Breaking The Mold

Episode 16: Politics and the modern CEO. Special guest: Caryn Seidman-Becker, CEO of Clear on what she's building and why

It's the same drill every time: You get to the front of the security lane— whether at the airport, a stadium, an office building — and pull out your ID, answer a few questions and then maybe pose for a grainy photo. Caryn Seidman-Becker's Clear aims to end the wait by being the one-stop shop for identity verification. Evan and Dan talk to her about why she's so passionate about this problem and what — after a career on Wall Street — made her embark on this tech-and-security path. 

Plus, we kick things off with a discussion about whether CEOs have a right — maybe even a duty — to talk politics. Is doing so morale building or a major mistake?

Episode 15: The right way to rebuild America. Special Guest: Coppy Holzman, former co-founder of Webvan.com, on the lessons he's learned growing businesses

Donald Trump has proposed a $1 trillion spending plan to rebuild America's infrastucture. But for what ends? Better roads? More people working? Evan and special guest host Daniel Roth debate the right and wrong ways to spend $1 trillion and the problems that can't be solved with asphalt and nostalgia.

Speaking of building and rebuilding! If you were alive during the original dotcom boom, you knew Webvan, the company that sought to deliver just about everything to anyone anywhere. This was Amazon before Amazon was Amazon and Coppy Holzman was the co-founder of the one-time $9 billion (!) in market cap company. Then, as quickly as it expanded, Webvan went bust in the dotcom crash. Coppy has since gone on to build and sell charity-experience company CharityBuzz and is now creating a dog-friendly coffee chain called Boris and Horton. He talks about how his vision of what it takes to build a sustainable business has changed over the years and what matters most.

 

Episode 14: The lessons for us all in Junior Bridgeman's career transformation: NBA star to restaurant mogul. Taped in front of a live audience!

Junior Bridgeman is one of the most successful former athletes of all time. After retiring from the Milwaukee Bucks in 1987, he started a career that took him from owning and running a few Wendy's in Milwaukee to being one of the largest franchisees in America. His next act? Coca Cola bottler.

The inspiring — and rarely heard — speaker talked to Evan and guest co-host Dan about his career and life lessons in front of a live audience in Louisville, Ky. Regular listeners might know Louisville as the city where Evan and Dan honed their non-cancelled-stamps-recycling skills. Others will recognize it as the town where Bridgeman was a college basketball star and now lives.
The event was hosted by Kentucky to the World, which you should be following!  (Image: Insider Louisville)

Don't forget to give feedback! 
Twitter: Rothevan and Danroth
LinkedIn: Evan and Dan

Episode 13: Will Apple be your next bank? Special Guest: Steve Ellis, CEO of social powerhouse WhoSay

Did you know Taylor Swift writes the number 13 on her hand in eyeliner before every concert and that she was born on the 13th? Does knowing that make you more or less excited for the 13th episode of Breaking the Mold? Hope the answer is "You belong with me, BTM," because this episode is a Raw and Real!

First: Evan explains the $100 billion reasons Apple has making taking on JP Morgan its next big initiative — and why thinking about Apple as a bank helps explain its push back against the FBI. Guest host Daniel Roth disagrees, sparking Bad Blood.

Then serial entrepreneur Steve Ellis, a Fearless Brit who founded content marketing firm WhoSay, drops by the studio to talk about how he created his two wildly successful startups. This despite (or maybe because of?) his goal of being a professional musician. Ellis offers lots of ideas about whether entrepreneurs can ever work for anyone else; a terrific take on why America is special for startups — it's the country that "leans yes," says Steve; and a unique perspective on why the rise of celebrities is causing the destruction of celebrity media. 

As T. Swift says: "Basically whenever a 13 comes up in my life, it’s a good thing.” We think you'll agree. 

Don't forget to give feedback! 

Twitter: Rothevan and Danroth

LinkedIn: Evan and Dan

Episode 12: Donald Trump + Genetics and Money + Uber and the Gig Economy

Dan and Evan explore what should follow our 2nd Episode 10 and decide on Episode 12.  Number 11 bursts into tears.

