Episodes

Chris Wilson is a visual artist, author, film producer, and social justice advocate. Chris was sentenced to life in prison for a circumstance where he was defending himself, and there was a loss of life. Through his work, he investigates societal injustices, human relationships, and public policies. His book, The Master Plan, continues to inspire people from all walks of life. His artwork is collected and displayed internationally and his production company, Cuttlefish, has produced several successful films, including The Box, which was featured in the Tribeca Film Festival. He is also the founder of the Chris Wilson Foundation, which supports social entrepreneurs and prison education, including re-entry and financial literacy for returning citizens, as well as art-related programs. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Chris lost many family members and friends to violence in his youth. He received a life sentence in prison in the process of defending himself but was released after over …

FIRST AIR: 7/16/21 Chukky Okobi is an 8 year veteran of the National Football League and a Super Bowl winning champion with his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers. Today he’s an emotional intelligence and integrative psychology professional, using his psychology expertise not only as a Keynote & Motivational speaker, but mainly as a mental performance coach for venture capitalists, startup founders, entrepreneurs, and current/former pro athletes. Chukky Okobi has the personal experience to guide other ambitious corporate leaders to recognize that Success is Simple…if you know the Basic Instructions of Mind Mastery. This Episode’s Heavy-Hitters: Chukky made the decision he was “going pro” at age 7– he just didn’t know what sport he would go pro in until he played football at age 13 and decided it was “way easier than it looked on TV.” Chukky’s dad didn’t know he played football until he was in college and his mother was so busy she barely had time to notice either. Chukky had to seek out…

Today’s episode of The POZcast is an adaptation of a special live stream of The POZcast from The World Staffing Summit Adam hosting the World Staffing Summit with some elite content marketers and friends of mine from LinkedIn! See below for a quick background on each of my awesome guests, sit back and soak in some content marketing gold! In short, the episode is a must-watch for anyone looking to improve their content strategy and build a strong online presence. Marcus Sawyerr emphasizes the importance of authentic conversations as a driving force behind engagement. He believes that it's crucial to focus on topics that you know your audience is interested in and to build your audience from there.‍ Adam Posner then discusses the content pyramid, which is a critical aspect of their content creation strategy. He explains how they turn their show into a podcast, individual pieces of content, and even key phrases into tweets. He also highlights the importance of experimenting with diffe…

Matt Higgins is the CEO and Co-Founder at RSE Ventures. He is also an operator and investor and was once a co-shark on ABC’s The Shark Tank. Matt has worked with some of the top names in business, entertainment, and even politics. He started his career at 16 after dropping out of high school and grinded until he was personally selected by Rudy Giuliani to become the youngest press secretary in the history of New York City. Not long after, the tragic events of 9/11 unraveled, and Higgins was thrust into the position of coordinating the global press response in the coming months. Since then, Matt has worked on the reconstruction efforts at the World Trade Center, held executive seats with the New York Jets and currently with the Miami Dolphins, founded RSE Ventures investment firm and partnered with Gary Vaynerchuk on the Vaynermedia empire.  This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: A big inspiration for his new book Burn the Boats was Matt’s mother and the extremely difficult upbringing he h…

BEST OF #THEPOZCAST: E201: Megan Reilly: Life Lessons in Parenthood and Entrepreneurship First Aired 3/25/22

Kerry Killoren Michaels is the CEO of William Murray Golf. Kerry built WMG during her time with The Chive, pioneering what was originally one licensed product into a full lifestyle brand. Today, WMG offers numerous individually curated pieces inspired by Bill and the Murray brother’s life and family. Before starting WMG, Kerry spent time working with brands like Waterworks and Oakley where she learned the full scope of operating premium product businesses. Her more recent success with WMG earned her the title of Women 2 Watch in 2022 from the Women President’s Organization. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: William Murray Golf was actually built within The Chive, and then as it grew, it transitioned out and into its own company. Kerry saw the vision for a full lifestyle apparel and sports brand that they could disrupt the stuffy world of Golf with William Murray leading the charge. At first, though, it wasn’t clear that Bill would be on board. After his lawyer shot down the idea of …

BEST OF: Maha Abouelenein: Taking Global PR into the Future of Web3 First Aired: 5/06/2022 Maha Abouelenein is an entrepreneur and global communications expert, with nearly 30 years of experience advising global corporate giants, high-growth tech startups, top governments & high net worth individuals. She is the founder of OC Consultants and the Founder of Digital and Savvy, a strategic communications firm with offices in the USA & Dubai. She also manages the personal brand PR for Gary Vaynerchuk and consults for other high profile individuals & companies such as DFF, Nike & Target. She is also the Co-Founder of Now Gaming (an esports consulting firm) and is an Executive Coach for PepTalk. Raised & educated in the USA to Egyptian parents, she is at home in both West & Arab worlds. She is an Ex-Googler, Ex-Netflix & Careem, and known as one of the leading global crisis managers. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Maha’s early aspirations were actually to be in journalism, working on th…

Lacey Kaelani is the cofounder of Metaintro and is a 2x startup founder in the HR tech space. Metaintro is the professional resume wallet for web3. The multi-chain custodial wallet holds proof-of-employment, proof-of-skill, and proof-of-education, replacing the PDF resume. Adjacent to the project, Metaintro is also the largest Discord community dedicated to web3 jobs. wherewithalMetaintro is backed by NEAR Blockchain, Aave, and web3 investors, having just raised $5.6M. It's the largest seed round led by a female founder in the web3 HR tech space. Having built Metaintro, Lacey has helped thousands of people make the professional career transition into web3. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Lacey picked up much of her entrepreneurial wherewithal from her mother, who worked in real estate. “She’s the type of person that always has a new idea for a business” and in 2008 during the market crash, instead of crumbling, she was trying to think of the top 5 businesses that would generate mon…

BEST OF: Kara Goldin: Founder & CEO at Hint: Key Life & Career Lessons First Aired: 3/10/2021 Who’s it for?: You’ll want to check out this episode if you’re struggling to solidify your business idea, grow it from the ground up, or even if you’ve done all of the above and you’re looking for a strong way to tell your story! In episode 136 of #thePOZcast, I sit down with Kara Goldin, Founder and CEO of Hint Inc. best known for its award-winning Hint® water. We start off talking about her early introduction to the world of entrepreneurship, when she got a job for a toy company and quickly rose up to learn about product margins and purchasing for the storefront. She was only 14 then, but that along with watching her father launch a brand under the company he was working for and learning about acquisitions was enough to seed her ambition to one day start her own company. We also talk about the effects of her early interest in Steve Jobs, which drove her to buy a personal Mac computer whi…

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…