Making Waves at C-Level: Business Tips for Executives, Leaders, and Entrepreneurs

After a long hiatus, Thom Singer returns to hosing “Making Waves at C-Level”. But as he always teaches, we have to try new things. He is stepping away from interviews, and doing short episodes with ideas and advice. Today he talks about leaders who pretend they are prefect and who lie on social media about how great they are (when you often know they are fluffing up their greatness). He says real leaders can admit to mistakes. What do you think?

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/dont-be-full-of-sht

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Check out this episode of “Making Waves at C-Level” when Thom Singer sits down with serial entrepreneur Henrik Johansson from Gembah.

About Henrik Johansson

Henrik Johansson is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded and built the product company

Boundless into a $100M company. Currently he is the co-founder and CEO of Gembah, a

product development platform and marketplace, and the Executive Producer of Final Product, a

reality TV show incubated at Gembah. He was previously a co-founder and board member of

OutboundEngine, and before that the president of EverydayWealth, and co-founder and

president of Creditland.

Johansson specializes in technology-enabled services, marketplaces, and software as a

service. He is an expert on scaling startups, building world-class teams, culture, and scalable

processes and infrastructure and has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Austin Business

Journal, and was named Counselor’s 2017 Person of the Year.

About Gembah- The 1st Marketplace for Product Development

Gembah is a product development marketplace specializing in bringing new products to market

through all stages of development. Gembah connects creators with its global network of

designers, engineers, and supply chain specialists and oversees production at factories in

China, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and South America. Founded on the belief that humans are

natural inventors, the company’s goal is to empower creators and make product development

accessible to anyone. Gembah was established in 2018 in Austin, TX and has been featured in

Forbes and Entrepreneur. To learn more, visit Gembah.com, or find us on Twitter, Instagram,

Facebook, or YouTube.

Https://henrik-johansson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a podcast host gets an inquiry from someone with a great last name, how do you not put them on the show! LOL. In this episode Thom Singer sits down to talk AI Powered Financing Platform, SmartBiz with CEO Evan Singer (no relation – they are NOT cousins or brothers).

About Evan Singer:

Evan Singer is CEO of SmartBiz, the leading AI-powered small business financing platform equipping entrepreneurs with access to the right capital at the right time. To date, SmartBiz has connected borrowers with more than $9 billion in financing while increasing efficiency for its network of banks and trusted lending partners. More than 230,000 entrepreneurs have utilized SmartBiz to access the funding they need to grow, with 60% of loans made to minority, women, or veteran-owned businesses. Singer was honored as a Top 100 Stanford Alumni in Technology in 2021 and a Top 25 CEO in Fintech in 2022. 

About SmartBiz:

On the heels of the Great Recession, a team of technologists, entrepreneurs, and finance geeks came together to find an easier way for small businesses to apply for and secure low-cost funds from banks. United in the belief that the right capital at the right time can cause any small business to thrive, the early SmartBiz team committed themselves to connect every entrepreneur with the funds they need to fortify and grow their businesses. Today, small businesses of every size and type turn to SmartBiz for reliable access to SBA, bank term, and custom financing.

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/smartbiz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen now for lessons in PR from the founder and president of Grapevine PR in Austin, Texas.  

This episode is co-produced with the Austin Technology Council. ATC is a 30 year old association focused on promoting and facilitating growth of technology companies in Central Texas. Over the past three decades the business ecosystem in Austin has changed, and ATC is actively changing, too. Learn more at https://AustinTechnologyCouncil.org.

Steven Le Vine has released a new book called “Stories That F*cking Matter: Three pillars of epic storytelling to dominate media headlines, win clients, and grow your business”. This is a must read for all business leaders.  

About Steven Le Vine:

Steven Le Vine is an award-winning publicist and PR strategist, and founder of Grapevine PR, since 2006. The firm’s clients include tech and consumer brands, celebrities and high-profile experts. He has secured clients wide-ranging press from sit-down interviews with Oprah, The View, The Talk, NBC Today, CNBC, and CNN, to placements in Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, The New York Times, TechCrunch, WIRED, Fast Company, Business Insider, Men’s Journal, USA Today, People, Variety, and more. He is a frequent media personality and contributor for prominent publications, including Forbes and Rolling Stone, where he offers his expert insight on PR and entrepreneurship. He has taken home nearly two dozen awards for his firm, including “Agency of the Year” and “Campaign of the Year,” on behalf of his work for clients including William Shatner, Lisa Loeb, Danny Pintauro, and many others. Le Vine is the co-author of the new PR book, Stories That F*cking Matter: Three Pillars of Epic Storytelling to Dominate Media Headlines, Win Clients and Grow Your Business. He resides in Austin, TX.

