Chris Stoikos is a bearded marketing mastermind you you will recognize immediately. An expert on growth, Chris has an expanding and enlightening viral brand, beard, and philosophy on life. This interview sheds even more light on his creative process and what keeps him motivated, and we’re excited to share it with you! Chris Stoikos is a serial entrepreneur and chief executive officer of Dollar Beard Club. He is the archetypal “mover and shaker” with a number of entrepreneurial credits to his name. His true genius lies in the ability to creatively market and commercialize products, and in ..read more

Maria Del Russo is an outspoken advocate for women, a lively Twitter personality, and a journalist with a captive audience. If you’re like us, you can here because you wanted to know how she presents herself when she’s not in the spotlight. In this volume of STANCE, we asked Maria what she’s up to when she’s not penning commentary and where she is coming from. She lives on the Upper East Side by way of New Jersey. She is a writer, a yogi, and a self-proclaimed Francophile. She is currently working on a collection of essays, as well as contributing to various publications about beauty, sex, dat ..read more

Shama Hyder has spoken on stages across the world and has been named among the nations top entrepreneurs. Today, she’ll step off the stage and give us a glimpse into the mind of the “millennial master.” She is a visionary strategist for the digital age, a web and TV personality, a bestselling author, and the award-winning CEO of The Marketing Zen Group – a global marketing firm. She has aptly been dubbed the “Zen Master of Marketing” by Entrepreneur Magazine and the “Millennial Master of the Universe” by FastCompany.com. Shama has also been honored at both the White House and The United ..read more

The myth, the legend, the man with a headshot in his pajamas: let us introduce you to Neil Patel. You’ve heard him speak on business growth, social, and web traffic, but we’re here to talk about where he stands. Neil Patel is the co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and KISSmetrics. He helps companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP and Viacom grow their revenue. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies in the world. He was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Oba ..read more

In the inaugural volume of STANCE: An Interview Series, we are honored to have interviewed Ryan Holiday. Ryan Holiday is a strategist and writer. He dropped out of college at nineteen to apprentice under Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power, and later served as the director of marketing for American Apparel. His company, Brass Check, has advised clients like Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as many prominent bestselling authors. Holiday has written four previous books, most recently The Obstacle Is the Way, which has been translated into seventeen languages and has a cult following ..read more

Can you spot a first-time presenter a mile away? If not, you might be presenting like one. Need to bring your presentation game up a level? Or simply trying to not look like a noob at your next meeting? Read on to get out of the “rookie” zone and into presentation mastery. Eliminate the following mistakes, and you’ll be well on your way. 1. Neglecting to identify your audience to tailor your content One of the gravest sins of any presenter is to think that they can create one presentation for any audience. Before delivering any presentation, it’s important to know your audiences’ wants, needs ..read more

Big Fish Presentations prides itself on the cultivation of excellent presentations. In order to achieve excellence, we must strive to grow and learn every day. One way to do that is to study great speakers around us. TED Talk of the Week is a series that allows us to explore strengths found in speeches covering a number of topics. We listen, we learn, we grow. The Speaker Chancelier “Xero” Skidmore is an Executive Director of Forward Arts with over 15 years of experience as a trained teaching-artist, facilitator, curriculum writer, and youth worker. As a spoken word artist, Chancelier has bee ..read more

Hold Up now, because we’re getting in Formation to talk about this Irreplaceable keynote by Jon Youshaei. (Okay, we’re done with the Beyonce puns.) We’re living in a crazy world right now. From political unrest to unnerving natural disasters, the past year has rocked our society to the brink and back. But there’s still one shining light that we can all take comfort in – Beyonce and her amazing music. Jon Youshaei is the Head of Creator Product Marketing at Youtube, speaker at Assembly Required: Masters of the Story, and unashamed Beyonce superfan. He recently talked about Beyonce and her ..read more

The Speaker Chetan Bhatt is a sociologist, professor, and human rights activist. He teaches at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he leads LSE Human Rights. His concentrations include nationalism, religious extremism and violence, social theory, and terrorism studies. The Topic “Chetan Bhatt: Dare to refuse the origin myths that claim who you are.” In today’s society, there’s an extraordinary emphasis on knowing where exactly you’re “from.” Everyone has a place of origin, whether that’s your or your ancestor’s birth place. But, in Chetan Bhatt’s talk, he explains that ..read more

On August 26, Manoj Vasudevan became the 2017 Toastmasters International World Champion of Public Speaking with his speech “Pull Less, Bend More“. In it, he tells a captivating story of how he overcame marital issues with sage advice from his mother. With metaphors, imagery, and real-world lessons, this simple seven-minute speech is truly enchanting. At a Glance: The SpeakerManoj Vasudevan is a world-renowned leadership coach and management consultant who has worked with many major multinational companies in Asia, Australia, North America, and Europe. As CEO of Thought Expression, a communica ..read more