Mission Daily

“The biggest secret going on in Silicon Valley right now is how much people are compensated for their capital allocation skills.” — Chad Grills As a follow up to last Monday’s episode, Communism, Capitalism and Technology, Chad and Stephanie dive deeper into capital allocation and the importance of capital hoarding, i.e. saving money. Learning how to save money first, before you start to allocate capital in stocks, companies, or individuals is critical to success. But, this is especially hard in today’s culture, where there is a constant temptation for material things we often do not need.  Chad and Stephanie share how they saved money throughout college, their early careers, and when Chad was deployed overseas, and why it’s important to start experimenting with your capital before doing so with someone else’s.  In fact, Chad’s No. 1 takeaway from today’s episode says it all, “ To get good at capital allocation, unfortunately, that means you have to start by practicing acquiring the resources and holding them.”  Lastly, Chad points out that the highest-paid executives in Silicon Valley are always excellent capital allocators. They are the ones who are often able to make investments or hold onto capital by making long term predictions. These are the “meta-skills that matter. And if you are going to push back against a sick culture, then you need to be armed with the best skills and the best philosophies.” Have you enjoyed these episodes on capital allocation? Give us a shout on Twitter with your thoughts! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

"We want to be exemplars of humanity at the end of the time." - Terence McKenna Erik Davis looks at the world in a different way. He’s a novelist, writer, podcaster, and speaker, and his writings have covered everything from rock criticism to cultural analysis to creative explorations of esoteric mysticism. His most recent book, High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies is out now. Erik loves to analyze “the weird” and in High Weirdness, he dives deep into the psychedelic culture of the 1970s; a time that was so strange, it was almost otherworldly. “We don't live in a psychedelic place. That's one of the mistakes that new agers and hippies made, is ‘Oh, I get the vision, and then I try to live there by dropping out and not doing anything.’ Well, no, we have to become much more flexible, and as Huxley said, ‘amphibious,’ where we're operating as intellects in a technological society.” In today’s episode, Erik shares his research, discusses Terence McKenna’s personal history, and paints a picture of a culture many of us never fully understood. Erik also talks about his writing, how being weird has opened the doors for new possibilities, and how he thinks we can go about saving the world. — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

On yesterday’s episode of Mission Daily, we introduced you to Andrew Goldner, the co-founder of GrowthX, and we learned about his journey from lawyer to tech entrepreneur.  Today, we have Part 2 of Andrew’s interview, in which he discusses some advice he gave to Mission co-founder, Ian, about being “coin-operated,” and his strategy when it comes to investing in new companies. He believes that investing all comes down to looking at a company’s revenue, the knowledge founders have about their revenue streams, and how reliably they can predict them into the future.  “The reality is that not all revenue is created equally,” Andrew says. He also explains that no company can be built without a strong foundation, and part of that is knowing where you are, where you are not, why you aren’t certain places, and what you need to do to reach your goals. That takes intention, focus and a lot of hard work, but it’s worth it.  Andrew dives into all of that and more, on today’s Mission Daily episode.  — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

