Insights Through the Rear View Mirror

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Today’s episode is a wrap-up of season one. Over the past four months, Jon and Paul have been interviewing nineteen influential people, including Hollywood directors, politicians, business executives, and life and executive coaches.

We address:

What are the differences in making life-defining decisions versus career-defining decisions?

How can I apply the framework of objectives, strategies, and tactics when making decisions?

Once I’ve made a big decision, how do I stay focused on following through with it without regrets?

Insights Through the Rearview Mirror has been a journey for the two brothers. Paul notes that, prior to starting the podcast, he and Jon had been estranged for years due to a decision Paul made that allowed his career to get in the way of his family. He and Jon had been treating their level of professional success as a competition, and that competition, until recently, defined their relationship. Today, Jon and Paul reflect back on lessons learned throughout season one and their takeaways to continue to move forward in a positive direction.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

No decision before it’s time. Don’t make snap decisions, especially if the decision at hand brings with it a lot of anxiety. Take a step back and consider all of your options. If you let things ruminate and take time to think about them, you usually end up with better decisions.
Build and assiduously manage a network of resources. Your network, whether it’s made of friends or business associates, is your lifeline when making decisions. It’s critically important to build, manage, and care for that network.
Understand your goals and objectives. You’ve got to have a direction. You’ve got to understand where you’re going. When it comes to your career, you must first define your brand. Everything you do should in some way go toward polishing and projecting that brand.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

The podcast as a journey for Jon and Paul [02:10]
Jon’s takeaways from speaking with previous guests [04:17]
Paul’s takeaways from speaking with previous guests [06:10]
Does Jon believe that the framework of objectives, strategies, and tactics still applies? [11:45]
Guest comments that left an impact on Jon [13:42]
Guest comments that left an impact on Paul [15:51]
Living at PACE (Passion, Action, Conviction, and Execution) after making a decision [18:01]
Closing thoughts on season one [19:38]

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

RESOURCES

Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

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Today’s guest speaks on how to navigate divorce while maintaining loving relationships with your in-laws, and the lessons she has learned from her experience on making better decisions.

We address:

How do I establish my own “internal guidance system” to make better decisions?

What is the difference between “readiness” and “timing” when it comes to making decisions?

How do I become comfortable with discomfort?

Jon and Paul welcome their former sister-in-law Lisa Kramer, who has led an interesting journey from social worker to executive and relationship coach, teacher, and yoga instructor. At this point in her journey, Lisa has made it her priority to continue to build a constructive and insightful life for herself and others.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Form your own internal guidance system. This is a navigational system that guides your decision-making—what one may call their inner GPS or roadmap. Whether you are making small or big decisions, your IGS is all about tapping into your intuition. Engaging your IGS starts with quieting your mind, perhaps through meditation, walking in nature, or journaling.
It’s a shame to let fear get in the way. There are many decisions you will make, particularly big ones, where you just cannot avoid feeling fearful. However, you need to resist letting that fear stop you from pulling the trigger and following through on your resolution. Lisa recommends calling to mind your why, which will give you the courage to keep moving forward.
Regardless of the decision you have made, things will be okay. Even if the outcome of the decision is not exactly what you hoped for, there are always learning opportunities to grow as a person. On the other hand, giving into fear and not making a decision will keep you stuck in place and stagnate your growth. Always remember that discomfort comes with the territory.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Lisa’s decision-making framework [02:03]
Why Lisa decided to pursue higher education [06:28]
What Lisa means by, “It’s a shame to let fear get in the way.” [07:45]
Leaving academia to become an executive coach [10:42]
Why Lisa decided to separate from her husband after over 20 years of marriage [13:43]
Opening yourself up to serendipity [16:33]
The value in letting certain decisions percolate [19:14]
The importance of your network and having a support group [20:30]
Navigating the emotions and hurdles of a marriage separation [22:30]
Coaching versus therapy [25:10]
Becoming an executive coach without ever having been in an executive position [27:00]
Maintaining a close relationship with former in-laws post-divorce [30:43]
Decisions that Lisa would have made differently [32:10]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Lisa Kramer has more than a dozen years of experience as an executive coach, coach trainer and mentor-coach. Leading with Intention partners with organizations to achieve greater business and personal success by creating a coaching culture throughout the organization.

The Coach Approach training and mentoring program builds capacity for leaders at all levels to be effective coach leaders.

Since transitioning to full time coaching in 2002, Lisa has successfully coached senior leaders and managers from a variety of industries, including health care, higher education, information technology and non-profit organizations. Clients include Google, ABB, Medstar, Nissan, IKEA North America, Jefferson University Hospitals, University of North Texas Health Science Center, University of Pennsylvania, Susquehanna International Group, Swagelok Corporation, and a number of small to mid-size companies throughout North America. She has served as a mentor-coach and coach trainer for hundreds of coaches worldwide.

Lisa’s passion for coaching emerged from a successful career in clinical social work, and in social work education as a full-time faculty member at Widener University Center for Social Work Education. From 2010 – 2018, Lisa served on the faculty of the University of Texas at Dallas Master’s Program in Organizational Behavior and Executive Coaching where she trained both internal and external coaches. Lisa has been affiliated with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania since 2006 where she is an executive coach for various executive education programs as well as the Executive MBA and full-time MBA programs. She has also served as an executive coach with the Penn State University Executive MBA program.

Lisa received her master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania and her coaching certification from the Coaches Training Institute. She is a credentialed coach by the International Coach Federation. A long standing yoga practitioner, Lisa received her 200 yoga teacher certification from the Kripalu Center in 2013.

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

RESOURCES

Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

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Today’s guest has made many decisions throughout his career that not only affect him, but the entire country

We address:

How do I become aware of and check my biases when making decisions?

What can I do to build up my social capital?

How can I exercise more empathy in my decision-making process?

Paul welcomes Congressman Jim Himes. He has been the U.S. representative for Connecticut’s fourth congressional district since 2009, and was recently named Chair of the Subcommittee on national security, international development, and monetary policy of the House Financial Services Committee.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Be wary of your “intelligence” and level of education when making big decisions. Thinking that you are smart and that you know all the answers is a weakness in making good decisions. In fact, it’s a liability. As humans, we’re always at the mercy of our biases. Adding an element of pride over your above-average intelligence or educational attainments will “turbocharge” those biases, because heaven forbid you’re actually wrong. Be aware of your biases, and that your experience is just a tiny part of the sum total of human experiences.
Social capital is just as important as—if not more important than—monetary wealth. Jim’s entire career, from college to working at Goldman Sachs and The Enterprise Community Partners, to serving in Congress—every one of those steps was facilitated by friends, acquaintances, and former coworkers. Maintaining and building your network is a form of wealth that is widely underappreciated.
Empathy is important in any situation. When making any decision, especially one that impacts more people than just yourself, you need to see how the situation looks in the eyes of others, and what the outcome of your decision will mean for them. In the realm of American politics today, there has been an alarming drought of empathy. Jim advises us to take a deep breath before making our big decisions, because if others are involved and we focus only on the benefits we or our team reap, these will likely become decisions we regret in the long run.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Jim’s decision-making framework [02:54]
How Jim’s unique upbringing influences his personal and professional decisions [06:52]
Why Jim applied for a Rhodes Scholarship [09:29]
Getting involved in the financial services industry [10:52]
Making the pivot into politics [12:29]
The importance of having a support network [14:21]
Making decisions in the political sphere [16:08]
Jim’s experience working on the insider trading bill [19:26]
What decisions the two parties need to make to become more cooperative or bipartisan [22:05]
Jim’s reaction to the storming of the Capitol [26:24]
Decisions that Jim would have made differently [31:00]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Jim Himes represents Connecticut’s 4th District in the United States House of Representatives where he is serving his fourth term. He is a member of the House Committee on Financial Services, serves as the ranking member of the NSA and Cybersecurity Subcommittee of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and is Vice-Chair of the New Democrat Coalition.

