Author: Kivo Daily Staff

Janet Jarnagin is an executive who is considered an expert authority on the practice of board and management reporting. She makes a living by analyzing qualitative and quantitative data provided by her client companies and then synthesizing it all into polished presentations. Beyond that, Janet specializes in revising and stabilizing business processes and counselling companies about how to improve their efficacy. Janet Jarnagin resides in New York City, where she also works.

What do you love most about the industry you are in?

I think what I love most about board and management reporting is the feeling I get after I’ve presented my findings and they have been accepted and implemented. There’s just something so rewarding about knowing that I’ve had a positive effect on a company and helped to streamline their processes and increase their efficiency. It’s very satisfying. It feels like I’ve made a difference.

What would you tell others looking to get into your industry?

One of my favorite projects is working with young professionals and giving them advice on how to properly network without it coming off as a chore. “Networking should be effortless” is what I usually say. So, what does that mean? It means making connections and seeking advice organically throughout the course of a work week and not trying to arrange a long talk at an espresso bar after hours or on the weekend. Networking shouldn’t be forced and should not be prioritized over delivering quality work products.

What keeps you motivated?

I have a list of long-term professional goals that I’ve set my sights on achieving during the course of my career. Checking an item off that list keeps me motivated. That being said, I realize that most of them will take months, years, or even decades to accomplish, so if I go for a while without crossing off an item, I try to be at peace with that (some days better than others). That wasn’t always the case. But as my career has developed, I’ve gained some perspective in that regard.

If you could change 1 thing you did in the beginning of your career what would it be?

If I could go back in time and give myself some advice, it would be: slow down, calm down. These things come with time, hard work, and genuine, organic connections with co-workers and higher-ups. Trying to force the issue might make everything backfire, and you could end up doing more harm to your career than good.

Who has been a role model to you and why?

I’ve always admired Christine Legarde. She has accomplished so much with her life. Aside from being the first female finance minister of any G8 country, she also served as the Chair and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, and later the President of the European Central Bank.

How do you maintain a work life balance?

I have always been a big proponent of what I call “work life integration.” It’s not always the most popular philosophy but it has worked well for me in my career. I’d rather work a few hours on Sat/Sun if it means having an easier work week and starting Monday less stressed.

What traits do you possess that make you a successful leader?

I’m an incredibly organized and methodical person. I think I am pretty good at time and inbox management. It borderlines on a fixation. On any given day, I always know what I’m supposed to be doing, in what order, and for approximately how long. On a larger scale, I have systems in place to closely monitor all the projects I’m juggling over a period of time. I believe this trait is responsible for a good deal of my professional success. Additionally, I’m very to-the-point when speaking with others.

What trends in your industry excite you?

Recently, there has been an interesting trend in business operations of attempting to revise and stabilize existing processes instead of tearing down and rebuilding from the ground up. Too often in the past, managers would become frustrated with perceived inefficiencies in their company and simply toss a decade’s worth of systems and processes away indiscriminately, without taking the time to analyze what works and what doesn’t—throw the baby out with the bathwater, as it were. I feel like this has begun to change, and managers are focusing more on reforming/streamlining. I like to think that my work has contributed to that in some way.

What is one piece of advice that you have never forgotten?

It wasn’t related to me directly, but I remember reading a profile on Neil Armstrong, the first human being to set foot on the moon, wherein he said “I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.” That struck me as very true when I read it, and it has always stuck with me since.

What’s one piece of advice you would give to others?

I would advise others that while it is important to look like a professional, it is far more important to act like a professional and to maintain a professional mindset—at least within the confines of the job or the office. Anyone can dress well, but it takes a lot of discipline and confidence to conduct oneself in a manner befitting an executive, and even more discipline to think like one all day long.

What is the biggest life lesson you have learned?

That a person’s time is the most precious and finite resource there is, bar none.

Based out of Oakville, Ontario, Adam Spencer, the Founder and President (GLOBAL) of AbleDocs, has dedicated his career to transforming online and digital documents into mediums that everyone can enjoy. He and his team of experts have paved the way in document accessibility by providing clients with various tools and guidance on how to ensure that online forms and documents can be understood by all their customers.

Adam Spencer has been in the accessibility field since 2009, when his mother, a banker at the time, needed a way to ensure that people with low vision or print-disabilities could access their electronic bank statements. Seeing the potential for a new field of software, Adam co-founded his first company in accessibility. After garnering success in the field, Adam left that company to pursue his current venture, AbleDocs.

What would you tell others looking to get into your industry?

