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Welcome to a special live recording of a panel event that I hosted at our OCTP (Orange County Technology Professionals) networking happy hours. About once a quarter we have a live panel event to discuss some cool new tech, this event we went deep on Conversational AI aka BOT’s. On this panel I assembled a few of the most relevant folks in this space right now.   Kristy Thomas – leads the CX vertical at one of the largest Technology Service Broker, Intelisys. She literally vets every vendor in this space to separate the hype from the players.    Tyson McDowell – a Venture Capital entrepreneur and expert in the space of AI. Tyson has built, sold and runs companies built on AI. His outlook on this technology and it’s future is incredibly well researched and we could give him a mic and go for days. Stephen Kennington – is a technical leader at DialPad who is engaged with many clients looking to implement Conversational AI in their organizations. He sees the Use Cases and understands where it fits and may not. DialPad has AI built into their product and is looking to the future of this space. We had a lot of fun here and since this meeting I have had an incredible amount of conversations with enterprise technology leaders on how AI may help them. Hope you enjoy!   Kristy Thomas - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristy-thomas-bb004a29/ Tyson McDowell - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tysonmcdowell/ Stephen Kennington - https://www.linkedin.com/in/srkennington/   This podcast is produced in partnership with http://www.podlad.com  

Danny Nichols is a personal hero of mine for many reasons. First he is a selfless giver and runs one of the most impactful philanthropic organizations I know called Operation OpenWater serving the Veteran and First Responder communities. He is also a full on Bad Ass Waterman, HB Board Riders Team Rider and Coach, and one of the most humble good guys I know. We learn from Danny how he and his partners built their successful company called Ink Right, we hear about his background as a Pro Surfer and most importantly about his organization called Operation OpenWater which makes a life changing impact for so many in the Veteran and First Responder communities. I hope you enjoy. If you are inspired and want to help please visit: https://www.operationopenwater.org/

This time of year as always we discuss Goal Planning and Vision Boards in the Boardroom Sessions Podcast, but my guest Dave Rhoads takes the mic this year. He flips the show on Mike and we get deep into personal development, process and routines as well as building and developing amazing relationships. Hope you enjoy and please share what you planning in a note to me.

If you are like me you have been hearing a lot of doom and gloom on the economy. I wanted to ask the expert, my friend Shane Shepherd – PhD of Finance and USC Professor of Finance and Economics at USC what is the real story. Shane breaks it down for us simply and leaves you with some good info to use at your next cocktail party so you can sound smart or just simply not freak out that we are heading for an economic nuclear winter. I hope you enjoy and feel a little lighter after this quick breakdown. Shane’s LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-shepherd-b3512b24/  

In this session we meet my buddy JP owner of Russell Surfboards in Newport Beach. I have been a long time brand loyal shop rider for the Russell brand and am a bit of a fan. We dive into the origin story of an iconic Surf Shop in Newport Beach that has been around since the sixties. We discuss surf shop culture, board design & evolution, and how the shop is thriving even through the pandemic. Lots of very energetic exchange here and great lessons shared here as always. Hope you enjoy!

In this Boardroom Session we meet Rick Dellar a true renaissance man and one the Pioneers in the Channel Industry. A few words to describe him -  Entrepreneur, Channel Industry pioneer, Real estate Developer, Winemaker, Art Collector, Philanthropist, Family man to name a few. We get some great life advise, discuss the origin story of a company called Intelisys, mindfulness, yoga, spirituality, personal growth and more. Hope you enjoy!

In this BRS we meet Benjamin Gleitzman, CTO and co-founder of Replicant A.I. Replicant is at the front line of the Conversational A.I. space with a very exciting solution for the CX space. We discuss their Thinking Machine and it’s various use cases, the A.I. marketspace and the future. There has never been a time where this technology is more needed to help enterprises as they struggle to deal with staffing challenges and ever-evolving client needs. We dive into Benjamin’s path to a Silicon Valley startup co-founder from his humble beginnings as an MIT grad. I hope you enjoy. Benjamin’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gleitz/

Welcome to the second annual Goal Planning session with Dave Rhoads, President and CEO of Blue Street Capital. We hope to inspire you and give some direction as to how we go about our goal setting for the New Year. Make it simple, stay inspired and most of all Live With INTENTION! Feel free to reach out to Dave or I for accountability and get after it. Mike Miller - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hbmikemiller/ Dave Rhoads - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrhoads/

John has held positions in Healthcare as the CIO & CEO. He has been an advisor at Gartner and currently an Industry Principal at RingCentral. We dive deep in to the changing landscape of Technology that the Healthcare industry is looking at to help their organizations. We discuss here A.I., Bots, Self Service and many other topics. Hope you enjoy! John Poli -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-poli-profile/

Why should the Enterprise care about Social Media? We dive into the many reasons why and how companies are using Social today. We meet with Tyler Altrup of Sprinklr, a Social Media Marketing and Engagement Platform that is helping change the way companies are connecting and engaging with their clients. Hope you enjoy! https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyleraltrup/ https://www.sprinklr.com/

Duane is an expert in the field of Search having worked at Microsoft with Bing and now with Yext. We all search many times a day but do you really know how it works? We dive right in here. Duane’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dforrester/

In this BRS Podcast we meet Brent Totty of Volv. Brent is building a Tech Start Up that uses AI to help Coaches, Trainers and Advisors build habits among their subscribers and followers using Text Messages. We have a very spirited conversation around how to build a startup and advise for how to marry your life passion with your work. There is a lot of content here and amazing positive NEW SCHOOL advise for how to embrace the Passion Economy. Hope you enjoy! Brent Totty – Volv – www.volvapp.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/brenttotty/

Tyson McDowell is a serial entrepreneur in the tech space, a programmer, Venture Capitalist, a TEDx speaker, and extremely knowledgeable in all things  Artificial Intelligence. We get into it very quickly with enterprise applications for AI, the hype vs the reality and where to get some gains now. We also cover the social issues with AI and how you can make changes to your personal online presence to change the AI to feed you more relevant info. Tyson gives some great advise to tech leaders on how to stay relevant and pivot toward AI in your career. I hope you enjoy. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tysonmcdowell/

In this special Boardroom Session we dive deep into 2021 Goal Planning and Vision Boards with two of my favorite people. We first meet with Dave Rhoads of Blue Street Capital and discuss Goal Planning and the strategies we employ. We also meet with Bob Groux of Coast Brands where we dive deep into to concept of Vision Boards and Morning Routines to create the life you want. I hope you enjoy. Please feel free to reach out if you want to discuss any of this further: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hbmikemiller/

Join us for a special panel discussion on A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) and the real world use cases. Our guests include: Andreea Bodnari – PhD form MIT and Product Lead at Google Cloud https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreeabodnari/ Brent Collins – ai4biz group leader and VP at Pangeanic https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentwcollins/ Rob Mumford – Product Lead at Marchex https://www.linkedin.com/in/rbmumford/ We discuss what A.I. solutions each of the guests are seeing hit the market and actually being used to solve real world problems. Hope you enjoy!

Bill Burke is your classic overachiever and a super humble guy. Bill had a very successful career in Law and raised a family here in Orange County. At retiring at 60 he decided to knock a few things off his “to do list” including the 8 highest summits in the world, Mt Everest from 2 different routes, the Mississippi river by Kayak and many more. Just wait till you hear what he has planned next…

This guy is a real Hard Charger in all facets of life and I am excited to share our conversation. Ken is a Managing Partner at ZRG Partners, an executive search firm and lives outside of Boston. He also leads an highly public life where he runs the Ultimate Hire Blog and Podcast, the Executive Athletes Podcast and group, is a US Olympic Committee career advisor,  and endurance and adventure race athlete as well as a family man. We explore all of this in a high energy exchange that I think you will like. Hope you enjoy! klubin@zrgpartners.com http://www.kenlubin.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/klubin/

Meet Ed Tyson, Executive Coach, Consultant and Author. Ed runs an Executive Coaching business called PerSynergy Consulting and can often be found holding coaching sessions in his mobile Conference Room, a Sprinter Van decked out for this specific use. Ed is publishing a book that will hit the market this summer called From “Expert to Executive, mastering the SOP’s of leading”. We dive into the Framework and Methodology in which Ed uses and talk about the challenges of the modern executive. We hope you enjoy. http://www.persynergyconsulting.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-tyson-332a557/?msgConversationId=6660689630544957440&msgOverlay=true

A special Mid Quarantine podcast with some of my favorite people and mentors. They share their thoughts and advise on how to THRIVE during this collective pause in our lives. Some amazing content shared here and super excited for you to hear it. We hear from Risa Groux of Risa Groux Nutrition, Dave Rhoads CEO of Blue St Capital, Jeff Harden of Ingram Micro, Bob Groux of Coast Brands and Kristan Sergeant Consultant and Therapist at Kristansargent.com

In this episode we meet my good friend Susan Kenny. Susan has spent the last 17 years working for some amazing and productive organizations such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), the Ronald McDonald Hose of OC and now CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates). We discuss her journey to this rewarding line of work, the different organizations and their causes. We talk about the various ways her and the team  generate donations and resources for the cause. I know everyone who listen will take something away from this one. Hope you enjoy. You can reach Susan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-kenny-80b6988/