Jim grew up as the child of a single working mom in a small town. As a member of Congress, Jim works hard to provide all American children the same opportunities he had to succeed: access to a first-rate public school, affordable and effective health care, a decent and safe home, and a supportive community.

Prior to his service in Congress, Jim ran the New York City branch of The Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit dedicated to addressing the unique challenges of urban poverty. Jim’s team led the way in financing the construction of thousands of affordable housing units in the greater New York metropolitan region, often using new green technologies to achieve energy efficiency and reduce utility costs.

Jim’s experience at Enterprise spurred his involvement in politics. Putting his expertise in affordable housing to work, Jim served as a Commissioner of the Greenwich Housing Authority, ultimately chairing the board and leading it through a much-needed program of reforms. Jim went on to become an elected member of his town's finance board, setting tax and budget policy for Greenwich. Jim has also served as Chair of his local Democratic Town Committee, organizing others in the community to become more active in the political process.

Jim began his professional career at Goldman Sachs & Co. where he worked his way up to Vice President over the course of a 12-year career. There he worked extensively in Latin America and headed the bank’s telecommunications technology group.

Jim lives in Greenwich with his wife Mary and two daughters Emma and Linley.

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

RESOURCES

Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

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Jimmy Lynn: The Decisions That Drive Digital Transformation

Today’s guest is a leader in social and sports digital marketing and a highly engaged philanthropist. A visionary whose decisions have continuously placed him at the front of the line of digital transformation in the sports entertainment and commerce industry.

We address:

How can I discover my vision-mission in life that can make me more decisive?

What can I do to adapt to and thrive in unfamiliar work environments?

How can I make every role in my career contribute to my brand as a professional?

Paul welcomes Jimmy Lynn, Co-Founder and Vice President at Kiswe Mobile, whose cloud-based platforms transform live videos into interactive, personal and social experiences. Jimmy spent over 14 years at AOL where one of his positions was leading AOL Sports' partnerships and strategic developments. He forged relationships with the NFL, MLB, NBA, and others at a time when these properties were just discovering the power of digital engagement.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Always keep your eyes on the big picture that is your brand. Jimmy encourages us to ask ourselves: “What’s the long-term marketing plan you’re building for yourself?” He says that everyone should pick a lane—a passion—and stick to it, saying “no” to everything else. If you know what you want, not only will you be happier in the long run, but you’ll also have an easier time making decisions—precisely because you know what you want.
Have a personal advisory council. The people you choose as your closest friends should always be playing devil’s advocate on your behalf. Your friends should be there to support you; but they should also be there to question and challenge your thinking. Having people who you consider mentors is also a great way to stay accountable and make sure that the advice you’re getting is truly objective, so that you can ultimately make more informed decisions.
Getting out of your comfort zone may lead you to opportunities you never expected. Jimmy was challenged working full-time at a radio station, and that experience paved the way for an opportunity to do marketing for a TV network only six months later. Both jobs were out of his comfort zone, but they stretched him and primed him for growth for future career prospects. Starting his own business was itself a totally new experience, but perhaps he never would have been ready for that challenge if he didn’t experience growth from the early days of his career.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Jimmy’s decision-making framework [03:12]
How Jimmy realized that sports marketing is his calling [04:53]
Joining AOL [08:59]
Jimmy’s involvement in M&A of AOL and TimeWarner [15:18]
Why Jimmy left AOL to start his own business [20:10]
What Jimmy looks for in a mentor [23:32]
The decisions that went into creating Kiswe [26:29]
Where Jimmy developed his passion for philanthropy [33:20]
Serving as a senior advisor/adjunct faculty at Georgetown University [38:11]
Decisions that Jimmy regrets, and his parting thoughts on making decisions [42:00]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Jimmy Lynn, a veteran of more than 30 years in the Sports and Entertainment sectors, is one of the pioneers of the Digital Sports space and is regarded as one of the leading relationship brokers and connectors in the sports industry. He is a co-founder and Vice-President of Kiswe Mobile, an interactive mobile video start-up focused on bringing a rich viewing experience for live media content such as sports and entertainment events to mobile devices.

Previously, Lynn was the managing partner of JLynn Associates, a global strategic advisory firm focused on sports-related digital media, marketing, and retail for a diverse set of clients including teams, athletes, leagues and associations, media outlets, and other businesses.

Prior to founding JLynn Associates in 2009, Lynn served as Vice-President, Strategic Development and Partnerships at AOL, where he and his team were responsible for the strategic development and account management of AOL Sports’ strategic partnerships and organizations including the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, MLB, WNBA, NHL, PGA Tour, ABC Sports, CBS Sports, HBO Sports, Sports Illustrated, Turner Sports, NFL Players Association, WWF, The Sporting News, STATS, SportsTicker, etc. During his 14-year career at AOL, he was instrumental in developing AOL Sports into one of the leading global sports destination internet sites.

Lynn also served as a Vice-President, Diversity Partnerships and Strategic Relationships for AOL's Office of Diversity and Inclusion. In this role, he managed AOL's employee affinity networks and partnerships with community service organizations.

Lynn also was a member of the Time Warner Sports Forum, which included executives from Sports Illustrated, HBO Sports, Turner Sports, AOL Sports, Time Warner Cable, Time 4 Media, and Warner Brothers Licensing. The group focused on cross-company sports initiatives for Time Warner.

Previously, Lynn was the Advertising Manager for Home Team Sports, the CBS-owned regional sports network serving the Mid-Atlantic Region (TV partner of the Baltimore Orioles, Washington Wizards, and Washington Capitals), and the Promotion Manager for WLTT-FM, the CBS-owned and operated station in Washington, D.C.

https://www.kiswe.com/

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

RESOURCES

Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

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Too many people equate decisiveness with urgency and snap judgements. This often leads to decisions that they quickly regret making. Today’s guest makes the case that the more time you take in making big decisions (within reason, of course), the more perspective you gain and, in turn, the more confident you become when you finally pull the trigger.

We address:

How can I set principles for myself to abide by when making tough decisions?

Why should I let the decision-making process play out as opposed to having a sense of urgency?

What can I do to minimize anxiety when making big decisions?

Jon welcomes Jim Weinstein, life consultant, career coach, and psychotherapist. Jim goes down memory lane, sharing why he decided to go into the advertising world after graduating with a degree in political science. He then explains his decision to leave advertising to run a clinical trials organization and how that eventually led to his current passion for life coaching.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

● Don’t be locked into a rigid framework for decision-making. Instead, stick to a few key principles that help guide your thought process as you reflect on tough choices. Some simple examples include: Where are you? ; What are you happy with? ; What are you unhappy with ? Aside from taking inventory and thinking through the decision yourself, it also helps to talk to other people who know you well for third-party input. Finally, try “dipping your toe into the water”. Tentatively try out a new path for a visceral reaction to see how you resonate with it.

● Give your decisions room to breathe. Whatever the principles you decide to abide by, making good decisions comes down to patience and diligence . Never settle for a snap answer or set arbitrary deadlines for making decisions ( i.e. decide in the next 30 days) if there is no real reason for a deadline. Take your time and weigh out every factor going into your big decision. You’re only going to make the decision once.

● The biggest barrier to effective decision-making is anxiety . Many are pressured, unjustifiably, into making big decisions faster than they need to. Even more commonly, a lot of people are afraid that their life will fall apart if they make a wrong decision. A calm, measured approach to making decisions is a great recipe for success. In any case, bad decisions and failures can be great teachers if you allow them to be. They can uncover aspects of yourself that you didn’t even know were there. Embrace failure. Failure isn’t the end of the world.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

● Jim’s decision-making framework [02:49]

● Two key ingredients to effective decision-making [04:59]

● Why Jim got into business and advertising after studying political science [06:24]

● Leaving the advertising business to run a clinical trials organization [08:24]

● Stepping away from anxiety and couples therapy to becoming a life coach [11:33]

● Helping coaching clients make life-changing decisions [15:44]

● The biggest barriers to making good decisions [16:39]

● Why bad decisions and failure can be great teachers [18:19]

● How to embrace failure [19:45]

● Why Jim would not have done anything differently [20:58]

● The benefits of a calm and curious approach to decision-making [22:18]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Jim Weinstein is a life consultant, career coach, and psychotherapist. He attended Wesleyan University where he majored in political science and minored in Romance languages.

Graduating magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Jim was accepted to Harvard Business School, where he concentrated in marketing. He graduated with distinction in 1971, and thereafter began working at one of New York's largest advertising agencies, Benton & Bowles, as an account executive.

Jim rose quickly in the organization, being named a vice-president in 1975. In the subsequent 15 years he also worked with several other firms as a senior executive, including Wells Rich Greene as EVP & Chiat/Day as Director of Account Management. Among the clients he worked for were: Procter & Gamble, Sony, Coca-Cola, Bayer, Mitsubishi, Fisher-Price, and Energizer (The bunny was developed under Jim’s tenure as the lead account manager).

In Jim’s early 40s, he embarked on a process of inner work and exploration that led him to move from New York to Los Angeles and decide to leave advertising. After serving for two years as the president of Search Alliance, a community-based clinical trials organization, he enrolled in Antioch University's clinical psychology program in 1994, earning a Master's degree. He also accumulated 3,000 hours of internship training and was licensed as a psychotherapist (Marriage and Family Therapist). Jim opened a private practice in Beverly Hills working with couples and individuals struggling with a wide variety of issues.

In late 2005, Jim moved from Los Angeles to Washington, pivoting from a strict focus on psychotherapy to broadening guidance to include career and general life satisfaction issues. In the time he has been in the DC area, Jim has been fortunate enough to build a thriving practice working with a very diverse, motivated, and intelligent group of clients. He is proud to have helped many hundreds of clients to dramatically improve their career and life satisfaction.

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER :

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

RESOURCES

● Visit our website: www.rearviewinsights.com

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Drayten Howell: How a 23-Year-Old Student Athlete Found Success in the Cannabis Industry

Today’s guest is currently undergoing a journey that is nothing short of amazing. Only in his 20s and coming from a modest background, he was able to carve out a new path for himself in the incredibly competitive cannabis industry—in California, no less. Find out how he navigated the countless challenges involved in starting his business and the decision-making framework he uses to keep himself on course.

We address:

How can I discover the decision-making constructs that uniquely work for me?

What do I need to keep in mind when starting a business in an incredibly competitive industry?

Why does “being a consumer of my own business” lead to brand loyalty?

Jon welcomes Drayten Howell, the young CEO of Indacut, the first cannabis delivery service licensed through the city of Santa Barbara. He has a fascinating story to share. At the age of 23, Drayten quit college with a full-ride basketball scholarship to start a cannabis business. Needless to say, he has made a number of major life-changing decisions.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Have a decision-making framework and set of non-negotiable standards unique to you. There is no one-size-fits-all decision-making framework. Know what works for you, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually. Drayten abides by three constructs that he goes through before making any big decision: Firstly, Drayten always seeks wise counsel, whether from his mom or grandma, coaches, and other close friends and acquaintances that he trusts. Secondly, as a believer in God, Drayten always prays before making a major decision. Finally, alongside prayer, Drayten meditates on every life-changing decision that comes his way.

To build brand loyalty in your business, provide a product at a great price. Many new entrepreneurs tend to forget that they’re making a product for other people, not for themselves. You have to know what you’re providing, and you have to be providing what your target market wants right now. In the cannabis industry at least, Drayten recommends not following trends because “trends are saturated”. If you don’t provide your customers what they want now for the price they’re willing to pay now, they can go right down the street to your competitor.

Be a consumer of your own business. Always put yourself in the shoes of your customers (and potential customers). Gauge the efficiency and effectiveness of your business processes by asking yourself whether you would be happy with the products you’re offering and the service that went into it.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Drayten’s decision-making framework [02:35] How Drayten turned his life around created this incredibly unique path for himself [09:19] Applying Drayten’s early, mostly self-taught lessons on business in the real world [12:21] Getting the business underway while going blind [16:00] How Drayten went about attacking his deliverables in the early days of business [20:11] Drayten’s biggest obstacles to getting Indacut up and running [24:12] Building brand loyalty [26:49] The two biggest surprises Drayten has encountered so far and how he addressed them [28:50] Drayten’s plans for the growth of Indacut [30:42] Considering a franchise model in the future [33:28] How Drayten keeps up as the primary decision-maker in his business [34:48] Decisions that Drayten regrets since starting his business[36:50]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Drayten began thinking about entering the cannabis industry in 2018 during his summer classes at SBCC. He knew the industry would be growing as the market opened for recreational use. Shortly after summer classes ended, Drayten was on his way north to attend NCAA Division 2 Holy Names University on a basketball scholarship.

While Drayten was attending Holy Names University as a full-time student athlete, he started doing all of the backend work for Indacut. He began drafting business plans, Googling how-to guides, and working with his accounting tutor on pro formas.

In November of 2018, Drayten found his cannabis-zoned facility from his dorm room. A few weeks later, Drayten decided it was best to leave Holy Names University.

He moved back home and got started right away on the licensing process in January of 2019. Since then, Drayten has successfully made Indacut the first cannabis delivery service licensed through Santa Barbara County. God, hard work, and a killer team made all of this possible.

Drayten is back to serve the place he calls home. Providing legal, quality, lab-tested products to help clients lead a healthy and active lifestyle. He plans on expanding his cannabis ventures around the state/worldwide, and is currently working to become fully vertically integrated in Santa Barbara County.

https://www.indacutca.com/

Instagram: @drayhowell

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

RESOURCES

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Today’s guest acquired the skill of an artist, making him internationally renowned, as a direct result of a broken back from a boat accident in 2015. As he shares his story, it quickly becomes clear that his refusal to allow external circumstances to dictate his path makes up a large part of his decision-making framework.

We address:

How can I look past my weaknesses and capitalize on my strengths?

Why does embracing challenges and adversity tend to lead to unforeseen breakthroughs?

What lessons can I take from the past to inform my decisions in the future?

Paul welcomes visual artist David Marchi. He shares the decision-making framework that led him down his unique and storied career, going from being a highly successful, world-class marketer to becoming one of the most innovative and artistic painters in the world today.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

When in doubt, be honest and authentic and just put everything out on the table. When he came out as gay to his wife and children, a huge weight was lifted off David’s shoulders and that decision propelled him into the next stage of his life. He initially planned on laying out his intentions in “phases”: to come out first, then to speak about divorce, etc. But he found that the best way to maximize understanding and empathy between all parties is to simply tell the truth, and tell all, right away.
Turn your disability into ability. Always find a way to push past your limitations (perceived or otherwise) and focus on fulfilling the potential you, uniquely, are capable of fulfilling. On the more extreme end, David helped Jack, a young boy with autism, to paint for the first time by dipping his paintbrush in his favorite color. “If you give someone a chance, and if you give them the tools, you can be a big part of where they may go.”
Thoughtful decisions are based on previous decisions. Look back at the big decisions you’ve made in the past, as well as those smaller ones. Evaluate, with an objective eye, which of those decisions have led to success and which have led to failure or disappointment. The lessons you extract from these varied experiences will help you create a structure for the decisions you make today.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

David’s decision-making framework [03:52]
Entering the marketing world [06:11]
Leaving the advertising industry [11:50]
Being President of Ryan Partnership and collaborating with well-known brands [20:50]
Working with Pepsi [27:15]
Moving to TracyLocke [35:19]
Coming out as gay after having a family [40:47]
Becoming a world-class artist [45:34]
Finding out about his acquired savant syndrome [50:30]
Painting with Jack and Max [53:30]
David’s parting advice on making more thoughtful decisions [56:51]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

David is the son of an Italian immigrant mother and a father with roots in Italy and Argentina.

The methodology to David’s art is a spiritual and subconscious process. He dreams the colors and painting structures first, imprinting the image in his head. In his studio, he sits on the floor, looks at the negative space and starts to pick the colors from the shelf leading to a thoughtful completion.

His passion for painting was the direct result of a broken back from a boat accident in 2015. Prior to this, David never painted. In 2019, he was diagnosed by Dr. Darold Treffert with Acquired Savant Syndrome. This is where dormant savant skills emerge after a spinal or brain injury or disease in previously non-disabled persons.

Today, David's life is his painting. He is currently studying with Larry Poons and Peter Bonner at the Art Students League in New York City and has traveled to Hamburg, Berlin, Paris, Sao Paulo and London to paint with other artists.

His work is collected world-wide and is currently being critiqued by Pulitzer prize and New York Magazine art critic, Jerry Saltz. Through his art, he supports Positive Exposure, The Human Rights Campaign, and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation.

Recently, he started the "Smile" Campaign, raising money to support our front-line nurses during the Covid0-19 pandemic.

https://www.gallerymarchi.com/

Instagram: @marchiart

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

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How far can your gut feeling take you when you’re faced with important decisions? Today’s guest makes a case for leaning on your natural strengths and the things that give you energy, and simply taking the plunge when making big, career-defining choices.

We address:

How can I use my core strengths to inform my decisions?

What are some actions steps I can take today to be able to thrive in a post-pandemic world?

Where should I focus my attention to avoid making career choices that I may later regret?

Jon welcomes Michelle Adams, Founder and President of Marketing Brainology, a company focused on the latest in Behavior Economics, Virtual Shopping, Eye-Tracking, and NeuroScience research. However, that’s just the latest stop on her journey spanning high school teacher and coach to heading up Shopper Marketing at PepsiCo.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Know your towering strengths. Michelle’s decision-making criteria is based heavily on Marcus Buckingham’s StrengthsFinder tool. What are the core strengths that you bring to the table that you are naturally gifted with? Whatever you decide to do must align with those strengths as well as the things that give you energy when you do them.
Sometimes, all you can do is take a leap of faith based on calculated risks. Making a decision as life-changing as going into business after a decade or two in the corporate world is grounded in many factors; but more often than not, the choice to make these decisions are ultimately based on faith. This faith is informed by considering all the factors related to the decision at hand, as well as taking your strengths into consideration, trusting yourself to handle wherever direction this decision will take you.
When making decisions, it’s really important to have a network surrounding you. If you have a big career goal (or any type of big goal, for that matter), it pays to immerse yourself among people that support those goals. For example, Michelle’s dream is to be able to speak professionally on a regular basis, so she became a very active member of the Dallas chapter of the National Speakers Association.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Michelle’s decision-making framework [03:11]
Why Michelle took up a PhD in Political Economy [04:28]
Why Michelle became a policy analyst [08:36]
Working for M/A/R/C [13:19]
Adjusting to Frito-Lay’s corporate culture [17:12]
How Michelle’s clients are adjusting due to COVID-19 [23:17]
Leaving corporate America to found Marketing Brainology [26:23]
Taking a leap of faith when making a drastic career pivot [37:04]
Building up your network over time [41:34]
Is there anything that Michelle would have done differently? [44:38]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Michelle Adams has a unique educational and professional career. She has an extensive business background and is a Ph.D. who stays well-connected to the most recent academic research and leading thought leaders. She founded Marketing Brainology over eight years ago to better measure human behavior and nonconscious thinking.

She worked for Frito-Lay & PepsiCo for 10 years, running the SMART Learning Center which conducted sophisticated neuroscience research experiments that drove major initiatives thru-out PepsiCo. As VP of Customer Strategy and Shopper Insights, she consulted senior leaders from PepsiCo’s top retailers; including educating teams on male/female brain differences. As President of Marketing Brainology, she speaks and consults across the globe on NeuroScience, NeuroMarketing, and Inﬂuencing positive change within organizations. She is a member of the National Speakers Association, a TEDx SMU Speaker, 2014 Distinguished Alumni for The University of Texas at Dallas, and current board member.

Follow Marketing Brainology on Facebook, Twitter @marketingbraino or MarketingBrainology.com

Michelle Adams, Ph.D.

madams@marketingbrainology.com

214-491-9638

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

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Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

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There are few places that require more skill in negotiation and a thicker skin than the political sphere. Today’s guest, a public interest lawyer with over four decades of experience, shares how he makes decisions that affect entire communities—and potentially the entire country—and does so navigating a profession where conflict and adversity among different parties is his day-to-day reality.

We address:

What is the best way to reach consensus among my peers?

How can I get skeptics to embrace my idea?

How do I reach people’s hearts and not just their minds when getting my vision heard?

Jon and Paul welcome public interest lawyer John Bouman, who speaks on the fundamental role of faith in his decision-making framework, the benefits of engaging in vigorous conversations with colleagues, the importance of starting with the end in mind, and why it pays in the long run to pause and take a step back in the aftermath of failure.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Always be working toward a mission. As opposed to working toward a particular dollar goal or any of the other superficial trappings of success, know what drives you internally and let that purpose motivate your decisions.
Make better decisions through vigorous conversations with peers. Part of making good decisions is having the right information to add context to whatever it is you’re addressing. A great way to expand that information base, as well as infuse yourself with confidence when finally making the decision, is to engage in dialogue, especially with those who have a stake in the decision. John says it best: “There’s nothing more enjoyable, rewarding, and conducive to good decisions than a vigorous back-and-forth with colleagues who have permission from each other to put ideas out there and also have them batted down to work toward good decisions.”
If you’re trying to get your idea heard, always start with the end in mind. If you have an idea or proposal that requires the support of certain parties to bring it to reality, it’s crucial to have a crystal clear picture in your mind of what success looks like. If you know exactly what outcome you’re going for, you’ll be able to work backwards to figure out how to get there. Even if some of these key people are skeptical of your idea, as long as everyone actually knows what you’re trying to achieve, it’s much easier to define the tactics and strategies you’re proposing to hit that goal. You also have a better chance at inspiring confidence in others when you can clearly explain the rationale behind your decision.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

John’s decision-making construct [02:56]
The thought-process that led John into advocacy [06:27]
Short versus long-term decisions [09:18]
Making the right decisions in the tricky world of law reform [13:03]
Influencing gatekeepers and adversarial individuals to turn your ideas into reality [20:35]
How changes over time in the government’s attitude toward the underprivileged affects John’s approach to policy and negotiation [29:56]
Has John ever made a decision that he regrets? [34:25]
Engaging the private sector to address poverty [37:04]
Avoiding burnout when advocating for major causes such as addressing poverty [39:30]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

John Bouman has worked for 45 years as a public interest lawyer and leader in Illinois and nationally. He recently retired from the Shriver Center on Poverty Law after 24 years as its advocacy director and then President (since 2007). During these years, the Shriver Center has maintained a leading multi-issue law and policy role fighting poverty and racial inequity in Illinois, while also building a national program of training and information for anti-poverty advocates and strong multi-state networks of organizations and practitioners aimed at transmitting state and local strategies and victories across multiple states.

Bouman has deep knowledge of the Illinois and Chicago advocacy landscape and its players. He has led or helped to lead many advocacy coalitions, collaborations, working groups, and ad hoc alliances with likely and unlikely partners. He worked for ten years in high volume storefront practices in Chicago neighborhoods (mostly Uptown and Englewood) and then became a leader with expertise across the wide range of policy issues involved in addressing poverty and the full toolbox of advocacy approaches (organizing, lobbying, litigation, media and more). Among many accomplishments: spearheaded the statewide efforts in Illinois to create both the FamilyCare program, which provides health care insurance for up to 400,000 working poor parents of minor children, and All Kids, the first state plan to extend health coverage to every child regardless of immigration status. He has consulted and co-counseled with advocates in many states; helped draft numerous pieces of legislation; given hundreds of presentations; published extensively; and served as counsel in numerous federal and state cases. He led litigation that forced Illinois to continue paying for health care and related services during the 2015-17 budget impasse. He currently leads the Responsible Budget Coalition, an effort bringing together more than 300 diverse organizations to advocate for state revenue and budget reform in Illinois. He chairs the ballot initiative committee, Vote Yes for Fair Tax, which is organized under Illinois campaign finance law to win an amendment to the Illinois Constitution on the November 2020 ballot that would allow the state to adopt a graduated rate income tax.

Among his honors, he has received the Kutak-Dodds Prize from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, John Minor Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award from the American Bar Association’s Litigation Section, Child Health Advocate Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Excellence in Pro Bono and Public Interest Service Award from the United States District Court and Federal Bar Association. A 1975 graduate of Valparaiso University School of Law and former board member of the Chicago Transit Authority, John currently serves on the boards of Illinois Partners for Human Service, the Center for Law and Social Policy, and the Retirement Research Foundation.

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

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Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

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Michael Golden: How to Use The Golden Mean to Make Better Decisions

Have you ever thought about your decision-making process? Do you even have one? Every one of us has a fascinating story made up of many decisions over the course of our lives. It’s the sum of these decisions that dictate the direction of our journey.

We address:

Should you ever rely on your gut when making big decisions?

How do I minimize the amount of decisions I end up regretting?

What is The Golden Mean and how can I use it to make better decisions?

Jon and Paul welcome Michael Golden, social entrepreneur, award-winning journalist, political reformer, and communication specialist. With a successful, multifaceted career under his belt, Michael demonstrates how even someone with varied passions and continuously shifting interests can still adopt a decision-making framework that allows them to lead a purposeful life and career.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Pay attention to your gut. While it isn’t wise to rely solely on your gut for every decision you make, it does indicate what’s driving you. Listening to your gut is a great way to remind you why you were brought to your biggest, most life-changing decisions in the first place, along with the smaller decisions downstream of those overarching ones. And, as it happens, there are times when your gut is what makes or breaks certain decisions. Sometimes, it pays off; other times, you make a decision you regret. In any case, you learn a lesson from the experience that informs your next decision.
Accept who you are and let that acceptance guide your decisions. Michael is the type of person whose interests change regularly, which explains the fascinating trajectory of his career. He is successful in spite of that because he doesn’t overanalyze his decisions and takes opportunities as they come. That is who he is as a person, and he refuses to criticize himself for following his gut. He doesn’t even say that it’s a good thing that he jumps around a lot. “It just is, so stop judging yourself about it.”
Take advantage of The Golden Mean to Make Better Decisions. The Golden Mean is an ancient concept elevated by the Greeks—Aristotle in particular. It is about finding the midpoint between extremes or finding the virtue between two opposite vices. It’s so easy for us humans to go to either extreme when pursuing anything in life. If you feel that things are starting to get a little too out of your control, you’re probably engaged in an extreme. Slow down, look at the rear-view mirror, and reevaluate your current path. The Golden Mean is ultimately about moderation.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Michael’s decision-making framework [04:22]
Why Michael made the transition from journalism to television [06:02]
How Michael made the decision to take control of his demons [11:10]
Understanding your objectives [18:40]
The common strand that informs all of Michael’s seemingly unrelated career shifts [22:06]
How accepting who you are influences your decisions [27:56]
Utilizing The Golden Mean in your decision-making construct [30:40]
Is there anything that Michael would have done differently? [34:08]
Why you should strive for self-acceptance [38:00]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Michael Golden is a strategist and social innovator who excels at launching and accelerating mission-driven enterprises. His expertise stems from a 25-year career as a national award-winning journalist and co-founder of One Million Degrees, Newsbound, Complete the Degree and Golden Mean Strategies.

Michael is also the author of Unlock Congress and serves as a Senior Fellow at the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy.

His commentary has been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, FOX News, PBS, NBC, and NPR.

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

RESOURCES

Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

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Show Title: Harry LaRosiliere: How to Use Your Purpose and Passion to Inform Your Decisions

No matter how much thought, research, and advice you put into your decisions, you will still regret a number of choices you make throughout life. However, today’s guest tells us that the most important thing is to reach a level of total comfort and resolution in the decisions we make, which is only made possible if we keep our purpose and passion front and center as we walk our path.

We address:

What is the best framework for making sound decisions?

How can I identify my purpose and passion?

Why should I not be afraid of making decisions that I may later regret?

Jon and Paul welcome the first African-American mayor of Plano, Texas, Harry LaRosiliere, who shares his guiding principles when making any decision, and his failsafe practice of using his purpose and passion to keep him on the right track as the leader of his community of almost 290,000 residents.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Heed the four Ls of leadership when making important decisions. All leaders need to realize that they have to be fully accountable to their people and take responsibility for their actions. To this end, a leader must make sure to LISTEN in order to get the right amount of input from those around them. They must LEARN from their mistakes. Leaders also LEAD BY EXAMPLE, being the first to enter the building and the last to leave. Leaders LET GO and trust their team, giving them the space, they need to succeed. Finally, leaders need to know when to LEAVE, because no matter how successful (or unsuccessful) you become, there is a time to leave your position. Leaders do not build followers. They build other leaders.
Heed the three Is when making important decisions. Make your decisions based on purity of INTENT to do the best for your community, out of INTEGRITY or a refusal to compromise your values, and from a place of INTELLIGENCE which comes from doing ample research on the issue you are making a decision on. Adhering to the three Is does not guarantee that you make the right decision, but it does make you comfortable and resolute in your next step.
No matter the outcome, remember your purpose and passion. The one thing Mayor LaRosiliere knows is that he wants to do his part to make Plano a better place, day-by-day. Instead of being caught up in sound-bite politicking and making big, sweeping promises (ex. cut taxes, shrink government, etc.), The Mayor prefers to wake up every morning with a focus on making his community a little better by the end of the day. This is how he avoids falling into the pitfalls unique to his life and career and helps him stick to his particular purpose and passion.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Mayor LaRosiliere’s five Ls of leadership [04:30]
Why Harry started a photography studio after graduating with a geology degree [10:49]
Moving to Plano, Texas and becoming a financial advisor [15:06]
Harry on discovering his calling to be mayor [20:32]
Mayor LaRosiliere’s three Is of sound decision-making [31:40]
Does being African-American have an influence over one’s decision-making process? [34:05]
What is driving the divisiveness we see in modern U.S. politics? [37:26]
Has Mayor Harry ever made a decision that he regrets? [43:49]
Mayor Harry’s guiding principle when making decisions [45:52]
Mayor Harry’s parting thoughts on decision-making [50:30]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Mayor Harry LaRosiliere’s life journey is a great American story. Born in Haiti, Harry moved to New York with his family when he was just three years old and became a U.S. citizen at age 18. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1985 and moved to Plano, Texas in 1994. Driven by a passion for public service, Harry volunteered with various nonprofit groups followed by service on a variety of Plano city boards and commissions before becoming a city council member. He was nominated and elected mayor of Plano, Texas in 2013 and elected for a second term in 2017.

