November 9, 2026 – Safer Peanut Butter Bryant Williams and AI Communication Gina London

00:04 Intro 1: In the AM, broadcasting from AM and FM stations around the country. Welcome to the Small Business Administration Award-winning School for Startups Radio, while we talk all things small business and entrepreneurship. Now, here is your host, the guy that believes anyone can be a successful entrepreneur, because entrepreneurship is not about creativity, risk or passion, Jim Beach.

00:20 Jim Beach: Hello, everyone, welcome to another exciting edition of School for Startups Radio. I hope you’re having a great day, making a bunch of money, making the decisions to make that possible getting off the sofa, going out there and starting a business. We’re trying to give you the motivation to do that and the tips, the tricks, and the techniques to be successful. I love both of my guests today. This is just an amazing show.

00:46 Jim Beach: First up, Bryant Williams, who has made peanut butter non-allergenic. You know, it’s one of the biggest issues. You can’t have peanut butter at school and all of the things now. Bryant is seeing that problem and has come up with a solution and is an amazing product. He has done it as well as anyone. I just am very impressed. After that, Gina London is with us to talk about AI, she is an award-winning journalist and very successful, and we have a great conversation, and we have a quick 10 inside as well inside the interview.

01:20 Jim Beach: So that is always a highlight. Quick 10 is one of our favorite features and the guests who play love it. And I have a stack of Teslas just sitting in my parking lot right now. So many, it’s like a car dealership out there. If you don’t know what that means, you haven’t heard one before. We will be right back with a great show.

01:43 Jim Beach: We are backing again. Thank you so very much for being with us. I love entrepreneurs. It’s just so cool, the stories that I get to see. People go out there and solving big problems. I love this story that I’m about to share with you. Please welcome Bryant Williams. He is the founder and CEO of Nurtured Nuts Company. He started off with a degree in chemistry from Purdue. I checked because I wanted to find out how you become a food engineer.

02:13 Jim Beach: And then he worked his way up through some of the best consumer products companies in America, like General Mills and KLN and a bunch of the other companies in the pet food, Space Hills, also that I am personally aware of. I have several pets. So I bought some of these products. But now he has gone out and started his own business. It was what we love designing peanuts that are not allergic or allergenic to us people.

02:42 Jim Beach: You know, when I grew up, if you had a peanut allergy, you left the room. Now you have to empty the whole airplane if there’s a whole peanut on there. Bryant Williams, welcome to the show. How you doing?

02:56 Bryant Williams: Doing very good, Jim. Thank you for inviting me and excited to share more about what we’re building and you know, just connect and try to share a bigger, more exciting vision of how we are viewing the future of peanut butter in the United States.

03:11 Jim Beach: What a cool idea. I just love the idea that you’re working on peanut butter to make it better. On your LinkedIn page, you have different colored peanut butter. What’s up with the colors of it’s like the rainbow of peanut butter?

03:26 Bryant Williams: You know, I think with the colors, it just kind of is like excitement and just kind of captures your attention. Um, you know, certainly, uh, for us, um, you can kind of look at some of our social media. Um, there’s no one particular, uh, shade that we, uh, you know, focus on. We use the reds, the blues, you know, any color, and obviously we’re very passionate about our go to colors, which are yellow and purple, but we’re just trying to get people’s attention and bring some excitement and life into the space.

03:59 Bryant Williams: You know, peanuts and peanut butter, mostly consumed by younger audiences. And so I think those colors will attract those groups and just kind of bring some excitement and some vibrancy into what we’re doing.

04:11 Jim Beach: Well, you know, you just teach the whole world that purple peanut butter isn’t bad for the allergy, you know? And every kid knows that, and then you’ve become an icon. You know, and… In the history of food, you have a place in the museum and stuff.

04:27 Bryant Williams: Absolutely.

04:28 Jim Beach: I think purple peanut butter is an awesome idea. Or the yellow color? As well? Just designating that this is different in making that part of the brand, you know? We put the purple in it to take the allergen out, you know, or something like that.