About the book, Stories That F*cking Matter

Three Pillars of Epic Storytelling to Dominate Media Headlines, Win Clients and Grow Your Business:

A well-crafted story has the power to literally mold reality, win over hearts and change minds! The story is the most powerful tool humans have ever discovered. But what makes up a great, expertly constructed story? What’s the difference between a good story and a really f*cking great story? In this book, PR and media industry experts Steven Le Vine and Garrett McClure share their secret formula and winning playbooks from over two decades of proven success in earned, owned and paid media. This book reveals proven and effective PR & Media strategies, insider tips and growth hacks to tell a story that f*cking matters in order to cut through the noise of today’s fragmented media landscape and get seen and heard. Get an insider’s behind-the-scenes look into the world of PR, delivering proven methods and strategies along the way for entrepreneurs and experts to take media outreach into their own hands, tell a great story, make headlines, and succeed at growing their brands and businesses. www.storiesmatterbook.com

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFQ1YJ13?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/steven-levine

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is co-produced with the Austin Technology Council. ATC is a 30 year old association focused on promoting and facilitating growth of technology companies in Central Texas. Over the past three decades the business ecosystem in Austin has changed, and ATC is actively changing, too. Learn more at https://AustinTechnologyCouncil.org.

Today we chat with Nad Elias, CEO at recruitAbility. His story of working in the recruiting business for nearly 25 years, and his commitment to growing his team and culture will inspire you.  

About Nad Elias

Nad Elias has been in the search recruitment industry for 20+ years. Recognized as one of the top 50 recruiters in Texas, he is known for working with and advising companies on their talent acquisition and retention strategies, consistently delivering on-target results, and building high-performing teams. Nad founded recruitAbility with the purpose-driven mission to make the lives of everyone they connect with better.

Nad’s career has spanned all aspects of employer and people development. He’s trained, lead, and developed recruiting organizations serving various industries while always focusing on the value-added services they provide when it’s done right. His experience includes running executive searches and managing nationwide projects with companies ranging in size from start-ups to the Fortune 500. He began his career out of college in the recruiting industry, and it’s all he’s ever known.

Austin is home to Nad and his family. A University of Texas graduate, he is the incoming President of the Central US Entrepreneurs Organization (EO). He has been a finalist for Austin’s best CEO’s by the Austin Business Journal for the last 2 years and has lead recruitAbility to one of Austin’s best places to work the last 4 out of 5 years. When he’s not following the active lifestyles of his two kids, Nad plays and coaches basketball and enjoys a round of golf whenever he can fit it in!

About recruitAbility 

recruitAbility is a tech enabled consulting firm in the recruiting industry that partners with business leaders to strategically grow their organizations. We set out to reimagine recruiting by building a process and platform that helps our clients find and retain the right people. We help our clients grow through our direct hire, contract, and managed recruiting solutions.

HTTPS://thomsinger.com/podcast/recruitability 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is co-produced with the Austin Technology Council. ATC is a 30 year old association focused on promoting and facilitating growth of technology companies in Central Texas. Over the past three decades the business ecosystem in Austin has changed, and ATC is actively changing, too. Learn more at https://AustinTechnologyCouncil.org.

Today we chat changes in the world of “search” with Madhu Basu from Unnanu. In this episode we talk about how the right tech brings more opportunities, and how he sees “search” as broken.

About Madhu Basu

Madhu has been an Austinite for over 23 years, living in Austin metropolis. He is the CEO and Founder of Unnanu, a technology startup from Austin that helps businesses by utilizing a patented contextual weighted keyword search. Also, the founder and CEO of PMCS Services, provides IT consulting, staffing, and solutions services for over 16 years.

He also co-founded three more businesses previously. Madhu is the former President of a non-profit organization that focuses on community services and awareness within the Austin sub-continent Indian community.

Madhu is married to Sheela and has two children, Charita and Praneel.

