Business law strategist David Lizerbram hosts Products of the Mind, a podcast about the intersection of business and creativity. This show includes tips and lessons about business law strategy, how to protect your brands and business assets, and conversations with thought leaders in startups, entrepreneurship, media, marketing, the creative arts, and beyond. Whether you’re a serial entrepreneur or small business owner, a creative professional, or an innovator in any field, the Products of the Mind podcast is here to provide you with tools, guidance, and inspiration.
In this episode, I speak with Erin Passons, the president and founder of Passons Consulting. She has spent her career helping business leaders, managers, and employees improve their performance and effectiveness. Erin works with a variety of organizations to create a Strengths-based approach to performance, leadership development, and team building, providing training and coaching in the areas of management effectiveness, employee engagement, and talent-based hiring. Her goal is to help people do what they do best, at work and in life. Erin can be found at PassonsConsulting.com I’m happy to use this podcast feed to answer, as best as I…
In this episode, I discuss the new Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan that was created as part of the CARES Act (Stimulus) to provide emergency relief to business owners during the coronavirus pandemic. Qualifying businesses are able to borrow up to 2.5x their average monthly payroll and 100% of the loan will be forgiven if the funds are properly applied. I’m happy to use this podcast feed to answer, as best as I can, questions from business owners who are trying to navigate these challenges. You can contact me directly at https://www.lizerbramlaw.com/contact This episode was recorded on April 1, 2020.
I’m going to be using the Products of the Mind podcast feed to provide information to business owners during the coronavirus – COVID-19 crisis. This is an introductory episode in which I explain the project and cover a few topics briefly. I speak in a bit more depth about the unemployment provisions of the CARES Act, also called the stimulus, which passed on Friday, March 27, 2020. Unemployment benefits now apply to certain self-employed people, which may provide some relief to small and solo business owners who were previously ineligible for unemployment. For a bit more of what’s discussed in…
Tyler Cowen, Economics Professor at George Mason University, on whether we’re all too complacent, movies vs. TV, food culture around the world, and lots more.
Allan McKay, founder of Catastrophic FX, has done visual effects for loads of blockbuster movies, including Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Star Trek Into Darkness, 2012, Superman Returns, and Looper (a personal favorite of mine.) We talk about how a visual effect goes from conception to the final product that you see on screen, how the creative process works, and why visual effects production is moving all over the world.
Yale Professor Paul Bloom comes on to discuss his recent book “Against Empathy.” We talk about technocrats, moral approaches to childrearing, and whether it’s OK to punch Nazis.
Most of us just go to the polls and don’t give much though to what happens after you turn in your ballot and get your sticker. In this episode, we learn all the secrets of the voting process with Lori Steele Contorer, Founder-CEO of the electronic voting company Everyone Counts.
In this episode, cartoonist and lawyer Stu Rees tells us about his unusual path to becoming the go-to lawyer for cartoonists. Then we get into a heated debate about copyright and fair use.
Anya Marina is the singer-songwriter behind loads of catchy songs you’ve heard on movies & TV shows. On this episode, she tells us about her unexpected path to a career in music, how she’s made her own opportunities, and gets very real about how to survive as a musician and artist these days.
Matt Fiedler and Tyler Barstow created Vinyl Me, Please, the “best damn record club.” How did they go about creating a successful business selling vinyl records to club members worldwide? We talk about going from part-time to full-time entrepreneur, working with artists big and small, and how to overcome daunting logistical challenges.
In this episode, philosophy professor, author, and podcaster Tamler Sommers answers the age-old question: What does a philosopher actually do? We also get into (but don’t necessarily answer) some other pressing questions, such as: Is there such a thing as free will?, What’s the nature of honor in different cultures?, and How can these lessons be applied to businesses and other organizations?
Being a parent, blogger, and influential Comic-Con supporter was not enough for Tony Kim. So he tells us his inspiration for Hero Within, his new superhero-inspired clothing line for men.
Today’s conversation is with clinical psychologist Dr. Andrea Letamendi. Andrea is not just a psychologist; she’s also a lover of all things comics and superheroes, a cosplay enthusiast, and a tremendous resource into the mind of a superhero. Andrea uses works of popular fiction to explore real-world issues such as dealing with trauma and integrating split identities. Also, she’s an actual comic book character herself, having appeared in Batgirl. Learn the whole story in this episode of Products of the Mind.
Will you know censorship when you see it? Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund joins us today to talk about free speech in the popular arts. He shares stories of innocent lives torn apart by bogus obscenity claims and tells us how the CBLDF is working to defend the falsely accused, educate the public, and fight for your rights and mine.
Today’s guest, Elizabeth MacBride, tells us how an early job covering Amish affairs for a local newspaper led to a life-changing assignment in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. In the last few years, she’s returned to the Middle East multiple times to report on issues from the Iranian startup scene to female entrepreneurship in refugee camps.
What’s it really like to cover the White House? Today’s guest, Bill Press, is the host of a political talk radio show, a former co-host of CNN’s Crossfire, the author of many books, and the former Chairman of the California Democratic Party. He tells us how he went from the seminary to a career in politics and the media, and shares stories about San Francisco in the Summer of Love, working with Governor Jerry Brown in the 70’s, and how he found his way onto national television.
Leafar Sayer of the Cholo Goth band Prayers talks about his troubled past, what he learned from being a gang member, how his dark experiences inspire his music, and why he believes he’s destined to follow in the footsteps of Prince and David Bowie.
On this episode, I speak with baseball writers, podcasters, and temporary professional baseball team overlords Ben Lindbergh & Sam Miller. Ben and Sam are the authors of The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team. Their book tells the story of how two Internet-based baseball writers ended up running the Sonoma Stompers, an independent league professional baseball team.
BoyGirlParty artist Susie Ghahremani comes on to Products of the Mind to talk about what it’s really like to survive as an artist in today’s economy, life as a touring musician, and the problems of intellectual property theft.
How did live theater go from being popular entertainment for people of all income levels to an elite luxury? Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein tells us about the history of the theater and what he and his team are doing to change that trend and bring Shakespeare into underserved communities.
Karina Longworth is the host of the popular and acclaimed You Must Remember This, a podcast about the secret and/or forgotten history of Hollywood’s first century. In this episode, Karina tells us how she got here, how she conceived of the show, and how her stories about women and minorities in Classic Hollywood reflect the struggles and challenges of underrepresented groups today.
What’s it like being the first person hired at a company that becomes a huge startup? Yash Nelapati was a young Bay Area engineer who wasn’t quite sure where his life was going when he decided to take a chance and go to work for a 2-person tech company. That company became Pinterest. Yash is still there, and he’s seen all the ups and downs that the startup world can provide. In this episode, Yash shares the real deal behind his startup success story.
Who is Joon Han? He’s a strategist, a storyteller, a social entrepreneur, and an author. In this wide-ranging interview, we discuss meaningful work and Joon’s secret to figuring out what kind of work someone can enjoy and be successful at. As a process-oriented person, Joon first devised a process to figure out his own goals and talents before using that process to develop a similar process for small businesses. All of this and more on this episode.
