Info

Awesome Office: Lead. Create. Inspire.

The Awesome Office Show is all about helping you lead people, create culture, and inspire Awesome at your company. Each week we talk to a business leader, entrepreneur, HR pro, or engagement specialist at the most successful and buzzed about companies in the country, and learn their most actionable tips, tactics, and best practices - and share them with you. This is a behind the curtain look that you’re not going to find anywhere else. If you care about developing stellar cultures that provide lasting value for employees, customers, and shareholders, then this is the podcast for you. The Awesome Office Show is hosted by Sean Spear. Similar to Entreleadership and HBR Ideacast.
RSS Feed Subscribe in Apple Podcasts
Awesome Office: Lead. Create. Inspire.
2024
March
February


2023
December
November
October
September


2018
May
April
March
February
January


2017
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2016
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2015
December
November
October
September


Categories

All Episodes
Archives
Categories
Now displaying: April, 2017
Apr 28, 2017

Rafe Furst has a reputation for being ahead of the curve, a knack for identifying new technologies and consumer trends well before they become mainstream.

He also has the track record to back it up.  

Since beginning his career in Silicon Valley in the 90s, Rafe has founded, invested in and advised dozens of startups, including Pickem Sports, Full Tilt Poker, and Crowdfunder. To date, his companies have generated over $1 billion in revenue and $450 Million in liquidity to stakeholders.

He also has the distinction of being the only Awesome Office guest to win a bracelet at the World Series of Poker.

But Rafe’s success hasn’t come without challenges, and his entrepreneurial path has taken him to some dark places.

Case in point - Full Tilt Poker, the gaming site that Rafe calls both his greatest success and biggest failure. In April 2011, Full Tilt came to a dramatic and public end, as the federal government seized the company’s domains, brought criminal charges against senior executives, and ran it and 11 other online gaming companies out of the country.

The ordeal was a source of debilitating stress for Rafe. At the end of that year, he (in his words) “crashed,” and his emotional and coping systems shut down to the point that he was briefly hospitalized. He spent the next month recovering in the care of his family.

Of course, this ending was really just the beginning of the next phase of Rafe’s remarkable journey. He went on to co-found the massively successful Crowdfunder, and today he’s the “Lead Insurgent” at COMMON, a creative accelerator and community that helps entrepreneurs build, launch and promote groundbreaking business ideas.

In this episode, co-host Sean Spear talks to Rafe about this extraordinary entrepreneurial journey, what being a professional poker player taught him about life and business, and how he bounced back from Full Tilt’s very public implosion.

We also take a look into the future, at the potential of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, and how - according to Rafe - these will majorly impact society for years to come.

Links

Recommended Reading

Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE

Introducing SnackNation Market.  

For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too.

SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep.  With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game.

We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE.

Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling).

That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

Apr 24, 2017

The Giving Keys has put up some impressive numbers under president Brit Gilmore’s watch:

70+ employees. 1400 retail stores around the globe that sell their products. Half a million keys sold to date.

But there’s another, even more impressive number. 100 - that’s the percentage of the company’s production team that is staffed by people who are currently transitioning out of homelessness.

This week, co-host Sean Spear sat down with Brit Gilmore, the president of The Giving Keys a “pay it forward company” that makes necklaces from keys engraved with inspirational messages. Besides making beautiful hand-crafted jewelry, the company also works with local nonprofits to hire individuals who were recently homeless.

With 26,000 people living without a roof over their heads, The Giving Keys can’t solve the homelessness problem in LA by themselves. But they can provide a model for other companies to follow, and together make a huge impact.

In this inspirational conversation, Brit walks us through the origin of the company, the daily habits that have aided her success, as well as the challenges that have helped shaped who she is. 

She also dispels some of the myths around homelessness, and explains how she and her team have developed a culture that supports the growth and development of all employees, regardless of their background.  

Links

Recommended Reading

Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE

Introducing SnackNation Market.  

For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too.

SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep.  With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game.

We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE.

Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling).

That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

Apr 17, 2017

By all accounts, LA’s Rareform was doing pretty well. They had a unique product that was clearly resonating with Millennial consumers - one of a kind bags and accessories made from repurposed vinyl billboards.

Then a little thing called “Shark Tank” happened.

In this week’s episode, co-host Sean Spear sits down with Rareform co-founder and managing partner Aric Avedissian. Aric takes us through the company’s early beginnings, telling us how his brother Alex came up with the idea while working with a non-profit in El Salvador, and why Aric first said “no” when he came to him with the idea.

He also describes the outsized impact that their recent Shark Tank appearance has had on Rareform’s business, as well as what it’s really like to pitch your idea to the likes of Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, and “Mr. Wonderful.”  

Links

Recommended Reading

Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE

Introducing SnackNation Market.  

For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too.

SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep.  With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game.

We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE.

Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling).

That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

Apr 10, 2017

If you ask Seth Epstein what his company, Los York, does, he could tell you that that they create "culture defining content" for top brands like Samsung, Motorola, and JBL. He could tell you that they're the creative agency of record for the Jordan brand and work with athletes like Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony. He might even tell you that they’ve been called Nike’s “advertising swat team” by Inc. magazine, and landed at #8 on the coveted Inc. 5000 list. 

But he’ll probably tell you that they’re in the business of “Holy shit.”

That's because inspiring that visceral, emotional response - where the viewer literally pauses and says, “Holy shit...” - is the driving force behind everything that Los York creates.

In this interview, co-host Sean Spear sits down with the Los York founder and creative director in the company's beautiful office space in Santa Monica to learn about Seth’s journey from artistic surfer kid to purveyor of jaw-dropping multimedia campaigns.

Seth is a thoughtful, introspective leader, who (tellingly) draws equal inspiration from Shawn Stussy, Giorgio Armani, and Pablo Picasso. In this interview, he tells the story of his very first entrepreneurial endeavor upcycling vintage jeans, and how the failure of that business provided the "fuel" to launch the next stage in his journey. He also tells us one amazing story about early mistakes that led to a television executive threatening he’d never work in this town again… only to have that same executive ask for a job a few years later, and explains how a Zen parable helps inform his leadership style.

We’re think you’re going to like this one, we know we sure did. 

Links

Recommended Reading

Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE

Introducing SnackNation Market.  

For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too.

SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep.  With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game.

We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE.

Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling).

That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

Apr 3, 2017

There's no doubt about it - big changes are coming.

New technologies like artificial intelligence and automation will fundamentally alter the way we work. But what will that look like, and how should companies adapt?

This week on the show co-host Sean Spear interviews Chris Rising, the Founder and President of Rising Realty. Chris is a 19-year veteran of the real estate business, and someone who’s always been ahead of the curve in terms of building spaces that support how the most innovative companies work.

We loved this conversation because it brought together so many of the big ideas that we care about on this show - everything from office space and its relationship to culture, to personal habits and productivity, to the big technological changes poised to transform our economy and the workplace.

Sean met with Chris at Rising’s dramatic HQ in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. In this episode, Chris dives into his personal journey - including the lessons learned from his Jesuit education and his experience as a college football standout at Duke University - shares his daily habits, and explains why he thinks offices aren’t going away anytime soon.

This one runs a littler longer than most, but be sure to listen to the end to hear a challenge that should have a big impact on your energy and performance.

Recommended Reading

Links

Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE

Introducing SnackNation Market.  

For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too.

SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep.  With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game.

We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE.

Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling).

That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

1