
Awesome Office: Lead. Create. Inspire
Welcome to the Awesome Office Show, the podcast that’s all about leading people, creating culture, and inspiring Awesome for businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Each week we talk to an inspiring leader leading and awesome company and learn what it takes to create a winning business and all-around Awesome Office.
This is a behind the curtain look that you’re not going to find anywhere else. If you care about developing stellar cultures that provide lasting value for employees, customers, and shareholders, then this is the podcast for you.
The Awesome Office Show is hosted by Hughes Marino Senior Vice President Sean Spear.
Similar to Entreleadership, HBR Ideacast, Tim Ferriss, NPR's How I Built This, Smart Passive Income.
Latest episodes

Jun 12, 2017 • 56min
Why Hawke Media Just Does it Better, with Hawke Media CEO Erik Huberman
Ask Erik Huberman what sets Hawke Media apart from other marketing agencies, and he doesn’t mince words: “Most agencies suck.” In fact, that’s one of the main reasons that Erik founded Hawke Media more than three years ago. Hawke Media is an “outsourced CMO” company that provides creative marketing solutions to some of the coolest companies around. Hawke has seen massive growth since launch, scaling to nearly a hundred employees and landing big name clients like Verizon, InCase, Creative Recreation, and many more. The Santa Monica-based company is also known for its positive work culture, which helped it become a Top Ten Happy Place to Work according to Happy City. In this interview, Erik shares the hardest parts about running and scaling an agency, the lessons he learned from his no-B.S. dad, and why thinks of Hawke as the “most comfortable place to be uncomfortable.” Erik also explains the difference between a boss and a leader, and why the entire company takes a work-free “Hawkcation” together every year. Oh - and he also describes how he cut his teeth in the cutthroat world of Beanie Baby speculation. Links HawkeMedia.com Culture at Hawke @GoHawke on Twitter @ErikHuberman on Twitter Erik on LinkedIn Beanie Babies Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE Introducing SnackNation Market. For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too. SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep. With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game. We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE. Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling). That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

Jun 5, 2017 • 59min
How Esports Became Bigger than Baseball, with Team Liquid COO Mike Milanov
In case you haven’t heard, esports are kind of a big deal. They’ve attracted massive worldwide audiences, sold out live events at Staple Center and Madison Square Garden in mere minutes, and boast an aggregate viewership that has eclipsed traditional sports like baseball. To bring us up to speed, we talk to someone on the leading edge of the esports revolution - Mike Milanov. Mike is the COO of Team Liquid, a professional esports organization with 62 athletes competing in 10 different leagues, including League of Legends, Counterstrike, and Overwatch. It might help to think of TeamLiquid like a traditional sports franchise like the Cleveland Cavaliers - if the Cavs organization also fielded teams in nine other sports. In this conversation, Mike breaks down the ins and out of managing a successful e-sports franchise (including the lifestyle of a typical TeamLiquid athlete), walks us through his daily habits and management style, and predicts the future for this rapidly changing industry. He also talks about why culture matters in the esports world, and why it’s so important to “say yes to the things that make you uncomfortable.” Links Team Liquid @ThixNation on Twitter The DailyVee / Gary Vaynerchuck Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE Introducing SnackNation Market. For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too. SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep. With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game. We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE. Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling). That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

May 30, 2017 • 56min
Sun Basket’s Recipe for Startup Success, w/ Sun Basket founder and CEO Adam Zbar
How’s this for a recipe for success: Work at McKinsey. Go to film school. Take over a high-level strategy role when your colleague has a mental breakdown. Start your first company in your mid-thirties. Sound a bit... circuitous? Well it's precisely the path that today’s guest Adam Zbar took - and it seems to be working out. Adam is the CEO and founder of Sun Basket, a San Francisco-based meal-kit delivery service that makes healthy cooking easy by delivering ready to make recipes and organic and non-GMO ingredients every week. Since launching in 2015, the company has seen enormous growth and success, scaling from 0-1,000 employees and raising more than $50 million in funding. In this episode, Adam joins us from his Bay Area home to share Sun Basket’s recipe for success, as well as some top shelf “Zbarisms” - including why it’s usually better to “solve the people, not the problem.” Links SunBasket.com Sun Basket on Facebook Sun Basket on Pinterest @sunbasketmeals on Twitter @sunbasket on Instagram Adam on LinkedIn Recommended Reading Fortune: Unilever Is Investing in the Red-Hot Meal Kit Space by John Kell Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson The Coaching Habit by Michael Stangier Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE Introducing SnackNation Market. For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too. SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep. With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game. We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE. Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling). That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

