Just Go Grind

Christina founded The New Quo because she believes story is one of our most powerful tools for change. The New Quo is a content platform and communications consultancy helping leaders and companies rebrand and rewrite their voice to convey their unique purpose, navigate change, gain buy-in, and create status-quo breaking communications that shift hearts, mindsets, and culture for the better. Christina has spent the past 10 years using story to drive action — from motivating 300,000 young people to volunteer on various social causes (from discrimination to women’s empowerment), closing $6.5 million in profits with teams she's worked with throughout various industries, and teaching 220 leaders in proprietary workshops on how to create culture change, all through story. She is also a performer and loves combining the high-energy entertainment style of her singing background with actionable tips that leave the people she works with and teach inspired, motivated, and ready to take action. You can peep her work in Elle.com, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Marie Claire, The Huffington Post, Mogul.com, Attn.com, and Thrive.com among other outlets. As an Utah native & NYC resident for the past 9 years, she knows far more uses for jello than she'd like to admit. Want to connect with other go-getters? Join The Grind! The Grind is a community where entrepreneurs, creators, and other go-getters can connect digitally and in-person to build their businesses, get ideas and inspiration, make an impact, and support others pursuing their dreams. Learn more here: https://www.justgogrind.com/the-grind/

Liz Long is on a mission to help "makers" succeed! She's the creator of Learn To Make A Product™ and contributing writer at Forbes, where she covers the world of physical product entrepreneurship. Learn To Make A Product is serving makers from all over the world. Their workshops, digital products, and support packages have reached over 5,000 people and Liz has educated groups at MIT, Babson, General Assembly and beyond! Want to build your business? Join The Grind! The Grind is a community where entrepreneurs, creators, and other go-getters can connect digitally and in-person to build their businesses, get ideas and inspiration, make an impact, and support others pursuing their dreams. Learn more here: https://www.justgogrind.com/the-grind/

Rob Patrick, the founder of Bitmob, started writing code at 12 years old and never looked back. He's since become a CTO, CEO, co-founder, startup mentor/advisor, sold a company, guest spoken at Harvard, been on TV, co-authored a few patents and served as Chairman & member on a few Board of Directors. Even with more than 15 years of software technology leadership experience, he loves that the tech space provides constant opportunity to grow and innovate. Turns out, his passion is working with amazing people to create transformative software solutions that have significant positive impact. Bitmob is a SaaS Platform that produces high-quality automated tests for your codebase, which helps you eliminate bugs, improve code quality, and free up engineers. Want to build your business? Join The Grind! The Grind is a community where entrepreneurs, creators, and other go-getters can connect digitally and in-person to build their businesses, get ideas and inspiration, make an impact, and support others pursuing their dreams. Learn more here: https://www.justgogrind.com/the-grind/

Zach Evans, my best friend since high school, is a pianist, producer, and kick-ass entrepreneur who turned his passion for piano into a business that's done more than $1 million in revenue in 3 years. He's been featured on CBS, Yahoo, USA Today, and has amassed more than 10 million views on YouTube. Zach now lives in Los Angeles and, with the extra time his lifestyle business gives him, is focusing his time and effort on breaking into the music industry – this time as an artist. Want to build your business? Join The Grind! The Grind is a community where entrepreneurs, creators, and other go-getters can connect digitally and in-person to build their businesses, get ideas and inspiration, make an impact, and support others pursuing their dreams. Learn more here: https://www.justgogrind.com/the-grind/

Marla Isackson is a seasoned marketing executive with over 25 years’ experience creating innovative marketing campaigns for world-famous brands including Citibank, American Express, Barnes & Noble, and WebMD. A longtime passionate supporter of women's initiatives, Marla is the founder of Ossa Collective (Formerly - Like a Boss Girls), a website providing young women the tools, information and inspiration they need to define, explore and connect with their goals -- including finding (or creating) their dream job, becoming entrepreneurs, social activists, leaders, basically pursuing success however they may define it. A mother of two and an entrepreneur herself, Marla created Like a Boss Girls, formerly known as Heart of Gold, because she believes that young women have the strength, determination and talents to play a bigger game, make a big difference in the world, and “make it big” by achieving real greatness in their lives. Marla is also the founder of Ossa. Ossa connects women in podcasting with brands buying podcast advertising. Ossa provides women in podcasting a supportive community and increased earnings potential. Ossa also enables brands identify and target relevant niche audiences engaging in the podcasting medium. Ossa was in beta from August 2018 through mid January 2019. Ossa launched in mid January 2019 with 200 podcasters and 150+ brands on the platform.

Stephanie Thoma is a networking strategy coach, international speaker and writer based in San Francisco, serving on the board of the Young Professionals of San Francisco. Stephanie's attended/hosted 600+ events since 2016 and has made a fulfilling career out of inspiring and facilitating human connection. Stephanie helps introverts unlock their in-person networking potential, uncover limiting beliefs, build confidence and establish authentic relationships at work and in life through professional workshops and coaching. She has been featured in Business Insider and Refinery29 and invited to speak at Harvard University, Venture Cafe Tokyo, Serendipity Conference and General Assembly, among others.

Wietse Van Der Werf is an award-winning social entrepreneur and conservationist, pioneering regenerative blue economy ventures. For his innovative approach which mobilizes business, government and citizens to form uncommon partnerships for the social economic and ecological regeneration of coastal and ocean areas, Wietse was previously awarded the Future for Nature Award (2016), Ashoka Fellowship (2018) and Summit Fellowship (2019). His current venture, the Sea Ranger Service, trains unemployed young people from port cities with the help of navy veterans to manage Marine Protected Areas. A new type of sailing work vessel has been developed for the Sea Rangers; operating at sea cost-effective and with zero emissions.

Katherine Sprung is the founder and owner of Squish Marshmallows, a former nightlife DJ, and currently hosts a podcast, IRATE with Katherine Sprung. Squish Marshmallows is producing marshmallows of magnificent magnitude. These small batch, hand cut marshmallows are made with unique flavors, fulfilling every palate from childhood favorite combinations, to sophisticated, grown-up confections. Oh, and of course, lots and lots of love.  The goal of Squish Marshmallows is to make a quality, delicious product, using natural ingredients in the marshmallow base, that makes people happy and changes the way they view the humble marshmallow. Whether you choose to enjoy the marshmallows by themselves, or use them to make the most decadent and whimsical s’mores, the idea is to simply eat them and be happy. Sign up for THE WEEKLY GRIND, my weekly newsletter with tips, tools, and strategies for growing your business: http://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ JUST GO GRIND Show Notes with links to everything mentioned in this episode:  http://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ JUST GO GRIND on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/justgogrind/

Christine Specht grew up with Cousins Subs — the sub sandwich chain her dad, Bill Specht, founded with his cousin two years before she was born. She has held the roles of Human Resources Manager, Chief Operating Officer, President and CEO, and she now serves as the company’s CEO. As President and CEO, she successfully brought new life to a legacy brand by leading a series of system changes, including: a largescale rebranding strategy to establish consistency and unify the brand in look and feel across all locations, implementation of grills in all restaurants and inclusion of Cousins Subs’ Midwest heritage throughout its menu with signature local products including subs served with all Wisconsin cheeses.  Specht strengthened Cousins Subs’ unit-level economics, created a strong core of franchise partners and positioned the organization for growth in the Midwest. In 2018, she was honored as one of the Milwaukee Business Journal’s Women of Influence and recognized in FastCasual magazine’s “Women in the Lead” series. Sign up for THE WEEKLY GRIND, my weekly newsletter with tips, tools, and strategies for growing your business: http://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ JUST GO GRIND Show Notes with links to everything mentioned in this episode:  http://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ JUST GO GRIND on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/justgogrind/

In this special solo episode of the Just Go Grind Podcast I’m sharing my Rules of the Road, lessons learned from USC Marshall's Cases in New Ventures class with Professor Steven Mednick, where we had incredible guest speakers each week sharing their insights. I’ll go through what to do when starting, growing, and selling a business, as well as the special recipe that makes for a successful entrepreneur.