About Unnanu

Unnanu technology will help get relevant information to people or businesses faster. We put forth effort to find data, media, or content in a business-driven society where people can get the advantage of services by businesses investing in society and people by creating jobs, healthy living, and support. We currently provide a simple solution for businesses to have resumes scored to be able to find the best candidate and a complete hiring platform with an integrated JobBoard, ATS, and OnBoard solution. We built a disruptive technology to bring highly qualified individuals to companies, and we want to make their hiring process seamless, effective, and efficient.

Unnanu offers users a plethora of highly useful features like in-app messaging, offers, referrals, an on-boarding process, and even the ability to conduct interviews right within the app. Also, the ability to compare new opportunities and offers side by side so that you can make your next career move with confidence. 

Our approach is seamless, effective, and simple. It is much faster than traditional job boards and job sites. Unnanu is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with more offices to be open in the near future.

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/Madhu-Basu

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thom sits down to talk about why companies should offer employee benefits with the President of Excel Benefits, Michael Bigley. Companies with less than 50 employees do not necessarily need to offer benefits, but for many this is a great retention and recruiting tool. Even if they seem “expensive”, many companies find that the right package is worth the investment.

About Michael Bigley

Michael Bigley has lived in San Antonio, Texas most of his life, except when he attended Texas State University, where he graduated in 1979 with a B.A. in Business. In 1984, he entered the Life Insurance Business with Mass Mutual.  In 1998, he earned the prestigious Certified Life Underwriter (CLU) designation from the American College,  a non-profit, industry accredited, degree-granting institution.  Only 5% of professionals in his field has obtained this title. 

Mike founded Excel Benefits Inc. in 1991, with the goal of assisting businesses of all sizes navigate the ever-changing costs and processes of benefits implementation and offer a fully educated staff for benefits advisory and servicing. Mike is truly a seasoned veteran and one of the most knowledgeable employee benefits consultants in the industry today.

In 2016, Mitchell, Mike’s oldest son joined the company as the Operations Manager after obtaining his Biology degree from UTSA. Then, in 2019, Mike’s middle son, Drake joined the Company as Benefits Advisor and was promoted to Sales Manager in 2022, rounding out a successful family business to serve businesses for another generation.

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/excel-benefits

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime joins the conversation on “Making Waves at C-Level”.

Award-winning innovator and disrupter, Reggie Fils-Aimé has been revered by business leaders and gaming fans alike for helping to bring some of Nintendo’s greatest successes– the Nintendo DS, the Wii, the Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and the Nintendo Switch – to the global marketplace. 

In his bestselling book, DISRUPTING THE GAME: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo, Fils-Aimé shares his story of grit and determination for the first time—from his humble beginnings in the Bronx as the son of Haitian immigrants, to the top of Nintendo as one of the most powerful names in the gaming industry—and the first American and African American president and chief operating officer for the company. 

Immortalized for opening Nintendo’s 2004 E3 presentation with, “My name is Reggie, I’m about kicking ass. I’m about taking names, and we’re about making games,” Fils-Aimé is a veteran at transforming companies, revitalizing brands, and reshaping industries. 

Here he outlines the leadership lessons he learned over the course of his career from his time working with iconic brands at P&G, like PepsiCo/Pizza Hut, Guinness Import Company and television entertainment with VH1 to his tenure at Nintendo. He helps readers leverage disruptive thinking to pinpoint the life choices that will make them truly happy, conquer negative perceptions from those who underestimate or outright dismiss them, and master the grit, perseverance, and resilience it takes to dominate in the business world. 

ABOUT Reggie Fils-Aime

Reggie Fils-Aimé is an award-winning innovator and disrupter who has helped bring the Nintendo DS, the Wii, the Nintendo 3DS, Wii U and the Nintendo Switch to the global marketplace. He joined Nintendo of America Inc. in December 2003 as Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing. In May 2006, he was promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer. He was inducted into the International Videogame Hall of Fame in October 2019 and received the annual Legend Award from the New York Videogame Critics Circle in January 2020. 

Prior to joining Nintendo, Fils-Aimé was Senior Vice President of Marketing at VH1. During his tenure at VH1, he engineered the channel’s redirection to young viewers that resulted in an overall 30 percent ratings growth, and he created and executed the marketing plans for The Concert for New York City, which raised more than $35 million for disaster relief in the wake of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. 