What I would say is have a passion for it.  It’s a very clear line between the people that are doing this with a passion versus the people that are doing this because they see a financial opportunity.  That’s not to say the passionate people are solely being altruistic and doing this out of the goodness of their heart.  That’s not what I’m suggesting at all.  But the ability to see someone’s passion for accessibility and see how they’re changing someone else’s opportunity while building a great new product or service, that comes through.  Those are the people that really remain committed for a long time.

I look at the people who walked before me and still work in the industry but helped carve the path for those of us that came later.  The passion is still there with them versus the people who are like, “Yeah, I got a job in accessibility and it’s really cool and I think that I’m giving back to people.”  That type doesn’t last as long in this industry.  What our industry is doing is a seismic shift in the way that we deliver content to people, whether through documents or websites or any other medium.  We’re seeing a different way of providing barrier-free access to everyone, and once you’re in, you’re hooked, and if you’re not hooked, you should leave.  Don’t just use this as a job.  This is a life and it’s an amazing one.

What is the biggest lesson you have learned managing your business/team?

Probably the biggest lesson is to listen.  A team that is run by a dictator, and I would put my old self in that category, is a team run by an iron fist.  That doesn’t work.  You must prioritize collaboration, listening, and getting feedback to realize that you are only as strong as your team and your team is only as strong as you.  That’s kind of the motto that I live by.

We’re all in this together and for the company to be successful, we all need to be successful.  When we have someone on the team who’s hurting, it hurts the rest of the team and we need to fix that.  How do we help someone on the team that isn’t potentially operating at their best?  And the other thing I will say is, you can’t just put your lens on how to fix it.  You need to listen to people because what may work for you or another person may not work for the person that needs the help at that moment.  Building trust in the team is critical because you can’t afford to have the team break down.

If you could change 1 thing you did in the beginning of your career what would it be?

I would not put unconditional trust in people who you think are on your side.  Document everything.  Make sure that you have that independent advice, whether it be a lawyer, an accountant, or a third-party.  As a word of caution, we try to trust the people that are closest to us, our friends and family, but at the end of the day, they may not be the best people to provide you with that advice.  You’ve got to be very clear with who’s providing it.  I don’t mean to sound cynical but it’s you against the world.  Even though those people may be the reason why you are where you are now. I’ve been burned several times by people that I thought I could implicitly trust and unfortunately it just didn’t work out that way.

You think you’re doing the best you can with the circumstances that you’ve been given, but when communication and trust breaks down, it becomes toxic.  You can’t build a successful business like that.  You really need to be on high alert at all times, making sure that that you are able to deliver on your commitment to the company, your company’s commitment to your client, and your client’s commitment to their clients.  Without that, your reputation is at risk.

What has been the hardest obstacle you’ve overcome?

The hardest obstacle has definitely been losing everything I’ve built.  Without question, having to start over again is the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do, and I’ve had to do it twice.  I definitely didn’t want to do it the second time and if it wasn’t for the support of my wife, I never would have done it again.  It worked.  I’m beyond proud of what we’ve done and humbled by the opportunity that everyone around me has given me, my team, and our clients.  It’s a very difficult decision to brush yourself off the next morning after losing everything you’ve built and saying, okay, let’s get back in the ring and do it again.

What is one piece of advice that you have never forgotten?

This is kind of a rough and personal one.  It wasn’t advice, but there was a comment that was relayed to me once.  My grandfather died the month after I was born, and my grandmother gave me his ring when I turned 21.  But there was as a moment where my mother sat me down and she took my grandfather’s ring off my finger.  She said that he would be tremendously disappointed with something I had done.  And it was from that point that everything I was doing going forward was to earn that ring back.  When she gave me the ring back it was it was like a new commitment. It never leaves my finger.

Outside of work, what defines you as a person?

There’s something outside of work?  Well, I would say that I love to laugh.  I love to look at the lighter side of life.  I live to ski.  I love my wife more than anything in the world and she’s what keeps me going every day.  So long as I’m doing something with her, that’s what I’m doing outside of work, and it’s the best

Where do you see you and your company in 5 years?

I’m not one to plan that far off only because I have no idea.  If you had asked me three years ago, my answer would have been very different than what it is today.  I think we’re continuing on this amazing journey of bringing the best and brightest in our field under the Abledocs umbrella, continuing our global reach, and I’m hoping that we are inching closer and closer towards making ourselves obsolete.  We want to be able to deliver software that doesn’t need us to fix things to be accessible.  We want them to be accessible from the word go.  That’s really the commitment that we’ve made to each other as a company, and now it’s just a matter of continuing that development path forward and reinvesting in our team and reinvesting in the next chapter of what we’re doing.  That’s where I see us in five years.  I joked when I first got into the industry that I thought we were going to be made obsolete in five years, and here we are coming on fifteen years later.  We’re still here.  I love how much we’ve pivoted in the last three years and the next five will only be that much more exciting for us.

