Going Deep With Aaron Watson

If there’s something interesting going on in Pittsburgh, Kit Mueller is probably involved in it. If there’s someone important you want to meet, he probably knows how to get an intro.   Kit is a relentless self-starter, with recent projects including Speak Freely, Data Driven Creative and Fygment. In addition to his own endeavors, Kit is dedicated to his community and constantly pushing to raise awareness for young aspiring companies and causes.   His story is one we can all learn from.   Kit’s Challenge; Go get coffee with someone who look different than you do. From a different background than you.

Zachary Slayback is an entrepreneur who writes on issues of education, innovation, and philosophy. He is an Ivy League dropout and speaks regularly on education, college, how and why to foster more entrepreneurship and issues related to professional development. He believes that entrepreneurs are the primary actors of social change.   Zak is a co-founder of Praxis, an alternative to the traditional route of attending college. Participants work at growing startups and learn firsthand what it takes to be an entrepreneur while creating real value and working alongside founders and CEOs. Getting fully immersed in the world of innovative enterprise offers an experience that a classroom simply cannot provide.   He was one of LinkedIn’s most influential voices on education in 2015 and has been published in Newsweek, the New York Examiner, the Daily Caller, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, the Christian Science Monitor, and more. He has also appeared on The Glenn Beck Program and HuffPost Live.   Zak lives in and works

James Osborne is a Certified Financial Planner who has spent his career in the investment management industry, helping clients manage their portfolios and plan for retirement, legacy, and lifetime goals. In addition to the CFP professional designation, he has an MBA in Investment Management from the University of Colorado. His disillusionment with the standard practice of investment management firms led to the creation of Bason Asset Management in late 2012.   Bason Asset Management is a flat fee only asset management firm offering tax-efficient and cost-effective portfolio management based in Lakewood, Colorado. The firm’s philosophy is centered around low costs, passive (index) investments, tax management and fair dealing with clients.   James serves clients throughout the front range and Denver metro area and across the country. He has contributed to or been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Motley Fool, Investment News, Financial Planning, CoBiz Magazine, USA Today, Morningstar Magazine, ThinkAdvisor

Rob McLeod is a competitive athlete and motivational speaker living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He competes in ultimate frisbee, disc golf, dog disc and overall flying disc competitions. He currently holds 13 World Records (including 6 Guinness World Records), the Canadian Distance Record, 10 World Championships and 2 Quadruped titles.   Rob has also appeared in the 2014 & 2015 Guinness Book of World Records, the 2015 Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! book and the 2015 Reader’s Digest Canada Day edition. He is a brand ambassador for a number of companies and an ambassador for disc sports around the globe.   Rob’s Challenge; Go to agelessgame.com to try a different disc sport.     This episode of Going Deep with Aaron Watson is brought to you by the Ultimate Athlete Project. UAP is founded on helping athletes get results through well-developed workout plans that relieve you of the need to research effective workouts or worry about your workouts becoming boring. Check out a free core workout and learn more ab

Tadas Viskanta is the Founder and Editor of Abnormal Returns. His “forecast-free investment blog” has become a fixture on the financial scene for over nine years. Tadas is a private investor with over 25 years of experience in the financial markets. He is the co-author of over a dozen investment-related papers that have appeared in publications like the Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Portfolio Management among others.   Tadas is also the author of the well-received book: Abnormal Returns: Winning Strategies from the Frontlines of the Investment Blogosphere that distills lessons learned from his time blogging.   Tadas holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA from Indiana University and lives with his family in   Tadas’s Challenge; People are too hard on themselves when it comes to investing. Give yourself a break and do the best you can. The most important thing is learning from your mistakes.   Tadas’ Book Abnormal Returns: Winning Strategies from the Frontlines of the Investment Blogosph

Steve Gordon is co-founder and President of Ultimate Xperience Ventures, LLC, a sports and entertainment holding company. UXV owns a majority interest in the American Ultimate Disc League and has interests in video, print and digital services relating to Ultimate Disc content. Mr. Gordon also serves as the AUDL League Commissioner.   Steve is also founder & managing partner of the Chicago Wildfire, Chicago's professional Ultimate Disc team in the AUDL. The Wildfire began play in the 2013 season and play at Lane Tech Stadium in Chicago.   Steve is also founder of Capstone Concepts, Inc, a firm dedicated to bringing products and/or services that are unique or early in their life cycle to mass markets. Industry concentrations include financial programs, smartphone apps, sports and health-related products.   Steve’s Challenge; Eat organic 3x per week for one month and see how it affects your body.   Connect with Steve LinkedIn Website Email; sgordon@theaudl.com   This episode of Going Deep with Aaron Watson i

Ben is the Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He helps the team create detailed investment plans and manage portfolios for institutions and individuals to help them achieve their goals. Ben has been managing institutional portfolios his entire career, starting out with an institutional investment consulting firm developing portfolio strategies and creating investment plans for various foundations, endowments, pensions, hospitals, insurance companies and high net worth individuals. More recently, he was part of the portfolio management team for an investment office that managed a large endowment fund for a charitable organization. Ben’s blogging mission is to try to explain the complexities of the various aspects of finance in a way that everyone could understand them. Both the economy and the financial markets are complex adaptive systems, but they don’t necessarily require complex solutions. Common sense and self-awareness are extremely underrated attributes in the wo

