School for Startups Radio

September 6, 2023 - Latin FinTech Edrizio De La Cruz and Melody Cloud Wayne Altman

Edrizio De La Cruz – Co-founder of Arcus and Author of Book The Underdog Founder
Autopay or bill notification didn’t work in Latin America so we were thefirst the company to build the software that lets fintech and banks providethese services in Latin America. In 10 years, we became the biggest platformfor payments in Latin America.
Edrizio De La Cruz is the Co-founder of Arcus and Author of Book The Underdog Founder. Edrizio De La Cruz is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, investor and occasional stand up comic. He’s a Dominican immigrant who grew up in Harlem. He dropped out of college to work as an aircraft technician to help make ends meet. He ultimately went back to college, worked on Wall Street and earned an MBA from The Wharton School. In 2013, he co-founded Arcus, a fintech company. He worked with an incredible team to build the company from scratch to 100+ employees, 100+ clients and raised $19M in funding from Y-Combinator, Ignia, Softbank and Citi Ventures. In 2021, the company was sold to Mastercard.Wayne Altman – Founder of Melody Clouds App 
I can reprice an entire website from my phone at my daughter’s volleyball game.
Wayne Altman is the Founder of Melody Clouds App. Wayne Altman has a strong desire to make a difference to the people around him, so Wayne has worn many hats during his 54 years of life on planet Earth. Born in California but raised in Texas, Wayne grew up knowing he wanted to serve others. U.S. Army Veteran, Death Row Correctional Officer, Corporate Sales Trainer, and Author of 6 books on Mortgage and Credit. Wayne has traveled to 19 countries and visited 49 States teaching Credit to consumers and Loan Officers in the Mortgage Industry. He currently owns multiple (14) online businesses all designed to enrich the lives of his customers and his community. His latest business is Melody Clouds a subscription relaxation website and app. With 8000 hours of Solfeggio, Binaural Beats, Guided Meditation, and 17,000 + Audiobooks all designed to relax and educate its subscribers at a price point other services just will not touch. Wayne has determined that the healing and beneficial effects of this technology should be available to everyone who wants it. So, Melody Clouds is translated into over 100 different languages, and its membership spans across the globe.

September 5, 2023 - Minister of Chocolate Justin Frank Polgar and IP Give Away Robert Cote

Justin Frank Polgar – CEO of YES Cacao
We sell our chocolate bars in 160 stores. We would just walk inand we had a 100% track record closing stores.
Justin Frank Polgar is the CEO of YES Cacao. Over the past decade, Justin has been in service of the cacao bean and its many talents, namely as a delivery system for botanicals. In his early adolescence, he was exposed to several “forgotten foods”, like ginseng and spirulina, that changed the way he felt in his body. This sparked a quest to find more magical botanicals that have beneficial effects on our energy levels. Many of these foods don’t taste particularly yummy, BUT he recognized that folding their flavors into chocolate was highly effective, and more pleasing to the palate. Focusing his perspective on chocolate innovation, and education in the holistic health and wellness category, Justin has formulated over 50 delicious potions blended into wild-harvested chocolate. He personally consumes half a pound of chocolate daily. In true Willy Wonka style and philosophy, he is an inspirational cheerleader for everyone to find their YES. If you happen to meet Justin on the streets, you may find him singing “YES!”, dancing like a wild child, praising freely, and concocting what he calls Yesology. He is inspired by service to humanity, expansive consciousness, wise friendships, and by his beautiful wife, Zoë, and his cosmic son, Orion, and is getting ready to welcome his daughter in the Autumn of 2020 (names are still brewing). He’s a fan of ceremonial tea, adventuring to foreign lands, and engaging plant medicine of the old pharmacopoeias.SFS Minute 252: Chocolate MedicineRobert Cote – CEO of Cote Capital
By learning to share technology, we reap the benefits of a global populationthat can add value. By adding value for others, you actually create value foryourself. The more you help others, the more you can help yourself.
Robert Cote is one of the world’s leading IP lawyers and investors, bringing 25 years of experience in identifying, valuing, and investing in the breakthrough IP assets of technology companies that built new industries in America that are responsible for its prosperity. He has experienced firsthand the challenges technology companies face in funding the growth of their businesses as they enter commercial markets. He developed the IP capital model as a better way of investing in and scaling a new generation of these companies. The model is designed to enable many more companies with breakthrough IP to succeed in having an impact in the world and in bringing long-term growth in jobs and wages to people and their communities while delivering big returns to investors because of the infinite potential of breakthrough IP to bring transformative economic benefits to a company when broadly adopted. Prior to founding Cote, he established and led the New York office of McKool Smith as its Managing Partner, where he was instrumental in helping the firm achieve #1 rankings in IP. Robert is ranked by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) as one of the world’s top IP leaders.

