Awesome Office: Lead. Create. Inspire

Ask yourself - as a leader, are you coming from a place of fear and uncertainty? Do you look for fault and blame in others, cling to an opinion and fixed worldview, and believe in scarcity over abundance? Or are you open to outside interpretations, curious about the world around you, and committed to learning more about yourself and those around you? In other words, are you leading below or above the line? That’s the topic of today’s special #SPKup episode as I explore the concepts contained in The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, a fantastic read and a book that’s proven to be a true game changer for me. As you’ll hear in this episode, the entire leadership team at Awesome Office HQ is currently reading (or re-reading) this amazing book, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to share some of my learnings as I explore its valuable concepts yet again. We only cover half the points in part one, and will pick up again in part two. Here’s a quick recap of the points we Cover Commitment 1 - Radical Responsibility   The idea with this first commitment is to locate the “cause and control” inside us, not in external events. This means we stop believing that the world should be a particular way, and instead believe that the world just shows up. In the second part of this process, we move from rigid, closed mindedness to curiosity, learning and wonder (something that naturally occurs if the first shift happens.) But most of all, radical responsibility is not about being right! Letting go of the need to be right is something all top tier leaders do. Commitment 2 - Learning through Curiosity Conscious leaders are passionately committed to knowing themselves (the basis of curiosity) and allow themselves to wonder. Success here depends on approaching people with an unreasonable benefit of the doubt, especially those you manage. Be truly curious in what they say. Commitment 3 - Feeling All Feelings So many leaders stay in their head and don’t access their guts or hearts enough. To be an effective leader, you need to acknowledge all your feelings. Emotions are just energy in motion. They’re neither good nor bad - they just are. The key is learning how to deal with your emotions and process them. Every feeling we experience is a way for us to grow and improve in awareness. Commitment 4 - Speaking Candidly According to the book, the team that “sees reality the best wins.” So many people are scared to speak candidly, but when they do that they’re robbing themselves and other people from the natural flow of energy, from what really needs to be said. Commitment 5 - Eliminating Gossip Gossip is defined as anything said with harmful intent, that you wouldn’t say in front of the other person. While gossip is a manifestation of our species’ desire for deep social bonds, it no longer serves us, especially in business. Here we break down why we gossip, and discuss strategies for reversing and avoiding our tendency to engage in this destructive behavior. Commitment 6 - Practicing Integrity Remember that integrity has nothing to do with being right or wrong, it’s all about being whole. (The root of integrity is integer, after all.) We discuss the importance of not blocking the natural flow of energy, and the Four Pillars that help us maintain our integrity. Commitment 7 - Generating Appreciation For this commitment, we talk about what it means to give people the unreasonable benefit of the doubt and why leaders need first and foremost to pay attention. Additionally, we dive into the various reasons why people don’t accept appreciation, and what masterful appreciation really looks like. Again, that’s just part one. We’ll cover Commitments 8-15 in part two next week. Recommended Reading The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp Special Offer for AO Listeners Save 25% off Your First Order at shop.SnackNation.com How legit is your snack game? It's a pretty important question. How you snack will determine how you eat, and snacking well is essential to experiencing an awesome life. Step up your snack game by visiting Shop.SnackNation.com. Use code AO25 for 25% off your entire order. Choose from a variety of today’s most innovative, delicious, and healthier snacks. You can even purchase just one unit at a time, rather than an entire box - or you can choose one of our curation boxes, where our SnackNation Snack Scientists do all the hard selection work for you. Check out Shop.SnackNation.com and use code AO25 to experience some snack magic and save 25% off your order.  