May 22, 2017 • 53min
How An Appetite for Risk Helped MeUndies Ship More than 3 Million Pairs of Underwear, with MeUndies CEO Bryan Lalezarian
Sometimes being the company that VCs just don’t “get” can actually work to your advantage. Take MeUndies, the wildly successful direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand on a mission to produce the world’s most comfortable and sustainable underwear. After a seed round in 2011, they found that convincing investors to pour money into their subscription-based underwear business was more challenging than they anticipated. Compared to some of their startup peers, they often felt a little underfunded. But this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Being largely bootstrapped taught them an important lesson that they would have never learned any other way - the importance of taking calculated risks. When you’re underfunded, you have to be savvy enough to see an opportunity when it arises, nimble enough to mobilize and take advantage of it, and brave enough to actually pull the trigger. That’s all according to this week’s guest, MeUndies CEO Bryan Lalezarian. Bryan is a Wharton educated, former hedge fund analyst who decided to take a leap of faith and get in the underwear game. In this conversation with co-host Sean Spear, Bryan shares his top leadership tips, explains why he believes their focus on brand is a major key to MeUndies' success, and tells us an amazing story about what taking calculated risks really means - and how it can really pay off. Recommended Reading True Alignment by Edgar Papke ESPN - “Joseph Randle to endorse MeUndies” by Adam Schefter CBS Sports - “MeUndies.com to sponsor Marshawn Lynch's crotch-grab celebration” by Igor Mello Links www.MeUndies.com Bryan on LinkedIn @MeUndies on Instagram @MeUndies on Twitter Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE Introducing SnackNation Market. For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too. SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep. With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game. We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE. Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling). That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

May 15, 2017 • 1h 8min
How Grit Helped Kimberly Fowler Pioneer the Hybrid Fitness Category, with YAS founder and CEO Kimberly Fowler
There’s no one out there who embodies the idea of “enjoying the journey” quite like today’s guest, YAS founder and CEO Kimberly Fowler. YAS stands for Yoga And Spinning, and is a pioneering hybrid fitness concept that combines yoga for athletes with the high-intensity cardio of spin. And quite a journey it’s been. Before she launched YAS, Kimberly had already lived everywhere from LA to New Jersey to Monaco, been an attorney, a corporate executive, and a professional endurance athlete. Kimberly’s story is one of incredible grit, creativity, and constant reinvention. In this conversation, she takes us through several pivotal moments in her life, major forks in the road that forced her to pause and ask “now what do I do with my life?” Through it all, Kimberly has maintained a fearless attitude and her trademark grit as she faced these challenges - which include a terminal brain tumor diagnosis in law school and a near-fatal free climbing accident that made her lose her job and forced her to start over yet again. Co-host Sean Spear met up with Kimberly in YAS’ flagship Venice location to talk fundraising, fitness and to hear about this remarkable journey.