September 1, 2023 - NYT #1 Best Selling Fiction Partners Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Douglas Preston – Co-Author of Dead Mountain (Nora Kelly Book 4)
Remember for writers, it’s not a book, it’s a career. Keep going, just keepgoing. You might have a book that fails, you might have a book that getsbad reviews, just to make sure you keep going. Eventually you will gaina readership if you’re any good.
Douglas Preston is the Co-Author of Dead Mountain (Nora Kelly Book 4). Douglas Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956, and grew up in the deadly boring suburb of Wellesley. Following a distinguished matriculation at a private nursery school, where he was almost immediately expelled, he attended public schools and the Cambridge School of Weston. Notable events in his early life included the loss of a fingertip at the age of three to a bicycle; the loss of his two front teeth to his brother Richard’s fist; and various broken bones, also incurred in dust-ups with Richard. (Richard went on to write The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event, which tells you all you need to know about what it was like to grow up with him as a brother.) As they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet streets of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets. After unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, and geology, before settling down to English literature. After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and manager of publications. Preston also taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University. His eight-year stint at the Museum resulted in the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs in the Attic, edited by a rising young star at St. Martin’s Press, Lincoln Child. During this period, Preston gave Child a midnight tour of the museum, and in the darkened Hall of Late Dinosaurs, under a looming T. Rex, Child turned to Preston and said: “This would make the perfect setting for a thriller!” That thriller would, of course, be Relic. In 1986, Preston piled everything he owned into the back of a Subaru and moved from New York City to Santa Fe to write full time, following the advice of S. J. Perelman that “the dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he’s given the freedom to starve anywhere.” After the requisite period of penury, Preston achieved a small success with the publication of Cities of Gold, a nonfiction book about Coronado’s search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. To research the book, Preston and the photographer Walter W. Nelson retraced on horseback 1,000 miles of Coronado’s route across Arizona and New Mexico, packing their supplies and sleeping under the stars–and nearly killing themselves in the process. Since then he has published other nonfiction books on the history of the American Southwest. In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, made into a movie by Paramount Pictures. In Relic they introduced one of the most celebrated fictional detectives of modern times, Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast. Relic has been followed by more than a dozen other books in the Pendergast series, including The Cabinet of Curiosities, Still Life with Crows, and Crooked River. Their last twenty novels in a row have been New York Times best-sellers, including several reaching the #1 position. Relic and The Cabinet of Curiosities were selected by in a poll by National Public Radio as being among the 100 greatest thrillers ever written. Preston has also continued a career in journalism. He writes about archaeology, history and paleontology for the New Yorker magazine, as well as for Smithsonian, National Geographic, Harper’s and the Atlantic. In the course of his journalistic profession Preston has explored lost temples in the jungles of Cambodia, been the first to enter a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, and ridden on horseback across thousands of miles of the American Southwest-which earned him membership in the elite “Long Riders Guild.” In the year 2000, Preston moved with his family to Florence, Italy, to write a murder mystery set in Tuscany. Instead of writing the novel, he became fascinated by the story of a serial killer named il Mostro di Firenze, the Monster of Florence. He teamed up with an Italian journalist, Mario Spezi, who was an expert on the case. In 2008 they published a nonfiction book, The Monster of Florence, which was a huge bestseller, spending four months on the New York Times list. The book won journalism awards in both Italy and the United States. It is currently under development as a film. The same Italian prosecutor who charged Preston with crimes in the Monster case, Giuliano Mignini, was the prosecutor who accused Amanda Knox of murder in 2007 in Perugia. Preston became one of Knox’s defenders. In 2009, Preston argued on “48 Hours” on CBS that the case against Knox was “based on lies, superstition, and crazy conspiracy theories.” Preston appeared on numerous television shows defending Knox and explaining the Italian legal system, including the Today Show, Anderson Cooper 360°, and on Megyn Kelly’s “The Kelly File” on Fox. Preston wrote about the case in a Kindle Single, Trial by Fury: Internet Savagery and the Amada Knox Case. Preston’s most recent nonfiction book, The Lost City of the Monkey God, published in January 2017, tells the true story of the discovery of an ancient, Pre-Columbian city in an unexplored valley deep in the Mosquitia Mountains of Honduras. It was a number 1 New York Times Bestseller and named by the Times as a notable book of the year. In 2010, Preston participated in the first USO tour sponsored by the International Thriller Writers organization, along