In this conversation, Jessie Shipman, the CEO of Fluincy, shares her career journey from being a teacher and athletic trainer to working at Apple and starting her own company. She explains how Fluincy helps companies with partner enablement and referral marketing. Jessie discusses the ideal clients for Fluincy, including agencies and SaaS companies, and her challenges as a bootstrapped founder. She recommends joining communities like Pavilion and Partnership Leaders for valuable insights and support. In this conversation, Jessie discusses the importance of validating ideas and distinguishing between personal problems and market problems. She introduces the concept of the ‘mom test’ as a way to gather unbiased feedback. Jessie also shares her plans for getting started with her first customer and the importance of onboarding and gathering feedback. Finally, she talks about the iterative process and scaling the business.

Check out her website: https://www.getfluincy.com/

Also, give us a visit! https://topperformerspodcast.com/

Amber Deibert⁠'s coaching style is a dynamic blend of inspiration and practicality, empowering professionals to unlock their full potential. With her unwavering dedication to personal growth, she navigates her clients through the toughest challenges, transforming obstacles into stepping stones toward success. Her insightful guidance is the secret sauce that turns ordinary careers into extraordinary journeys of achievement.

You can find Amber's insights on her podcasts:

* ⁠The Achiever's Podcast⁠

* ⁠Get Your Mind Right Podcast⁠

I appreciate your patience with this audio--as it presented some challenges. Your ever-improving host. :)

Know a Top Performer for this podcast? Have a suggestion? Please visit Top Performers Podcast and make a recommendation.

Tim Currie shares highly relatable insights into how he assists clients with challenges surrounding organizational change due to growth, what drove him to pursue a doctorate in organizational leadership, and his optimistic hopes for how we will adopt AI and other tools to help with this change. One of the key takeaways for me is his mindfulness of the advantages previous generations have from how offices were traditionally structured. He's looking for methods to incorporate the new hybrid structure without unintentionally closing the door on society's newest contributors.

Greg Cummings is the CEO of Power100, a unique third-party platform that exclusively serves the window and door industry. The construction industry is undergoing a significant transformation, and Power100 aims to provide a central point of reference for industry professionals and customers. With 80% of construction industry professionals identifying unethical business practices as a pervasive issue, Power100 is committed to ensuring that high-quality work and customer satisfaction take precedence over profit-driven motives. Under Cummings’ leadership, Power100 is leading the way in promoting ethical and sustainable business practices in the window and door industry.

https://power100.io/

This week's Top Performer is Ashley Gootee! Please check out her website linked below :)

Before landing in the world of couture design, Ashley’s 17 years of industry experience in formal fashion took her from design school at Purdue University in Indiana to exchange programs in Italy and Hong Kong, ultimately landing her in NYC, where she sharpened some serious design chops in the fashion capital working under high-end designers Zac Posen and Peter Som, while also working their NYC Mercedes-Benz Fashion Weeks. She then joined the licensing company Li & Fung USA, working on lines for large retailers.

In 2009, Ashley moved closer to her true passion when she was 1 of 6 designers chosen for the Chicago Fashion Incubator. This led her to launch her own women’s wear line, ZAMRIE. After years of selling her apparel throughout the Midwest and online, she realized her calling by designing custom couture dresses for friends and family. As the demand started to grow, it was obvious this was more than a side gig. 

Now living in Birmingham, Ashley can bring her almost two decades of craftsmanship and design to the women in AL who cannot find exactly what they want. She can help you add a sleeve to your existing wedding gown, reinvent an old gala piece into something more modern, and even transform an idea into a real tangible custom couture, fitting you better than you ever imagined.

https://somethingyoucouture.com/

Michael Scott is the president of his accounting service agency S5 Accounting. His accounting experience was primarily built in heavy manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, and the trucking industry. His skill set is in high demand, and he's taking on a new challenge by providing his services to the small business community. As a top performer, he recognizes the value provided by others in his career, has been relied upon by other top performers, and continually looks for new ways to apply what he's learned. We discuss his lessons learned, identify his ideal client, and how to build his book of business.

https://www.s5accounting.com/

Evelyn Lee, FAIA, NOMA is Head of Workplace Strategy and Innovation at Slack Technologies. Lee seamlessly integrates her business and architecture background with a qualitative and quantitative focus to build a better workplace experience for Slack Employees, visitors, and guests.

Evelyn received her Bachelor of Architecture degree with honors in 2002 from Drury University, where she minored in Global Studies while playing on their NCAA Div I Women’s Soccer Team. In 2003 she received her Masters of Architecture degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Most recently, in 2012, Evelyn finished a dual MPA (Masters Public Administration)/MBA (Masters Business Administration) in Sustainable Management from the Presidio Graduate School.

She is widely published, wrote a monthly column for Contract magazine for over three years, and is a frequent contributor to Architect Magazine. Evelyn is a 2016 40 Under 40 Building Design + Construction recipient and is the only AIA member who has received the National Associates Award, National Young Architects Award, and be elevated to Fellowship. She recently finished her term serving as the first-ever female Treasurer to the AIA National Board in 2020-2021 and is a candidate for First VP/President-Elect for 23-24.

Evelyn is a featured Keynote Speaker, Panelist, and Moderator at national design and architecture conferences, including AIA National Convention, Dwell on Design, and Women in Green. Her topics focus on developing knowledge leadership, organizational change management, capacity building, stakeholder engagement, and strategic approaches to put design thinking into practice.

Evelyn has over 15 years working with individuals, organizations, and companies interested in applying design thinking to their decision-making process.

Her accomplishments go beyond this page, but I've included her bio from USC here:

Christina Bellantoni is a professor of professional practice, the director of USC Annenberg’s Media Center and the Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy faculty fellow.

She also is a contributing editor with the independent nonprofit newsroom The 19th News, which focuses on gender, politics and policy.

Bellantoni joined USC Annenberg in 2018 after serving as a member of the masthead at the Los Angeles Times.

Over her more than 20 years in journalism, Bellantoni has worked as a reporter and editor, behind the camera as a producer and in front as an analyst on national television. She has covered local, state and federal government, along with four presidential campaigns and the White House.

At the Los Angeles Times, Bellantoni was an assistant managing editor focused on politics. Under her leadership, the California politics team expanded and earned statewide recognition for innovative coverage of politics and for hard-hitting sexual harassment investigations that prompted two Assembly resignations and brought more transparency to California’s state capital.

She joined the newspaper after spending 12 years as a journalist in Washington, D.C. She served as editor-in-chief of the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call until moving to Los Angeles in 2015.

Before taking over Roll Call, Bellantoni was the political editor and an on-air analyst at the PBS NewsHour. She oversaw presidential campaign, congressional, White House and Supreme Court coverage.

Bellantoni began her stint in Washington as a Metro reporter at the Washington Times and became a senior reporter for Talking Points Memo in 2009.

Bellantoni was a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics in 2011, and is a former vice president of the Washington Press Club Foundation.

She frequently appears on television and radio, including NPR, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher. Find highlights from her reel here.

Awards and Honors:

Pulitzer Prize/Breaking News (2015)
1st Place from Maryland Delaware DC Press Association (2014)
National breaking news award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (2000)