It’s never too late to take the risk!

[Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] hi everyone and welcome back to liftoff with Jeannie Weldon I’m your host Jeannie Weldon created liftoff so that people like you and me could get the information we need to make the most of our personal and professional lives I call it work life blend so let’s have some fun and I’m going to challenge you to learn three new things during this episode you ready let’s get started Jonathan spasado is a Serial entrepreneur and investor in many startups his latest Venture is joysauce.com it’s an aapi-centered platform designed to Showcase more TV shows movies podcasts and inclusive original editorial from emerging aapi Talent so happy to have you on Jonathan so happy to be here I’m just really pleased that you could have me on and I’m excited to talk with you me too Jonathan you know we share a love of hosting in common tell us all about your late night show and what it’s like having such inspiring celebrities disruptors and innovators and game changers in the aapi community as guests that’s right I’m happy to so it kind of began with this idea well what if we could normalize more Asian American faces in mainstream media and what if actually nobody had to be like a martial arts master or inevitably exotic what if we were just all normal people normal American Asians I call them uh doing really great things and so uh we started with this idea well let’s take a talk show a late night talk show format which is probably one of the most American sort of normal things and what if all of the faces you know the guests that you would have on uh the the comedy sketches and all the actors there the host um the the musical guests even people behind the camera and on the set you know doing things behind the scenes what if everyone was American Asian what would that look like and so I’m happy to report that it’s a little bit of magic in a sense that as you’re watching it you’re lulled into this like oh my god well first of all there’s so much talent Island there’s so many people out there who’ve not been discovered who not you know not everyone can get a Netflix special and here they are on our show uh but also that there’s a little bit of magic that that that comes from the sense that you know what we all have a lot more in common than we have uh differences I love it now it’s really really compelling but your background your background is you’re a Serial entrepreneur and you’re the chairman and founder of various startups what are some of the proudest business accomplishments you’ve had outside of the show yeah yeah outside of the show gosh it it’s almost like they’re sometimes I joke that they’re like children where you can’t publicly say that this one was your favorite or that one was your favorite but if I had to pick just for you Genie um I would say that probably one of my proudest startups was picnic.com p-i-c-n-i-k.com which was the second company that I had sold to Google at that point but what was really neat about it was I learned so much about company culture and how to get that right and believe me I’ve done a lot of things wrong prior to that point uh and I’ve probably done things wrong since then too uh assuredly but uh but with picnic.com it was just an incredible group of people doing very Mission driven we really set out literally to change the world what if we could unlock people kind of break people out of having to spend six seven hundred dollars on something like Photoshop and having to learn how to use this complicated tool and it was just a wonderful product and we reached at some point I think with 60 million unique users a month uh and we were I think one of the most or the most popular photo editing tool on the internet uh for for quite a number of years and so I was very proud of that one well yeah I love it I love everything that you’re doing and on behalf of the show and our viewers really we wish you continued success anything we can do to help help make it even more successful and thank you so much for taking the time to share your story and everything that you’re doing on liftoff thank you so much Genie really appreciate being here absolutely for all of you viewers sure you love that but don’t go away because we’ve got more to come after the break [Music] Welcome Back Jack Kelly is the CEO founder and executive recruiter at one of the oldest and largest global search firms in his area of expertise he has personally placed thousands of professionals with top-tier companies over the last 20 plus years Jack is passionate about advocating for job Seekers he’s also a senior contributor for Forbes co-host of the blind ambition podcast and author of happy and succeeding in your job search thanks so much for being here tell us a little bit about recruiter and your background so with we career during the pandemic we started a startup and it was pretty much a philanthropic kind of endeavor in that we wanted to help people as you know it’s thousands and thousands of people lost their jobs people worry about losing their jobs so what we did is we had like crash costs and courses in how to interview how to negotiate salary how to find a recruiter uh anything you need to know to succeed and it was fantastic because people were so it’s it’s funny now like three years later we kind of forget about it but at the time people panicked they’re worried am I ever gonna get a job again am I going to get employed what’s going to happen so we kind of gave them all the tools to do it and it’s one of those things where this is going to sound weird but like I’m happy that happened because we were able to contribute and really make people’s lives better during such a dark time yeah isn’t it so nice to be able to do something that helps others and I remember those days nobody knew if businesses were gonna exist nobody knew but