Livin’ Good Currency – Details, episodes & analysis

The Lesson: 

Expressing genuine interest in learning, in a job, in what other people have to say, in showing up even when you aren't necessarily needed, this is a behavior which boardrooms around the world will want to vacuum up, as long as one makes certain they see it. 

Notable Excerpt:

“One of the things I've learned is that every human adds value to our collective story; you have to believe that. If you're really going to believe in making the world a better place, you have to believe that every human adds value. And if you believe that then you're open to having meaningful conversations with everyone no matter where they are in this moment in life, so I don't care if I'm on a bus, or a plane, or a train, or the street, or the slum, or the boardroom, I'm genuinely interested in learning from the people next to me." 

The Lesson: 

Everyone can make an impact if they give 10%—effort, time, money, etc. to ensuring that across all dimensions of life they are making a positive impact rather than a negative one. Sometimes it takes a hard look in the mirror, but it's always worth it in the end.

Notable Excerpt:

"[Do] an audit of your life across all the different categories. So career and job is one of them, but also your money, volunteering, your side-hustles, your family or the institutions you're part of, look at all your life and first start rating it by how much time are you spending on these categories and then whether you're having a positive-neutral-negative effect."

The Guest:

Alex has spent over 15 years working in the social impact space for one of the largest children's nonprofits. Save the Children and the Clinton Foundation. She now leads MIT SOLVE.

As a founding Executive Director of Solve. Alex has built and now oversees a fast-growing team whose mission is to drive innovation, to solve global challenges. How do they do that? Their team finds funds and supports the most promising social innovators in entrepreneurs all around the world.

To date solve has brokered funding commitments of over 60 million to their solver teams and entrepreneurs worldwide.

The Lesson: 

Having her own children, encouraging better work—family life balance in the office, and understanding the difficulties and urgency parents go through when they need a service related to their toddler, Jen Saxton knows that you don't become one of the most successful enterprises in the baby industry by ignoring the human element of the job. In fact, Saxton details that the more she went through as a parent, the more she realized that the baby industry needed a change to reflect the stress and difficulty of being a parent.

Notable Excerpt: 

“My second company now is more like an Angie's List or a Care.com, so we're like a tech platform or a marketplace that connects mom with all these services, lactation consultants, sleep consultants, car seat installers, night nannies, you can find them all on Tot Squad. And it's about helping moms. Like when I was a new mom as I was going into Facebook groups like 'can anyone recommend a sleep consultant?' and then I got like 80 comments.

Now I've got to go Google these 80 people, and then you've got to like call and email them to see when they're available, and then, what's the difference between the $300 and the $3,000 lady, and by the way I'm going on two hours of sleep because I've got a newborn at home, and it was just a horrible experience!"

The Guest: 

Jen Saxton is the Founder & CEO of Tot Squad, a baby services marketplace that connects new parents with health, wellness and safety services like car seat installation, babyproofing, doulas, sleep consultants and more.

Jen is a serial entrepreneur with 10 years experience in the baby industry. In 2020, she successfully exited her baby gear cleaning business with an acquisition by BabyQuip, where she continues to serve as an advisor. Credited by The New York Times as having created a new industry, Tot Squad has raised $3M+ with its “juggernaut aspirations” to transform the baby world. Jen's work with Tot Squad has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, NY Times and more. Jen serves as a regular contributor on parenting topics for CBS The Doctors and for New York Magazine / The Strategist.

Episode Resources:

Jen Saxton | Instagram

Jen Saxton | LinkedIn

Totsquad | Instagram

Totsquad | Website

The Lesson: 

For some people, especially those shot into stardom through acting or professional sports, it's easy for the passion they have for their craft to proceed without a deeply-rooted purpose. When one day that passion is no longer available, they have nothing to look inward at to find a new path through life.

Notable Excerpt: 

“Even if it felt like a purpose, sports in general, it still ends at a very early age for a lot people too, you still have a whole life, you're still defined and to keep exercising your passion. So what does it translate into? It's interesting even like, pro guys, I've seen it, it's like "how did that happen?" And then there's some others that have really successfully transitioned to other businesses, or broadcasting, or coaching, and they've been really successful at it, so it didn't matter really what, but it was something they fell into."