May 8, 2017 • 1h 3min
How to Coach Your Company to Win Championships - Jason Nazar Revisited
This week we’re going back to the archives for one of our very favorite episodes, our conversation with Jason Nazar. Jason Nazar, is the co-Founder and CEO at Comparably, a company whose mission is to make work better by providing the most accurate and comprehensive compensation and culture data available anywhere. He’s also the the former CEO of Docstoc, an entrepreneur in residence for the city of Los Angeles, and an active investor, writer, and speaker. He definitely knows a thing or two about creating strong teams and inspiring cultures, and he brought his A-game in this classic interview. In our conversation Jason describes his first foray into entrepreneurship at age seven, explains why he did a 180 on the importance of culture, and reveals the three hiring rules that helped make DocStoc go from a mere idea to a massive online repository of business intelligence with more than 50 million registered users. Key Takeaways Jason explains why the ability to handle pressure and uncertainty is a defining characteristic of good leaders. Jason’s a firm believer that a certain amount of internal pressure is a necessity, and discusses how to develop good pressure within an organization. Jason tell us why, at a certain point, it’s more important to be a coach/cheerleader rather than the sprinter at the front of the pack. Jason talks about how the What and How will always be an obstacle if your company doesn’t have a strong Why. Jason describes his complete 180 on the importance of culture, and how it became an afterthought to the thing he starts with first when building a new company. Finally, Jason reveals the three hiring practice that helped make DocStoc great. Jason explains why he thinks of himself as a D1 coach, and why he sees it as his job to help his employees “go pro.” Jason talks about the importance of transparency, and how to create a shared sense of accountability in outcomes. Jason talks about why it’s important to have a best friend at work, and how you as a leader can facilitate the opportunity for employees to make personal friendships in the workplace. Jason talks about what he considers his greatest accomplishments as a leader, and why looking out for yourself at all costs is generally bad advice. Links Comparably DocStoc.com Jason's writing on Forbes.com Jason’s writing on WSJ.com @JasonNazar on Twitter Jason Nazar on LinkedIn Recommended Reading The Alliance by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, and Chris Yeh The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz People Over Profit by Dale Partridge Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz People Over Profit by Dale Partridge Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin Special Offer for AO Listeners – Try SnackNation Market for FREE Introducing SnackNation Market. For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too. SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep. With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game. We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE. Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling). That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

Apr 28, 2017 • 1h 6min
LIfe Lessons from the World Series of Poker, with Crowdfunder co-founder Rafe Furst
Rafe Furst has a reputation for being ahead of the curve, a knack for identifying new technologies and consumer trends well before they become mainstream. He also has the track record to back it up. Since beginning his career in Silicon Valley in the 90s, Rafe has founded, invested in and advised dozens of startups, including Pickem Sports, Full Tilt Poker, and Crowdfunder. To date, his companies have generated over $1 billion in revenue and $450 Million in liquidity to stakeholders. He also has the distinction of being the only Awesome Office guest to win a bracelet at the World Series of Poker. But Rafe’s success hasn’t come without challenges, and his entrepreneurial path has taken him to some dark places. Case in point - Full Tilt Poker, the gaming site that Rafe calls both his greatest success and biggest failure. In April 2011, Full Tilt came to a dramatic and public end, as the federal government seized the company’s domains, brought criminal charges against senior executives, and ran it and 11 other online gaming companies out of the country. The ordeal was a source of debilitating stress for Rafe. At the end of that year, he (in his words) “crashed,” and his emotional and coping systems shut down to the point that he was briefly hospitalized. He spent the next month recovering in the care of his family. Of course, this ending was really just the beginning of the next phase of Rafe’s remarkable journey. He went on to co-found the massively successful Crowdfunder, and today he’s the “Lead Insurgent” at COMMON, a creative accelerator and community that helps entrepreneurs build, launch and promote groundbreaking business ideas. In this episode, co-host Sean Spear talks to Rafe about this extraordinary entrepreneurial journey, what being a professional poker player taught him about life and business, and how he bounced back from Full Tilt’s very public implosion. We also take a look into the future, at the potential of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, and how - according to Rafe - these will majorly impact society for years to come. Links RafeFurst.com COMMON Rafe on LinkedIn Recommended Reading The One Thing by Gary Keller The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE Introducing SnackNation Market. For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too. SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep. With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game. We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE. Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling). That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

