Excited to have my friend Eric Schneider join me for what I hope you’ll agree is a really interesting conversation.

The Narrativ was created to bring interesting people to you who you may not have heard of (or from) before with the common thread of those people being great storytellers.

Eric is a great storyteller, and uses interesting mediums to tell his stories, some of which won’t translate to an audio format.

So, when you’re done listening, go check out Eric’s blog at

https://ericschneiderr.wordpress.com/

or his LinkedIn profile.

Eric’s currently a consultant in enterprise software and advises executives in using data to bring their customer strategy to life.

He started his career in mechanical engineering, shifted to training and selling engineering software, and continued building his career by continual learning and following his interests.

That took him to eCommerce, salesforce automation, marketing technology, analytics, and more.

Along the way, Eric built an approach to sketching and writing which helps him think, understand problems, and engage others in solving them.

He lives in Atlanta with his wife, two sons, and dog.

For fun, he enjoys biking, reading, and cooking. If you want to gain 5 pounds by proxy, just go look at the cooking photos on Eric’s Instagram.

Eric is fascinating, I think you’ll enjoy meeting him.

This episode is very different from any I’ve done to-date. We’ve met and talked to people who are great storytellers and who have remarkable personal backstories that have framed their strengths in storytelling. For this episode, we are meeting someone who has a very powerful, and at times difficult story.

Paul Bocanegra was condemned to Life Without Parole at the age of 17. Paul served twenty-five and a half years, more than twelve of those in solitary confinement, before being paroled under Senate Bill 9 which gave youth with Life Without Parole sentences an opportunity to petition the court for a second sentencing hearing. Paul transitioned back into the community in September 2017 and discharged parole in 2021 obtaining agency in his life for the first time.

Today, Paul is living his life to the fullest, advocating for more reforms that would ensure that the criminal justice system never deprives another youth of a fair and meaningful opportunity to work toward restoration.

Paul is a Certified Drug and Alcohol Counselor, a Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Commissioner for San Mateo County, a personal mentor for transitioning community members, and an expert witness in criminal justice cases involving youth.

Paul has testified at the California State Capitol and helped to defeat legislation that threatened current reforms, has co-authored legislation in his county, and is a member of the Latin X Advisory Committee to Sen. Josh Becker.

Paul co-founded ReEvolution to use his lens of lived experience to help ReEvolution provide meaningful support in prevention efforts, with an emphasis on youth, and person-centered reentry programs for all the transitioning community. 

Paul is a motivator and educator and seeks to bring out the full potential in each life he touches.

He is ReEvolutionizing transitional thinking and providing safe spaces for those thoughts to congregate and grow as a community within a community.

Constanza Roeder is the founder and CEO of Hearts Need Art: Creative Support for Patients and Caregivers and host of the podcast Arts for the Health of It.

As a singer, adolescent leukemia survivor, speaker, and thought leader in the field of Arts in Health, Constanza is on a mission to humanize healthcare through the arts. 

Constanza is the recipient of the 2018 Graceann Durr Humanitarian Award and was selected as one of the Top 100 Healthcare Visionaries by the International Forum on Advancements in Healthcare for 2021.

Her work has been featured in various publications such as ThriveGlobal, Authority Magazine, Ticker News, National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the cover of MD News Magazine.

 Constanza has a powerful, touching story and I think you’ll enjoy meeting her.

Bem Joiner believes in Atlanta.

Born and raised in the city, he has a pure passion for its people and its progress. In his words: he “majorly contributes to what makes culture in Atlanta cool and captivating”.

 As a culture curator and co-founder of the civic-minded creative consultancy & brand, Atlanta Influences Everything, Bem has managed and consulted a variety of lifestyle brands and designed meaningful programs for clients like Sprite, the Mississippi Dept. of Education,truth.org, Jack Daniels, Nissan, the National Black Arts Festival and countless others.

He is heavily involved in the Atlanta hip-hop music scene, and even booked "early-adopter" shows for Drake, Kendrick Lamar and the Goodie Mob reunion.

Bem is also one of the founders of CreativeCall.org which is a community service effort & collaboration between Atlanta and Stockholm creatives, and was previously the Community Engagement Coordinator for the Center for Civic Innovation in South Downtown Atlanta.

Bem recently joined the leadership team at 8 Strains, a cannabis & crypto start-up in San Francisco as the Culture & Community lead.

He also currently serves on the boards of three non-profits: The Grove Park Foundation, The Wren's Nest and the Atlanta Film Society.

Bem is fascinating, and I think you’ll enjoy meeting him.

Jesse is the founder of Fans First Entertainment and the owner of the Savannah Bananas baseball team.

He’s the infamous “dude in the yellow tux” and a man who’s truly disrupting the way baseball is played, presented and consumed.

Jesse is to baseball what PT Barnum was to Circuses.

Fans First Entertainment has been on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in America & Jesse’s teams have welcomed more than a million fans to their ballparks and have a quarter of a million more Tik Tok followers than any major league team, at a time when baseball is viewed as increasingly tedious and not able to reach younger audiences.

Jesse released his first book “Find your Yellow Tux” and launched it in the most perfect way – with a World Tour… A World Tour that took place entirely within EPCOT. 

Jesse owns seven yellow tuxedos and even proposed to his wife Emily while wearing one in front of a sold-out crowd, and they later married in the stadium.

Jesse also hosts the Business Done Differently Podcast.

Strap in for this, Jesse is energy exemplified and a true business innovator. Totally fascinating.

To mark the end of Season One of The Narrativ Podcast, join me for a retrospective on the first season, with some great segments, and also a look back at the movies, TV series, documentaries, books, podcasts and music that my 13 guests offered up as suggested content.

Looking forward to Season Two, early in 2022.

Bryan Kramer is the co-Founder of H2H Companies. He is a renowned business performance coach, and a noted keynote speaker who has presented on the main stage at events all around the world, including Ted events. In his performance coaching Bryan teaches other speakers, entrepreneurs and executives how to up-level their storytelling.

Bryan is the author of two bestselling books, Human-To-Human and Shareology, that explore the changed landscape of interactions in the digital age, and he is also a contributor to Forbes.

Bryan was the president of Pure Matter, a marketing agency that did innovative powerful work for me at Tealeaf, and for many other companies in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Bryan’s story is powerful and insightful.

I think you’ll find it as fascinating as I do.

Dr. Jeffrey C. Smith and I go way back, before the prefix doctor was added to his name.

In fact, Jeff was my boss for a couple of years – he was the founder & CEO of Tumbleweed Communications, where I lead the marketing team.

After Jeff sold Tumbleweed, he tried to pivot away from technology, and returned to Stanford to follow his first love – music. In fact Jeff’s mother was his first piano teacher, starting when he was only 4-years-old.

Ultimately, after a surprisingly winding journey, Jeff earned a doctorate in computer-based music & acoustics from Stanford.

But like the Mafia, technology…or maybe venture capitalists – can suck you right back in, especially after you and a friend created an idea during your studies that was perfect for the times – a thing that became Smule.

At the start in 2008, Smule was just a company with a fun name and a big dream. They aspired to bring music back to its roots and empower anyone to join in.

Today, Smule is a vibrant, global community of music lovers where millions of people across the world come together each day to share their passion for music, make new friends, cheer each other on, and simply have fun.

The story of how Jeff got there is a lot of fun.

I think you’ll find it as fascinating as I do.