Mike Gable has been running Construction Junction since 1999. The nonprofit collects and sells salvageable building materials around the Pittsburgh area. This environmental recycling mission has been growing consistently year by year and Mike deserves much of the credit.   He works with contractors around the area, spreading his organization’s mission. He has applied business principles to a nonprofit, focusing on revenue, marketing and profits, instead of being reliant on donations and grants.   Mike’s Challenge; Be on the lookout for building materials that can be reused in projects around your city.   Connect with Mike Twitter LinkedIn Website

Aaron T. Walker, a businessman and life coach, inspires through his leadership, mentorship, and consistent pursuit of excellence. 35 years of entrepreneurship and marriage have given Aaron an opportunity to broaden his perspective by examining his experiences and growing from them.   For 19 years and counting, Aaron has taken classes from and has been coached personally by his friend, financial guru, Dave Ramsey. Spiritual mentors David Landrith and Bob Warren have impacted his spiritual life beyond measure. Two other disciplined mastermind groups, 48 Days led by friend Dan Miller and The Torch have played a role in his understanding of how to live a significant, successful life.   Years ago, it only took a few years as a partner with David Patton Construction LLC for Aaron to help take the business from doing one to two projects per year to a multi-million dollar company, voted number one builder for three consecutive years by Nashville’s House & Home & Garden Magazine's People's Choice Awards. He so

Jim, Executive Director of Pittsburgh’s AlphaLab accelerator program, provides mentorship, education and network-building for technology startups. His accelerator helps companies rapidly iterate through early stages of product and customer development.   Launched in 2008, AlphaLab is ranked #6 among accelerators in the US and a charter member of the Global Accelerator Network, where Jim currently serves on the Advisory Board.  AlphaLab alumni companies include The Resumator, No Wait, Black Locus (acquired by Home Depot), Shoefitr and SolePower.   Jim guides companies by leveraging his experience and network gained from working closely with over eighty companies in the Innovation Works and AlphaLab portfolios and from his prior management experience in Silicon Valley.  In the Bay Area, Jim built and managed software businesses at Hewlett-Packard, Agile Software (acquired by Oracle), and Instill Corporation (acquired by iTradeNetwork Inc).  As a management consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, Jim advised

Eric Brown co-founded ImpactGames to influence society and promote change through interactive media.  Toward this end, ImpactGames developed PeaceMaker, a video game simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to promote dialogue and understanding.  Unlike most serious games, PeaceMaker aims to bridge the gap between education and entertainment while reaching a mass market. PeaceMaker has been sold in over 60 countries, been featured in media outlets around the world, and has won several international awards.   Eric was listed among "100 Social Entrepreneurs Changing the World" in Newsweek Japan.   He holds a Masters of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University and received a BFA in Painting with focused studies in education and computer graphics from Washington University in St. Louis.   Recently, Eric has been working with different groups around Pittsburgh to help bring products to market including Walkingthumbs’ product Blabcake.  He has also helped found a non-profit called The Additive

Hitting my Kickstarter goal in 3 days was exhilarating! I want to teach you exactly how I did it and what I learned along the way!   My Kickstarter Page   Two Associated Posts What I Learned from a Successful Kickstarter Campaign The Steps I Took After a Successful Kickstarter Campaign   Book Recommendation Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World by Peter Diamandis   Aaron’s Challenge; Spend 30 minutes away from your phone and think about something that you really want. This can be something that you haven’t told anyone because it may seem a little ridiculous. Acknowledge it, and put together a rough draft of a plan for how you would make it happen.   People to Thank Liam Rosen, TopScore & Skyd Magazine Joe Marmerstein, Kenny Chen Alex Galbraith Art & Denise Chau Squirrel Hill Chiropractic Pitt Ultimate Greeno, who has helped me edit a few episodes of the podcast Dan O'Connor, the very first backer Tyler Kunsa StartNow Pittsburgh Jimmy Leppert, UpCall Ultimate Dan Tremblay Larry Gi

Morgan came on the podcast to talk cognitive biases, personal finance, and writing. He took an interesting path to his current career and uses that to his advantage when teaching through his writing.   Morgan Housel is a columnist at the Motley Fool and The Wall Street Journal. His work is also featured in USA Today, The Huffington Post, and Business Insider.   He is a two-time winner of the Best in Business award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and was selected by the Columbia Journalism Review for the Best Business Writing 2012 anthology.  In 2013 he was a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award and Scripps Howard Award. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Southern California.   Morgan’s Challenge; Go out and read things that you know you are going to disagree with to round out your view of the world.   Morgan’s Book Recommendations The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham Confessions of a Street Addict by Jim Cramer   Morgan’s Writing Financial Advice for My New Son

