Christopher Lochhead Follow Your Different

Today, we have a super fun conversation with Brian Schulmeister, the co-host of Grumpy Old Geeks podcast. We shared stories about music and what it was like doing websites for top bands and names in the industry. Of course, we got our grump on! We talk about what’s in the news: undersea data cables, A.I, data breach and many more! Websites For Music Artists Brian Schulmeister is the co-founder of Slender Fungus, a design company working primarily within the music industry. His vast experience in building websites landed him projects with big names such as Goo Goo Dolls, Alanis Morisette, Green Day, Coldplay and Rihanna, among others. He started his career way back in 1996 and he shared some interesting points on how he went on to pursue clients on his own. He also commented on the music industry at the present time and how consumers are consuming it so poorly. “The generation now and the way people experience music now is so shallow and disconnected from the artist and its singles. Spotify playlist through h

Languaging Master Lee Hartley Carter joins us today for a riveting conversation about the power of language and the art of persuasion. She discusses today how language shapes everything in our lives and how to use language to convince people when facts don’t seem to matter. Marketers and non-marketers will surely learn a ton from this conversation about communications, language strategy, and persuasion. The Power of Language Lee candidly shares with Christopher that she never thought about a job opportunity which involves words and messaging. When she was younger, she considers herself as obsessed with words. For her, language is the means in which people can connect with other human beings and convey thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Language is a powerful tool with every word, having its own meaning. “That change in language changes thinking, which ultimately change social beliefs and norms and potentially laws and governance approaches. It can change a lot of things.” -  - Lee Hartley Carter Language

In this episode, the CEO of Athena Alliance Coco Brown talks about how to build a legendary board of directors. Coco is an entrepreneur and an advocate for women. She tells us why boards need to have fresh talents and why they need diversity on skills and people. Also, she shares why the old model of creating a board is worn out. The Athena Alliance Coco Brown is the CEO of Athena Alliance. It is a global community of women business leaders, committed to driving diversity on company boards and developing new women leaders. “We're essentially bringing the top-tier women together in a digital ecosystem that provides us a lot of opportunities for them across disciplines.” - Coco Brown Coco describes the community as in-part-Linkedin — with a portion of coaching and networking — and in-part-Bumble, because of matchmaking activities. Male CEOs and The Outdated Board of Directors Athena Alliance serves as an agency. The group is in contact with male CEOs who wish to expand their network with women. Coco further sh

One of the most prolific and important writers in the world and our most regular guest Dushka Zapata, joins us today. We had a heartfelt conversation about mending broken-hearts, why grief is worst when you’re young, why discipline is better than inspiration and many more! Writing Beautiful Answers at Quora You may find Dushka lounging in Question and Answer site Quora, where her writings receive 140 million views. Her life-affirming, fun and powerful answers have garnered her quite a following, including Christopher himself. During this conversation, she shared a wonderful passage where we can learn a thing or to about mending a broken heart. She shares a story about a big, crowded yoga class she attended. The intention was to heal the physical and non-physical aspects of the person ⁠— whether a sprain, a wound or even sorrow, anxiety and loneliness. “At this point, I sneaked a peek. I opened my eyes and slowly panned the room. I would say that 97% of the people on the room had placed both their hands over

Podcasting has never been hotter! Dan Granger joins us today to have a unique, thoughtful and inspiring conversation about performance marketing & podcasting media. He is the CEO of Oxford Road, the pioneer in digital performance advertising, which he also talks about today. The Incubation Period Dan has done an incredible job of being early in new digital areas that produce meaningful results both for a performance and branding perspective for marketers. He started paying attention to podcasting way back in 2006 but not only until the year 2012 did he start monetizing it, through advertisement placement on podcasts. Officially in 2013, they started working with unheard-of brands like Zip Recruiter, Blue Apron and Hulu. “I had a 10-year background in radio. What was interesting is we get to ride two simultaneous waves that were really, really influential in the marketplace—both in media and general business.” - Dan Granger Startups Building Businesses in Podcasting Dan notes that it was all early adapters—ge