Apr 24, 2017 • 1h 8min
Does this Business Hold the Key to Solving LA's Homeless Crisis? w/ The Giving Keys President Brit Gilmore
The Giving Keys has put up some impressive numbers under president Brit Gilmore’s watch: 70+ employees. 1400 retail stores around the globe that sell their products. Half a million keys sold to date. But there’s another, even more impressive number. 100 - that’s the percentage of the company’s production team that is staffed by people who are currently transitioning out of homelessness. This week, co-host Sean Spear sat down with Brit Gilmore, the president of The Giving Keys a “pay it forward company” that makes necklaces from keys engraved with inspirational messages. Besides making beautiful hand-crafted jewelry, the company also works with local nonprofits to hire individuals who were recently homeless. With 26,000 people living without a roof over their heads, The Giving Keys can’t solve the homelessness problem in LA by themselves. But they can provide a model for other companies to follow, and together make a huge impact. In this inspirational conversation, Brit walks us through the origin of the company, the daily habits that have aided her success, as well as the challenges that have helped shaped who she is. She also dispels some of the myths around homelessness, and explains how she and her team have developed a culture that supports the growth and development of all employees, regardless of their background. Links The Giving Keys Brit on LinkedIn @TheGivingKeys on Instagram Chrysalis First Place for Youth Recommended Reading Business of Fashion Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan Thrive by Arianna Huffington Good to Great by Jim Collins Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE Introducing SnackNation Market. For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too. SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep. With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game. We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE. Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling). That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

Apr 17, 2017 • 53min
Ever Wonder What It’s Like To Be on Shark Tank? Rareform’s Aric Avedissian Can Tell You
By all accounts, LA’s Rareform was doing pretty well. They had a unique product that was clearly resonating with Millennial consumers - one of a kind bags and accessories made from repurposed vinyl billboards. Then a little thing called “Shark Tank” happened. In this week’s episode, co-host Sean Spear sits down with Rareform co-founder and managing partner Aric Avedissian. Aric takes us through the company’s early beginnings, telling us how his brother Alex came up with the idea while working with a non-profit in El Salvador, and why Aric first said “no” when he came to him with the idea. He also describes the outsized impact that their recent Shark Tank appearance has had on Rareform’s business, as well as what it’s really like to pitch your idea to the likes of Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, and “Mr. Wonderful.” Links Rareform Aric on LinkedIn Contact Aric@rareform.com Recommended Reading The One Thing by Gary Keller Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE Introducing SnackNation Market. For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too. SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep. With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game. We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE. Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling). That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

Apr 10, 2017 • 1h 13min
How Los York Became One of the Top Content Agencies in America By Creating “Holy Shit” Moments, with Founder Seth Epstein
If you ask Seth Epstein what his company, Los York, does, he could tell you that that they create "culture defining content" for top brands like Samsung, Motorola, and JBL. He could tell you that they're the creative agency of record for the Jordan brand and work with athletes like Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony. He might even tell you that they’ve been called Nike’s “advertising swat team” by Inc. magazine, and landed at #8 on the coveted Inc. 5000 list. But he’ll probably tell you that they’re in the business of “Holy shit.” That's because inspiring that visceral, emotional response - where the viewer literally pauses and says, “Holy shit...” - is the driving force behind everything that Los York creates. In this interview, co-host Sean Spear sits down with the Los York founder and creative director in the company's beautiful office space in Santa Monica to learn about Seth’s journey from artistic surfer kid to purveyor of jaw-dropping multimedia campaigns. Seth is a thoughtful, introspective leader, who (tellingly) draws equal inspiration from Shawn Stussy, Giorgio Armani, and Pablo Picasso. In this interview, he tells the story of his very first entrepreneurial endeavor upcycling vintage jeans, and how the failure of that business provided the "fuel" to launch the next stage in his journey. He also tells us one amazing story about early mistakes that led to a television executive threatening he’d never work in this town again… only to have that same executive ask for a job a few years later, and explains how a Zen parable helps inform his leadership style. We’re think you’re going to like this one, we know we sure did. Links Los York Los York multimedia reel Seth on LinkedIn Recommended Reading Transcending the Ego By Eckhart Tolle The “emptying the cup” parable Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE Introducing SnackNation Market. For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too. SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep. With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game. We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE. Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling). That’s SnackNation.com/AO.