Fils-Aimé graduated with distinction from Cornell’s Dyson Undergraduate Business School in 1983 which launched a 35+ year career as an operating executive spanning the consumer-packaged goods, restaurant, beverage, and media/entertainment industries. Since retiring, he has focused his energy on developing the next generation of business leaders. In August 2019, he was named the inaugural Cornell University’s Dyson Leader in Residence for the 2019-2020 academic year. He also founded Brentwood Growth Partners to help emerging companies scale and enable leaders to create world-class cultures.

HTTPS://thomsinger.com/podcast/disrupting-the-game 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is co-produced with the Austin Technology Council. ATC is a 30 year old association focused on promoting and facilitating growth of technology companies in Central Texas. Over the past three decades the business ecosystem in Austin has changed, and ATC is actively changing, too. Learn more at https://AustinTechnologyCouncil.org.

Michael Ward Jr from the Austin Urban Technology Movement joins the conversation on the “Making Waves at C-Level” podcast to take about how to train new employees with internships and apprenticeships. Tech companies need great employees, and many skip training and growing talent and just poach from their neighbors. But this episode will dive deep into other ways to build your community of engaged employees.

About Michael Ward Jr.

Michael Ward Jr. is a social entrepreneur who focuses on STEAM, workforce development, and economic empowerment. Originally from Miami, FL, Michael began his career at Oracle in enterprise sales, focusing on cloud and on-premise technology. During this time, Michael also led Oracle’s Black employee resource group to increase the recruitment, engagement, and upward mobility of Oracle’s Black employees.

After Oracle, Michael spent some time at ADP and Primal7 where he gained a better understanding of human capital management and Austin’s startup ecosystem.

Currently, Michael leads Austin Urban Technology Movement (AUTMHQ) as President and CEO. He is also the Co-Founder of TwoWards Solutions, Co-Hosts Culture Crawl ATX, and sits on the following boards throughout Central Texas: Greater Austin STEM Ecosystem, the University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering, and the Texas Science and Engineering Fair.

Michael is also a community partner of the IT Caucus of the Texas House. Before starting his tech career and entrepreneurship journey, Michael earned a degree in International Relations at Miami Dade College and two degrees in Political Science and Global Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Michael is also a father, husband, Miami Heat fan, Tar Heel alum, and enjoys good food made with love!

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/Austin-Urban-Technology-Movement

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is co-produced with the Austin Technology Council. ATC is a 30 year old association focused on promoting and facilitating growth of technology companies in Central Texas. Over the past three decades the business ecosystem in Austin has changed, and ATC is actively changing, too. Learn more at https://AustinTechnologyCouncil.org.

Today we chat about Behavioral Health with Ray Wolf and Brain Tucker from Televero Health. They are rewriting the way people get access to behavioral health by providing better access to the care people need.

About Televero Health

Televero Health provides Virtual Behavioral Health services across Texas, including psychiatry, therapy, and counseling for moderate and acute patients. Our mission is to improve the lives of individuals needing care and our community’s safety. Televero breaks through the behavioral health access paradigm by offering access to licensed clinicians within seven days of the referral and accepting insurance. We operate an evidence-based integrated care model, partnering with Primary Care Physicians to deliver “whole patient” care to improve outcomes.

Televero has a goal of screening 10 Million Texans for suicide and violence by 2025.

About Ray Wolf

As the Chief Information Officer, Ray leads the development and execution of the growth and operational strategies for Televero Health, from human capital to financial.

Ray brings three decades of global business experience across various industries and growth stages—from start-up to established enterprise – through inverting the healthcare inflation curve, designing patentable Mach 2+ jet engines, and developing space defense systems.

Ray’s healthcare experience ranges from reducing Kaiser Permanente’s operating cost by 20%, receiving the Apple Healthcare award for creating the first HIPAA-compliant mobile communication for physicians, transforming Essence Health into a cloud-based enterprise, and increasing clinical technology adoption from 15% to more than 85%, and inverting the healthcare inflation curve through an innovative gain sharing managed care model at Redirect Health, reducing the cost of self-funded company healthcare costs by 25%.

About Brian Tucker

As Chief Digital Officer, Brian Tucker is the “transformer in chief,” charged with leveraging technology to create unmatched, easy, frictionless client, patient, and provider experiences. Brian brings over two decades of strategic cross-business transformation, process innovation, and delivering profitable business and customer outcomes through technology solutions.

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/televero-health

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices