In this enlightening episode of "Establishing Your Empire," host Daran Herrman converses with Michael Devellano, a seasoned entrepreneur, tech expert, and author. Michael shares his extensive experience in the tech industry, offering insights into the transformative roles of AI and blockchain, particularly in education. He delves into his latest book, "Form Your Own Pack," which draws inspiration from a unique Japanese business model to explore the synergy of cooperation in business. Michael also discusses the importance of community through his Founders Pack initiative, designed to foster entrepreneurial networking and growth. Throughout the episode, he provides valuable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, emphasizing the significance of leveraging the evolving world of technology and AI. This episode is a compelling listen for anyone keen on navigating the dynamic landscape of tech entrepreneurship.

Prepare to journey into the dazzling universe of diamonds, watches, and gold coins. Our guide is no ordinary man, but a renowned jeweler who has walked an extraordinary path. From a start as unexpected as a hidden gem, to a consuming passion for matching customers with their dream treasures, the tale of Eric Wagner isn't just another story. It's an epic of persistence, dedication, and unyielding brilliance. Fasten your seatbelts, and get ready for an adventure that gleams with the allure of fine jewels!

In this episode of Establishing Your Empire, host Daran Herrman interviews guest Mike Trigg, an experienced Silicon Valley executive, entrepreneur, and author with an impressive career spanning over 25 years. Trigg discusses how he followed his interests throughout his various career transitions and found joy in climbing the learning curve of new challenges. He emphasizes the importance of enjoying your job and being passionate about what you do, as well as not being intimidated by entering new industries and embracing the possibilities that come with naivety. Trigg also shares insights on entrepreneurship and discusses his recently published novel, Bit Flip, which offers readers an authentic insider's view of the corrupting influences in technology startups. Listeners will gain valuable insights from Trigg's experiences and career journey in the tech industry.

In this episode of Establishing Your Empire, we have a fascinating conversation with Tyler and John Richards. If you are interested in finding out how to become the entrepreneur you have always dreamt of, this episode is just for you. John Richards is an award-winning entrepreneurship professor, entrepreneur, venture investor, and mentor. He taught entrepreneurship for over 12 years at Brigham Young University and was named one of the Top 25 entrepreneurship professors in the United States. John has invested in hundreds of ventures and mentored thousands. Early in his career, he was president of a yellow pages publishing company and later created the first-ever online yellow pages that led to an initial public offering and a multi-billion-dollar valuation. Tyler Richards was recently named to the "ThePeak 100,” a list of the top entrepreneurs in Utah and surrounding areas. Tyler’s last three ventures have all resulted in multi-million dollar acquisitions. Tyler has been an active angel investor and has officially entered into Venture Capital with the pre-seed venture fund known as Startup Ignition Ventures.

When it comes to startups, it doesn’t matter if you have a product that’s going to change the world, it's all for nothing if you can’t make your investors excited about you and your product. You only got one chance with your investors to make that happen. In this episode of Establishing Your Empire, we have a fascinating conversation with Brett Sharenow, the CEO and founder of Broadscope Consulting. If you’ve ever wanted to learn about how to raise capital or learn about mistakes people make and how to avoid them this is the episode for you. Brett has helped companies raise more than $800 million dollars and has facilitated exits valued at more than $6 billion.

Leadership and management are two different things. However, many of us have grown to believe that these are the same thing. In corporate organizations, failing to grasp the distinction between management and leadership is one of the key contributing factors that prevent organizations from utilizing their full potential. In this episode of Establishing Your Empire, we have a fascinating conversation with an expert business consultant who helps businesses transform and achieve seemingly impossible business results. Kimberly Wiefling, Founding Member & Global Consultant at Silicon Valley Alliances, joins us today to talk about transforming managers into leaders, how to fix the most common causes of failure in global teams, and how to create a predictable and repeatable process to “innovate on purpose”.

Richard Turner has been declared one of the world's most influential and inspirational figures of modern times, and is described by peers and audiences around the globe as the playing card manipulator who creates “Astonishment Beyond Comprehension.”

Good investment advice can be hard to come by as you always wonder if you’re getting taken advantage of, working with the right people or making the best decisions. On this episode of Establishing Your Empire I host Patrick Geddes and he just released a book titled ‘Transparent Investing’ and all net revenues—including net proceeds from the sale of the book, speaking fees or other incomes—will be donated to nonprofits focused on financial education. In this episode, we explore Patrick’s entrepreneurial journey from idea to start-up to being acquired by BlackRock for over a Billion dollars.

Sam Wong is a Five-Time Startup Executive, CEO coach, advisor and author of 21 Secrets of Successful Startups. As a serial entrepreneur, he has driven multiple acquisitions. As a hands-on “roll up the sleeves” startup advisor, Sam draws from his 30+ years of experience to train and help entrepreneurs with fundraising, strategy, product/market fit, founder wellness & a host of other areas. In this episode we talk about how to build a fundable startup, how to validate your idea, create your funding strategy, pitch investors, & so much more.