Apart from his family, and new technologies, Ultimate Frisbee is Patrick's biggest passion. He has been very involved in the World Flying Disc Federation, personally launched the Portuguese Beach Ultimate tournament (Bar do Peixe), and an international organization that focuses on promoting Beach Ultimate, called BULA (Beach Ultimate Lovers Association). In 2004 Patrick and BULA organized the first World Championships Beach Ultimate in Figueira de Foz, Portugal. With 450 participants from 22 countries it turned out to be a serious success, and he has continued to put the event on for over a decade. The 2nd World Championships in Brazil in December 2007 and the 3rd in 2011 in Italy were also organized by BULA, Patrick, and local players. Just last year, he led efforts to produce the 2015 World Championships in Dubai. Patrick played on the Portuguese national team through 2014, as well as with national champions LUC, and in Paganello top international all-star team: SeXXXpensive. He has also the Chairman of

Adriana Withers is one of the partners in Vicious Circle Ultimate, an apparel company dedicated to custom manufacturing high performance gear for ultimate frisbee athletes. Her partner Don Cooper came up with the idea for VC just before Canadian Nationals in the summer of 1998 and the company has been growing ever since.   In this episode, Adriana discusses throwing apartment parties to pay rent, the challenges of starting up, and the proliferation of companies in her industry in recent years.   Adriana’s Challenge; Practice gratitude regularly and show appreciation for the people in your life.   Connect with Adriana Twitter Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Website email; adriana@vcultimate.com

Hahna is the Chief Technical Officer and cofounder of Sole Power Technologies. The company builds an shoe insole that charges a battery while the used walks. That battery can be used to charge a cell phone or other electronic device.   As a child, Hahna was inspired by the technology in science fiction books, shows, and comics. She became an engineer because she wanted to make such technology a reality. For her, developing an energy harvesting shoe insert meant creating a device that could be found in an Isaac Asimov book. She also has a lifelong dream of going to space, which grew bigger while designing robots at NASA. As company CTO, she leads product design and is the only one capable of drawing more than stick figures.   Hahna’s Challenge; Spend some time every day learning about a topic you want to get smarter on.   Popular Science Invention of the Year   Connect with Hahna Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Website email; info@solepowertech.com

Ilana Diamond is the Managing Director of AlphaLab Gear, Innovation Works’ hardware start-up accelerator which provides physical product startups with connections, investment, mentorship and more.  Ilana helps entrepreneurs rapidly progress through the early stages of product and customer development by leveraging her experience and network, gained from over 20 years of leading and growing companies, from early stage to exit.   Prior to running AlphaLab Gear, Ilana served as the President and Chief Executive Officer at Sima Products. She built Sima’s management team, developed and managed a network of Asian manufacturers and led profitable sales growth at national brick and mortar retail chains such as Target and Walmart, internet retailers such as Amazon.com, and specialty catalog retailers.Based on innovative technology developed by Sima, she also founded and managed a commercial alerting startup, raised outside capital spun it off into a separate entity. In 2010, Ms. Diamond negotiated the sale of Sima and

Theresa Brown, BSN, RN, works as a clinical nurse in Pittsburgh and recently wrote a NYT best-selling book, The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives.   Theresa received her BSN from the University of Pittsburgh, but before that earned, a Ph.D. in English from the University of Chicago and taught at Tufts University. Her column "Bedside" has appeared on the New York Times op-ed page as well as on the Times blog “Opinionator” and she is a frequent contributor to the New York Times. Previously she wrote for the New York Times blog “Well." Her writing has also appeared on CNN.com, and in The American Journal of Nursing and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She is an Advisory Board Member of the Center for Health Media and Policy at the Bellevue School of Nursing at Hunter College, and a participant in two different Robert Wood Johnson initiatives: "Flip the Clinic" and "The Power of Narrative." Her first book Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between has been adopted as a

Leah Lizarondo is an innovator and food advocate. She is also the founder of The Brazen Kitchen, a food education practice and influential blog and the co-founder of 412 Food Rescue, an innovative technology-driven nonprofit that fights hunger and waste.   Leah received her Master's Degree in Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University graduating with Highest Distinction and is an advocate for healthy food accessibility, food safety policy and sustainability. She has trained at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City and received her Certification in Plant-based Nutrition from Cornell University.   She served as one of the Trustees at the global Awesome Foundation: Food, serving with leaders and creative innovators in food and is an Ambassador for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.   She began her career as a product manager in Southeast Asia, working in consumer packaged goods and as a consultant working with technology startups. She served in leadership positions at global nonprofits before moving on

Avi Geller has taken a long and thoughtful route to entrepreneurship. During his time on Going Deep, he discusses how he moved to progressively smaller companies and developed a vision for the future of wearable tech.   He is now focused on “hearables”, a segment of tech focused on headsets and earpieces that deliver real time information to users. As a member of the AlphaLab accelerator, Avi is leading Maven Machines towards being a player in the Internet of Things.   Avi’s Challenge; Start something, like a social gathering or a project, that you take ownership of and do a great job.   Next Pittsburgh Article   Connect with Avi Twitter @avishaigeller @MavenMachines LinkedIn Website avishai@mavenmachines.com