Our newest guest may not be a best-selling author on real estate yet, but we're already predicting this former World Cup soccer player will soon be a household name in Dave Ramsey's world in a few years.Vaughn Bethell is the founder of REI Junkies based in South Carolina, and in this episode, we learn his unique process of providing real estate investors with a different way to reduce stress and frustration in their investments.

One of the best management books ever written is The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker, published in 1966. Managing For Results and The Practice of Management are other favorites of this show.Randy Wooton joins us to discuss the big ideas in The Effective Executive. He's a three-time CEO and has held senior positions at Microsoft and Salesforce. He is also the host of The SaaS Expert Voices Podcast and serves as Maxio's chief executive.In this conversation, we address why we study Drucker and his ideas on time management, effective decisions, knowledge workers, and setting priorities.

Consumers and anyone who studies business understand the subscription economy, but what about the usage economy? What is it? How does it differ from the subscription economy? Does it matter?Adam Howatson is the CEO of LogiSense and the author of The Usage Economy. In this conversation, Adam will give examples of companies that got it right with their usage-based pricing models and those that made serious mistakes, such as Wink.We'll also learn about telemetry, AI's fit, and the most important information metrics for transitioning into the usage economy.

Have you ever left a movie theater where a film left you speechless and made you feel like you needed to rewatch parts of it to figure out what you were missing?Jeff Hooke's book, The Myth of Private Equity, left me feeling that way after finishing each chapter of his tell-all book about the exaggerations and overstatements of the private equity marketing machine.During this conversation, we learned much about the myths of PE funds focused on leveraged buyouts. Some of the big ideas in this conversation include the enormous fees fund managers are collecting, the poor fund performance these funds generate, and the lack of transparency in their reporting to institutional investors.We'll also learn about one of Warren Buffett's worst investment decisions and his advice on where retail and institutional investors should invest their money. 

My favorite go-to person on all matters, Tableau and Dataviz, is Andy Kriebel.Andy was the first person to create a YouTube channel on Tableau. His subscriber base has surpassed 61,000, and his 750+ videos have 7.5 million views and counting.Andy is the co-author with Eva Murray of the book #Makeover Monday, and you can also follow his informative and insightful helpful hints each day on LinkedIn.In this conversation, we find out why Andy has been publishing online for more than ten years, why asking for a dashboard is rarely the right starting point for Dataviz, and why his five daily habits, which I found to be pure gold.

I have my theories on why W. Edwards Deming is not a household name in 'all' business circles. Many view him as the 'quality' guy who had an impact on Japanese manufacturing after the Second World War.That view is limiting as Deming's management mindset was complete with four central tenets:PragmatismThe Law of VariationHuman psychologySystems ThinkingI used to recommend Mary Walton's book to start learning about Deming. That book gave way to a new title by Edward Martin Baker. After meeting and interviewing Gene Kim a few months ago, I have a favorite book on Deming by John Willis. The title is Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge. John was one of the earliest cloud evangelists and is considered one of the founders of the DevOps movement. John is the author of 7 IBM Redbooks. He is also the co-author of the “DevOps Handbook” and “Beyond the Phoenix Project,” along with author Gene Kim.During this conversation, we discuss Deming's influences and how he became such a complete thinker about helping others improve.

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, technology activist, and journalist. He has written many books, most recently The Bezzle, a follow-up to Red Team Blues, which are the two books we'll discuss in this episode.These two books are the beginning of a series featuring the fictional forensic accountant Martin Hench. Hench is self-employed, loves being on the red team, and rakes in 25% of the assets he can recover.Cory's books are fast-paced and entertaining but also deeply thought-provoking, especially The Bezzle.Cory has authored many books, is a long-time blogger and journalist, and hosts a podcast. You can learn more about him at his website, Craphound.

Alfred Sloan's My Years with General Motors was an immediate success and is considered one of the best management books written by CEOs of his era. Before his book, we'd probably have to go back to Henry Ford's autobiography to find a management book of this popularity.And then there's Harvey Firestone's book, which CFO Bookshelf considers a gem. Originally published in 1926, the great people behind the Farnam Street blog have republished Men and Rubber, and the author's message is as relevant now as when he published it.During this episode, we hit some of the big themes in this book:Money, capital, and planningThe key to selling and no superstarsTreating people right and employee ownershipDeep thinking and decision-makingTaking time off and Ford's vagabonds

Gary Stevenson grew up in an impoverished area of East London where he could hold his life's belongings in two arms. About three years after graduating from the London School of Economics, Citibank made him a millionaire at a very young age.Gary was 'all in' on winning the trading game. But did overnight success bring him happiness? And why did he want to leave the Citibank trading floor?Gary tells his story in his new book, The Trading Game, which I believe is this era's Liar's Poker, but with more life lessons shared in this special book. Some of the topics explored include:The reason why it's challenging to get a job on a trading floorGary's childhood and how it influenced his drive to masteryThe reason poor people are looked down upon by the richGary's first day on the trading floor in 2007Profound thoughts on the mindset of a traderThe P&Ls of traders and how they got paidThe meaning of negative 4.5% interest ratesMoney was never Gary's driverHealth and mental stress in TokyoAdvice for kids wanting to be tradersGary's YouTube channelReturn to the classics

Exploring the connection between Agile, DevOps, TPS, TOC, and Deming's System of Profound Knowledge. Introducing the three layers of work and social circuitry. Discussing Simplification, Slowification, and Amplification. Reflecting on the success story of GM and Toyota's joint venture in Fremont. Emphasizing the importance of coherence and choreography in organizational processes. Exploring the concept of amplification in problem-solving for organizational improvement.