with authors David Morrell, Steve Berry, Andy Harp, and James Rollins. After visiting with military personnel and wounded soldiers at National Navy Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the group spent a week in Iraq, meeting with soldiers and signing books, marking the first time in the USO’s 69-year history that authors had visited a combat zone. n 2014, Preston founded the organization Authors United. During a contract dispute between Amazon and the publisher Hachette, Amazon tried to put pressure on Hachette and other publishers by delaying shipment, blocking availability and eliminating discounts on 8,000 books, causing severe financial harm to 3,000 authors. Preston garnered the support of like-minded authors, including many Nobel Laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners, as well as hundreds of midlist, debut, and struggling young authors, who signed an open letter protesting Amazon’s unfair negotiating tactics. Preston currently serves as President of the Authors Guild, the nation’s largest and oldest association of authors and journalists. In addition to Authors United, Preston was one of the early founders of International Thriller Writers and served as its Co-President. He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was elected to the Long Riders Guild, an international association of equestrian travelers. In 2011, Pomona College conferred on Preston the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa. He serves on the advisory board of the School for Advanced Research. He had received several awards for his work, including an Edgar (shared); 2016 Association of Authors’ Representatives Appreciation Award; 2005 PCA National Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Literature and Popular Culture; 2005 Audi Award for Fiction; NPR Reader Award for Best Thriller (twice); Milan International Book Fair 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award (Italy); Premio Speciale per la Libertà di Stampa (Italy) 2006; Premio Orme Gialle (Italy) 2006. He is an avid skier, mountain climber, and hiker. He counts in his ancestry the poet Emily Dickinson and the obstetrician and early sexologist Robert Latou Dickinson. Preston’s great-grandfather eight times back in a direct line was Samuel Wardwell, who was hung as a witch in Salem in 1692 and is listed in the Salem Witch Trials Memorial.Lincoln Child – Co-Author of Dead Mountain (Nora Kelly Book 4)
Very few writers make enough off the sweat of their brow to make a go of it.
Lincoln Child is the Co-Author of Dead Mountain (Nora Kelly Book 4). Lincoln Child was born in Westport, Connecticut, which he still calls his hometown (despite the fact that he left the place before he reached his first birthday and now only goes back for weekends). Lincoln seemed to have acquired an interest in writing as early as second grade, when he wrote a short story entitled Bumble the Elephant (now believed by scholars to be lost). Along with two dozen short stories composed during his youth, he wrote a science-fiction novel in tenth grade called Second Son of Daedalus and a shamelessly Tolkienesque fantasy in twelfth grade titled The Darkness to the North (left unfinished at 400 manuscript pages). Both are exquisitely embarrassing to read today and are kept under lock and key by the author. After a childhood that is of interest only to himself, Lincoln graduated from Carleton College (huh?) in Northfield, Minnesota, majoring in English. Discovering a fascination for words, and their habit of turning up in so many books, he made his way to New York in the summer of 1979, intent on finding a job in publishing. He was lucky enough to secure a position as editorial assistant at St. Martin’s Press. Over the next several years, he clawed his way up the editorial hierarchy, moving to assistant editor to associate editor before becoming a full editor in 1984. While at St. Martin’s, he was associated with the work of many authors, including that of James Herriot and M. M. Kaye. He edited well over a hundred books–with titles as diverse as The Notation of Western Music and Hitler’s Rocket Sites–but focused primarily on American and English popular fiction. While at St. Martin’s, Lincoln assembled several collections of ghost and horror stories, beginning with the hardcover collections Dark Company (1984) and Dark Banquet (1985). Later, when he founded the company’s mass-market horror division, he edited three more collections of ghost stories, Tales of the Dark 1-3. In 1987, Lincoln left trade publishing to work at MetLife. In a rather sudden transition, he went from editing manuscripts, speaking at sales conferences, and wining/dining agents to doing highly technical programming and systems analysis. Though the switch might seem bizarre, Lincoln was a propeller-head from a very early age, and his extensive programming experience dates back to high school, when he worked with DEC minis and the now-prehistoric IBM 1620, so antique it actually had an electric typewriter mounted into its front panel. Away from the world of publishing, Lincoln’s own nascent interests in writing returned. While at MetLife, Relic was published, and within a few years Lincoln had left the company to write full time. He now lives in New Jersey (under protest–just kidding) with his wife and daughter. A dilettante by natural inclination, Lincoln’s interests include: pre-1950s literature and poetry; post-1950s popular fiction; playing the piano, various MIDI instruments, and the 5-string banjo; English and American history; motorcycles; architecture; classical music, early jazz, blues, and R&B; exotic parrots; esoteric programming languages; mountain hiking; bow ties; Italian suits; fedoras; archaeology; and computer MMORPGs.