When you get to know Dr. Joseph Antoun, you quickly realize that he’s deeply curious about the world in which we live. In fact, he’s a renaissance man of sorts. Dr. Antoun Holds a Master’s in Health Care Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins, and an MD and MS from St. Joseph University. On top of that, he holds four separate executive positions at places like the Health Systems Reform, the University of Chicago, the Journal of Health Systems Reform at the academic side, and the Global Healthspan Policy Institute. (I’m exhausted just typing that.) But we were most interested in L-Nutra, the company for which he serves as CEO, and that’s poised to be the single most disruptive nutrition company in the 21st century. It all comes down to the science of fasting. According to Dr. Antoun and his fellow researchers, fasting could hold the key to preventing many of the chronic illnesses that occur later in life. In fact, Dr. Antoun contends that it’s no coincidence that these conditions occur in our golden years. It turns out, most are actually symptoms of aging itself. The key discovery is that when we fast, our bodies go into a protective, regenerative state, effectively reverse the process of aging, and therefore helping prevent and delay the onset of age-related chronic illnesses.   Building on these findings, Dr. Antoun and L-Nutra have developed a product called Prolon, meal kits that don’t register as food to the body. Prolon causes the body to enter a regenerative fasting mode, while still providing proper nourishment. We dive into this and a whole lot more, including Dr. Antoun’s upbringing, his views on leadership, and why creating positive change means finding alignment in both the public and private sectors. Needless to say, this was a fascinating, illuminating conversation. Key Takeaways Dr. Antoun explains the science behind fasting, and how it has the potential to prevent chronic age-related illnesses. Dr. Antoun explains why our healthcare system is broken - and why “sick care” might be a more accurate name for it. Dr. Antoun explains the term “health span,” and why increasing our health span - not our lifespan -  should be the goal. Dr. Antoun makes the point that age related diseases come in series, and they might be better thought of as symptoms of aging rather than as illnesses in their own right. Dr. Antoun explains how they developed Prolon, how it works, and why it has the potential to disrupt healthcare as we know it. Dr. Antoun talks about his upbringing in Lebanon during the Palestinian occupation, and how years of struggle and hardship shaped his personality and forged his formidable drive. Dr. Antoun recalls his early days as a cardiologist, and how he actually lost patients simply because they couldn’t afford healthcare. Dr. Antoun explains how his journey from medicine to public policy to business is actually part of a three-pronged strategy to affect change. Dr. Antoun explains his role in the war against aging, and why there has to be alignment between the public and private sectors. Dr. Antoun explains how he is able to hold so many executive leadership positions, and shares his number one leadership trait. Links Prolon Website L-Nutra Website Harvard’s Know Thyself Course Dr. Antoun on LinkedIn   Special Offer for AO Listeners Save 25% off Your First Order at shop.SnackNation.com How legit is your snack game? It's a pretty important question. How you snack will determine how you eat, and snacking well is essential to experiencing an awesome life. Step up your snack game by visiting Shop.SnackNation.com. Use code AO25 for 25% off your entire order. Choose from a variety of today’s most innovative, delicious, and healthier snacks. You can even purchase just one unit at a time, rather than an entire box - or you can choose one of our curation boxes, where our SnackNation Snack Scientists do all the hard selection work for you. Check out Shop.SnackNation.com and use code AO25 to experience some snack magic and save 25% off your order.  