now hopefully we’re out of it and you’ve learned all of this and you’ve been able to create and author this new book happy and succeeding in your job search which is such a perfect time for this book tell us why you feel it was really critical to get the book out right now is What’s Happening Now is it went from we talked about the pandemic the things got not only good went crazy when parabolic everything seemed wonderful people rehired you had the great resignation quiet quitting acting your wage bear you know bare minimum Mondays so like people would just you know they had jobs they weren’t working and then all of a sudden 2022 coming into 2023 happens and now we have layoffs it was like 300 000 tech people laid off from last year to this year so people are worried again we have high inflation High interest rates worrying about World War III I mean you could just keep putting on this stuff so people are concerned so what I wanted to do is have a way to tell people hey here’s what you can do and make it really simple how to find a recruiter how to interview what do you need to do for salary negotiations how what you do on LinkedIn to get noticed so kind of taking baby steps along the way so you could kind of learn all right here are the tools here’s what I can do to help myself find a job or even if you have a job how do I switch jobs without getting caught without my boss knowing about it without getting fired because they find out that I’m looking so try to package that all together so it’s like a one you know one way to just to kind of manage your career and succeed what advice you have for job Seekers how can they stand out do they put the open to work on their LinkedIn profile do they let recruiters find them or is it a job in itself to go find a job right now it’s definitely a job in itself it’s like that’s your new job even if you’re working you you know I I would say this if you’re working or not working you want to kind of hedge your bets so let’s say you’re happy where you are and you’re doing well you still want to hedge your bets by finding some recruiters who specializes your space you can’t just get any recruiter you want to find someone who knows what you do your background your experience for instance you’re a marketing executive if you ask me to help as a compliance recruiter I probably couldn’t help too much and you would end up being annoyed like why is Jack not helping so you want to find someone who knows that area who can make the introductions who know the HR people who know hiring managers who knows the department culture to help guide you through it if you’re looking for a job similarly you want to do everything to stand out because as you pointed out it’s a crowded field so what can you do go on LinkedIn for most White Collar professionals LinkedIn is a go-to place so you go there you want to post things you want to comment on other things you want to get in touch with recruiters internal recruiters at the companies you also want to leverage your network I think that’s the most important part that you don’t want to go it alone and you’re have to go it alone so if you find somebody who knows somebody at a Target company let’s say you would love to work for you know Google instead of just sending an email you want to find someone who do I know that works at Google or if not who do I know who knows someone you know like six separate you know Degrees of Separation who do I know who could kind of put a good word in for me and say hey Jack submitted a resume but I really want you to take a look at him that’s kind of a little hack because most people feel hey I’m just going to send over you know my resume and that’s it but if you could kind of get behind the scenes get that right person it’s a big difference so true it’s so true and I love helping people that are looking for their next roles and I know people feel really good when they can help somebody get into a role that they love especially if they’ve been seeking for a while this has been incredible I know that all the viewers are probably writing all the stuff down taking screenshots of you know pictures of the screen and just really gonna come back and I’m sure they’re gonna buy your book so thank you so much talking with us and for being on liftoff our pleasure thank you for having me yeah absolutely don’t go away we’ll be right back thank you our next guest is no stranger to the question how do you do it all Sonya Richards Ross is a four-time four-time Olympic gold medalist a mother a brand ambassador and a member of one of our favorite shows she’s a member of the cast of Bravo’s Real Housewives of Atlanta oh my God I am such a fan just wow I’m a fan of everything about you Sonia we’re so happy to have you on the show oh Jeannie thank you so much for having me this is a tree so I just have so many questions to ask you I’m just gonna start with all those accolades four-time Olympic gold medalist what is the Olympic Training and competing experience even like I have a hard time waking up to make sure I exercise in the morning yeah I mean it is a full-time job a full-time commitment um but I think you know when I reflect on my days of training and chasing Olympic gold it was a childhood dream when I was nine years old I told my teacher I’d be an Olympic champion and I think it’s an incredible thing when you kind of know very early on what it is that you want to do and so I just dedicated my life to it it was five days a week on the track four days a week in the gym Pilates eating right resting traveling all the things but it was nothing quite like running into my destiny when I won my fourth Olympic gold out of my individual Gobo in the 400 it was a dream come true and you know all the best memories all the good things I I just love it I think you know you just have to be so proud of yourself for getting through and and getting