Explain the proudest day of your professional life.

It was probably being able to address the entire team after completing year two and being able to see that we had truly exceeded every expectation that we could have put forward.  Everyone had doubted us.  Even some of the people that had said, “Yeah, yeah, you’ll get there,” we knew that they weren’t believing in us.  But we did it.  I’m not one to stop and take a lot of praise since I find it embarrassing,  But I couldn’t have done it without the team, and to be able to celebrate with the team and share that with them  was probably the proudest moment I’ve had.  My wife always mocks me for being a crier, but it is one of those times when I couldn’t have been prouder of what we’d done.  I see that change every single day.  Every day we set a new record or we set a new measure.  Those moments make me infinitely proud and that’s where the sky’s the limit, because if we can do it to this point, why can’t we do it tomorrow and the day after and the day after that?

When the digital era arrived, the world was ushered into a more convenient lifestyle that has helped make everything so much easier. Technological innovation allows people to do everything they love, from discovering new restaurants to finding their favorite artists’ latest tracks, from the comforts of their home. Chronic Athletics is one of the most renowned businesses to join the online platform to make shopping easier for athletes.

Chronic Athletics has been around for some time and has become one of the most trusted brands in the sports industry. Winning multiple awards over the years, the athletic company boasts some of the best products in aesthetics and function. Based in Colorado, Chronic Athletics is one of the pioneering brands in the athletic industry that celebrates sports and creates products for nearly every type of athletic event out there today. 

Jason Pierce is the brilliant mind behind the brand and shares how his passion for sports, fashion, and function has been the driving force behind Chronic’s immediate success. The founder created his brand from scratch with a firm belief in creating innovative designs supported by his philosophical approach to bring added value to others through innovation and design. 

The company strives to live up to its motto, “It’s a way of life,” by constantly innovating its products’ design and functionality. They are driven to add an overall value to their customers’ outdoor experience by bringing the most innovative products to the market. Chronic’s signature products are the shoes they manufacture under the Chronic Footwear brand. Its inventory is chock full of some of the most eye-catching footwear that can draw in athletes and collectors. Made with the best quality materials, Jason Pierce and Chronic create some of the finest products with their customer’s best interests in consideration.

While many other athletic companies and footwear brands manufacture their products from cheap factories, Jason Pierce strives to bring authenticity with Chronic. “We don’t use slave or child labor,” he explained. “We don’t make our shoes in China.” Instead, the company’s products are handcrafted by the finest shoemaking artisans on the planet to guarantee 100% customer satisfaction. “Simply love your shoes or return them for free.”

Because of its longevity in the athletic industry, Chronic Athletics has seen the market shift from traditional outlets to online platforms. Catching up with the times, Jason Pierce and Chronic have established a more convenient way for customers to shop with their products shipping out from every state in America to Europe and the United Kingdom. While most people would hesitate to confirm their orders with additional shipping fees, Pierce reassures his customers that they have nothing to worry about with Chronic’s  Happy Feet Guarantee:

• FREE SHIPPING

Shoes are sent with free express shipping to Europe, the United Kingdom and the USA.

• 100% SATISFIED

Completely love your shoes or we will refund or replace your custom shoes for free—no questions asked!

• FREE RETURNS

Send your shoes back on us. We’ll pay for returns from anywhere in the world.

As the global pandemic continues to bring inconvenience in people’s lives, Jason Pierce and Chronic Athletics offer their customers a safer solution to bring them the most refined products so they can continue exercising from the safety of their homes. The brand strives to uphold its mission despite the ongoing crisis as they value their customer’s satisfaction above all else.

Learn more about Jason Pierce and Chronic Athletics by visiting their official website. You can also get more updates by following them on Facebook and Instagram.

There is no complete handbook anywhere in the world today that will make parenting any easier. There is also no perfect formula that empowers parents to be seamless in the way they raise, educate, and equip their children. Quite often, parents unconsciously employ practices that they witness from their own parents growing up without fully realizing that there is always a better way to do things so that children develop healthy self-esteem and maintain their self-confidence as they mature. Shame, however, is a trigger at specific ages that prevents parents from doing what they ought to do to prepare their children for the real world. Sexuality and intimacy expert Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers is offering the right answers through her book Shameless Parenting. 