Successful products in the tech space are quite often created by large teams from big players in the market. Every once in a while we see some of those outliers who prove it’s totally possible to compete with tech giants with small teams and little to no resources. In today’s episode of Establishing Your Empire we’re joined by Ivan Kutskir who is the creator of Photopea which is a browser-based image manipulation app that brings features available on programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator to every device for free. Throughout the episode, we dive deep into Ivan’s app, his journey of building it, and some lessons he learned.

Tony D’Urso left a well paying corporate job to start his own business as well as how he got into podcasting and grew his audience into the millions. If you’ve ever wanted to start something new we cover how to create your Vision Map™ to set up your vision, purpose, long-term objective, master plan and a breakdown of actions to take.

Hall T. Martin launched TEN Capital as the Texas Entrepreneur Networks in 2009. Today, the firm has over 14,000 investors in its network and has helped startups raise over $900 Million dollars. Hall is the founder of the Texas Open Angel Network, which is a non-profit dedicated to the education of angel investors. As a part of that program, he hosts the Investor Connect podcast series. A must listen is his Startup Funding Espresso where you can learn about Raising Funding for Your Startup in the Time it takes to have an Espresso.

Steve Hoffman aka Captain Hoff is the CEO of Founders Space, which is one of the world’s leading startup accelerators, with over 50 partners in 22 countries. Founders Space was ranked the #1 incubator for overseas startups by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazines. Hoffman has trained hundreds of startup founders and corporate executives in the art of innovation and provided consulting to many of the world’s largest corporations. If you’re thinking of launching a product or company, you must listen to this episode. It’ll give you many ways to overcome the odds, raise capital, and build a thriving, profitable business.

Shawn Flynn started his career as a business owner, where he founded and grew a successful company in Beijing, China before returning to the US to work with companies ranging from fast growing Silicon Valley startups to established overseas public companies. He brings his international experience working with all stages and sectors of businesses to his role as Principal at an investment bank with expertise in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, financial restructuring, and valuation. Shawn is also the host of the award-winning show "The Silicon Valley Podcast". In this episode we discuss everything from living abroad and language learning to how and when to raise capital so you can scale your startup.

Wen Zhang's amazing story begins as she dreams of venturing into the world while growing up in an isolated mountain town in rural China. Wen completely transformed her life by teaching herself English using just a cassette machine. Despite countless challenges, she pushed forward to become the only person who ever left her hometown, and achieved her dream of seeing the world. You can’t help but become motivated listening to her story and Wen wants to empower and enable others to achieve their dreams as well. This is why she founded INNW Institute, with a mission to empower entrepreneurs and startup founders to connect with investors and customers. In this episode we cover how to nail your pitch to get funding, common mistakes founders make and how to avoid them, starting your day with meditation and how to create and achieve goals to make your dreams come true.

Neil Dumra is a coach, author, CaCao expert and entrepreneur. This is a little different episode as it’s more focused on health and natural healing. We begin talking about ceremonial cacao and the benefits of starting your day with this powerful drink. We then dive into Neil’s journey into starting multiple companies, meditation and silent retreats, and long term remedies for physical and mental health.

Daniel Barrett is a producer, musician, author and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Rubicon Artist Development which is an innovative music studio and development program that works with artists such as Ruthie Foster, who is a singer-songwriter that has earned three Grammy Award nominations. In addition to producing and mentoring artists, Daniel is the founder of the award-winning and internationally touring band Porterdavis. A few years ago his career took a major right turn when remodeling his house turned into a disaster and Daniel decided to do something about it. That something became a flooring installation and design business.

Greg Davis is an award winning filmmaker and a photographer that is represented by the National Geographic Image Collection. He has worked his way from local festivals to international exhibitions and his fine art prints continue to be sought after and hang in private and institutional collections worldwide. We talk about how Greg made a significant life change from a decade long career in technology to one of self assessment and exploration and traveled around the world, camera in hand. We cover how to make the move from the corporate world to following your passion to becoming a successful artist that has sold 7-figures worth of fine art prints. Greg’s award winning work has been exhibited at prestigious galleries around the country and he has also been published in print internationally in the U.S., Great Britain, Papua New Guinea and Mexico.

Ahad Ghadimi has led the turnaround and transition of multiple companies. In several instances, he knew little of the industry or the product before ever taking over.  He rocketed his career when he created a swimwear line that, faster than any other company in history, went from conception to a feature in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition. The question he is always asked:  how do you do it?  So, Ahad decided to capture it all in a book titled ‘Turnaround Artists’ that has been endorsed by over 100 Global CEOs.

On this episode of Establishing Your Empire I host Adam Johnson and LJ Luciano. Adam Johnson is one of the winningest players in pro beach volleyball history. He has won over $1.6 million dollars in prize money with 44 event titles. Johnson and Karch Kiraly just missed qualifying for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games when Kiraly suffered an injury in the final qualifying event. He won the King of the Beach in 1994, he was a member of the U. S. National Team, a three-time All-American at USC and is in the Hall of Fame. Also joining us is LJ Luciano who co-created the self-proclaimed ‘Coolest Group in the Sand’ The Sand Wannabes. The group has over 10,000 members and provides a medium for players of all levels to find where to play, meet other players and chat about volleyball.