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

RESOURCES

Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

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Andy Murray: Life as a Mosaic

What’s the single most important outcome you’re after, right now? Start there, and as long as you have your end goal clear as day, your path will eventually lead you to where you want to go.

We address:

How do I build a network that can help me accomplish what I can’t do on my own?

How can I hit my career or business goals when the road ahead looks hazy?

How is it possible to keep my eyes fixed on a better future while staying fully present to tackle the tasks at hand?

Jon and Paul welcome retail marketing expert Andy Murray to speak on growing your business and career, maximizing your leadership potential, and cultivating culture.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Having a strong peer-and-above network can take your career to new heights. Your network is everything. Build, nurture, and strengthen a network of mentors and other professionals who have all achieved success in their own right and from whom you can glean wisdom towards accomplishing your own goals.
Look at the trajectory of your life as a mosaic. When considering your goals and your unique path towards those goals, imagine life as a mosaic. Start in the center and establish the pieces which represent your clearly-defined core values. Everything at the peripherals may be hazy, but each piece you place carries on from the last until the full picture that is your life is completed.
You don’t need to be at full-throttle throughout your entire career. No matter how ambitious you are or how many professional goalposts you intend to hit, it may serve you well to slow down a few times in your career to recuperate, recharge, and reflect. We tend to get so focused on the future—that next big task, that next big meeting, that next big pitch—that we live in the day after tomorrow instead of today.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Andy’s construct for making important decisions [04:09]
Life as a mosaic [13:24]
Innovation happens on the fringe [22:39]
Why Andy transitioned from working in an agency to Walmart [27:38]
What Andy would have done differently looking back at his career [32:22]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Andy is a retail marketing expert with a strong understanding of global trends, creative marketing, and customer shopping habits. He is currently Chairman of the Asda Foundation and previously served as Walmart’s Senior Vice President of Creative and Customer Experience. A frequent conference and corporate presenter, Andy has a dynamic and engaging style that delivers insight and inspiration for teams in a way that inspires growth, personally and professionally.

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

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Josh Kattef: Using the Framework of Expected Value to Make Major Life Decisions

Even if you graduated with a degree in Mathematics and have a prestigious career as a Wall Street trader and poker player, life will present you choices that you cannot quantify or evaluate through logic alone.

We address:

How do I decide whether or not to make a career pivot?

How do I use the concept of expected value to make decisions in my life?

How can I avoid regret and be genuinely happy with the major life decisions I make?

John and Paul welcome Josh Kattef, who shares his 20-year journey as a professional in the world of finance to find out how a numbers guy who looks at life through a zero-sum game lens makes major decisions.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Your family should serve as your compass when making major career and lifestyle decisions. A high-flying, fast-paced life in NYC characterized by regular nights out on top of a busy, prestigious career is probably best left to single men and women with their whole lives ahead of them. Money, while obviously a huge factor in the type of job or business you choose, is still just one of several factors you need to consider when deciding on a profession. Family should always be number one. If you have the resources and employability, relocating to the country or in a quieter neighborhood and taking on a less stressful role will do wonders for you and your family in the long run.
Expand your social life beyond your immediate work environment. This doesn’t just refer to the friends you hang out with after work. If you’re limiting your circle to those in your immediate professional environment, you’re missing out on amazing opportunities to add new, meaningful dimensions to your life. Don’t be afraid to reach out and join different groups, as you never know who you’ll meet and where those connections will lead you. Opportunities for personal and professional growth, as well as for philanthropy and outreach, are out there if you make an effort to look beyond the familiar.
Use the framework of expected value when making decisions. While it’s often difficult, if not impossible to quantify the potential value of your decisions, it is still important to gauge your choices by factoring in the elements that make up those choices. A simple example is deciding whether or not to bring an umbrella with you on a cloudy day by weighing the inconvenience of carrying an umbrella for several hours with the consequences of being caught without one on a day where there’s a 50/50 chance of rain. On the other hand, major business or career decisions amid COVID-19 require much more rationalization—and even taking into account some gut feelings—to calculate expected values.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Why Josh decided to go into financial management upon graduating from MIT [03:44]
Josh’s role at Deutsche Bank [11:42]
Why Josh left a burgeoning career at Deutsche Bank [14:41]
Leaving New York City for the country [20:33]
Why Josh started his blog [26:52]
Expanding your network and opportunities beyond the company you work at [31:31]
What Josh would have done differently in his journey [36:56]
How to use the framework of expected value to make big decisions [40:17]
How Josh’s decision-making process has changed over the years [46:39]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Since graduating from MIT in 1998 with a degree in Mathematics, Josh Kattef has led an interesting life as a trader, poker player, blogger, dog lover, and now dad. Straight out of school he joined JP Morgan, but soon moved on to Deutsche Bank, where he quickly became a director.

After a short 8-year tenure there, Josh chucked it all and moved to New Hampshire where he has been living with his wife, lots of dogs, and most recently a new daughter.

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

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Craig Coffey: How to Trust Your Own Decision-Making Framework

Making the “right” decision with regards to career is often not a black-or-white process. How can we be more confident in owning the choices we make? Today’s guest teaches us that the decisions we make do not always have to make sense to everyone—they just need to make sense to you.

We address:

What type of mindset should I cultivate to become more decisive?

How can I know if the company I’m working in is truly the right fit for me?

What can failure teach me about making better career decisions?

John and Paul welcome executive coach Craig Coffey, who shares how being comfortable in your own skin is fundamental to making big decisions that will benefit you in the grand scheme of your career.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Your decision-making framework is worthless if you don’t have the right mindset. Since the beginning of his career, Craig embodied a mindset of optimism, hopefulness, and anticipation. Ultimately, you have to call the shots that you make, big and small alike. And that relies on you having a mindset that allows you to have complete faith in every single one of your decisions.
Ask yourself these four questions to know whether you’re working in the right environment. Craig proposes four questions that you should ask yourself to become more self-aware of where you currently are in your professional life and evaluate the direction you want to take it. These questions are: Do you love what you do? Do you love who you do it for? Do you love who you do it with? Do you love where you do it?
Making good decisions ultimately comes down to knowing yourself. You have to be comfortable in your own skin. When you know yourself, you can trust yourself to do those things that other people might have discouraged you to do. You can own your career journey and be confident that every decision you make—even those that lead to failures—is contributing to your personal and professional growth in the long run. Knowing yourself also keeps you from comparing yourself to other people, which Craig says is a debilitating trap that stalls your progress. As Craig’s father once told him, “It doesn’t have to make sense to everybody. It just has to make sense to you.”

