantastic. Eric Kussin is an 18-year professional sports executive, who got his start at the NBA League Office. After five years with the League, he went the team business route and rose the ranks with the expansion Chicago Sky, and later the Phoenix Suns. He then switched over to the NHL, working with the New Jersey Devils, & Florida Panthers. However, a debilitating mental health crisis stopped Eric’s caree…

Andreas Widmer is a seasoned entrepreneur with a passion for helping business professionals find deeper meaning in their work and sustainable success through principled entrepreneurship. He is also the author of, The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship: Creating Enduring Value, where he shares his philosophy in a practical guide on how to start and do business in a way that’s both virtuous and profitable. Previously, Andreas helped lead high-tech companies, bringing more than one hundred leading-edge technology products to market in the process. He also led several organizations focused on enterprise solutions to poverty. He is a former member of the Swiss Guard serving under Pope John Paul II and author of the book, The Pope and the CEO, which describes the ten lessons he learned from the late pope about leadership and the centrality of the human person in work. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Andreas was a self-described “troubled youth” who struggled to find what he was good at e…

AIRED AUGUST 6TH, 2019 The goal of the pozcast is to bring you, the job seekers, my listeners new, outside the box advice and tactics to take their search to the next level. My next guest, Austin Belcak does just that. Austin is the founder of Cultivated Culture where he teaches people how to land jobs they love without applying online. His strategies have helped people land jobs at places like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, and more without applying online. Austin has also been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Fast Company, Inc., and more. But that’s not his Day job, he is currently Director of Partnership Development at Microsoft. So he most certainly found a way to land a great gig. Recently I was drawn to Austin’s content on LinkedIN and had to connect and learn more about his approach. We had a great chat and I said I need to have you on the pozcast to share and that’s where we are today! Austin brings you a TON of value and actionable adv…

Perfecto Sanchez is a decorated military veteran with two combat tours to Iraq, who was originally born and raised in NYC by way of a tough Jamaican mom and later, West Point. He has over 10 years of corporate marketing and impact strategy experience, from launching Kraft’s most successful innovation to date, to launching Brooklyn’s first Organic Christmas Tree Company. Perfecto currently serves as the Founder and CEO of Keep The Change; an impact strategy shop that serves a wide portfolio of clients across the U.S. from household name brands and foundations to national institutions and international nonprofits. Not to mention he was the first American to row across the North Sea, a project to raise awareness for Ocean Sustainability. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Perfecto was a Lieutenant straight out of Westpoint Academy, which put him in a position where he was challenged to earn the respect of his unit. He was also replacing a Lieutenant that had just been killed in action, a…

ORIG AIR DATE 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 intro…

David Graziano is the founder of Art With Me. He is an artist, creative visionary, and hospitality pioneer who approaches every project with heart and incredible attention to detail. At the age of 19 David’s passion for sculpture started his entrepreneurial career as a furniture designer making sculpture furniture out of stone and wood. David created and owned venues that defined a generation of New York City nightlife starting in the 1990’s. David visited Tulum for the first time in the early 2000s and discovered an intense connection to the land. Heavily influenced by his experience at Burning Man, particularly the principals including the judgement-free ethos of burners, he set out to design a Tulum hotel that gave everyone from luxury-seekers to low-budget backpackers a home in Tulum. The concept worked and the result is Ahau one of Tulum’s most talked about hotels where good vibes flow freely through the winding jungle pathways. In 2017 David began uniting Tulum hotels and …

ORIG AIR DATE: 4/28/21 My guest on E146 of #thePOZcast, Tucker Max is a four-time, New York Times best-selling author and founder of Scribe Media. His career took off after he started a blog on tuckermax.com, on which he actually created his own genre called “fratire”. New York Times writer Warren St. John coined “fratire” to describe Tucker’s writing at the time, which was mostly stories about the night life of a man in his twenties, all the partying that comes with it, tied together with a talent (or sometimes a curse) to always tell the truth no matter what. Now with Scribe Media, Tucker lives a much more balanced life and helps other amazing people like David Goggins and Tiffany Haddish tell their stories and their truth by coaching them through the process of writing their own books. This Episode’s Heavy Hitters: – The price for being a lawyer is your soul. This comes from Tucker’s personal experience. – The two years he spent in Hollywood were the “worst two years” of his l…