August 30, 2023 - Building an Audio eCommerce Biz Johnathan Price and Earth Walking Jonathan England

Johnathan Price – Founder of Down 4 Sound Shop        
Most people give up right before they are about to have a breakthrough.Or when it starts getting a little tough. I had hundreds of YouTube videosout before I sold anything.
Johnathan Price is the Founder of Down 4 Sound Shop. In the span of just five years, he went from working out of his parent’s attic to 20 million in sales annually in the car audio industry – a milestone unheard of in that sector. Now, JP has a thriving youtube community of fellow “Bassheads” with 500k subscribers and coaches others on creating their passion business. He is now a speaker on “How To Turn Your Youtube Channel Into A Client Acquisition Channel.”Jonathan England – Founder of Earth Walker University and Author of If I Die Before I Wake: A User’s Guide to the Five Levels of Consciousness 
If you want to experience a life of complete purpose and fulfillment,get free from the man and then find out what your purpose is.
Jonathan England is the Founder of Earth Walker University and Author of If I Die Before I Wake: A User’s Guide to the Five Levels of Consciousness. He is a transformational leader and community builder, whose achievements include building a multimillion-dollar real estate business and becoming a #1 bestselling author nationally and internationally. He has invested over $500k into personal development and is renowned for creating the Awakened Life Live Event, which tens of thousands have attended and many agree is the most powerful, impactful, and transformational event on the planet. Jonathan is also the co-founder of Earthwaking Eco-Village, a residential village whose purpose is to heal humanity from the inside out, create a world of abundance for all, and participate in birthing the New Earth. He instills foundational skills that enable people to tap into their deepest desires and set into motion the necessary shifts to transition from the “impossible” to become the “inevitable.” Jonathan’s latest book, “If I Die Before I Wake,” offers empowering practices to propel a crucial shift in the way people attract happiness, success, spiritual connection, and fulfillment. His new book is about the Culmination of His Consciousness Leadership and Practical Wisdom for Those Who Seek More Out of Life. Jonathan is on a mission to create a world of abundance for all by taking 100% responsibility for our thoughts, feelings, actions, and reality while working in harmony with nature and eachother.

August 28, 2023 - Green Hotel Supplies Andy De Silva and Industry Analyst Relations Chris Holscher

Andy De Silva – Co-Founder at Hotel Emporium, Inc.
California State banned all the little plastic bottles for hotel amenitiesso we got into refillable systems and are inventing lots of productsaround it, saving plastic.
Andy De Silva is the Co-Founder of Hotel Emporium. Andy is a Sri Lankan-born entrepreneur who has founded companies in Hospitality, International Trade, and the Tech Industries. Growing up in Colombo, Andy had a passion for business enterprise and migrated to the States at a young age to pursue his career in hospitality. Shortly after, he co-founded Hotel Emporium, Inc. which today services 25,000+ hotels & resorts worldwide. Andy De Silva is responsible for the company’s worldwide sales and operations including end-to-end global supply management. His Executive-level experience has amassed strategic supplier relationships of over 1,000+ vendors & factories. He has extensive leadership experience having opened 20+ international offices, building and structuring operating teams, and expanding the business’ reach to over 50 countries. De Silva has 20+ years of manufacturer relations and supply chain management amassing a network of over 1,000+ manufacturers & suppliers. He holds proprietary global patents for sustainable packaging within the food and cosmetic industry along with other cosmetic packaging-related intellectual property. Also, he is currently Co-Founder and CEO of a global hotel supply company with annual sales revenue of $30MM and Co-Owner of a cutting-edge technology company servicing autonomous checkout micro-markets to consumers.Chris Holscher – Startup Analyst Relations Specialist at holscher.one
AI is not the hottest ticket in town! What I find really exciting is processoptimization. The reason is that there is so much innovation in the worldright now but all of these require good optimized, frictionless processesunderneath. Otherwise, you will apply your artificial intelligence tosomething that isn’t properly working in the first place.
Chris Holscher has for a decade, Chris has driven multimillion product and business development in large tech companies through a strategic function called Industry Analyst Relations (IAR). Then he switched sides from large corporates to the startup segment to apply his know-how where it makes the biggest difference. Chris has tailored and focused IAR methods specifically to the needs of startups and scaleups and their priorities along the maturity journey. Today Chris is helping emerging vendors around the world, use this critical part of the b2b tech playing field early, strategically and systematically. Chris has been voted a top 10 expert for Industry Analyst Relations globally, by hundreds of analysts. He has 20+ years in b2b tech product marketing and product management, was Initiator and co-author of the “State of Startups with Industry Analysts” report and was co-Lead of the IIAR> German Chapter.