Andrew Goldner is the co-founder of GrowthX, and while he had a passion for technology very early on in life, it wasn’t until later in his career that he decided to pursue his first love.  After initially studying law with the idea of going into politics, Andrew was able to use his technical knowledge to his advantage and build a brand for himself in Internet-based law. Eventually, Andrew gave up life at the law firm and, after a quick detour in the restaurant business, he landed in the world of technology.  He initially worked at DoubleClick, helping salespeople and operations close deals with new partners and customers. In doing so, he learned that making deals was all about personal relationships and finding congruity, two lessons he brought with him to GrowthX. “When I was doing deals, I would encourage the salesperson, no, put down the keyboard,” Andrew says. “Put down the phone. Let's get on a plane, and yes, it's going to cost us a little money and time. Let's go and meet those people in their hometowns. Let's get there the night before. Let's take them out to dinner. Let's start building relationships with them, human interactions, because we're going to build up political points from that, so the next day when I am negotiating with the lawyer I can be more casual. I can be more human.” On Part 1 of his interview with Mission Daily, Andrew talks about his journey from law to tech, entrepreneurship and venture capital, and everything he went through in between. — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“I think at an early age while some people dream of being Superman or Wonder Woman or a fireman or whatever it might be, I really dreamt of running a business.” Brian Scudamore started 1-800-GOT-JUNK more than 30 years ago with a single truck and a simple business plan. Today, he’s built his business into more than just a successful company. Rather, he’s created an entrepreneurial and franchise empire that empowers other business owners and partners to build their own franchises and succeed. “I'm incredibly proud of what we've built and more importantly how we've built it,” Brian says. “And if we can give a platform to others that's what life's all about to me.”  Brian built 1-800-GOT-JUNK slowly. It took him eight years to reach $1 million in revenue, and now, the company does $1 million in revenue on a daily basis. Getting to that point was not easy, though. It meant figuring out how to build franchises and then relay that knowledge to new franchise owners — a process that took 10 years to master and included many dark moments, like when he had to fire all 11 of his employees to save the business. That experience taught him about the importance of company culture, and it is part of a trend for Brian. Throughout his life and career, he’s always been interested in learning and improving however he could, then passing those lessons along.  — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“While communism and capitalism have been ostensibly battling for the last century or more, technology came along and ate everyone’s lunch.” —Chad Grills Today’s episode dives into economics and the philosophies behind them. If you are signed up for our newsletter, you know that we recently introduced this topic and are using today’s episode to dive deeper. (Psssst if haven’t signed up for our newsletter yet, you can do so here!)  In the Mission Daily Newsletter, Chad asks “How high is high for our GDP?” Yes, it’s true that the U.S. has the highest GDP in the world but what could our GDP be? Are we preventing our own growth? And how can we ensure resources are spread to the right people and companies who are creating new jobs, generating wealth for more people and adding value? Chad explains that we are at a time in our culture when “we need new ideas and new examples of people who have been excellent capital allocators — people that are experts at multiplying money and then returning that money to the people that gave them their initial investment.” So, ask yourself this… how are you going to move from being a capital hoarder to capital allocator? How are you going to help spread wealth and resources within your community so that more people can do more with less?  There are plenty of opportunities for us all to become better capital allocators and to improve the world around us, and it all starts with the individual.  Heads up! On next Monday’s episode, we dive deeper into the topics of capital allocation, philosophies and announce an upcoming mini-series we are launching!  Stay tuned... — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“Don’t take any wooden nickels.” A depression-era saying that encourages people not to be cheated or duped, it was a phrase that Kmele Foster’s father told him a lot as a child - and one he never quite understood. But in today’s world of media overload, it can be hard to find the truth in the noise and even harder to tell when you’ve been misled.  Having worked as co-host of The Independents, a daily news show on Fox, Kmele is intimately familiar with the pace at which journalists work. And while he believes mistakes aren’t intentional, he knows just how easy it is for the truth to slip through the cracks.  Today, Kmele is trying to change that. As co-founder and Lead Producer at Freethink, a media company telling powerful stories about today’s pioneers changing the world, Kmele is helping create media that promotes what he thinks is the most important story to share.  “We live at the best, most incredible time in human history. A time when people have this enormous individual capacity and ability, because of all the technology at our disposal, to make massive change in the world. That does not mean that there's a world with no problems, it means that we've never been better positioned to be able to tackle the world's big problems.” In this episode, Chad and Kmele discuss the current state of journalism, what it's like starting a media company today, and what’s in store for the future of the industry. — Don’t forget, we have a new partnership with b8ta! B8ta.com gives you access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge consumer tech products. This week, we will be giving away one Neo Smartpen 1. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

