The Jeff Bullas Show

Donna Griffit is a Corporate Storyteller who has worked globally for over 18 years with Fortune 500 companies and startups. She has consulted and trained clients in over 30 countries. Through her guidance, clients have raised over a billion dollars. In addition, Donna can magically spin raw data into compelling stories that captivate audiences and drive results. Donna has recently released her much-anticipated book, Sticking To My Story - The Alchemy Of Storytelling For Startups. Launched in January 2023, this book has quickly become a must-read for startup founders, and here is a quote from Tim Draper about her book in his introduction to it: “Well finally, there are no more excuses. Sticking to My Story is the new bible for startup founders. It’s the A-Z recipe for how to create a powerful pitch deck, with all the right ingredients. It’s filled with helpful tips, fascinating stories of what worked and what failed abysmally, peppered with insightful quotes from my colleagues in Silicon Valley.” Donna was featured on Forbes where she explained how she has helped female founders raise millions from investors. Most recent articles were published on Entrepreneur. What you will learn How storytelling can transform raw data into compelling narratives that captivate audiences. The importance of structuring pitch decks effectively and how to polish them for maximum impact. How AI tools like ChatGPT can assist with research and streamline the storytelling process. The critical role of visuals in presentations, ensuring they enhance rather than distract from the message. Insights into scaling personal expertise through books, courses, and new opportunities like academia.

Joseph Noor is the CTO of Ownwell, a company that uses technology to revolutionize property tax appeals. Inspired by his father's entrepreneurial spirit, who fled the Lebanese Civil War and built multiple businesses in the U.S., Joseph embodies the essence of entrepreneurial innovation and resilience. He is passionate about disrupting traditional industries with technology and creating equitable systems. Joseph and his team have raised $25 million from investors like First Round Capital, Long Journey Ventures, and Founder Collective. They currently have over 150,000 customers and are projecting $50 million in revenue this year. Joseph always approached life as an entrepreneur: flipping golf balls, building sneaker bots, creating private MMORPGs, saving money on property taxes. He was raised with the mentality of relentlessly chasing the hardest problems, pushing past what was initially thought possible, and leveling up in the process. In the unrelenting demand for academic excellence, he was enrolled in elementary two years early and was still pushed to skip grades. Enamored with the iPhone, he chose to study Computer Science to build software that can scale to the whole world. It wasn’t until the PhD where he met his first real academic challenge – developing AI to self-optimize computer systems. What you will learn The role of AI in optimizing distributed systems and how it was applied in Joseph Noor's research. How technology, including AI, is revolutionizing property tax appeals through Joseph's company, Ownwell. The challenges of scaling a tech-driven business and how to overcome them. The importance of explainable AI models in industries like real estate, where transparency is crucial. Insights into the entrepreneurial mindset, including the value of persistence, adapting to challenges, and leveraging technology to solve traditional problems.

Bob Bowdon is the founder and CEO of VidaFair, a pay-per-stream video platform re-shaping the landscape of content monetization. He is also the founder and former Executive Director of Choice Media - the leading School Choice media group. He has been a television producer, reporter and commentator for PBS, Bloomberg Television. He also appeared as a recurring character in satirical news sketches for the Onion News Network. The Cartel, Bowdon’s documentary, reveals the nature and extent of corruption in public education. The film won a dozen film festival awards. With VidaFair, Bob and his team are opening door for creators to reclaim their worth by setting their own fees for fair monetization. What you will learn How to amplify your business income and market reach through effective video monetization strategies. How to identify and overcome the drawbacks of traditional business subscription models. The new era of entrepreneurial content consumption and how to break free from subscription fatigue. Innovative approaches to content monetization that empower creators to set their own fees. The future of content creation and consumption in a world moving away from traditional subscription-based models.

Neil Emeigh is the CEO and Founder of Rayobyte, a ~45 person proxy and data collection company with over 4000 customers and 50 employees. In a nutshell, he helps companies gather data online at scale. ‌Rayobyte is an award-winning proxy provider committed to reliability and ethics. They are the largest US-based proxy provider and offer a wide range of services from data center proxies to boutique data scraping. ‌The first 3 months of business during his college life the company made: $100k in revenue in year 1 $1.1m in Year 2 $2.9m in year 3 ‌Fast forward to today, the revenue is growing rapidly on one of their most important product lines. Neil has grown his company by himself, entirely bootstrapped, and recently turned down an offer to sell it for $25m. What you will learn Learn how proxies enable companies to gather large amounts of online data through web scraping while maintaining privacy and avoiding detection. Understand how using proxies and VPNs can help protect your online privacy by preventing tracking and manipulation of search results, such as flight prices. Discover the role of web scraping in helping businesses collect valuable data like competitor pricing, product availability, and customer reviews for better decision-making. Understand the potential of AI in enhancing data scraping by making it easier to analyze and interpret large datasets, although the technology is still evolving. Learn the importance of staying authentic, focused, and aligned with your passion when building an online business, as illustrated by Neil’s entrepreneurial journey.