August 25, 2023 - Grassroots To Greatness Lloyed Lobo and City Loo Anastasia Miles

Lloyed Lobo – Co-Founder of Boast and the Author of the Book From Grassroots to Greatness: 13 Rules to Build Iconic Brands with Community Led Growth
What drives most entrepreneurs is a burning anger or spite to provethe naysayers wrong, to change the status quo, and to do things thatare different on their own terms. Happy people often don’t drive change.
Lloyed Lobo is the Co-Founder of Boast and the Author of the Book From Grassroots to Greatness: 13 Rules to Build Iconic Brands with Community-Led Growth. Lloyed Lobo, an entrepreneur, podcast host, and community builder, experienced the Gulf War as a young refugee in Kuwait, witnessing the strength of the community in evacuating the population to safety. As the co-founder of Boast.Al, leveraged the Community-Led Growth model to bootstrap the company to eight-figure revenue and secure over $100m in funding. Boast.ai is the leading platform to help software companies in the US and Canada to redeem available government tax credits, while also co-founding Traction, a community empowering over 100k innovators through connections, content, and capital. After exiting Boast, Lloyed has been writing a book titled From Grassroots To Greatness: 13 Rules to Build Iconic Brands with Community Led Growth chronicling successful communities big and small like Harley Davidson, Nike, Peloton, Crossfit, HubSpot, and many more to teach readers how to attract passionate and raving fans of their own. Lloyed has been covered in Fox Business, Techcrunch, SF Business Journals and several other publications. He has also been a speaker at more than 50 conferences and podcasts including SaaStr, Entrepreneurs on Fire, Marketing School, Mixergy, TearSheet, MarTech Podcast, and Success Story.Anastasia Miles – Founder and CEO of The City Loo
My side hustle has become a full time hustle!
Anastasia Miles is the Founder and CEO of The City Loo. From Manager at Nordstrom, Advertising Sales at Microsoft, Patent on the first video mirror to opening a swim school for children with special needs. Now solving the problem of pet owners living in a high rise – The City Loo addresses those issues. Anastasia’s experience in bringing innovative ideas to market with Microsoft, Impart, Aqua School, and Signature Homes NW led her to develop a much-needed solution to a common pet problem. She developed City Loo so she could have a puppy in the city, who could use a convenient pet potty that fits into the chic design of her home. By using City Loo, Anastasia hopes we can all walk our pets when we want to and when it’s safe and enjoyable.

August 24, 2023 - m00m Jordan Freda and Afformations Noah St. John

Jordan Freda aka Geographic – Founder of Stealth Web3 Startup and mOOm
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Jordan Freda aka Geographic is the Founder of Stealth Web3 Startup and m00m. Jordan Freda started as a video director 16 years ago working with artists like Tyga, Katy Perry, and Kanye. At 18, a random “fan” of his in the movie industry discovered his work and offered to teach him everything he knew if he moved to LA within 48 hours. And within 1.5 years, he WON an EMMY and worked on 5 movies!  He learned from the absolute best & started the adventure of a lifetime. By 21, he worked at a few agencies/VFX companies and decided he wanted to start his own studio. He did, and grew it to a multi-million dollar venture with 120 employees in under 2 years. They worked on movies including Harry Potter, The Avengers and tons of commercials for Fortune500s. After 5 years, he realized that the “Emerging Brands” they worked with actually gave us more creative freedom than movies did. This inspired his exit and the founding of his second company, a marketing/brand growth agency focused on taking $1M brands and helping them scale to $10M+. Today, he is building a community-led Sci-Fi empire called mOOm.Noah St. John, PhD – Founder of St. John Executive Coaching and the Author of the Book Afformations®: The Miracle of Positive Self-Talk
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Noah St John is a communication expert, keynote speaker, and bestselling author of ten books. He is famous for inventing Afformations®, a positive self-talk tool that helps busy people remove mental barriers, build confidence, and make more money. Noah St. John, PhD is recognized as “The Father of Afformations®” and “The Mental Health Coach to the Stars.” Working with Hollywood celebrities, seven- and eight-figure company CEOs, professional athletes, top executives, and elite entrepreneurs, Noah is famous for helping his coaching clients make more in twelve weeks than they did in the previous twelve months, while winning back 1–3 hours per day and 4–8 weeks a year. Noah’s clients are the 0.1% rock stars who love to take action and get amazing results! Noah is also the only author in history to have works published by HarperCollins, Hay House, Simon & Schuster, Mindvalley, Nightingale-Conant, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul publisher. Noah’s mission is to eliminate not-enoughness from the world and he is internationally recognized for his signature coaching services; facilitating workshops at companies and institutions across the globe; and appearing on over 1,000 media outlets including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, The Hallmark Channel, NPR, Entrepreneur, The Jenny McCarthy Show, Selling Power and SUCCESS Magazine.