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Craig’s decision-making framework [02:49]
Moving from a rigid corporate environment into an unstructured, entrepreneurial one [12:04]
Why Craig decided to transition from working for Pepsi to working for Nokia [21:06]
Managing in an unsettled work environment [27:01]
Working at Wells Fargo while the company was in the midst of a myriad of challenges [38:24]
Craig’s approach to executive coaching [41:21]
One piece of advice for making better decisions [45:34]
What Craig would have done differently in his career [50:19]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Craig Coffey is the Founder and President of Way Maker Leadership LLC, an Executive Coaching Practice focused on C-suite leaders building strong teams that deliver inspired results. Craig has achieved the credentials and certifications to be a member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), the most recognized, governing and credentialing body of the coaching profession.

Craig has had an extensive career as a Senior Marketer and General Manager across an array of Fortune 100 companies. He is an accomplished, results-oriented leader with a proven track record of building businesses and well-recognized global brands for Kraft, YUM, PepsiCo, Nokia and Wells Fargo to name a few. Craig is a Diversity & Inclusion champion and has a demonstrated ability to build productive organizational cultures and develop future leaders. Craig is also an active volunteer with American Corporate Partners as a dedicated mentor to US veterans transitioning from military service into the private sector.

Craig has a business degree from Boston College and received a degree in management from Harvard Business School.

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

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Jon and Paul Kramer: A Framework for Making Big Decisions

“Should I walk away from a toxic work environment where I’m being paid a boatload of money?”

“Should I spend $250,000 on a law degree when 44% of lawyers today regret their decision to spend a quarter of a million building their legal career?”

In today’s episode, Paul interviews his brother Jon on the biggest personal and professional decisions he’s made in life.

We address:

Is there a reliable decision-making framework that I can start using today?

How does my personality affect my decision-making process?

How can I evaluate bad decisions to learn from my mistakes?

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Be crystal clear on the outcome you want, and have a concrete plan of action towards it. Jon adheres to two constructs that he almost always uses when making decisions. The first consists of objectives, strategies, and tactics, and the second addresses Now what? So what? Do what? Paul puts particular emphasis on the emotional element of decision-making. Are you happy with the choice you made, and will you be happy in the long haul? By balancing the emotional and the rational, with equal focus put on each aspect, you’ll have yourself a reliable framework for making big decisions of all kinds.
Understand your objectives before even considering your strategies and tactics. It doesn’t make sense to get into a car when you don’t know what your destination is. If you want to minimize the number of bad decisions you make, begin with the end in mind. As Jon himself says: “You’ve got to have a set of objectives that drive the course of your life.”
Formulate strategies and tactics that will get you to your objective. Your objective is your starting point, but how you accomplish that objective depends on the strategies and tactics that you employ. Using the dramatic example of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, while the climbers knew exactly what their objective was (to reach the peak of Mount Everest), they made a number of mistakes along the way that cost many their lives due to ill-conceived strategies and tactics.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Jon’s decision-making framework [4:42]
The role of emotion in making big decisions [9:59]
Why have a framework for making decisions? [12:37]
Should you approach personal decisions the same way you do career-related decisions? [14:54]
How our personalities play into how we make decisions [18:23]
Jon on his ill-informed decisions [20:11]
The importance of understanding your objectives first and foremost [23:55]
What to expect in future episodes of the podcast [29:59]
Defining your core values so that they serve as your anchor when making decisions [32:13]
The overarching impact of many small, seemingly-insignificant decisions [34:19]
Establishing the right strategies and tactics based on your objectives [35:58]

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

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Have you ever thought about the importance of decision-making in your life? Maybe not when it comes to choosing between a latte or an Americano at Starbucks; but on pivotal choices such as relocating for a promising new job, investing $250,000 to go to law school, or making a complete pivot in your professional career several years or even decades in. On today’s episode, we answer the question: Is there a successful decision framework?

How can I take the first few steps into the career of my dreams in an industry where I’m underrepresented?

Where can I find the wherewithal to keep going when it feels like I’m all alone on my journey?

How do I embrace my “voice” to stand out in my career?

John Kramer welcomes writer, director, and filmmaker Rachel Feldman. Her most recent directing credits include Blue Bloods, The Rookie, and Criminal Minds, among others. Her pilot script KINKS won the 2020 Screencraft Best Pilot and the WGA Drama Queens Best Pilot. Rachel began her career in entertainment as a child actor. Her experience working on set coupled with an affinity for the visual arts inspired her to explore a variety of different fields in her teenage years, from graphic design to theatre to fine arts. In her senior year, she read an article in the New York Times about international women film directors. That was the moment she realized that all of her creative pursuits over the years were part and parcel with being a film director. She went on to study for a Master’s Degree in Film at NYU, and the rest was history.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

You can’t be what you can’t see. For many people, the potential to be something greater can be buried under a whole slew of challenges, from societal expectations to economic circumstances to a lack of having the right support. Rachel was born to be a filmmaker, but the entertainment industry during her early years did not expose her to any other female directors to look up to.
Embrace your voice. You may be at a point in your life where it seems like having the conversation with those who can help you advance in your career isn’t possible. Rachel shares the need to not only stay true to yourself in spite of being the “David” to your industry’s “Goliath” but to become an activist for your purpose. This will not only help you grow personally and professionally, but you then inspire others who may be in similar situations to grow alongside you.
If you did things differently, you wouldn’t be where you are right now. Rachel has had her fair share of ups and downs in her career, but she wouldn’t change a thing about it. Situations may come your way at a hundred miles per hour; but Rachel’s formula to thrive is to trust her instinct. She goes by the saying: “Serendipity—she is my goddess.” For her, as well as for everyone else, life is an ongoing journey, and we never know what any single event will lead to, whether we consider those experiences “good” or “bad”. Embrace the full package that is your life. Embrace serendipity.

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Rachel Feldman is an accomplished film & television director. This past season, she directed multiple episodes of “Blue Bloods,” “Criminal Minds,” “The Rookie,” and the pilot and first season of “The Baxters.” She has directed movies for Freeform, Lifetime Television, and The SyFy Channel.

Feldman is in active development to direct her screenplay LILLY, a feature film based on the life of Fair Pay icon Lilly Ledbetter, championed by Meryl Streep. The screenplay is an Athena List winner and Feldman is the recipient of the NYWIFT Ravenal Foundation Grant. Her pilot KINKS was optioned by eOne Television, won the 2020 ScreenCraft and WGA Drama Queens Best Pilot Awards.

An activist for women behind the camera, she is interviewed in “This Changes Everything,” “Half The Picture,” and “Celluloid Ceiling.” A former chair of the DGA Women’s Steering Committee, you can follow her on Twitter @WomenCallAction.

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Mike Perlis: How to Decide on Your Next Job with Confidence

Sometimes, the next big stepping stone in your career isn’t what you expected it to be. When opportunities are thrown at you out of left-field, how do you properly evaluate whether you should capitalize on it or not?

We address:

How do I decide if a job currently being offered to me is really the best option?

Is it ever okay to take a job or a role that doesn’t feel genuinely me just to get ahead in my career?

How important is money when choosing a job, exactly?