Sean Whiteley has been in the tech business since the internet was first taking off back in the 1990s. In fact, he was early enough to the party to snag the sean@aol.com email address. But a lot has changed since those early days, and Sean has been through plenty of highs and lows along the way. He’s loved his time in Silicon Valley, but he recognizes that life in the Bay Area isn’t all that the world has to offer. “Don't get too stuck here in Silicon Valley,” Sean cautions. “There's a lot of greatness and I love it here. I love the dynamic here where risk is rewarded and arguing is okay, it's a good thing, it's not personal. You're just trying to come up with a better solution. I identify with a lot of the qualities that are here, but I also realize that this is not representative of most of the world.” Still, though, Silicon Valley is where Sean built his family and founded his current business, Qualified.com, which is making its mark in the new and emerging field of conversational marketing applications. Qualified — which is an app built to alert your sales team when qualified leads are visiting your site — offers a full stack of meeting tools that you can use to engage your customer be it through chat, phone calls or some other conversational interface.  On this episode of Mission Daily, Sean talks about his life in the Valley, the importance of finding the right business partner and building the right culture, the stages of building success and the role luck plays into it all. — Don’t forget, we have a new partnership with b8ta! B8ta.com gives you access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge consumer tech products. This week, we will be giving away one Neo Smartpen 1.  Enter the giveaway for a chance to win! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

“I think we are standing on the cusp of an explosion in creativity around media.” —Yves Bergquist As the Director of AI & Neuroscience in Media at the Entertainment Technology Center of the University of Southern California, Yves Bergquist is leading the charge to connect the fields of neuroscience and entertainment. At ETC, Yves and his team are pioneering a new way to test an entertainment project’s narratives, what audiences they will resonate with and why.  Yves is thinking more broadly than traditional Hollywood studios and asking deeper questions.  “How do you we understand stories and narrative from a purely cognitive standpoint?” he asks. “And how do we understand what kind of stories resonate in what way with what kind of people to generate what kind of behavior?”  Yves was exposed to the entertainment industry at an early age thanks to his single mom, who worked in wardrobe on film sets in France. As a boy, he naturally gravitated towards psychology, and has successfully married that passion with his love of entertainment in his work at ETC and his start-up, Corto. Corto is an AI startup which Yves hopes he can utilize to continue his work leveraging A.I. research to understand what attributes of media content resonate with specific audience segments.  In this episode, Chad and Yves discuss the two types of knowledge — narrative and procedural knowledge — how AI will learn to outpace humans on procedural knowledge, and how we can begin to understand the oldest and most human form of knowledge — storytelling.  “Building something and selling something are going to be the two skills that are the most valuable in an A.I. or AGI future. Those are the two things that we can be confident are going to be the monopoly of the human mind for a while.” — Don’t forget, we have a new partnership with b8ta! B8ta.com gives you access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge consumer tech products. This week, we will be giving away one Neo Smartpen 1. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/

Can you imagine growing up with 30 fish tanks in your room? That’s 30 tanks stock full of fish that each needed their own special care. Seems a bit excessive, maybe even a little weird, but that’s exactly the environment Brian Linton, CEO of United by Blue, chose to grow up in.  Since Brian was a little boy, he’s engaged with the world in his own, unique way.  “My parents allowed me to be a little bit weird and that definitely spawned the entrepreneurship spirit in me. I never thought about doing anything else. It never occurred to me to not do my own thing.” Having grown up surrounded by tanks of blue, it’s no surprise that one of these things Brian wanted to pursue was ocean conservation and clean up. After spending years searching for effective ways to help clean the waterways, Brian finally began to conceptualize an idea in 2008 and United by Blue was born.  United by Blue is an apparel company dedicated to cleaning our world’s oceans. For every product sold, they remove one pound of trash from oceans and waterways. Since its inception, the company has removed more than 1.6 million pounds of trash and has over 1,000 stores nationally. On today’s episode of Mission Daily, Brian joins us to discuss his unique background, the struggles and rewards of building a social enterprise, and United by Blue’s plans for the future. — Don’t forget, we have a new partnership with b8ta! B8ta.com gives you access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge consumer tech products. This week, we will be giving away one Neo Smartpen 1. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.orgWork with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/