to the end it’s really amazing so we get to see your husband and your family on Real Housewives of Atlanta and you are so candid and honest about your experiences what is it really like being on the show um you ask me all the time like how could we went To Go songs you know all this stuff so the first thing Genie is I always say yes to life so whenever I get opportunities I always say yes and then I’m prayerful and I figure it out if it flows easily then I do it and so I think for me I I like things that stretch me I like things that make my heart feel like it’s beating out of my chest like when I was standing on the start line at the Olympics and this show certainly gets my heart beating out of my chest because I never know what to expect with the ladies and so it’s been a lot of fun and to be very honest the second season was even more fun I got to really know the women I think it’s going to be a great season so I’m excited about it and I’m still waiting for the day when I walk into a restaurant somebody recognizes me so your life though must have changed significantly what’s the biggest change that’s happened since you started doing the show and and how do you use that to approach you know business yeah that’s another great question you know so when I was in the peak of my career you know like I go to places like Jamaica or I’m overseas in Europe or you know in New York there are lots of people who follow track and field and who would know me but my goodness I was not prepared for the Bravo fans that are just so vested and just love the show and so it’s been really cool um for people to come up and especially when people connect with my story whether it’s you know the you know struggle of having a second child or transitioning different work or you know living with my family it’s just been really great to connect with people in that way and so for me you know I just have been using this once again as an opportunity to continue to grow my businesses um and to continue to do all the things that I love to do and of course have my family right beside me your latest business adventure Adventures sound like so much fun and it’s just so compelling to watch you and just kind of see them unfold but I think we’re probably seeing things after they’ve already happened so tell us about some of your latest business ventures that’s that’s actually a good thing that you bring up because sometimes we film the show when it airs four or five months later and you almost forget all of the things that you’ve experienced all the things that happened on the show so it’s like you’re reliving your whole life twice right when I when you think about it but a couple of things I’m working on that I’m super excited about I have an organization called Mommy nation that is a Blog and a virtual resource that supports black moms in every way uh this past weekend we were working on helping support an organization um black women are four times more likely to die during childbirth so I’m just really passionate about making an impact in ensuring that moms go home with their babies and they have the resources that they need to have a successful experience through motherhood so you can follow mommy Nation online or on social media I’m also launching a new business on the show this year that I’m super excited about super on brand for me um something that I’m really passionate about I love I don’t want to be a spoiler so you’ll have to watch to see um it will be Pride towards the end of the season and it’ll be coming out towards the end of this year so I’m really excited about that I do all the chat can feel stuff and I work with Nike so lots of fun things happening and growing our family just all all kinds of fun things so you’re very busy and you seem to handle it all flawlessly uh how do you create space for everything that you want to accomplish that’s so that’s a great question um and I think you’re right right it’s like this you’re constantly trying to figure out how to balance it all and how to give your full self to all of the things and you know I think for me what I what works for me is prioritizing and so I ensure that I always have time with my family for my family first and so when I’m with them I give them 100 you know no phones I’m just completely engaged with my family and then when it comes to my work Ventures I try to give 100 to that but I think ultimately as women whenever we’re trying to do all the things that we’re trying to lift off we got to give ourselves some Grace because you know you can’t be everything to everybody all the time and so when you’re out doing your business stuff you know you’re obviously not with your family and that’s okay right because you know you’re doing it for your family and so I think for me it’s about prioritizing my family giving myself Grace and just being really grateful for all the things that I have I come from a perspective of gratitude and love and you know that just kind of inspires everything that I do I love it I love it and you know what Sonia we are I I’m a firm believer that we are all put on this Earth to do something that inspires others and you are absolutely making that happen today thank you so much for being on liftoff and I cannot wait to see what’s coming next season yeah thank you so much thanks for having me absolutely the weather’s heating up and that means we are ready to talk spring and summer travel Julie sagoskin is the editor-in-chief of Park magazine she’s a television personality and former radio host she’s here to tell us about some of her picks and tricks for the best in travel welcome to lift up Julie thank you so much for having me Jeannie great to be here absolutely love having you here we know that travel is a big part of our work life blend and keeping motivated tell me what do you think it’s so important even for busy entrepreneurs to have that work life