John and Paul welcome Mike Perlis, who shares the many huge decisions he had to make throughout his career in order to achieve the level of success he enjoys today.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Almost any business is people-oriented. Never underestimate the power of great mentors and peers who challenge you. When starting up a business, surround yourself with people who you consider as being forward-thinking, having good moral character, and are better than you in ways that will help the entire team rise as you all contribute your individual gifts to the business.
Stay true to yourself and your strengths when deciding on a job. Taking a job just because it pays well or looks good may seem enticing in the short-term; but it’s never worth it in the grand scheme of things. Walk the path that you feel most at home on, and that means taking on a role in which you can contribute the best of yourself and your talents and skills. On the other side of the coin, sometimes opportunities come your way that you didn’t expect, but in many ways fit right in with your skill set while serving as a potential launching pad for even greater opportunities. For Mike, that left-field opportunity was an offer to serve as President of Playboy Magazine.
When you have big career ambitions, don’t forget to enjoy the journey. Mike is completely satisfied with the trajectory of his high-profile career in the publishing world. However, when asked what he would change, he replies that he would have wanted to entertain his “sense of adventure and willingness to take on new things with a little bit more patience”. Aside from this, Mike reminds us to avoid letting money take center-stage when deciding on which opportunities to accept. Even though he knew this intellectually, Mike could not resist a few lucrative offers in the past simply because they were lucrative. As Mike himself says: “There is no price for your happiness or for doing what you really know you’re best at, as opposed to trying to put a square peg in a round hole.”

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Why Mike decided to become a bartender at the very beginning of his professional life [04:49]
Moving into the publishing world [14:08]
Finding the right mentors and being the “conductor” of your team [19:53]
Navigating ups and downs in your career [22:35]
Joining Playboy and working for Hugh Hefner [30:52]
Deciding on whether or not a particular job is really the best decision for you [35:42]
Leaving Playboy [43:18]
Working with SoftBank, living through the dot-com bubble, and beyond [51:06]
Being the first non-family member to serve as CEO of Forbes Media [54:53]
Career decisions that Mike regrets [59:05]
Mike’s framework for making decisions [1:01:44]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Mike Perlis is a business executive with deep experience managing a wide range of content and multimedia brands. Mike is currently on the boards of Condé Nast Global, IDG, Hart Energy, Ground Truth and Your Tango. He is on the Board of Advisors of the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and is a Board member of Hurricane Island Outward Bound.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Perlis served as Publisher of GQ, President of Playboy Publishing, assuming Hugh Heffner’s publisher position, President of TVSM, Rodale Publisher of Runner’s World and Men’s Health, and Chairman and CEO of IDG Peterborough.

Mike Perlis was also the first non-family member to run the Forbes Media business as CEO. He spearheaded the sale of majority ownership in the company to Hong Kong based investors in 2014.

Mike has also served as a General Partner for 10 years at SoftBank and continues to be a Special Partner.

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

RESOURCES

Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

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Zain Raj: How to Bolster Your Decision-Making Framework by Understanding Your Personality

How do you combine what your head and your heart are telling you when making a big decision? Life is not a straight line, but you can’t succeed in life solely through impulsive decisions, either. Today’s guest teaches us how to reconcile logic and gut feeling to take our life and career to greater heights.

We address:

How can understanding my Myers–Briggs personality type help me make better decisions?

How can I become comfortable with change?

Is it ever justifiable to break my own rules about making decisions?

John and Paul welcome visionary, entrepreneur, and marketing industry futurist Zain Raj, who shares how understanding your personality and how your brain works can make you more confident in making big career decisions, even if some of those decisions seem to defy logic.

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

Listen to both sides of your brain when making big decisions. Think of your brain as being made up of two boxes. One box is gradually filled with stuff that helps you begin to understand who you are and what makes you fulfilled. This box is a function of the right brain, where “the heart and the gut talk to each other. The other box, of the left brain, is where “the head then gets involved”. When Zain decided to get involved in advertising straight out of school where he studied accounting, it was not on a whim (even if it may look that way from the outside). It was partly a gut feeling, wherein Zain knew he would have a greater sense of freedom by being involved in the advertising world. But he also realized that he had a knack for the art of advertising and, while he was never trained in it up to that point, he knew that he would build up the skills to eventually thrive in marketing. It was only a matter of time. Zain, in short, successfully synthesized what was spoken to him by both his right brain and his left brain.
Accept change, embrace change, and grab the opportunities that follow. Change is hard, because people usually associate change with risk. The key to overcoming this is by looking into the future and accepting that the world is always evolving. Change is inevitable and we all have to adapt to these changes and, even better, capitalize on opportunities that change tends to unearth. We just have to look for those opportunities; but we won’t find them unless we come to accept and embrace change. As Zain himself puts it: “Be part of the change rather than the victim of the change.”
Have a decision-making framework, but don’t become its slave. Zain left FCBI to start Brand XP because the former, while being a prestigious company to work for, stifled Zain’s creativity and knack for disruption as an entrepreneur and marketer. He knew it was a big risk—he was a family man on top of all that. Nobody supported his decision to leave FCBI, but he made the decision anyway because Zain was 1) looking at the long game, and 2) sure that he would have more fun and be more fulfilled starting his own company. These types of decisions should not be a regular occurrence, but you should be ready to break the rules should the time come. This particular risk paid off for Zain, and opened even bigger doors for the future of his career.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

Why Zain decided to go from accounting to advertising [04:28]
Zain’s decision-making construct and a primer on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator [8:29]
How Zain’s wife played a role in the trajectory of his career [16:25]
The reality of change [22:23]
Entering the internet age [28:29]
Why Zain left the prestigious FCBI to start Brand XP [35:23]
Leaving the advertising world for the private equity world [38:26]
Why does Zain embrace every career decision he has made—even the “bad” ones? [43:09]
When you should ignore your own decision-making construct [47:15]

ABOUT OUR GUEST

A visionary leader, entrepreneur, business accelerator, investor, philanthropist and industry futurist, Zain Raj is considered a global leader in finding new and different ways to grow brands. His unique ability to unearth surprising insights and incite inspired ideas has created billions of dollars of value for his clients and investors.

Currently, Zain is the Chairman and CEO of Shapiro+Raj, a top-ten independent insights and inspiration company in North America. He is also the founder and CEO of ZedNext, an ideas incubator that takes an objective and disruptive look at trends to help marketers and business leaders realize their full potential in this data-driven, digitally-led and insights-driven world. His theories and methodologies provide clear and actionable ways to help companies deliver sustainable growth through these times of significant economic and cultural change.

He has authored two Amazon marketing and sales bestsellers, Brand Rituals™: How Successful Brands Bond with Customers for Life and Marketing For Tomorrow, Not Yesterday: Surviving and Thriving in the Insight Economy™. An evangelist for innovation and a strong believer in empowering others, Zain is a sought-after speaker on how marketers can build their businesses and improve their brand value in this evolving landscape of big-data, mobility, digitization and commoditization.`

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

RESOURCES

Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

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During the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, marketing executives, and brothers, Jon and Paul Kramer were discussing the decisions each had made in their lives. The good, bad, big and small and how each of these decisions had informed and transformed their lives.

Out of these heartfelt conversations came the idea of helping others make more considered decision in their lives. And, while there are literally thousands of books on decision making, they started to discuss how to improve on these “how-to” text books to make the art of better decision making easier and more gratifying.

An ongoing theme was “If I knew then what I know now…”

“If I Knew Then What I Know Now – Insights Through the Rearview Mirror” is a journey through the decision-making process of interesting people. The question we will attempt to answer is there a decision-making framework that can lead to a more successful process? A way that will help you make better decisions.

In each episode, we will talk to interesting and intriguing guests about the decisions they have made in their lives, exploring the constructs they may have used and the learning that they have found in their very own “If I Knew Then What I Know Now” journey. Through these discussions, we will illuminate and amplify better ways to approach decisions and help you avoid deciding for the wrong reasons.

Join our Podcast and subscribe to “If I Knew Then What I Know Now – Insights Through the Rearview Mirror” every Friday at 12:00 noon on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Stitcher.

Insights Through the Rear View Mirror: Recent Episodes

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