August 23, 2023 - The Book Spy Ryan Steck and Passion for Coatings Leland Jones

Ryan Steck – Founder and Professional Book Critic at The Real Book Spy and Author of Lethal Range 
It is so hard to find your footing as a writer coming up today becauseyou are battling to sell books and you are still competing with the Clancybooks, Vince Flynn, Robert Parker and Ludlum. These estate books make money.
Ryan Steck is a freelance editor, an author, and the founder and editor-in-chief of The Real Book Spy. Ryan has been named an “Online Influencer” by Amazon and is a regular columnist at CrimeReads. Praised as “One of the hardest working, most thoughtful, and fairest reviewers out there” by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata) on his way to being endorsed by #1 New York Times bestsellers Mark Greaney, Brad Thor, Kyle Mills, Jack Carr, C.J. Box, and many others. His debut novel, FIELDS OF FIRE, is now available in bookstores. His second novel, LETHAL RANGE, comes out on August 8, 2023. Ryan Steck is an established authority on mysteries and thrillers, praised as one of today’s finest reviewers by Gayle Lynds. A former sports writer who transitioned into publishing word in 2014, Steck worked as a book critic and reviewer for several other websites and media outlets before launching The Real Book Spy in December of 2015. Since launching The Real Book Spy, Steck has broken relevant industry news, written hundreds of book reviews, and conducted interviews with many of the genre’s top thriller authors on his way to becoming one of the most respected voices among thriller fans. TheRealBookSpy.com is the go-to site on all things thriller and mystery. The site will let you know if a favorite author has a new book deal or has just penned a movie contract. There have already been more than two million unique impressions on the site. Besides his encyclopedic knowledge of the genre, Ryan is a book doctor extraordinaire, an editor, and a huge promoter of us pencil pushers.Leland Jones – Founder & CEO of Ceramic King Coatings of Virginia
We went to Walmart and bought $300 of car cleaning supplies, andwe went to a dog park and we started cleaning cars while people walkedtheir dogs. We are now a multi 7 figure business.
Leland Jones, is an entrepreneur who has perfected the art of turning a passion into a thriving business. What initially began as a simple side hustle with friends, Leland has since built this small side hustle into six-figure business – Ceramic King Coatings Virgina. His passion was turned into profits, and Leland continues doing what he loves. Here’s the truth – many Americans feel unhappy in their current jobs. Why? Because they’re trapped at a boring desk job to pay the bills. What happened to working at a job you were passionate about? This seemingly lost concept is, however, not lost on Leland Jones. Leland has perfected the art of taking a passion and turning it into a successful business, which included switching career paths and going off the beaten path. His passion and entrepreneurial spirit have allowed him to build a six-figure business while doing something he loves.  Growing up in a multigenerational military family, Jones had seen a wide swath of the world long before he had even seen his 18th birthday. Having moved all over the East Coast of the United States, all the way to Hawaii, and then on to Singapore for his high school years, he gained an early scope for interacting with people, cultures, and lifestyles. This intangible and rare skill would come to impact his natural entrepreneurial abilities later. Penning his first of four books on subjects of sales, self-awareness, overcoming failure, and business management just out of high school, he chose another far-flung locale, the rugged beauty of Alaska, for college. Focusing his studies on entrepreneurship and business administration, Jones already knew he wanted to take his own route in life, despite being heavily drawn to a military career in honor of his multiple family members who forged the family name in that profession. Looking to make some extra money in college and having always harbored a deep love of automotive culture, Jones began detailing cars when he was not attending class. One day, while cleaning his own car out with the aid of a close friend, he got to talking to his buddy about the ease of launching a business. Using their in-progress activity as a working example, he bought $300 worth of supplies and headed to the dog park, offering an impromptu ‘car wash while you walk your pet’ service that saw the team make their investment back in a day and quite a bit more. Shouted out by a local radio DJ whose car they had washed last on that first day, Jones and his friend more than tripled that amount the following day, and the seeds for Jones’ future business foray were officially sown. “Six years later, we are now the name brand out here in Virginia Beach and all Hampton roads surrounding cities,” he shares. “We’ll hit our goals over seven figures this year in top-line revenue.” However, the road between that first soapy afternoon and the kind of clientele that Jones now regularly services at his intensely popular Ceramic King Coatings of Virginia was long and a strugglesome one. Specializing in paint corrections and ceramic coatings that bring cars back to a level of life they have not seen since the showroom took years and even a few tears. Making the decision to move his operation from Alaska to Virginia after battling insurmountable winters that cut his work calendar short, Jones pounded the pavement the old-fashioned way for many moons to build his customer base before he began to enjoy the booked-three-months-out calendars that are now his company’s daily reality. Going from grappling with every angle of the grind to gargantuan success in a niche industry was not without its internal scuff marks either. Initially, Jones’ family reacted to his announcement that he was dropping out of school to pursue his own flagship visions the way most parents and siblings might: with worried criticism. Sticking to his guns and instead of arguing, Jones put his head down and plugged away at developing his VIP Club offerings and scaling his budding enterprise. When COVID reared its ugly head, it facilitated a need for him to take a job selling cars in order to keep making ends meet and moving forward. When it comes to car care, business ethics, and overall entrepreneurship now, the name Leland Jones has become synonymous with hard work, honesty, and commitment to company values that consistently honor both the customers and the family values that raised him. “Nothing is work if you love it like I love this,” he smiles. “My passion has always been the automotive scene, but entrepreneurship, starting something and being able to put blood, sweat, and tears into it to grow it into something that helps the community, is the biggest gift.”

