Russell Benaroya is a Co-founder and Partner at Stride, an outsource bookkeeping, accounting, and strategic financial services company supporting professional service firms nationwide.  He is a seasoned entrepreneur, podcaster, and author of the book, One Life to Lead: Business Success Through Better Life Design. Russell began his career in corporate finance on Wall Street after graduating with dual degrees in accounting and economics. He has spent the last 20 years investing in private equity and as a healthcare entrepreneur, he built and exited two startup businesses. He is a former Techstars graduate and a longtime member of EO Seattle (Entrepreneurs’ Organization). He received his MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and BA in Economics and Accounting from UC Santa Barbara. Russell Benaroya, a Co-founder and Partner at Stride, is John Corcoran's guest in this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast where he talks about achieving business success through better life design. Russell also shares his entrepreneurial background, the challenges he faced building his businesses, his new book, and how he helps entrepreneurs stay in their genius zones.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz is the Co-founder of Rise25, a company that helps B2B business owners connect with their ideal prospects, referral partners, and strategic partners through a done-for-you podcast service. Dr. Weisz has been involved in podcasting for 11 years and was a senior producer for one of the early business podcasts; he assisted in putting all of their systems in place and helped them add volume, feature, and edify various business leaders. Dr. Weisz has also been running his own podcast, Inspired Insider, since 2011. He has featured top entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs of companies such as P90X, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, the Orlando Magic, and many more through video interviews. Dr. Weisz also founded a nutritional supplement business and continues to run his own chiropractic and massage facility, Chiropractical Solutions & Massage. Dr. Jeremy Weisz, the Co-founder of Rise25, joins John Corcoran in this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast to discuss how to name a podcast and get better ROI from it. They talk about types of phrases to avoid when naming a podcast, what to know about using specific names, when to name a podcast after a business, and the benefits of brainstorming names with others.

Jay Haynes is the Founder and CEO of thrv, an enterprise product management software company focused on helping teams with jobs-to-be-done innovation methods. He is an award-winning entrepreneur and executive with 30 years of software and investing experience. His customers include Microsoft, Dropbox, Twitter, eBay, Target, American Express, and Oracle. Prior to thrv, Jay worked as an Investment Associate at private equity firm GTCR, Product Manager at Microsoft, and CEO of Strategyn, which is a product strategy and innovation consulting firm. He graduated from Brown University and received his MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.  In this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, John Corcoran is joined by Jay Haynes, the Founder and CEO of thrv, to talk about how the jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework helps businesses provide better services to their customers. They discuss the value of focusing on meeting customers' needs, the importance of being innovative, and how having a group of peer mentors can be very impactful to entrepreneurs.

Jennifer Rotner is the Founder and CEO of Elite Creative, which consists of Elite Editing and Elite Authors. They provide writing, editing, publishing, and content marketing solutions. From her real-world experience as a professional editor, Jennifer recognized the need for a better way to ensure that editing and proofreading services were customized to each of her customers. Therefore, she developed an exclusive matching system to pair every project and customer with the right proofreader or editor — which is why Elite Editing boasts of a loyal roster of satisfied customers and an unrivaled pool of editors and proofreaders who hail from the business, academic, and journalism realms. Prior to founding Elite Editing, Jennifer helped form the editorial division at NYC & Company, New York City’s official marketing organization, where she ran the copy department as Copy Chief. Before that, she gained years of experience in the field as features editor for Focus - New York Magazine and as an editor for the marketing department at the American Museum of Natural History. In this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, John Corcoran interviews Jennifer Rotner, the Founder and CEO of Elite Creative, about her process of systematizing and scaling creative businesses to over seven figures. Jennifer talks about the mistakes she made and the lessons she learned when building her first businesses, explains how she structures her companies, and shares her tips for working with big clients.

Shirin Oreizy is the Founder and CEO of Next Step, an award-winning behavioral marketing agency with offices in San Francisco and Boston. Next Step leverages the latest research in behavioral science (the study of how humans make decisions) to design better outcomes for businesses in their marketing and growth initiatives.  Shirin has a degree in Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley and holds accreditations from Duke University and UC Berkeley on behavioral science and positive psychology. Her work applying behavioral science in marketing is regularly featured in Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and The Huffington Post. She has also been on the board of Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) and a guest lecturer at Stanford University.  In this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, John Corcoran is joined by Shirin Oreizy, the Founder and CEO of Next Step, to discuss how you can use behavioral science to supercharge your business’ marketing. Shirin explains what behavioral science means, talks about the role it plays in building a company's culture, and explains how she pivoted her business from a digital design agency to start focusing on behavioral science.