We cover Donald Trump's Presidential run and the potential impact on his business, the genetic explanation of how we make money decisions and Uber and the gig economy. Something for everyone. 

Episode 10-B: The Economics of Halloween, Community Banks and Higher Education

How's this for breaking the mold? Where other podcasters will follow Episode 10 with Episode 11, Evan and returning guest-host Dan instead are publishing a second Episode 10! 
In this podcast, we start with a look at the massive business of Halloween and why a strengthening economy could hurt those numbers (and how this will impact Dan's exercise routine). From there, we launch into a look at community banks as an investment — and whether those banks have a role to play in helping small, underbanked businesses grow; for more on this topic, check out John Hope Bryant's LinkedIn piece, 1,000 Bank Branches for the Poor!. We wrap things up with a look at how the Department of Higher Education might be changing higher education for good (or, in Evan's POV, for worse).
Finally, this episode has all of the things you love in Breaking the Mold — arguments, debates about age, a strong beat that makes its essential for long-distance runners — without that other thing you love: guests! Let us know what you think of the new no-guests experiment by Tweeting to us at @rothevan. 

Episode 10: Behavioral Economist Dan Ariely + FIFA's Strange Business Decisions

Title: Dan Ariely, Duke University professor of psychology and behavorial economics and NYT best selling author.

Dan Ariely's career started in a hospital bed. 

In his senior year in high school, while a trainee in the Israeli military, a magnesium flare exploded next to him. The resulting burns covered 70 percent of his body and left him in horrendous pain, trapped in bandages and isolated in a hospital for three years. During that time, he developed a sense of detachment. He watched the world around him and wondered why things were happening to him; why nurses and doctors were making certain decision and wondering if there was a better way. That sense of being an outsider continued as he healed and launched his path as a behavioral economist, studying why humans made the decisions they did. Ariely talks to Evan and returning guest-host Dan about how the experience shaped him, how it's influenced how he leads his life, and how he runs his business (he sold his management app, Timeful, to Google earlier this year). Along the way, he offers some surprising findings about what makes us save (and what doesn't) and more.

Dan and Evan start the show talking about FIFA and the amazing corruption that soccer's governing body apparently reveled in. Dan asks: Could out-going president Sepp Blatter and his lieutenants still have accomplished their main goal — creating terrific soccer (just kidding! Creating tremendous wealth) — without running afoul of the U.S. government? Evan struggles to see the genius in Dan's business parallels. 

Let us know what you think: https://twitter.com/rothevan

Episode 9 : Jordan Roth, Broadway Producer + The Value of Sabbatical

Title: Jordan Roth, Broadway producer, president of Jujamcyn and CEO of Culturalist

Jordan Roth — who, let’s be clear right from the start, isn’t a relative — joins Evan and returning guest host Daniel Roth to talk about his groundbreaking work on Broadway. Since his first production, The Donkey Show, Jordan has proven himself as someone who can change the way theater works. With shows like Kinky Boots, The Book of Mormon and more, he believes in exciting, engaging and changing the audience — one attendee at a time. As a result, he's racked up award after award: youngest lead producer ever nominated for a Tony Award, Fast Company's "Most Creative People in Business 1000," Backstage's "#2 Most Powerful Person on Broadway".

Jordan talks about his career path, how long it took to define himself and why, considering everything on his plate, he decided to also launch Culturalist. 

Also, Dan and Evan debate vacations and sabbaticals and conclude that the best thing to do is to go on vacation to discuss it more.

Episode 8: From Sue to Sew: The Radical Career Switch of Michael Andrews

Michael Andrews trained his whole life to climb the corporate career ladders. He earned an undergraduate degree in engineering from Georgia Tech and an joint MBA and JD from Northwestern. His hard work paid off in a corporate law job with a prestigious firm. But through it all, he had a nagging dream to be an entrepreneur. And not some dot-com star, he wanted to be a clothier, making custom made suits for men. Evan and returning guest host (now the longest guest host in show history!) Dan talk to Michael about ditching a guaranteed paycheck for a business that requires satisfying picky customers, working with overseas manufacturers and dealing with lots of lots of returns (especially in the early days). To start the podcast off, Evan and Dan discuss the firing of New York Times editor Jill Abramson and whether radical transparency in salaries would have prevented this and other corporate problems.