Andrew Blackmon knows that pain can be the genesis for amazing things in business. That’s because The Black Tux - the high end suit and tux service he co-founded with longtime friend Patrick Coyne - was borne out of Andrew’s own frustrating experience renting his wedding tux back in 2011. While stressful at the time, this pain point helped highlight a market rife for disruption, and he and Coyne haven’t looked back since. Together they launched The Black Tux in 2013, and today the company has more than 100 employees and rents approximately 15k suits per month. As you’ll hear in this interview, The Black Tux is a little different than most high-growth startups. They have to deliver amazing experiences on the biggest day of their customers' lives (no pressure there), a feat that poses unique operational challenges. Even more interesting, it turns out these challenges have pushed the company to develop not just one, but two very distinct (albeit linked) company cultures. We covered a ton of great topics with Andrew, and we think you’ll get a lot out of his stories and advice - we certainly did. Key Takeaways Andrew describes the genesis of The Black Tux, and how a negative experience at his own wedding changed his life forever. 3:01 Andrew tells us how most aspiring entrepreneurs go wrong when preparing to start a business, and shares his tips for the right way to incubate your idea. 6:50 Andrew describes the moment of validation for him and his team after their launch. 8:45 Andrew explains why pain in the market can tell you when you might be onto something with your company, and why bad feedback can be as valuable as positive validation early on. 10:01 Andrew walks us through his upbringing, and tells us why the surfing and skating lifestyle led him to think like an entrepreneur. 11:28 Andrew tells us the main thing he learned from his father growing up. 12:26 Andrew explains the pros and cons of investing in a first time entrepreneur (sage advice considering that he is one). 14:22 Andrew breaks down the number one challenge he and his business faces today. 17:48 Andrew talks about the challenges of scaling a business like his, with two distinct (albeit strongly linked) company cultures. 21:11 Andrew shares his secret to hiring for the right culture, and the one interview question that he makes sure to ask in every interview. 23:55 Andrew describes the greatest lessons he’s learned since launching the company. 25:35 Andrew breaks down how he finds the right balance between empathy and drive that it takes to coach people effectively. 30:21 Links The Black Tux @andrew_blackmon on Twitter Andrew on LinkedIn Recommended Reading The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoevsky 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami Men’s Journal: “A Better Black Tie Rental”   Special Offer for AO Listeners Save 25% off Your First Order at shop.SnackNation.com How legit is your snack game? It's a pretty important question. How you snack will determine how you eat, and snacking well is essential to experiencing an awesome life. Step up your snack game by visiting Shop.SnackNation.com. Use code AO25 for 25% off your entire order. Choose from a variety of today’s most innovative, delicious, and healthier snacks. You can even purchase just one unit at a time, rather than an entire box - or you can choose one of our curation boxes, where our SnackNation Snack Scientists do all the hard selection work for you. Check out Shop.SnackNation.com and use code AO25 to experience some snack magic and save 25% off your order.  

Ronen Olshansky knows a thing or two about awe-inspiring offices. That’s because Ronen is the co-founder and CEO of Cross Campus, a Los Angeles based on-demand workspace and business event venue that provides peak office experiences to a community of creative professionals. Each of the four Cross Campus locations is a highly designed, highly social experience where inspiration, productivity, and creativity thrive. Cross Campus is one of those places you have to see to believe, and if you live in Southern California, we highly recommend visiting one of their locations in Santa Monica, Downtown LA, Pasadena, or the South Bay. Featuring flex work spaces, a bar, and even meditations rooms, they often feel more like a high-end luxury hotel than a co-working space. We’re not the only ones who think CC is great - President Barack Obama chose the flagship Cross Campus Santa Monica location for his summit on LA’s Silicon Beach tech scene. In the interview, Ronen takes us through his upbringing and his decision to attend Yale at age 16, explains why he left Wall Street for tech in the early 2000s, as well as the lessons he learned running a bar on an island off the coast of Brazil - lessons that he still applies at Cross Campus to this day. Ronen also share the three things every office needs to create a thriving company culture, and why having a blast is the key to it all. Key Takeaways Ronen explains why it’s difficult for an entrepreneur to be successful without being obsessed with his or her idea, and why the real challenge is sustaining that intensity over the long haul. 3:24 Ronen takes us through his upbringing, including his trouble with authority, his undergrad experience at Yale, and his foray into Wall Street. 6:10 Ronen tells us why he left the financial industry to open a bar on Florianopolis island in Brazil, and how that experience informed the launch of Cross Campus many years down the line. 7:56 Ronen dives into his time as a carbon credit trader in Moscow. 12:05 Ronen explores the idea that Ivy leagues “handicap you,” and that while Yale was ultimately the right place for him, why elite universities might not be right for every aspiring entrepreneur. 17:00 Ronen explains why he sees himself in the hospitality business rather than commercial real estate space, and explores why some companies might better serve their employees by thinking about their own business this way. 19:10 Ronen dives into Cross Campus’ world class event curation, which has hosted everyone from Elon Musk to Tim Ferriss to President Barack Obama. 