04:44 Bryant Williams: Yeah. And let me touch on that too, just, you know, to kind of share more insight, not to get too technical, but, you know, we’ve partnered with a really great group, AgriNetica, and, you know, we were actually talking to them this morning, and so, you know, we’ve, we’ve removed 3 of the clinically relevant proteins that cause the anaphylactic shock response, and, and our goal, we’re still doing a lot of studies and research, um, specifically, uh, with a, a special group of, um, um, some patients in a hospital.

05:16 Bryant Williams: But for us, the goal right now is just to reenter those restricted markets, not necessarily to get people that are allergic to peanuts right now to consume them. That’ll be, uh, you know, down the road in the future once the studies are complete. But we really want to get back into schools, get back into restaurants and just bring peanuts back into those environments where they’ve been restricted.

05:40 Jim Beach: I love it. I love it. Guess what? My pets have the certified Bipita, the best pet names in America. PETA certified that my pets are the best named pets in America. So you should take my advice on branding and colors and stuff.

05:55 Bryant Williams: Absolutely. We’re taking all the advice we can get, you know, and you know, just from your excitement too, with kind of how you’re you’re seeing, um, you know, the colors and the ideas and the vision. Yeah, yeah, it really helps us.

06:10 Jim Beach: So don’t you want to know what my pet names are that have been certified the best names in America by PETA?

06:17 Bryant Williams: Please, what are they?

06:19 Jim Beach: You should do a naming contest too. That would be a great thing to do to attract attention. I’m not naming your product, but just the best pet name in Georgia or something like that. Anyway, my last name is Beach. So we have Sunny Beach, Wavy Beach, Ripley Beach, Black Sand, Nude, Clothing Optional. There’s just, you can go on forever with beats as your sure name.

06:42 Bryant Williams: Oh, don’t see. Those are great. I love those Yes.

06:46 Jim Beach: And I’ve really gone out on a line. I got 2 kittens for Father’s Day. And I’ve decided, you know, there’s just so many ways you can go. Beach we’ve done. So I was going to do something different. And a lot of people are naming pets, you know, after food, mushu and chopstick. And I just, I, so I went with colors. Green and red are the names of the 2 cats. What do you think?

07:12 Bryant Williams: Ooh, you know, I think, uh, with the colors also, then you could have some fun too, is that like, uh, you know, as you’re getting more, um, uh, animals, you can start dressing them up in certain clothes. So at least you know, like the name matches the clothes and you always know who is who in case they look alike.

07:34 Jim Beach: Well, that’s how I started. The 2 girls were absolutely identical, and one had a green collar and one had a red collar, and that’s the only way I could tell them apart. But now I can tell them apart because, uh, they’ve grown a little bit different. But those are the names have stuck. Those were eventually, you know, originally just the names of the collars. So you can be honest, Brian, we’re friends now. You can be honest.

08:01 Jim Beach: Do you not like it? I’m sensing you don’t love it.

08:05 Bryant Williams: No, I think, you know, what’s funny is, um, I have a dog too, and my dog, uh, bandit, uh, he was actually my grandfather’s dog. Uh, he, he, he acts and lives his name. And, and so I’m curious now because, you know, same with animals. Then I’m like, okay, like, like red, like red makes me feel like that maybe they’re like not angry, but like, you know, maybe they’re always on edge a little bit or they’re, they’re tense.

08:34 Bryant Williams: And then blue might be like really calm, like relaxed and chill. Does the name match the personality? Do you see that at all?

08:42 Jim Beach: It’s green, not blue, and she is a tyrant, like a not a tyrant, but a runner. She can play the game lava. Know, she can do 9 pieces of furniture and not touch the floor and, you know, make it all the way across the room. So she is a spaz. Greeny is a spaz.

09:02 Bryant Williams: Yes.

09:02 Jim Beach: Anyway, so how hard is it to maybe this is a money question to get the allergens out of the peanut butter? You said you had 3 removed. Does that take a $10,000 of CRISPR work? Explain that kind of stuff to me because I don’t know anything about any of it.