blend I think travel is important for all of us and especially entrepreneurs as you know it’s easy to get burnt out especially these days so really taking time to unplug recharge is a great way to take care of yourself and we know when we’re taking care of ourselves we go back to the office and we’re the best version of who we can be and that really helps everybody it’s so true and sometimes you don’t realize it until you you’re on vacation for a while or at least outside of the work zone for a couple days all right so for all the viewers out there what are some of the hottest travel tips and destinations right now well I literally just got back from Monte Carlo in Monaco it was a dream trip and every turn that I went I was blown away it was so Majestic it was my own Princess Grace Kelly moment and I have to say for me I don’t know about you but the hotel is always so important and hotel de Paris I have to give a shout out it was so special has so much history and just really brought everything together I love Monte Carlo I was there last summer and had a chance to go into the casino and just walk around and in those Gardens they were gorgeous right spectacular like a movie set absolutely yeah now we know why Princess Grace Kelly enjoyed her life out there as much as she did so travel is super super important and you’ve been uh one of the most iconic and amazing dust Nations what’d you bring on your trip that we need to remember not to forget okay well Genie I don’t know about you but when I’m on a plane and I get off I’m exhausted my makeup is dripping I’m excited to be there but I am a total mess so there’s this great little pack called carry on and it’s literally five little mini Essentials it’s super great it’s easy to carry and you’ll just feel refreshed and ready to go so perfect I definitely have to get one of those it sounds really like must-have for any travel okay so we can’t talk about travel without finances how did you find and how do our viewers find the best deals on travel well I have to say if you’re willing to be a little adventurous there’s an amazing app called Hopper and they have so many great last minute hotel deals and really special properties so I think if you keep an open mind you never know what you might find and it might be worth even going somewhere new or you haven’t thought about for another experience that’s great and these are such great tips so we know everything we’re ready to go now we know where to go how to find the best deal on it and what bring with us on the plane so we look perfect Julie thanks so much for coming on the show I really appreciate it thank you so much for having me can’t wait to be back absolutely all right well now that we’ve got vacation on our mind let’s keep that going by talking about renovation Island and that’s up after this break foreign welcome back our next guest is Brian Balmer home renovation expert in hotelier Brian can be spotted on HGTV network shows including renovation Resort Rock the block battle on the beach and others of course he joins us now to tell us about his business ventures and Adventures overall welcome Brian no thank you it’s great to be here hey Brian this show is about work life blend what gave you the idea to pick up and go to renovation Island I to be honest you know I spent I spent family with kids and uh we had a we have a big boat there and we decided to poke around in the Bahamas and and we’ve always had that adventurous Spirit uh and we came across this dilapidated you know abandoned hotel that that has a lot of history in the Bahamas and Sarah and I looked at each other after touring the property and and it it honestly was a five minute decision I said we should buy this place and her response was yes we should and and by the next day we had a we had an accepted offer on paper so it was really just that that gut feel of this feels right it’s the right time in our lives it’s the right place and let’s go on this this crazy adventure there was somebody famous that said I’ve had so many jobs but I’ve never worked a day in my life if you do what you love it just shows and I think that’s exactly what you’re doing so what advice do you have for all of our viewers who are looking to get the courage to follow their dream it’s interesting a lot of people ask or a lot of people commented when we told them we’re going to pack up the four kids in our lives and get on the boat and we’re going to this island and we’re going to make it happen and all we heard was you can’t do that you can’t pull the kids out of school they won’t catch up you can’t go to another country where you know you don’t know the culture of the people you can’t risk everything financially and my answer to that is well you know the alternative is to spend the next 30 years of my life getting up at five o’clock in the morning and commuting for an hour or two on the highway working the day commuting an hour to back and you know do that for 30 years and then retire and and with my luck the the morning after I retire is when the chest pains will start and my message is that the net result of life you know whether you do the things you’re excited about whether you take the risks whether you live life or whether you you you don’t and whether you do what other people expect you to do and play it safe the net result is the same uh you know none of us are making it out of here alive unfortunately that’s the truth so we have between now and then and whether you do it or you don’t whether you risk it or you won’t uh whether you live the life you dreamed of or you you compromise on life in order to just be stable and safe uh the net result is the same so if there’s something you’re dreaming of uh go for it it’s never too late to try something new and and you can always start over that is perfect advice from an adventurous entrepreneur but I know that when you do