Chris O’Connell is a recruiter, leadership coach, and host of the Purpose-Led Leadership Podcast. Chris is a recruiting industry vet who grew his own firm to £25 million after launching in 2003. For personal reasons that we dive into on this episode– Chris stepped away from that budding business to work on himself. Today, Chris has come back from that place of necessary self-improvement and now coaches leaders on how to build purpose-led businesses that perform. Chris is also an outspoken advocate of mental health, and a proud dad to three incredible boys. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Chris started off his career at S3 as a resourcer and rebiller, and worked his way up to the top biller in the UK. He left in 2003 and started his own recruiting business to overwhelming success. He then went through a period of failure in his business and personal life that resulted in him being seriously depressed for years and ultimately trying to take his own life. That rock bottom moment al…

ORIG AIR DATE: June 2020 My guest on episode 82 of #thePOZcast Jeff Fenster is a serial entrepreneur whose main business principles are making friends and having fun! Fenster is focused on disruptive start-ups with vertical integration and revenue-driving innovation while cultivating and empowering top-tier leadership teams to foster the growth of successful brands.A pioneer in the quick-serve restaurant category, Fenster is the founder of the rapidly expanding, So Cal-based superfood brand, everbowl™ which he established in 2016. everbowl is nationally recognized as a rising-star within the sector, making healthy superfoods accessible and affordable for everyone. As an inspiring mentor and team-builder, Fenster is dedicated to fostering a strong company culture where the motto is “make friends and have fun.” Fenster is also a proactive community advocate, generously contributing time and funds to his neighbors and everbowl customers. Jeff’s lifelong mentor is Dave Meltzer, someone…

Ruben Harris is the CEO and co-founder of Career Karma, which gives you the information, tools, and support you need to get into a tech career quickly. Career Karma was founded through Y Combinator and has raised over $50 Million to date. Ruben began his technology career working in Partnerships and Sales after writing a viral blog post called Breaking Into Startups about how he moved to San Francisco without a job and landed a position 3 weeks later. After receiving thousands of emails asking how to break into tech, Ruben Cofounded the Breaking Into Startups Podcast to demystify the process. Prior to working in tech, Ruben worked as an Investment Banker focused on Food, Consumer, and Retail companies in Chicago and Atlanta. Ruben has had more than his fair share of careers and interests, noting almost 30 years of playing the Cello among one of his oldest-held passions. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: A large inspiration for starting Career Karma was Ruben’s own experience entering…

Dan Granger is the CEO and founder of Oxford Road, the leading independently owned ad agency specializing in audio channels such as podcasts, radio, streaming and more. They have helped countless DTC brands scale their customer acquisition efforts and grow from startup to $1B+ valuations. Dan started his work in radio programming back at Clear Channel Radio back in 2003, which would eventually become IHeartRadio. He saw the internet and podcast wave coming as early as 2006, and started forming relationships within Silicon Valley at that time. In 2013, he launched Oxford Road to great success and continues to shape the massive emerging podcasting ecosystem. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Dan’s interest in media started with writing controversial editorials when he was young in school. Later, while working a job that required him to drive tapes around town, Dan fell in love with the format of talk radio. One of the first clients Dan had was LegalZoom. He convinced them to advertise …

AJ Vaynerchuk is an American entrepreneur who co-founded the athlete representation firm VaynerSports in 2016. He is also the former COO of VaynerMedia, a social-media-first digital agency, and a founding partner of the venture capital fund VaynerRSE. Along with his elder brother, Gary Vaynerchuk, AJ was raiding garage sales and selling toys for a profit even before he hit his teens! The brothers started dealing in domains as high school students and began designing and selling websites while at college. In 2009, AJ and Gary teamed up to form VaynerMedia, a social media-focused digital agency. By doing so, they were entering an emerging field as social media was still in a nascent stage back then. Despite the risks involved, the brothers were able to build an innovative and successful venture. AJ Vaynerchuk is also a pioneer in the NFT and web3 world, spearheading VSP, VaynerSportsPass. Joining Adam on this show as co-host is Kevin Logan, Jr., the Co-Founder of Probably Nothin…

Chris Do is the director, CEO and Chief Strategist of Blind, an Emmy award winning motion design studio which he ran for over 2 decades. Since founding Blind in 2014, Chris reluctantly made his first YouTube video, which altered his life and career trajectory. That’s when he founded The Futur—an online education platform with the mission of teaching 1 billion people how to make a living doing what they love. Chris is also a Vietnamese immigrant who understands building himself from the bottom up. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: A true shining example as a kid, Chris’s father worked his way up, as an immigrant that didn’t speak the language, from a bus boy to the Chief Engineer at a semiconductor factory. Another formative moment was when Chris had a messy breakup that led him to a dark period in his life, where he missed out on going to all the top design schools he had dreamed of. He made a promise to himself while attending a community college, and committed to a life of celibacy…