August 21, 2023 - Vortic Watch Co. R.T. Custer and Beating Cancer Danny Carroll

R.T. Custer – Co-Founder and CEO of Vortic Watch Co
We have a service called convert your watch. People send us familyheirloom pocket watches and we turn them into wristwatches. In Hamiltonv. Vortic, we protected the right to up cycle. The decision protects peopleupcycling, refurbishing and recycling.
R.T. Custer is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, speaker, and guide who dedicates his efforts to supporting founders through the avenues of community, connection, and mentorship. Holding the role of CEO at Vortic Watch Company, as well as the Chief Revenue Officer at Carter & Custer Agency, he brings a wealth of knowledge on how to construct a thriving enterprise and instigate meaningful change. As one of the co-hosts of Fast Foundations Mastermind, R.T. Custer’s insights resonate deeply, as he intimately understands the requisites for building a prosperous business while fostering a tangible impact. R.T. Custer’s belief in the potential to attain a life imbued with affluence and autonomy by embracing calculated risks is unwavering. Leveraging his platform, he fervently empowers founders to step into their own value, fostering a culture of confidence and initiative. His commitment extends to his work as an Angel Investor and Advisor, particularly within the realm of consumer product companies, a pursuit that he channels through his video podcast, “Products Worth Talking About.” Renowned as a sought-after speaker and podcast guest, R.T. Custer’s prominence surged after the launch of his second YouTube show titled “Custer & Wolfe, Building a Watch Company,” a collaborative effort with his business partner, Tyler Wolfe. This show impeccably documents the intricate facets of constructing an American manufacturing entity, further solidifying R.T. Custer’s reputation as a seasoned entrepreneur. The harmony he has struck between leading a life of abundance and accruing wealth has become evident, an accomplishment he’s eager to share. This aspiration stems from his belief that he can inspire others to relish comparable freedoms. Beyond his professional accomplishments, R.T. Custer’s personal life is marked by his role as a partner to Lindsay Roselle and a devoted father to his two sons, Sawyer and Wesley. Their home in Fort Collins, Colorado serves as the hub for their five combined businesses, where they harmonize work, family, and recreation pursuits. Engaging in activities such as golf, workouts, enjoying whiskey, and nurturing connections with friends and family, R.T. Custer and his family embody the essence of a well-rounded life. From an early age, R.T. Custer’s fascination with entrepreneurship has been evident. Raised on a Christmas tree farm in rural Pennsylvania, he was immersed in an environment of ambitious, business-minded individuals, including his parents and grandparents, who cultivated a thriving enterprise. Their example instilled in him the significance of forging a gratifying life while deriving income from one’s passions. Guided by their wisdom and their core belief that “you can do anything you put your mind to,” R.T. Custer embarked on a journey to build his legacy. He proudly boasts an impressive list of accolades, underscoring his contributions, including being recognized as a “40 under 40” honoree by Penn State College of Engineering, a recipient of the $250,000 Colorado Advanced Manufacturing Grant, and a featured personality on the centerfold of Entrepreneur Magazine’s April 2021 issue. Notably, he achieved a significant legal triumph against the world’s largest watch company, establishing national legal precedence through the “Hamilton v Vortic” case. His accomplishments extend to being named among the “30 under 30” in Northern Colorado, emerging as a champion in the Tech Stars Pitch Competition, securing the third spot nationally in the College Works Painting rankings, and garnering the cherished title of “Best Dad” from his young sons, Sawyer (5) and Wesley (3). R.T. Custer’s journey is characterized by unwavering determination and a steadfast commitment to guiding others toward their own legacies of success and fulfillment.Danny Carroll – Founder of Recall Publishing and the Author of Terminal Cancer Is a Misdiagnosis: Discover a Palliative Care Alternative Medicine You Can Survive
My mind has the ability to both cripple meand to give me back my health.
Danny Carroll is the Founder of Recall Publishing and the Author of “Terminal Cancer Is a Misdiagnosis: Discover a Palliative Care Alternative Medicine You Can Survive”. Danny Carroll spent the first half of his life living in London, UK, and completed his education with a Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics. He moved to live and work in India in the mid-1990s. Danny has survived cancer of the lung, testicle, jaw, and skin. He has spent the last seventeen years studying alternative healing therapies in search of the Holy Grail of health and wellness. Following a cathartic healing experience in 2012, he has focused on mind-body healing protocols for the last ten years. He discovered a new body of medical knowledge called Germanic Healing Knowledge (GHk), or Germanic New Medicine (GNM), developed by a German medical doctor named Ryke Geerd Hamer. After nearly four decades of cancer research, working directly with over 50,000 patients, Dr. Hamer concluded cancer is a “survival” biological program designed to ensure your survival, not kill you. Danny has spent the last seven years using this medical science to help people with chronic and terminal health conditions to fully recover their health. “Terminal Cancer Is a Misdiagnosis” is Danny’s first book. He plans to write a 500+ series of books examining how Conventional Medicine and Germanic Healing Knowledge approach the cause, symptoms, and solutions to specific diseases. Danny is a pioneer of new medical discoveries and healing protocols that most are unwilling to explore, until they have no other alternative.