20:01 Ronen explains why we’re in the age of the Experience Economy, and why the only way to communicate a differentiator sometimes is to have someone experience your product for themselves. 21:05 Ronen tells us why Cross Campus DTLA installed a meditation room, and why it’s become the most requested feature for members at other locations. 26:24 Ronen walks through the three things every office space needs to support a productive culture, regardless of industry. 37:37 Ronen reveals the single best KPI for Cross Campus - and for any business. 41:37 As an angel investor, Ronen talks about the greatest indicator that a company is going to make it. 43:13 Ronen explains how to identify the A-players on your staff, and makes a case for only hiring them. 51:17 Links Cross Campus (visit them!) Ronen on LinkedIn Recommended Reading Peak by Chip Conley.   Special Offer for AO Listeners Save 25% off Your First Order at shop.SnackNation.com How legit is your snack game? It's a pretty important question. How you snack will determine how you eat, and snacking well is essential to experiencing an awesome life. Step up your snack game by visiting Shop.SnackNation.com. Use code AO25 for 25% off your entire order. Choose from a variety of today’s most innovative, delicious, and healthier snacks. You can even purchase just one unit at a time, rather than an entire box - or you can choose one of our curation boxes, where our SnackNation Snack Scientists do all the hard selection work for you. Check out Shop.SnackNation.com and use code AO25 to experience some snack magic and save 25% off your order.  

Imagine this: you’re a young, bright student at the top of your class with dreams of attending a top university. Up to this point, you’ve been able to earn excellent grades and handle life’s challenges with relative ease. Suddenly, at age thirteen, you’re thrust into a brand new culture. You don’t speak the language, your classmates make fun of you for reasons you don’t quite understand, and you’re back to square one academically. You still dream of gaining acceptance to a world-class college, but you have just five years until you start applying. That’s exactly the challenge that lay before Harrison Tang, the CEO and co-founder of Spokeo and today’s Awesome Office guest. Despite the deck stacked against him, Harrison was able to quickly master English, gain acceptance to Stanford University, and launch Spokeo with his college roommates upon graduation. Today Spokeo is the leading people search engine, with more than 18 million unique monthly visitor, and $78 million in revenue for 2015. Spokeo is also home to a unique company culture, one reflected in its numerous quirky conferences rooms - including the bacon-themed meeting space where Harrison recorded our interview. According to Harrison, those early experiences after immigrating to the U.S. from Taiwan were hugely formative, and helped him develop a process to tackle any challenges that arise - one that he still uses to this day. With his engaging stories, inspiring journey, and practical advice, Harrison was a delight to interview. Through it all, Harrison hasn’t lost his trademark optimism, sense of humor, and work ethic. We think you’ll enjoy this one as much as we did. Key Takeaways Harrison explains why he and his co-founders chose to set up shop in Pasadena rather than Silicon Valley. 3:25 Harrison delves into the hiring challenges - and benefits - of being located a little bit off tech's beaten path. 5:30 Harrison takes us back to his upbringing, and shares his inspiring journey to Stanford University after coming to the U.S. at age 13 from Taiwan. 8:08 Harrison describes the unusual way he mastered English as a teenager. 8:54 Harrison tells us how this experience taught him to overcome the biggest challenges Spokeo faced as a business, and why optimism has been so important to his success. 11:03 Harrison explains why adversity is an asset, and what he means when he says, “When there’s a tiger chasing after you, you run for your life.” 14:26 Harrison tells us the greatest lesson he learned from his parents. 17:30 Harrison talks about the origins behind Spokeo, and walks us through the pivot that led to their massive success. 19:04 Harrison describes the advice he would give his younger self at the beginning of his entrepreneurial career. 26:02 Harrison breaks down his process for dealing with challenges and fears. 28:12 Harrison tells us the habits that help him optimize his work and be the best leader he can be. 32:56 Harrison explains why he insists on respecting people’s time and giving his own time to his employees and colleagues - even when it seems like he doesn’t have enough of it. 33:47 Harrison describes the impact that fatherhood has had on his leadership abilities. 39:22 Harrison tells us the origin of Spokeo’s infamous bacon room, and how it reflects the company’s unique culture. 40:53 Recommended Reading Emma by Jane Austen The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson Links Spokeo @spokeo on Twitter @twhman on Twitter   Special Offer for AO Listeners Save 25% off Your First Order at shop.SnackNation.com How legit is your snack game? It's a pretty important question. How you snack will determine how you eat, and snacking well is essential to experiencing an awesome life. Step up your snack game by visiting Shop.SnackNation.com. Use code AO25 for 25% off your entire order. Choose from a variety of today’s most innovative, delicious, and healthier snacks. You can even purchase just one unit at a time, rather than an entire box - or you can choose one of our curation boxes, where our SnackNation Snack Scientists do all the hard selection work for you. Check out Shop.SnackNation.com and use code AO25 to experience some snack magic and save 25% off your order.  