The Guest:

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Jai attended the University of California at Davis on an athletic scholarship, playing collegiate baseball for the Aggies from 1988-1993. Wanting to continue a career in sports, he moved to Los Angeles to gain the ‘mailroom’ experience by working at several talent agencies.

Jai settled at Writers & Artists Agency in 1996, where he was promoted to Talent Agent, working with a variety of clients, ultimately segueing from sports to traditional entertainment and representing actors, writers, and directors. Highlights of the stint at Writers & Artists included working on the James Gandolfini team and the meteoric rise of the hit series ‘The Sopranos,’ to nurturing Eva Mendes into an in-demand star. Jai moved over to famed Brillstein Entertainment Partners (fka at Brillstein-Grey Management) in 1998, to become a Manager and ultimately more entrepreneurial. He successfully guided an A-List client roster that included talent, producers, and financiers, ultimately leading the content packaging and financing department. He was involved in over 100 film and TV transactions, credited on 25+ films and helped raise over $300 million in project financing.

In 2020, after 22 years at Brillstein, Jai exited to launch the timely Oakhurst Entertainment with select clients and investors. The mission is to produce premium content yet meet the voracious appetite of consumers demanding socially impactful content that makes a difference. The core focus areas are curating content with values, delivering to underserved audiences, all the while creating a strong call-to-action. Oakhurst has already produced several films with a full development slate on the horizon tackling themes of mental health, immigration and climate change. Jai was profiled in The Hollywood Reporter as ‘one of the top 35 executives in Hollywood’ and has been featured in The New York Times, Variety, and The Wall Street Journal. Indiaspora Forum recognized him as one of the "100 Influential Indian American Leaders in the US” and the Asian American Business Development Center named him one of the “Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business.”

Episode Resources:

Jai Khanna | LinkedIn 

Oakhurst Entertainment | Website 

The Lesson: 

Being a good person, growing alongside one's parents, enjoying the journey, not letting the highs be too high and the lows be too low, these are lessons for us all, but for serial entrepreneur Carter Reum, they have helped build a flourishing portfolio of profitable businesses, a strong personal foundation, and a life of gratitude. 

Notable Excerpt: 

“I always say respect the process, but I think I'm going to add enjoy the process. It really is respect the process, meaning if you do the right things the right results tend to follow. But one of the things my brother and I learned from our first company was... that the highs are never that high, and the lows are never that low, and it's really a defense mechanism... but by learning that muscle you tend to modulate it, and one of the things we found is that we actually don't celebrate the highs enough.

"It is about the journey, and it is about enjoying it, but you've got to enjoy those good days. At M13, at our all-hands every week we do gratitudes where we just stop and people can submit them and we read them, we do to enjoy the journey, because win or lose at the end of the day you can have a lot of fun."

The Guest:

Carter Reum is a Partner and Co-Founder of M13, a venture capital platform that invests in and incubates cutting edge consumer technology businesses. M13 now has over $1BN over 3 funds and is currently launching its 10th incubated business co-founded with Tony Robbins and Peter Diamondis. M13’s portfolio includes, Ring, Daily Harvest, FabFitFun,Transfix, Rothy’s, Lyft, Capsule, Shef, Thrive Market, Cue, Capsule, Rho, Shef, and many others. 

An investment banker at Goldman Sachs, in 2019, Carter and his brother Courtney were appointed the first-ever Executives in Residence for the City of Los Angeles, created in an effort to merge the arts and entertainment industries by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.  

Carter and his brother are the authors of the national bestseller Shortcut Your Startup (Simon & Schuster) that shares business insights to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs. 

Episode Resources:

Carter Reum | LinkedIn

Carter Reum | Instagram

Shortcut Your Startup | Website

M13 | Website 

The Lesson: 

There's no place in the structure of a business where someone should be exempt from help, vulnerability, and failure. Whereas some people coach and write about how to crush vulnerability, prevent failure, or avoid help, Deborah Riegel, who writes, speaks and consults with the biggest firms and biggest journals, helps people understand that utilizing lived experience, and available help, can provide a better foundation for success in the work place, team cohesion, and work-life balance.

Notable Excerpt: 

“I helped found the Univ. of Michigan's first improv comedy troupe, and so I was able to take the background I had in preparing for a presentation and then mix it with 'well what do you do if you can't prepare?' So that theme of helping people think about preparing and helping people have sort of a scaffolding for what to do when you can't prepare, has been a through-line of my professional career since I was 17, and I'm now 50."

The Guest:

Deborah Grayson Riegel is a keynote speaker, executive coach, and consultant who has taught leadership communication for Wharton Business School, Duke Corporate Education, Columbia Business School’s Women in Leadership Program, and the Beijing International MBA Program at Peking University.

She writes for Harvard Business Review, Inc., Psychology Today, Forbes, and Fast Company, and has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.

She is the author of “Go to Help: 31 Strategies to Offer, Ask for, and Accept Help” and "Overcoming Overthinking: 36 Ways to Tame Anxiety for Work, School, and Life" and consults and speaks for clients including Amazon, BlackRock, Google, KraftHeinz, PepsiCo, and The United States Army.

Episode Resources:

Deborah Grayson | Website Deborah Grayson | LinkedIn Deborah Grayson | Facebook

The Lesson: 

A dog-eared moment in the early American Civil Rights movement, the racially-motivated murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American child, and its subsequent acquittal, always inspired Keith Beauchamp to fight for better criminal justice, and to elevate man's consciousness so that such events no longer need dog-earing because they no longer happen. Frederick Zollo, catching Keith's infectious enthusiasm, felt he could lend his talents to a similar end. 

Notable Excerpt: 

"She [Emmett's mother] used to say to me all the time, Keith we must continuously tell Emmett's story until man's consciousness is risen, only then will there be justice for Emmett Till. I truly believe that she had the blueprint to man's liberation when it comes to racial progression in this country."

The Guests:

Frederick Zollo is an American film and theatre producer. He has produced more than 100 plays in New York, London, and On-Tour. Zollo is a 20-time Tony nominee, winning the award seven times. He is also known for his film work on Best Picture Oscar Nominees Mississippi Burning (1988), and Quiz Show (1994). 

Keith A. Beauchamp is an activist and award-winning filmmaker. He began his life’s work at the young age of 10 after he saw a Jet magazine that contained a picture of Emmett Till’s dead body and was told the story behind Till’s murder. In 1999, Beauchamp founded Till Freedom Come Productions, a company devoted to socially significant projects that can both teach and entertain. He has devoted the past twenty-six years of his life telling the story of Emmett Till and has traveled extensively between New York, Chicago and Mississippi to investigate the historic murder.

On May 10th, 2004, the United States Department of Justice re-opened this 50 year-old murder case citing Beauchamp’s documentary “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till” as both a major factor in their decision and the starting point for their investigation.

Keith Beauchamp has been featured on '60 Minutes', ABC World News Tonight 'Person of the Week,' Court TV, MSNBC, 'Good Morning America,' CNN, BBC as well as in hundreds of publications around the world including

He is currently the producer of the feature film “Till,” which is being co-produced by Frederick Zollo, Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Broccoli. Beauchamp is also a frequent lecturer at colleges and universities around the count

Episode Resources:

Keith Beauchamp | Twitter

Keith Beauchamp | Instagram

Emmett Till | Documentary

The Lesson: 

People who don't know how will tell you you need to conform, or let go of indivisible parts of yourself in order to succeed. For Brett Claywell, it was his homely, North Carolina attitude of goodwill and neighborliness towards others which Hollywood men told him had to be left on the cutting room floor. From pursuing basketball, to acting, to gaming and live-streaming, there was never a shortage of people telling him he was making the wrong choice.

Notable Excerpt:

“The word immature has been thrown at me a lot through my life, and now at 44 years of age I'm happy to be immature because it allows me to interact with my children, but that was always kind of like an arrow that was slung at me... Early on in my career, one of my producers said I had to lose the North Carolina in me. I fought really hard to do the opposite—to be successful, but to maintain who I was. I would rather inject NC into Hollywood than lose NC to be successful." 

The Guest:

Brett Claywell has had a two-decade career as a fan favorite on popular television shows like One Tree Hill and One Life to Live. Throughout it, he has been involved in hundreds of film and television, as well as digital content productions, producing and directing major live broadcast events starring some of the biggest names in entertainment.