09:20 Bryant Williams: Yeah, well, what we’ll start here is that, um, you know, the the work to, you know, do the the scientific uh, lift uh, for doing the research, you know, one, you got to have the right team. Oh, you have the right resources in the right group. And so we actually did due diligence on a number of folks. And, you know, it was back in November of 2025, we actually announced that we were working with AgriNetica on this.

09:48 Bryant Williams: You know, they developed the technology and we were actually just focused on doing the sales, the manufacturing and branding and distribution here. But, um, you know, I mean, there’s been a significant amount of capital uh, that’s been invested to um, to get to where we are today. And I would add too that, you know, um, you know, the the technology that we’re using, you know, CRISPR, um, you know, actually uh, kind of made its big statement or wave back in 2020.

10:17 Bryant Williams: Um, and it actually won a Nobel Peace Prize from some really smart uh, folks out in UCLA. And, um, or excuse me, UC Berkeley. And, um, you know, we are just specifically applying it to peanuts, but, you know, where we’re at today, the peanut has been developed. It exists. Now, it’s not commercially available yet in the market. We’ve just completed our first harvest and we’re actually lining up a set of tests and studies to make sure that it meets all the requirements that we need to take the next step to bring it to people.

10:51 Jim Beach: So that brings up a great question. Where have you gotten all the money to do all of this?

10:58 Bryant Williams: Yeah, um, you know, is finding the right partners? You know, certainly, you know, for us. We’ve spoken to a number of investors, as well as our group that we’re working with AgriNetica. And I won’t speak for them too much. Um, I know they work with an amazing group of folks, but, um, you know, certainly we we are looking for intentional partners, um, that are not only just interested in building a company, interested in technology, but really trying to solve a problem.

11:27 Bryant Williams: That is what’s uh, most um, critical is that uh, people who are very passionate about, um, you know, this, this problem that’s affecting more than 6,000,000 people, you know, in this country. Um, you know, when we grew up, Jim, I mean, you know, peanuts were on planes, uh, we didn’t have separate tables and schools. It was normal.

11:49 Jim Beach: And it was your problem to get your kid safe, you know, to teach your kid to stay away from peanuts. You know? And so I’m kind of, I don’t want to say anything mean against your industry, but I think the reaction that we’ve had to peanuts is an overreaction, but Godspeed to you in your industry and purple peanut butter. Do you think they’ve overreacted a little bit?

12:13 Bryant Williams: Well, you know, I would say, um, this is just us naturally as humans, um, where we get, we get scared, and this is with anything. It’s something you don’t know or you’re afraid of and then you just instantly start removing it or you do anything you can to protect yourself. Um, there’s moments in history where, where we could have said, hey, you know, what if we, I, I think there was some information that came out.

12:40 Bryant Williams: This is public, uh, that there was some direction from, I believe it was, correct me if I’m wrong. Folks can try to check me. I believe the FDA said to wait to give children peanuts. And because of that, they weren’t able to build up some of the immunity or their bodies weren’t able to adjust to some of the proteins that are coming from the peanut. And then that inherently also triggered a rise in peanut sensitivities and reactions.

13:08 Bryant Williams: So, you know, at the time we had good intentions. We wanted to keep people safe, but ultimately, it might have hurt us in the long run.

13:17 Jim Beach: Very, very good point. I think that it probably has, you know, um, because we all have so many allergies now. My little, you asked if I had kids. I have 4 kids. Did you ask that or we were talking about pet names if the kids liked it? I don’t remember.

13:35 Bryant Williams: I think I think I mentioned it when we were talking about like how peanuts have how the industry has changed. And like, I was saying, I think when you send your kids to school, now you got to worry about what are you packing in their lunch, because the last thing you won’t have happened, If someone have a, you know, an incident, uh, you know, in school, which would be very serious.

14:00 Jim Beach: So, My second daughter, I have 2 of each, and my second daughter had to get the allergy shots, and we told her that it was a kitty cat walking up her back and, you know, and all that. And when the doctor came out and started reading the list of her allergies, I started laughing because I seriously thought he was making a joke. It was like, water, air, things that are green, things that have been alive, things that have never been alive, dirt, you know, every single thing that, you know, you can’t get rid of.