Luis Garcia is a seasoned international executive with over 25 years of experience in technology, digital media, and education. He specializes in driving new ventures and products to rapid growth by building effective teams that harness innovation, technology, and creativity to solve complex problems. He is the president of PETE, an Orlando-based tech startup that offers a suite of cost-effective and customizable solutions that enable organizations to deliver personalized workforce learning at scale. The PETE team is dedicated to harnessing the power of AI to help organizations of all sizes optimize their training initiatives, spanning from onboarding to regulatory compliance, product knowledge, technical skills, and more, without hiring additional training resources. Before joining PETE, Luis made substantial contributions to Full Sail University over nearly twenty years. His tenure as VP of Full Sail Online marked a transformative era for the institution, where he helped establish it as a pioneer in online education and significantly expanded the reach of its programs. Later, as VP of Emerging Technologies, Luis facilitated a strategic shift from students using technology as a creative tool to becoming architects and originators of new technology, ensuring the university stayed ahead of rapidly evolving industry trends. What you will learn Learn how generative AI can revolutionize workforce learning by automating course creation and tailoring training materials to individual needs. Understand the potential of generative AI in enhancing productivity, allowing businesses to scale their training efforts without expanding their resources. Discover the future of generative AI, focusing on narrow use cases that address specific business problems, leading to more effective implementations. Explore how to integrate generative AI into your business to optimize training initiatives, from onboarding to skill development, ensuring employees receive personalized and engaging learning experiences. Gain insights into the benefits of combining human expertise with generative AI to create high-quality, relevant training content that maintains the unique perspective of industry experts.

David Pollet is the CEO of Incremental and a repeat entrepreneur with over 20 years of startup experience. He has extensive history across startup environments and the lessons he has learned come from what he calls "a mix of big wins and big fails." David is a “Go to Market Growth Leader” with experience scaling Saas startups and public company divisions ranging from $5M-$100M+ in ARR. 25-years of experience in Sales, Marketing and Strategy leadership roles. He is a team-builder with experience translating long-term strategic growth initiatives into operating plans that can be executed, measured, and improved continuously. He has a proven track record of accelerating growth during times of transition. Deep knowledge and experience transitioning transactional businesses such as media arbitrage and data sales into Saas businesses with complex, multi-year committed engagements. He is well-versed in Identity Management, Measurement & Attribution, Machine Learning, Data Sales, and all Media types (incl. Linear TV, CTV, Digital and Social Video). Known for partnering closely with product, engineering and finance, he easily identifies opportunities for innovation and profitable growth. What you will learn Learn how to leverage data for maximizing e-commerce revenue. Understand the role of AI in automating the collection and interpretation of e-commerce sales data. Discover the process of using machine learning to predict daily sales and align disparate data sources. Understand the impact of retail media networks on advertising performance. Discover the journey from traditional online advertising to advanced machine learning techniques.

With over 20 years of experience as a serial marketing measurementtechnology entrepreneur, Kristin Luck's management consulting firm, ScaleHouse, focuses on nontraditional growth strategies for data driven marketing technology firms and market research companies. She understands first-hand the demands and distractions faced by business owners and led and consulted for many high growth businesses in the US., Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific in almost every capacity. She brings a perspective to growth that transcends sales and marketing and skilled at optimizing efforts and calibrating teams for growth that’s both immediate and sustainable while ensuring your company’s valuation is maximized. Kristin is a founder focused on helping fellow founders and executive teams scale and monetize their businesses. She is also a licensed investment banker and knows what deals look like from both sides of the table after participating in both acquisitions and exits from $30M to $250M with over 20 years of experience scaling companies quickly while driving high valuations. In 2000, she co-founded OTX, an online research business that was named the fastest growing research firm in the world in 2002 and 2003 and was subsequently acquired by Zelnick Media & Pilot Group and again by Ipsos in 2007. Kristin then founded Forefront Consulting Group, a research technology firm that was acquired by Decipher. Decipher was acquired by FocusVision in 2014 after seven consecutive years of triple percentage growth. She has advised and consulted for high growth brands, including Voxpopme, Annik (acquired by Capgemini), Dstillery, Kelton (acquired by Material), SameSurf, Remesh and Forsta (acquired by Press Ganey). What you will learn Learn how AI can aid in business growth by leveraging synthetic data for better accuracy and reliability in market research. Understand the importance of tracking data to improve business performance and optimize for sale. Learn how to distill important data points to make informed business decisions. Understand the value of recurring revenue models. Discover the importance of planning for a business sale.