The end of the year brings with it that inevitable holiday lull, and it can be tempting to take your foot off the gas. But the best companies and top performers know that those sleepy November and December months are a prime opportunity to generate momentum and slingshot themselves towards success in the New Year. Here at SnackNation and Awesome Office HQ we’ve just wrapped up our Q4 quarterly planning, and after some reflection, we thought it would be a good opportunity to share our top tips for closing the year out STRONG. That’s what this week’s #SPKup is all about - 9 ways to help you end your year with a bang, and start your new year off right. Review your goals from earlier in the year. Even if you aren’t on track to hit all your goals (you probably won’t be), look to create some momentum going into the new year by reassessing what you can do in the time remaining. Use our 3x3x3 Matrix to track habits, objectives, and projects Print these out and put them on your desk. Read them daily, and review and assess against them weekly. I like doing this on Sunday mornings. Download our handy spreadsheet HERE. Create your New Year’s goals now. This is so important if you want to successfully crush your goals this year. There are many great ways to do this, but I love this format - the 5-4-3-2-1 model. That is: 5 things you need to do 4 things to STOP doing 3 new habits 2 people to hold you accountable (and yes, set accountability meetings now - can take some time) 1 new belief Download our 5-4-3-2-1 worksheet HERE. Don’t just create your goals, get started on them early! Use November and December as a Training Ground for your goals without the pressure. Make sure you give yourself a break between Christmas and New Year’s This means thinking and planning ahead so you don’t have to catch up during this period of rejuvenation. Also make sure to take care of your self and be smart about your health. Eat alkaline foods (all illness thrives in acidic environments) Wash your hands like crazy, give fist bumps more than high fives, and keep Purell at your desk Get sleep, especially during holiday party season Take vitamin C (I take 1-2K mg in morning and during day) If you’re attending holiday parties and drinking, take lysine   Don’t overindulge Don’t start the New Year behind the eight ball! That’s not to say don’t indulge, but make sure you offset indulgences with healthy choices or activities. Finalize all of your travel and plans in the first half of October There is great freedom in commitment and knowing what you’re going to do over the holidays, which can turn very stressful if you’re rushing to do things. Reset your clock Ask yourself, how do the shorter days impact you?  Maybe you’re like me, and prefer working out later in the day during the winter because it gives you an extra boost to close the day out. The point is, do what you need to do to adjust to the shorter daylight hours. Go into the holidays with clear set personal objectives This can mean creating meaningful connection with your friends and family. What’s more important than relationships? Than human connection? Than family? So why do so many of us not enter holiday weekends without objectives, when we have so many goals in the workplace. Special Offer for AO Listeners Save 25% off Your First Order at shop.SnackNation.com How legit is your snack game? It's a pretty important question. How you snack will determine how you eat, and snacking well is essential to experiencing an awesome life. Step up your snack game by visiting Shop.SnackNation.com. Use code AO25 for 25% off your entire order. Choose from a variety of today’s most innovative, delicious, and healthier snacks. You can even purchase just one unit at a time, rather than an entire box - or you can choose one of our curation boxes, where our SnackNation Snack Scientists do all the hard selection work for you. Check out Shop.SnackNation.com and use code AO25 to experience some snack magic and save 25% off your order.