Episode 7: Jane Friedman + Michael Lewis's 'Flash Boys'

Episode 7:

Jane Friedman joins Evan and guest co-host Dan to talk through her publishing career as an “experienced” entrepreneur after holding the CEO role for 10 years at Harper Collins.   Jane is remarkable for her ability to excel as a CEO where she trusts her gut over any financial model.  Jane has a vendetta against spreadsheets as you will hear.  As she discusses her new business Open Road Integrated Media, tune in to Jane’s warning that “starting a company from zero…Man, that is a whole another game.  I had no idea”. Jane also addresses the role gender played in her career and answers whether Rupert Murdoch reads.   

Evan and Dan open the show with their own assessment of the issues that Michael Lewis brought to the public around High Frequency Training and compares it to buying a bike on Black Friday. Urologists continue to download the podcasts in droves for just this type of metaphor.

Episode 6: Dan Senor + WhatsApp

Breaking the Mold hits the 6^th episode with Evan joined by brother Dan Roth to breakdown the $19bn purchase of WhatsApp by Facebook.  With WhatsApp 420 million users, Dan tries to make the case that it is fair value.  He also hasn’t used a spreadsheet since 1987.  Evan points out that the roots of Whatsapp lie in the Ukraine when it was under Soviet oppression and that data collection is anathema to their business.

After the banter, Dan Senor is welcomed on the show.  Dan’s resume is full of successes in writing as the author of Start-Up Nation, in finance as a banker and in politics as a foreign policy advisor. He shares the insights into a multi-talented life that tracks the storytelling of his Mother, installing lightbulbs in Iraq and ignoring the advice of the Carlyle founders.

Also, we are thrilled to announce that Breaking the Mold is the #1 podcast among urologists!* 

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*After survey of one urologist who happens to be a relative 

Episode 5: Elton Brothers + Risk

Brothers take stage as John Elton, Partner at the pre-eminent venture capital firm, Greycroft, sits with Ned Elton, entrepreneur at Rosetta, to talk with Evan about the role of risk and self-determination in their career path. Einstein and Hawking get quoted to give the show some gravitas.
 
This is not your normal gilded path story.  The Elton brothers literally faced life and death choices related to their health and the need for an organ donation and they did not come away from their experiences with conventional lessons.
 
John and Evan start the show with a look at risk from the bigger picture in venture capital and money management.

Episode 4: Harry Wilson + The Role Banks Play

Evan is joined by his astute long-time business partner, Brett Barth, to look at the role banks play in our economy.  Free markets have an impassioned defender in Brett although he does believe in a little FAA-like regulation for the banks.

Brett and Evan dig into the Horatio Alger-inspired life of Harry Wilson.  Harry grew from modest Greek roots in a tiny town in upstate New York to a Harvard graduate and an influential businessman notably as the savior of the US auto industry in 2008, a board member at Yahoo! as well as an accomplished public servant.

Harry shares his war stories and the merits of a cold call even if you are a lifelong Republican reaching out to an influential Democrat.  

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Episode 3: Dennis Berman, Biz Editor of Wall Street Journal + Journalists as Brands

On Episode 3,

Danny and Evan explore the trend of journalists breaking away from traditional media to start up their own firms where their value is in their content not the name of the publication they represent.

Evan then interviews Dennis Berman, the Business Editor of the Wall Street Journal, who manages the global staff and coverage of business for the iconic newspaper.  Dennis provides insight into the profession, discusses his admiration for Jamie Dimon and the writer shares why oral tradition is the key to corporate success.  

He gives credit to Jay Bilas for a quote that Evan thinks should be attributed to Abraham Lincoln.  Neither are right.

Follow us at @btmshow and email at btmshow@icloud.com

Episode 2: Joe Daniels + Income Inequality

This week's guest is Joe Daniels, the President and CEO of the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

Special co-host Adam Blank joins Evan. They discuss the impact of wealth inequality on the country before getting into the conversation with Joe.

You can follow us @BTMShow on Twitter.