August 18, 2023 - 3D Printer Builder Dan Shapiro and Everyone Wants to Work There Maura Nevel Thomas

Dan Shapiro – CEO of Glowforge
We are totally different from traditional 3D printing. Which builds plastic layerby layer. With Glowforge, you put in material and we cut or engrave the materialto produce the final result. Subtractive instead of additive.
Dan Shapiro is the CEO and cofounder of Glowforge, the iconic 3D laser printer. Starting with the biggest 30-day crowdfunding campaign on record, hundreds of thousands of designers have now used their Glowforge printers to create millions of products like wallets, lamps, and furniture. Dan is also the author of Hot Seat: The Startup CEO Guidebook, published by O’Reilly. Before founding Glowforge, Dan launched the bestselling boardgame in Kickstarter history, Robot Turtles, a game that teaches programming fundamentals to preschoolers. Before his detour as a boardgame designer, Dan served as CEO of Google Comparison, Inc, a Google subsidiary. Shapiro landed at Google when they bought his previous company, comparison shopping website Sparkbuy. Before Sparkbuy, Shapiro was founder and CEO of Photobucket Inc. (formerly Ontela). Dan’s been featured on NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and on the front page of the New York Times. His game, Robot Turtles, as been sold everywhere from Target to MoMA. He has been awarded a dozen US patents, and received his B.S. in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College. Dan is no stranger to innovation; he’s worked for a variety of startups, sold a company to Google, previously was the head of Photobucket, and also launched the bestselling board game in Kickstarter history when he crowdfunded Robot Turtles. Starting with the biggest 30-day crowdfunding campaign on record, Dan Shapiro’s Glowforge now powers creations from hundreds of thousands of designers worldwide. He’s been featured on NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and on the front page of the New York Times – now he’d love to share his insights with your audience.Maura Nevel Thomas – Speaker at Vistage Worldwide and the Author of the Book Everyone Wants to Work Here: Attract the Best Talent, Energize Your Team, and Be the Leader in Your Market (Empowered Productivity)
Be intentional. The most underrated challenge facing business professionalsand organizations is the challenge of distraction. We have decided that this isjust the way the world is and we have to figure out how to get by with thisconstant distraction. I reject that.
Maura Nevel Thomas is a Speaker at Vistage Worldwide and the Author of the Book Everyone Wants to Work Here: Attract the Best Talent, Energize Your Team, and Be the Leader in Your Market (Empowered Productivity). Maura Nevel Thomas is an award-winning international speaker, trainer, and author on individual and corporate productivity and work-life balance, and the most widely-cited authority on attention management. She helps driven, motivated knowledge workers control their attention and regain control over the details of their life and work. Maura has trained tens of thousands of individuals at thousands of organizations on her proprietary Empowered Productivity™ System, a process for achieving significant results and living a life of choice. Maura’s clients include the likes of Google, Old Navy, L’Oréal, and NASA, although businesses in the $50mm-$200mm range are a specialty. She is a TEDx speaker, successful entrepreneur, and author of six books on the topics of attention management and personal and organizational productivity. She is a media favorite, featured in hundreds of national business outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, US News and World Report, and the Huffington Post. She also is a regular columnist for both Forbes and the Harvard Business Review. Maura earned an MBA from the University of Massachusetts and has studied the field of productivity all over the world for more than two decades. Maura believes that every person has unique gifts to offer the world, and her purpose is to support them in offering those gifts in a way that is joyful and inspiring. She strives to have an impact that is relevant and unique, presenting new ideas and ways of thinking that are applicable to changing times. Maura believes that her work should have a social impact on the world, so she is very active in her local community of Austin, Texas, where she has held volunteer leadership positions in a variety of different community organizations and charities. This belief also leads Maura to offer quarterly pro-bono presentations to nonprofits, to donate a percentage of all her revenues to charity, and to have volunteered as a Climate Project speaker (personally trained on the subject by former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore and his team of leading climate scientists).