something crazy like me leaving my job to start this TV show at liftoff there’s always unexpected challenges that you look back after everything’s been said and done and say well I wish I knew that before I started this it would have made it easier what three things do you wish you knew before you went on this adventure to narrow it down to three I mean there are thousands of things we we’re great at building developing uh you know putting things together Sarah’s incredible at designing um we got to a point where we realized we don’t know how to run a hotel uh we know how to run a business but we we’ve never been in the hospitality industry um I wish I’d known the impact the full impact that living you know moving from a large home into a 650 square foot Villa with four children two cats a dog uh lizards and a baby chicken literally uh the impact that would have on on relationship and work and and you know a few things about balancing life and work um and I wish I wish we had more maybe more foresight of the end of the project because there’s there’s a real turning point when you do something adventurous like this where you know mentally we live in that Villa that’s where we unpacked our suitcases and people are people adapt very quickly and you adapt to that mentality that this is where I live at this dilapidated Villa at the back you know behind behind the fence at a hotel and and there’s a real there’s a real adjustment when home becomes work becomes a public space the guests come you’re very excited uh and there’s a very interesting mental adjustment from we don’t live in the pool in the clubhouse anymore that’s that’s for our guests so um I wish we’d been a little more prepared for that Brian thank you so much for being a guest on the show really appreciate it it’s been fascinating and fabulous to have you well thanks very much for having me well that is a wrap for today what an amazing show thank you again to our guests and to all of you who are watching and a special thank you to the style that binds us for styling me in beautiful pieces by mm lefure and oh my god well I was telling you all of this a very special guest dropped by who I haven’t seen in years welcome to liftoff Ted Reuben hello Genie listen when I heard that Jeannie Walden had a TV show I had to I had to just crash the party so I came here I banged on the door sorry if everybody here got a little bit crazy and say there’s this crazy guy at the door but it’s so great to see you and I am like so amazed at the show I’ve been watching some of the uh some of the episodes it’s fabulous I’m so thrilled to have you here but before we catch up I just have to tell everybody who’s watching who you are and how important you are in the role in the community of Entrepreneurship and marketing you are a leading social marketing strategist an international keynote speaker of business advisor an author a connector and your favorite role provocateur right absolutely so many years ago you created the term return on relationship that hashtag RoR that we see everywhere still to this day so I guess that makes you also an influencer you know some people call it that I like to say that I’m a content creator because I think that good content creators are really the true influencers because how many people can actually drive someone into a store it’s the people that you come back and read and listen to their opinions and let them um provoke you to think about different ideas I love it and and you know as well as I do that it’s relationships and networks communities that just really are so important as you’re building your professional career your personal life everybody always needs to reach out to somebody and it’s those groups and networks that that will help you along the way more than ever I talk to young people and you know look we were young ones right I’m the old guy in the room but you know when you’re young you think you have plenty of time for those kinds of things you don’t realize how important it is you’re busy building your skill set but what I try to convince the younger people I talk to or or and actually people all along the way is that the relations are something that you need to start early and you need to make a habit of knowing people’s names finding out what they’re involved in I mean I like to tell a story that when I graduated college I had my first job and my dad asked me did you get an appointment yet and I said yeah he goes when is it he goes next I said next Thursday he goes so when what time I said nine o’clock is when are you going to get there I said about five minutes to nine he says no get there an hour early get to know the neighborhood go into the building see what other companies are there see if you can get into the office of the person you’re meeting with early and see what’s on the wall fine points of emotional connection are they a grandfather a father do they golf do they fish do they have grandkids what’s important to them now back then you had to do it that way now we have all these tools at our fingertips that you can learn this before you go in but I find so many people Overlook it relationships like muscle tissue the more you engage them the stronger more valuable they become and a network gives you reach but a community gives you power so go beyond the network and build a community that is Ted Rubin always giving advice no matter what thank you so much Dad for stopping by let’s go catch up and find out what’s going on sounds great and before we do I just want to say you know everybody thanks so much for joining this episode of liftoff and stay tuned because the next episode’s gonna be even better be sure to follow us at liftoff with Jeannie for more tips behind the scenes and tell us what you want to hear on upcoming shows I’m Jeanniey Walden see you next time the proceeding was sponsored by liftoff Enterprises LLC