Entrepreneur, CEO, and top podcaster Matt Brown joins us today for another no-BS conversation about being a Techpreneur in South Africa. He gives us a glimpse of the South African Tech scene, as well as his successes, as he was voted as #1 Tech startup in Africa in London Tech Week. Matt gives practical insights on business and life design as well. #1 Tech Startup Matt Brown, a very down to earth guy, recounts to Christopher his experience at London Tech Week, as organizers named him the #1 Tech Startup in Africa. Although he admits he now has unnecessary pressure due to the title, he claims it was a great opportunity for international development in the technology space. “It was pretty insane when a government like the UK gets behind an idea. So what they have done is, they mobilized literally billions of pounds just for Africa Tech, 1.2 Billion pounds available for distribution.” - Matt Brown The Storytelling Technology Matt runs a firm called Digital Kung Fu and he candidly shares with Christopher his elev

Today’s episode features a highly informative discussion between our host, Christopher Lochhead and Jules Pieri. She’s the first designer to graduate from Harvard Business School. She shares some amazing lessons on how to create legendary new products and how to make sure those products succeed in the world. Industrial Designer Turned Legendary Marketer Fortune named Jules as one of the Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs." She is the Co-Founder and CEO of the product launch platform The Grommet. Jules shares that before she formed the company, she observed the huge shifts in technology ⁠— specifically the internet, like the development of 3D printing. 3D printing enabled a huge new class of entrepreneurs with physical products. “Creative people have access to inexpensive tools, they will use that. Physical products are less abstract than software, so they're gonna inspire more people to participate.” - Jules Pieri  What We Can Learn From Squatty Potty Jules shares with Christopher the story behind the product

Today’s guest is one of Christopher’s favorite people, host of Cloud Wars podcast, Bob Evans. Together, they dig deep into how Microsoft transformed into a “Trillion Dollar Cloud Category King.” They discuss what we can all learn from their remarkable turn-around. Moreover, the compare why they think every company is a software company and a lot more! Microsoft: A Trillion Cloud Category King  Bob Evans shares his opinion on Microsoft and its trillion-dollar cloud business. This massive growth in sales led both Bob and Christopher awestruck. Bob shares that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has largely driven the company into its current status. He pointed out that Nadella realized Microsoft was spending too much time achieving internally driven goals. He believed it’s about time to ask what are the goals and dreams of their paying customers, what do they need to happen and how can Microsoft help them. “I think it should be an inspiration to all sorts of businesses. You are limited not by competitive set and not b

Christopher Lochhead discusses, in his newly launched podcast, Lochhead on Marketing talks about some of his ideas timely for a potential recession. With this threat coming, Christopher points out the importance of developing and acting on ideas that would make your companies survive this disastrous event. He hopes that through these suggestions, your company will come out even come out stronger from a potential recession. Without further adieu, here are Christopher's 7 Recession Marketing Ideas Never Let A Good Recession Go To Waste!Assume you can’t raise any more moneyMeasure twice, cut onceBrainstorm short-term ways to increase revenueMarket & Sell Into The WhitespaceConsider a competitor trade-inDouble Down on Your Category You can check out Lochhead Marketing Podcast on Lochead.com or any podcast player that you and listen to episode 008 7 Recession Marketing Ideas. Links: Lochhead on Marketing We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing fro

Our guests for today, NY Times best-selling author/power couple Marc and Angel Chernoff talks about their new book and other self-help topics. We had an insightful conversation about happiness and unhappiness, as well as overcoming serious set-backs and other tons of practical insights for living. The Journey is Worth It Marc and Angel Chernoff got into this line of work when they lost someone — a best friend and a sibling. Just in their late 20s, they found themselves investing a lot in personal development and self-reflection.  “It was those moments where ultimately  — we saw therapists, I mean depression sets in. We had no tools for coping and coming out of it. We realize what we want to do on a daily basis was to reflect.” - Marc Chernoff Fast forward to the present day, Forbes dubbed this duo as “the authors of the most popular personal development blogs on the planet.” They are promulgators of the idea of acknowledging that “our present lives are more important than all of the lofty goals we have set fo