Kordel K France is the founder and lead engineer of pioneering machine sensing startup Theta Diagnostics. For the better part of the last decade, he has been working with his incredible team to build a new type of nanotechnology sensor and multi-modal AI platform that enables machines’ sense of smell. His driving mission is to give machines the sense of hyper-sensitive smell through machine olfaction and accelerate a new paradigm in robotics and AI. Kordel is a technologist, inventor, and multi-disciplined engineer whose reward function is maximized by teaching machines to solve complex problems through AI. While most of his recent work is contained in the bootstrapping of Theta and its acquirers, he has also had the privilege of working with and learning from incredible engineers at some of the world’s best companies in solving challenging technology problems. Although his focus has been on the engineering of sensor systems and multi-modal AI, he has deep manufacturing and hardware development experience that enables him as a comprehensive product developer and technical leader. His experience spans computer vision, autopilot development, aircraft design & simulation, natural language processing, swarm intelligence, and optics. What you will learn How AI can give machines a sense of smell. The importance of integrating all five human senses into AI for achieving human-level intelligence. The role of machine olfaction in detecting medical conditions through breath analysis. The potential of AI in agriculture, starting with self-driving tractors. Kordel's journey into AI, inspired by his childhood experiences on a farm. The evolution and current state of AI education, and the importance of math and statistics in AI development. How AI models need to be explainable, especially in critical fields like healthcare.

Brian Beckcom is a Computer Scientist, Philosopher, & Trial Lawyer based in Houston, Texas. He has been voted a Texas Super Lawyer 14 consecutive times—every single year he has been eligible. Brian’s law firm, VB Attorneys, is one of the best law firms in the United States, and has obtained hundreds of millions of dollars for the firm’s clients, including many record-breaking results. ‌Brian also hosts Lessons from Leaders with Brian Beckcom, a popular podcast featuring military leaders, sports stars, New York Times best selling authors, scientists, and more. ‌Brian is a former Division I athlete at Texas A&M (basketball). He is currently a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a single-digit golfer, and an accomplished fly fisherman. ‌Brian graduated from Texas A&M University with degrees in Computer Science & Philosophy. He was a member of the Texas A&M basketball team and one of the leaders of the Corps of Cadets, the oldest military organization in the State of Texas. ‌Brian then attended the University of Texas School of Law, where he was one of the top students. He graduated with honors, served as an Officer on the Texas Law Review, & was the starting free safety for the Legal Eagles. ‌Brian is consistently viewed by his peers as one of the best lawyers of his generation. Brian has also published hundreds of articles and 6 books about success, happiness, leadership, and other important topics. What you will learn Learn about the intersection of computer science, philosophy, and law. Discover why purpose and meaning are more important than pursuing happiness directly. Understand the limitations of artificial intelligence compared to human intelligence. Discover the potential impact of large language models on industries like law. Understand the potential dangers of leaving AI development solely to tech companies. Explore the importance of having leaders who are well-versed in ethics, especially when it comes to the development and regulation of artificial intelligence.

Ken Schmidt is one of the most sought-after executive advisors and speakers. He earned his acclaim by leading Harley-Davidson's remarkable turnaround from financial ruin to global dominance in the 1990s. That transformation was based on his highly unconventional re-positioning of the motorcycle icon’s marketplace presence. Ken shifted the company’s culture from a “product-first” mindset to one that prioritized being memorable for how they connect with people. The company swiftly grew to become the most successful player in the fiercely-competitive worldwide motorcycle industry with the highest levels of customer loyalty of any consumer hardware brand in existence. ‌Ken’s success, unconventional business approach and playful outspokenness ultimately led him to consulting assignments with household-name brands and made him a highly requested speaker, with more than 1,200 keynotes presented globally to date. ‌He is also the author of Make Some Noise: The Unconventional Road to Dominance, ghost-author of “100 Years of Harley-Davidson” (the best-selling motorsports book of all time), host of the Tailgating with Geniuses podcast and co-founder of Torque Sessions Leadership Training. What you will learn Discover Ken Schmidt’s lifelong passion for motorcycles, inspired by icons like Evel Knievel, which led him to his pivotal role at Harley-Davidson. Learn how Harley-Davidson's turnaround involved shifting from a product-focused to a people-first approach. Understand how the establishment of the Harley Owners Group (HOG) turned dealerships into social hubs, which fostered a sense of belonging and camaraderie among riders. See how Harley-Davidson's success was built on distinctive branding pillars like lifestyle, freedom, camaraderie, individuality, and rebellion, making the brand stand out in a commoditized market. Recognize the importance of emphasizing human connection, as Harley-Davidson focused on making customers feel special and validated, leading to repeated business and deep brand loyalty. Reflect on how AI and technology can be used to enhance human connection rather than replace it, making businesses more human by allowing them to focus on customer interactions and validation.