Michael Arrieta is the Founder and CEO of Garden City, a purpose-driven buyout holding company that buys, grows, and forever-holds service companies across the Southeast. Once acquired, Garden City seeks to grow them through culture, technology, and sales. Michael was an early employee at DocuSign where he served as Global Vice President, General Manager, and Chief of Staff to the CEO. DocuSign has now achieved a $50B market cap with 5,000 employees.  In 2016, Michael founded MAV Ventures, a venture capital group that has invested in over 50 companies and multiple funds. He also co-founded New Story, a nonprofit that has built over 2,000 homes in developing countries and is recognized for creating the world’s first-ever 3D home printer. He was recognized by Forbes as “30 Under 30” in 2016 for his social entrepreneurship work. He graduated from the University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management and now lives in Atlanta with his wife and children. In this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, John Corcoran is joined by Michael Arrieta, the Founder and CEO of Garden City, to talk about investing in service and technology-based businesses. Michael discusses his career background working at Cutco, Wyse Technology, Dell, and DocuSign — including the lessons learned from Michael Dell. He also shares his hiring strategies and explains how he evaluates the best companies to invest in.

Anna David is the Founder and CEO of Launch Pad Publishing, a company that helps people share their stories and increase their credibility through book publishing. She is a New York Times best-selling author of eight books and has been a featured speaker at three different TEDx events.  Anna has been published in The New York Times, Time, and The LA Times among many others. She has appeared repeatedly on The Today Show, The Talk, The CBS Morning Show, and dozens of other programs and has been written about in Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Martha Stewart Living. Anna is also the host of the Launch Your Book podcast. In this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, John Corcoran is joined by Anna David, an author and the Founder and CEO of Launch Pad Publishing, to talk about the journey to become a New York Times best-selling author. Anna discusses the challenges she faced building her writing career and publishing company, as well as her experience battling addiction. Plus, Anna shares how Launch Pad Publishing can help you produce your book and grow your business from there!

Kait LeDonne is the Founder of Brandwise Media, a personal brand agency that builds executive and authors’ unique brands using content marketing strategies through social media. She is the author of the book, The Attraction Magnet: The 7 Insider Secrets The World's Biggest Brands Use to Attract Customers Who Can't Wait to Buy From Them. Kait has been featured regularly in national and international publications as a commentator on celebrity and corporate brands.  Kait developed The Influence Academy, one of the first online courses centered around LinkedIn, to teach executives how to position themselves as thought leaders in their respective spaces. To date, over 100 executives have completed the program. In this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, Kait LeDonne, the Founder of Brandwise Media, gets interviewed by John Corcoran about the business strategies she used to expand and 4x her agency in only 18 months. Kait also shares her recruitment strategies, explains how she builds her company's culture, and talks about the KPIs she uses to evaluate the performance of her business. Stay tuned.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz is the Co-founder of Rise25, a company that helps B2B business owners connect with their ideal prospects, referral partners, and strategic partners through a done-for-you podcast service. Dr. Weisz has been involved in podcasting for 11 years and was a senior producer for one of the early business podcasts; he assisted in putting all of their systems in place and helped them add volume, feature, and edify various business leaders. Since 2011, Dr. Weisz has also been running his own podcast, Inspired Insider. Through those video interviews, he features top entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs of companies such as P90X, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, the Orlando Magic, and many more. Dr. Weisz also founded a nutritional supplement business and continues to run his chiropractic and massage facility, Chiropractical Solutions & Massage. In this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz, host of the Inspired Insider podcast, joins John Corcoran, his Co-founder at Rise25 Media, to share their best strategies for increasing exposure by appearing on other podcasts. They also talk about sending personalized outreach messages, the benefits of having your own podcast, and their advice on being a good podcast guest. Stay tuned.

Craig Cummings is a Co-founder and investor at Santa Barbara Angel Alliance. He has founded or co-founded several technology-driven startup companies that executed multi-billion dollar IPO's (known as "unicorns") and one that was acquired for $650 million.  Craig has served as a Trustee for both the UC Santa Barbara Foundation and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. He previously served on the advisory boards of the Eco-Entrepreneurship Program at the Bren School and the Technology Management Program, both at UC Santa Barbara. He is a member of Tech Coast Angels and is the past Chairman of the Central Coast chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum. Craig holds nuclear engineering degrees from UC Santa Barbara and MIT. Craig Cummings, a Co-founder and investor at Santa Barbara Angel Alliance, is John Corcoran's guest in this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where they talk about Craig's experience working at SAIC under Bob Beyster's leadership and what he learned from the experience. They also talk about investing in startups, the benefits of an angel alliance, and what led to the collapse of SpectraFluidics. Stay tuned.