We have just launched a new marketing podcast! It talks about the mindsets and strategies for winning ⁠— with a special focus on how you design, create and dominate market categories. It’s called LOCHHEAD ON MARKETING. Radical Generosity As Christopher is not a fan of self-promotion (which may sound crazy, coming from a three-time marketing guy), we have thought about how we’re going to market and promote the podcast. On one hand, we wanted to do some marketing that would feel comfortable without the overly self-promotional crap. This brings us to Christopher’s buddy and co-conspirator on category creation and design, and legendary marketing, Eddie Yoon.  He has this powerful idea that legendary category designers practice “radical generosity.”  “If you think about the word ‘creation’, in a lot of ways, you could argue creation is about bringing something to the world and Eddie says, if you wanted to create a design category -- having a radical generosity mindset matters.” - Christopher Lochhea

Today's inspiring guests are from DonorsChoose.org, CEO and Founder Charles Best and entrepreneur Oliver Hurst-Hiller. These two, together with a small group of people, came together and made our world a different place, through crowdfunding. DonorsChoose.org Donorschoose.org is a non-profit which enables teachers who need help to go straight to the public and seek financial assistance. Charles Best, a former high school teacher turned activist founded the organization. Together with Oliver Hurst-Hiller, the Chief Technology Officer of the org, they have pioneered the category of crowdfunding.  “I was like teachers all over the country. I was spending my own money on school supplies for my students. My colleagues are doing the same. We would talk about all the stuff we want our students to have, but we couldn’t go into our own pockets to buy.” - Charles Best Merging Technology with Advocacy Charles Best and Oliver Hurst-Hiller share the current education situation in the US — it is underfunded — and teachers

Today, Amazon-best-selling author Heather Clancy gives us insights about a very timely topic — the green economy. We talk about what she’s learning about the green economy, the controversy around carbon taxes and how companies are creating new offerings centered on sustainability. The Sustainability Journalist Heather is the editorial director of GreenBiz.com. She is an award-winning journalist who covers transformative technology for business readers. Media outfits such as Entrepreneur, Fortune, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times have featured her articles. She discusses with Christopher the concept of circular economy and how major corporations have played a major role in its growth and acceptance among consumers.  “For many individuals, there’s a lot of different reasons for this, the idea of the circular economy is ‘something can be reused in someways.’ Not necessarily recycled, but potentially remanufactured.” - Heather Clancy The Circular Economy Heather shares some of the efforts

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead explores the distinction between Craft Venture Capitalists and Wall Street Venture Capitalists (VCs) and why is it very important for entrepreneurs to know the difference. This is a special episode for entrepreneurs who are contemplating on raising funds from VCs. The Power of Venture-backed startups In a study published by Brookings, they claimed that “in recent decades Venture Capital (VC) has generated more economic and employment growth in the U.S. than any other investment sector. Further, venture-backed startups make up 0.2% of GDP, in terms of investment and they deliver an astonishing 21% of U.S. GDP “Venture-backed startup entrepreneurs who seek VC, produce an extraordinary outcome, not just for themselves, their people, customers, investors but for the US economy overall.” - Christopher Lochhead So, What’s The Issue? Lochhead frankly discussed a disturbing trend in Silicon Valley over the last 15 years or so. The emergence of Wall Street type VCs ⁠— who are pri

Fellow entrepreneur and podcaster Mike Flynn joins us today for another great episode. He is a best-selling author and host of the podcast, The Impact Entrepreneur. Today, he talks about his heart-felt book “Master The Key,” the inspiration behind it and his opinions on personal development, commitment and service and many more.  Facts About Employee Disengagement Mike shares some important figures for employee disengagement at work. He says that "85% of the employees globally are disengaged at work." Further, 40% of these American employees said they have a side gig that is related to their passion. “If someone is following their passion and they really dont know what they are passionate about, and they don't know what they are willing to suffer for, and they still haven't left their job that they are disengaged at, when that business fails and they fall back from that place where they were disengaged, what's gonna happen, Christopher?” - Mike Flynn Personal Development in the Workplace Christopher cited som