Brett was an early visionary of the competitive or televised gaming industry, co-founding Tiltify, now the world’s premiere charitable crowdfunding platform for live-streaming. He launched HMBL (pronounced humble) House in 2019 to capitalize on a void in premium livestream content, leading HMBL House to be a major creative force in developing and producing new remote content models throughout the pandemic. In 2021, he co-founded SOLIS to utilize emerging technologies to further amplify his team's ability to build organic communities and generate authentic dialogue between talent and a global audience of content consumers.

Episode Resources:

Brett Claywell | Twitter 

Brett Claywell | Instagram

HMBL House | Website 

Solis | Website 

The Lesson: 

Perhaps it's no surprise that professional acting takes a toll on one's emotions, but taking over the roles of emotionally-troubled characters is all the more challenging. What can professional actors share to others about confronting despair of the past, gratitude for the present, and anxiety of the future?

Notable Excerpt:

"I heard this once, I made friends with my anxiety and turned it into my engine. But you have to be careful because it can sometimes overpower and then worry will steal (your energy). Anxiety and anxiousness is something I've always worked with to move myself forward... When you're in a more vulnerable place, gratitude can hit you like a Mack truck—the attitude of gratitude is the key to daily living (or at least) it certainly helps when you get off track."

The Guest:

Amir Arison is a well known actor, director and activist. Best known for his work on the NBC/Sony/Netflix international hit series The Blacklist as tech-wizard Aram Mojtabai. Other TV credits include recurring & guest appearances on Law & Order: SVU, American Horror Story, as well as many others including the current HULU limited series THE DROPOUT.

He is the recipient of the Mendez Award from MIFF, given to an individual in the entertainment industry who uses their platform to give back. He currently teaches workshops and directs/performs for multiple organizations including The New School, Pace University, YoungArts, United Arts Partnership, NBC director’s diversity showcase, Broadway for All, Broadway Workshop, Bridge Builders, Hole-In-The-Wall-Gang-Camp, and Angelight Films.

Be on the lookout this Summer and Fall 2022,  where Amir will be starring on Broadway as 'Amir' in The Kite Runner. 

Episode Resources:

Amir Arison | Instagram

Amir Arison | Facebook

Amir Arison | Twitter

Kite Runner | On Broadway

The Lesson: Many major chronic health disturbances like depression and inadequate sleep are treated in the west with self-serving temporary crutches like prescription drugs. When Yona Shtern was taking over the helm of a publicly-traded wellness wearable company Hapbee, his normal understanding that he could create value for investors flipped after having the first good night of sleep he could remember using their product. Now, he sees his powers of growing a business directly correlates to the number of people he can help—veterans, prison guards, caretakers, and it's giving him new purpose.

Notable Excerpt: "I wasn't able to sleep at night, quite frankly. I became a believer because I became a user, and then something really unforeseen happened to me. I was maybe in the chair for two weeks when I started getting LinkedIn messages from people saying they had tried the product and that it had changed their lives, and if there was any way they could help us out. I felt I had a responsibility to get this into the hands of more people, and figure out a way to change people's lives."

The Guest: Yona is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully scaled disruptive businesses in technology and consumer goods. He was CEO of Arrive (digital parking), CEO of Beyond the Rack (e-commerce marketplace) and Board Member at Swap.com (resale marketplace). Today, Yona is the Chairman and CEO of Hapbee – a publicly-traded company whose wearable wellness technology is on a mission to improve the lives of 10 million people.

Yona was also Start Up Canada’s Entrepreneur of The Year in 2014 and is a frequent speaker to management students at McGill University (his alma mater), Yale and at many start-up and business conferences.

The Product: Hapbee is the next generation of wearable wellness technology. Hapbee is a chemical free solution to help with sleep, performance, and mood, all without side-effects. Unlike other wearables that simply monitor your health, Hapbee gives you the power to actively change it.

LGC listeners can receive a 10% discount on Hapbee with promo code "goodnews" to be applied at checkout. Visit hapbee.com/goodcurrency

Episode Resources:

Hapbee | Website

Hapbee | Facebook

Hapbee | Instagram