We’re back this week with another #SPKup episode, in which Sean answers the questions and breaks down the topics that you’re dying to know more about. This time Sean focuses on a topic that he gets asked about all the time – Negotiation. For a lot of us, negotiation can be a bit mystifying, and as a result artful negotiation remains a drastically under utilized tactic. But the truth is, negotiation is a skill like any other, and anyone can master it. What makes Sean an expert? Besides the countless deals he’s negotiated in more than a decade as an entrepreneur, he also took top negotiation honors at a recent Harvard Business School executive leader summit. So whether you’re making the case for a better salary or making a million dollar real estate deal, here are the top ten tips that will help you come out on top of your next negotiation. Top Takeaways Sean shares why human connection is such an important part of negotiation. Sean explains why you have to have the mindset that you are actually the least important part of the process, and tells us what he believes is the most important part. Sean explains the importance of body language in negotiation. Sean reminds us what “winning” really means in the context of deal making. Sean shares why most deals don’t get done, and why preparation is the key to a fruitful negotiation. Sean tells us why adding more items to a negotiation is a tactic to get what you want. Sean explains how information creates trust in a negotiation, and why you should be willing to put more of your cards on the table, not less. Sean relays the importance of intangibles. Sean reminds us that money isn’t always the ultimate goal in a negotiation (even though most people assume it is). Sean tells us why get those early yes’s are so important, and how to get them. Sean describes the importance of making incremental progress, and why deadlines don’t work. Finally, Sean explains why not thinking big enough is one of the most common mistakes people make in negotiations. This podcast is brought to you by the good folks at Audible.com Just for the listeners of the Awesome Office podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook download along with their free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service. We personally recommend Mindset by Carol Dweck. It’s the one book that will change your life more than any other, and the one we think everyone should read. And the cool thing is - you can download it for FREE by trying audible.com. To download your free audiobook today go to audibletrial.com/AO.   

What’s up Awesome Officers, this week we’ve got a special episode featuring a talk that Sean gave at the recent SHFM National Conference in Arizona. In it, Sean describes what he believes to be the single most important thing - not just in the workplace, but in life - that we must focus on in order to live happy, productive and fulfilled lives. And we’ll tell you right now, it’s probably not what you think. As Sean admits, this episode is personal. In crafting this talk, Sean strove to be as vulnerable, open, and transparent as possible in order to connect with his audience. The talk was by all accounts a success in that regard, and we hope that you’ll connect with the ideas in this podcast too.  Key Takeaways Sean explains why human connection is the most important thing in life, and details the evolutionary science that helps explain why this is the case. 3:46 Sean explores why gossip was actually a matter of life or death to our prehistoric forebears. 4:50 Sean explains why the common conception of the successful dominant “alpha male” isn’t quite right. 5:53 Sean points out a contradiction: why human connection is at an all time low, despite the fact that we live in the most connected age in human history. 7:00 Sean shares a personal story about growing up in Northern Michigan, and some choice advice from one of his mentors. 8:34 Sean takes a critical look at himself as an entrepreneur in his twenties, and why describes why he felt like it was him against the world. 9:29 Sean tells us how he learned he’d become something he’d never thought he’d be - a (biological) drug addict. 10:55 Sean breaks down the feel good chemicals that drive our behavior, and names the analogous street drugs that mimic their effects. 11:28 Sean describes the moment he realized he was addicted to selfish chemicals, and wasn’t focusing enough on the social chemicals the enable longer lasting happiness and fulfillment. 16:17 Sean identifies what he believes is the source of all suffering, and the quickest way to alleviate it. 16:30 Sean explains why Millennials are poised to bring about radical social change, and create a world that emphasizes social bonds and human connection. 16:50 Sean revisits the advice his mentor gave him, and modifies it in light of what he learned since he became an entrepreneur. 19:05 Links @Seanpk on Twitter' Sean on LinkedIn Recommended Reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari The Fourth Turning by William Strauss This podcast is brought to you by the good folks at Audible.com Just for the listeners of the Awesome Office podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook download along with their free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service. We personally recommend Mindset by Carol Dweck. It’s the one book that will change your life more than any other, and the one we think everyone should read. And the cool thing is - you can download it for FREE by trying audible.com. To download your free audiobook today go to audibletrial.com/AO.   