The book is considered the 21st-century parenting book that parents today have been looking for. It talks about the sensitive experiences or phases that children go through from birth until the age of 18 that trigger shame. It intends to give parents a practical and easy-to-understand guide on how to be an effective source of emotional support for their children as they encounter shame. Dealing with shame, according to Dr. Sellers, is one of the hardest things parents have to face. Shame causes many parents to overreact and remember their own personal experiences that they have long been suppressing or avoiding. 

Shameless Parenting is all about making parents confident about the concrete steps they can take as they dialogue with their children. It prepares them significantly for each stage of a child’s emotional and sexual development, including anticipating awkward and controversial conversations in the future. For Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers, it is important that parents are not caught off guard. Even if they are, they should be able to recover fast and think on their feet as their children rely on their emotional support. Together, both parents and their children can heal their shame and change their legacy. 

“I want them to be able to bring compassion to themselves and to their parents/caregivers who likely parented them with a great deal of shame and ignorance, not understanding their normative behaviors as they grew, and were likely reactive with them, causing them to feel shame,” Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers revealed. “As people read the book, I want them to have a sense of re-parenting themselves, validating and acknowledging their typical development, and thus releasing any shame they may have acquired as a child or teenager. My hope as well is that the knowledge acquired in this book will give them the ability to support children in their lives with more accurate information, calm, and grace as the child navigates their growing up years,” she added. 

Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers also sees the same struggle with couples and professionals, and it was because of this that she decided to develop a post-graduate training institute for professionals. Through her training, they can learn from leading sexual medicine and psychosocial providers, develop a comprehensive sexuality skill set, progress towards getting an AASECT certification and become an in-demand therapist. She wants to be able to equip them to broaden their experience, counsel without any biases, and be able to offer holistic solutions. 

With Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers’ help, parents can be more intentional in preparing their children to face different realities as they mature, especially ones that involve sexuality and intimacy. As children feel more secure about processing the different stages of their lives with their parents, a new generation of confident and well-aware individuals can be expected to emerge. 

Learn more about Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers by visiting her website. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram for updates on her latest projects. 

Appreciating oneself comes in all shapes and sizes. For some, it means visiting a spa for a pampering session, while others go to the mall for some good old retail therapy. There are also individuals who demonstrate their self-love by going through plastic surgery to enhance their physical appearance. However, a lot of factors need to be considered before anyone can go under the knife. Consulting an expert from an established aesthetics company like Spectrum Aesthetics is necessary to ensure the safety and quality of the procedures one plans to have. 

Spectrum Aesthetics is based in Miami, Florida, and is one of the country’s leading authorities in affordable and high-quality plastic surgery treatments. As a premier center for cosmetic surgery, the enterprise performs most types of aesthetic solutions like rhinoplasty, buccal fat removal, abdominoplasty, liposuction, Brazilian butt lift, and many others.

They have been in the aesthetics industry for more than 125 years(combined between all their surgeons), with a staff that does a tremendous job upholding the venture’s vision and core values of providing excellent service, transparency of procedures, and a responsibility to empower their patients. They guarantee the satisfaction of their customers by providing a comfortable, friendly, and confidential environment. 

What sets them apart from the competition is their commitment to deliver top-notch aesthetic procedures at international standards and ensure accessibility by keeping their prices at a minimum. With a team composed of the top experts in cosmetic surgery and six board-certified plastic surgeons plus state-of-the-art facilities, patients can rest assured that the quality of their procedures is unparalleled.

The organization has been quick to adapt to the drastic and rapid changes brought about by the pandemic. The staff and management are gradually updating and improving their facilities and systems. In fact, most of their equipment has an above hospital-level grade when it comes to sterility. They also found a way to keep their patients in the loop with these adjustments and upgrades. All of these are achieved without having to raise prices.

As a provider, Spectrum Aesthetics has great plans and big aspirations for the future—the first of which is to expand the business to other cities and countries so they can continue providing their trademark service to clients all over the world. Investing in extensive education programs for their staff and doctors is also in the works in order to maintain and improve the level of service they are providing. Not only that, but they also aim to bring about lasting change to the lives of their patients by motivating them to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Lastly, they want to create and spread awareness among the public on what it is that they do through various platforms.

Whether for aesthetic or medical reasons, undergoing plastic surgery can bring about a huge transformation to an individual’s life, both literally and figuratively, which is why bringing out the innate beauty that lies within every single person is the top priority for Spectrum Aesthetics. 

To know more about Spectrum Aesthetics and its services, check out their Instagram page on this link.