Big Questions with Cal Fussman

Summit events have impacted countless lives through the power of connection – as they’ve grown from a gathering of 20 entrepreneurs back in 2008 into a community of 20,000 today.  Billion-dollar companies have gotten off the ground because of friendships made at Summit events. Academy-award winning films have been created out of bonds formed at Summit. The collaborative spirit became fully apparent to Cal when he was invited to give a talk at a Summit event four years ago. That talk changed Cal’s life and ultimately led to the creation of this podcast. Cal catches up with Jeff Rosenthal, one of the four founders, to talk about the thinking that turned Summit from a single event to a home for entrepreneurs on Powder Mountain in Utah . . . and all the positive social causes embraced along the way.

Cal sits with investment guru Charles Schwab on the stage at the Money 2020 conference in Las Vegas to discuss the philosophies behind his success and how all of us need to look at retirement in an age when we may live 20 years longer than we expected. Plenty of takeaways from the man who’s gotten through a series of stock market bubbles while increasing the value of his company 21,000 percent over the last three decades. You read that right. Twenty-one thousand percent!

Cal gets together with Dr. Reagan Anderson for a look at the difficulties of being a doctor in this day and age. This is a conversation that everyone in America needs to hear. On average, one doctor commits suicide in the United States every day – which is the highest suicide rate of any profession. Reagan served as a surgeon for the U.S. military in Iraq and is now a dermatologist with a clinic in Colorado Springs – and he senses some profound overlaps. Even as health care provides daily miracles, Reagan shows Cal the difficulties and pressures created by the system, and why we need to rethink it. Your takeaway is to ask your doctor how she or he is doing. We need to care for the people care for us. Or else who is going to care for us in the future?

While doing a storytelling workshop, Cal meets Shirzad Chamine, the chairman of CTI, the largest coach and training company in the world. CTI has trained execs and managers at most of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as faculty at Yale and Stanford Business Schools. Cal is immediately enthralled with the way Shirzad uses positive energy to lift the workshop. He inquires and learns that Shirzad has a program that enables people to locate their inner saboteurs and defeat them. Cal takes the short test available to everybody over the internet and comes face to face with his own inner saboteurs. You’ll find out how you can locate yours and take them down, as well. 

Cal sees a report that the President has just joined the live-streaming video platform Twitch and senses that it’s time to air the podcast he did with a man who advised him to jump into the future of video games. Scott Novis, formerly Vice President and General Manager of Disney Interactive, founded a company called GameTruck to bring video game parties to millions of kids. Scott tells Cal he should pay attention to the new form of communication practiced by these gamers, and Cal realizes that Scott is right when Scott asks a question that is relevant to all of us. “What can put you out of business down the road?”

Cal heard about the growth hacker who’s worked with Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Michael Strahan, and also built a 7-figure social media following for himself in one month. And he figured it might be a good thing to get a glimpse of this world. But this podcast didn’t turn out quite like Cal figured, as Brendan posed questions that made Cal think about what he actually wanted to do with those followers. In the end, Cal doesn’t get a lesson in hauling in a million followers. He’s pointed toward magnifying his possibilities through laser focus on just the right audience. That’s a great takeaway for everybody.

Cal learns what can be accomplished when the right two people come together as he gets to the essence of his sponsor: Sportiqe. Matt Altman and Jason Franklin, two guys who grew up thousands of miles apart, trace the backstory of their clothing company with moments that touch back on Tupac Shakur, Jay-Z, the great Chicago Bulls teams with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson, and much more. So many serendipitous moments are woven together, and they all seem to prove that when passion, the right complimentary skill sets and hard work align, the resulting success is simply meant to be.

Tim Campos doubled productivity for Facebook while he was Chief Information Officer between 2010 and 2016. Now, Tim tries to do the same for Cal by introducing him to his latest project: Woven. Woven is a state-of-the-art digital calendar that we can all use to get the most out of our time while studying the analytics behind how we’re using our most precious resource. Tim’s company in the testing phase and Woven is free for all who want to give it a test drive. Old school Cal puts the pedal to the metal and loves the feeling on the cutting edge.

The CEO of CatalystCreativ was the spark for a huge change in Cal’s business and life — and this conversation gets to finding the essence in yourself and using it to be your best. It also applies to companies. Amanda has worked on projects with WeWork, Coca Cola, The Raiders and The Nature Conservancy, and designed a strategy that transforms businesses through meaningful engagement with customers and employees. The recipe to her company’s secret sauce is detailed in her upcoming book: The Seventh Level. And this conversation will inspire everybody to look at themselves and/or their businesses through a new lens.

Cal learns he can be way more persuasive than he ever thought when he sits at The Big Table in the office of Jason Harris, the CEO of Mekanism. Jason’s company has been named the small agency of the year by Ad Age. It has famously linked up with the White House under President Obama to create the “It’s On Us” campaign to raise awareness of sexual assault on college campuses. And Jason’s got a book out called The Soulful Art of Persuasion that a Harvard business professor has called the modern version of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. If you want to learn how to persuade through character as opposed to using numbers and debates, you’re in the right place.