Awesome Officers, we’re back to answer your burning questions with another episode of #SPKup. This time out, SPK focuses on entrepreneurship, and shares the top mistakes that early-stage entrepreneurs make, plus how to fix them. He also opens up about what he’s struggling with professionally, the new skills he’s trying to cultivate, and how to maintain the relationships within your professional network. Again, we did this live smack dab in the middle of SnackNation HQ, so you can hear (and see in the video) some of our awesome team members taking care of business. Keep those questions coming! Ask @seanpk via Twitter and use the hashtag #SPKup and Sean will answer it in the next edition of #SPKup. This podcast is brought to you by the good folks at Audible.com Just for the listeners of the Awesome Office podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook download along with their free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service. We personally recommend Mindset by Carol Dweck. It’s the one book that will change your life more than any other, and the one we think everyone should read. And the cool thing is - you can download it for FREE by trying audible.com. To download your free audiobook today go to audibletrial.com/AO. Similar to Entreleadership and HBR Ideacast.

Megan Miller wants to know… why aren’t you eating bugs yet?? And for good reason - evidence suggests that protein sourced from insects just might be the key to fixing the world’s global food system. Luckily for all of us, the bugs in question come in the form of delicious BittyFoods snacks, which include chocolate chip cookies and Chiridos, their signature tortilla-style chips. Megan Miller is a digital strategist turned food pioneer, and the co-founder of BittyFoods, a company that makes a bevy of snacks made with their signature high-protein cricket flour. The environmental science behind cricket farming is fascinating, but what we loved about our conversation with Megan was hearing how her vision and fearlessness empowered her to create something, well… a bit crazy. Megan launched the company from her kitchen, baking and mashing crickets she purchased from a local pet store. Since then, she and Bitty have come a long way. The company has earned accolades and attention from national media, and recently secured national distribution for their products. (They also use much higher quality crickets these days.) Megan was a delight to interview as she described how she and her co-founder have staked a claim at the intersection of deliciousness and craziness. We think you’ll really like this one. Key Takeaways Megan tells us how she got into the whole cricket business in the first place. 4:35 Megan describes the taste of cricket flour for people who haven’t had it before, and explains how they sourced the original insects. 8:35 Megan breaks down the environmental advantage of cricket protein versus other types of protein. 10:15 Megan describes how regions of the world that eat insects helped inspire the flavors of some of their signature products. 15:02 Megan talks about the genesis of the name Bitty and considers the possibility of expanding to other insects. 16:05 Megan describes her real apprehension about becoming the “crazy cricket lady.” 17:00 Megan explains the process of sustainably raising crickets, and the possibility of certification for cricket farming in the near future. 19:43 Megan goes back to her Childhood and tells us an experience that shaped her personality and helped her developed her grit and resolve. 21:15 Megan talks about bootstrapping the company in its earliest days. 23:58 Megan describes the greatest challenges the business has seen, and how they overcame it. 25:55 Megan explains how she keeps her sanity while running a fast-growing business in such an unusual niche. 31:55 Links BittyFoods.com Megan on LinkedIn Justin’s Nut Butters This podcast is brought to you by the good folks at Audible.com Just for the listeners of the Awesome Office podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook download along with their free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service. We personally recommend Mindset by Carol Dweck. It’s the one book that will change your life more than any other, and the one we think everyone should read. And the cool thing is - you can download it for FREE by trying audible.com. To download your free audiobook today go to audibletrial.com/AO.