The author of a ground-breaking new book called Nine Lies About Work, Ashley Goodall, joins us today for a fun, smart and unpredictable conversation about work and life. Lochhead and Goodall discuss what’s wrong with work and what to do about it, work-life balance and nurturing the human spirit at work.  Nine Lies About Work   Ashley Goodall is SVP of Leadership and Team Intelligence (LTI) at Cisco. He built this new organization to focus entirely on serving teams and team leaders. Through this, they are able to research and study the most challenging questions about work.  His work at Cisco focuses on defining what is special about the best teams and how does one create the best team for the company. Other than this, he is also the co-author of Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World. “There are very few things in life that you can’t or shouldn’t smile at. At some point, the more serious the topic, the more important it is to find little moments of levity and humor.” - Ashley G

He’s back! Podcast legend and co-host of Grumpy Old Geeks podcast, Jason DeFillippo joins us for another dynamic conversation about the world of podcasting. They also touched a few recent topics about “who should be allowed at Disney World,” “why FaceApp is scarier than Facebook and Instagram” and many more! Podcasting Is Alive! In episode 006, Jason DeFillippo joined Christopher Lochhead to discuss a lot of random but viral topics. In this episode, DeFillippo did not disappoint as he shared his views on a lot of topics, firstly, about podcasting.  “Those people are like you and I, we stick around and we get through the tough times. We’re not here to make a quick buck. We’re not here to turn a profit on 10 episodes or 6 episodes, on an iPhone on a library. You gotta put in the work.” - Jason DeFillippo DeFillippo shared his comments about news writers who dub podcasting as dead. In unison, Lochhead shared statistics to prove that podcasting is, indeed, growing. They exchanged stories as hosts, such as their e

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead shares some insights about conversations (or dialogue) and interviews. Two gentlemen, a guy who messaged him on Linkedin and actor Tom Hanks, were the inspiration for this episode. Both underscored the difference between real conversation and typical interviews. Safe, bankable and professional Tom Hanks is one of the most successful and cleanest, most professional, family-friendly actors of all time. His movies have grossed over $5 Billion. He would unlikely get drunk and urinate in a hotel lobby on a press tour ⁠— which is why Disney hired him. To shine a light on our topic, Tom Hanks was recently on Jimmy Kimmel to promote the newest Toy Story. He talked about how Disney enforced strict control over what he can and can not say about the movie.  “Ever wonder why you rarely hear a Fortune 500 CEO say anything interesting? Ever wonder why politicians don’t really answer questions? High profile people have been taught by lawyers and PR people to ‘bridge back’ to their talk

Today’s fun, informative and somewhat terrifying conversation is with Morgan Wright, Senior Advisor in the US State Department on Antiterrorism. Wright, with 18 years of state and local law enforcement experience, shares pressing stories about China, AI and what Russia did with data from FaceApp and some valuable information about quantum encryption. An uptight, drill sergeant, with no personality...NOT! Morgan Wright has 18 years of background with law enforcement and is a National Security opinion writer at TheHill.com. Hundreds of television interviews about security featured Morgan. New York Times best-of selling author has quoted him as well. He had a background with behavioral assessment and damage assessment⁠—which span from different areas of security such as bomb threats, espionage and illegal importation of dangerous drugs. Amidst these descriptions, one would expect that he is an uptight, drill sergeant with no personality, but he is definitely not.  What's up with Russian FaceApp? In our previous

Today, we hang out with an amazing and effective executive, Sue Barsamian. Sue recounts the early beginnings of her career, her challenging job at Mercury Interactive with Christopher and her not-really-a-retirement retirement. In this episode, find out why people dream about having her career. Challenges After Challenges Sue has an engineering background that might have contributed to her natural passion for creating, building and solving things. She worked with Christopher at Mercury, which was sold at $5B to HP. She stayed with HP and was assigned to run a billion-dollar cybersecurity business. “HP gave me a chance to test myself at a scale that I have never tested myself, ‘can you lead 4000 people, can you do 10,000 at P&L?’ Its a different ball game and you’ll never know until you tried it, so that was fun, I had a blast.” - Sue Barsamian She went ahead to become the head of Sales and Marketing for Software at HP⁠—a role that is unusually given to a single executive. At present, she’s on the board of Sym