14:34 Jim Beach: Air, it was just ridiculous, what she was allergic to. Everything on earth. She was allergic to, basically. And, uh, it’s super scary. And imagine that, you know, if it would kill your child within minutes. Um, now I am getting concerned for the peanut butter eaters. So back to the money. Um, you’ve got a partner that’s spending a lot of money. Are they, you know, actually owning part of your business too, or are they just providing services or did they provide equity funding?

15:04 Bryant Williams: Yeah, so, um, we’ve got a few folks that we work with with some, um, you know, I would say, uh, we, we, we were able to come to terms with an agreement that was fair for both sides. Um, you know, just understanding kind of uh, where the technology is at and kind of the the big broad plan and vision. Um, you know, I think that’s what’s important is that um, just trying to find a way to try to understand that, you know, where we’re at today is not where we’re going to be in the future.

15:38 Bryant Williams: Um, so certainly there’s some talks about like, you know, like how can we make sure that, you know, the work that they’ve put in and the work that we’re putting in. We can all share from the pot. And so that’s kind of how we were able to come up with an agreement.

15:56 Jim Beach: Love it. I love it. How’d you get this idea originally? I mean, this is an idea that we’ve all known about the problem, and none of us said, hey, let’s make peanut butter not allergic, allergenic. I mean you’re the first one to say that. So, you know, 7,000,000,000 people and you’re the first one to think about it, are the first one to put money to it. How did you get the idea and the inspiration to get started?

16:25 Bryant Williams: Yeah, I would say just, you know, one thing if, you know, people that know me. Um, I don’t shy away from the hard problems. Um, certainly there’s a lot, a lot more easy things that we could have gone after, but, you know, where we started from the very beginning is, you know, we wanted to make foods that were better for people. Um, and so there was some aspects of that of just being nutritionally better not having any dangerous ingredients.

16:54 Bryant Williams: And then, you know, we started doing some more research and then the technology, the ability to apply that to crops specifically peanuts. We’re like, okay, this is pretty significant. And, you know, mentioning that we had done our due diligence on a few different groups. And, um, you know, uh, the groups that we’re working with now, uh, the, the 2 lead sciences, Edo and Tall. I mean, they’re just absolute geniuses, and we started talking to them about the work that they had done, not only on this crop, but other crops, and we were like, wow, like, you know, like, what if we could bring this to market?

17:33 Bryant Williams: What if, you know, the, the, uh, I’ll, I’ll paint you the, the not so exciting picture is that, you know, the trend that we’re on right now with peanuts is that in the not so distant future, this could be a food that we used to talk about eating. Um, it’s slowly getting taken away from schools from restaurants. It’s already getting removed from restaurants in the next 10 to 20 years, it might not be a food that we even consider eating.

18:01 Bryant Williams: Um, and you can certainly look at it.

18:04 Jim Beach: Damn it. I’m gonna protest if they take away the Reese’s.

18:08 Bryant Williams: Yeah. No, and I’ll tell you what, Reese’s is still the number one candy in America. I mean Halloween is around the corner. Check the numbers. Um, and so I think trying to solve those hard problems and then having the the connections that uh, I do have for my previous experience, working with General Mills, working with Colgate and other companies, um, I was able to understand and figure out what is the best way to do this.

18:35 Bryant Williams: And, you know, it’s not even just me, right? You know, I’ve got an amazing team helping out. I’ve got a number of great advisors, um, you know, shout out to Deville. Um, shout out to Zach, shout out to Justin, and I’m missing uh, uh, several other folks that are helping out. But there’s just so many people that want this to happen. And, you know, they’re trying to just make sure that, you know, not only is this, again, a business, but this is really going to help change lives because that’s the real impact in Mission and Vision, is having people live safely without fear.

19:12 Bryant Williams: So the 1000000s of people that are affected by peanut allergies aren’t at risk.

19:17 Jim Beach: Amazing. I love it. So you mentioned crops, right? And obviously, you can’t modify a peanut once it’s been, you know, grown and such. So you have to modify a seed and then wait for it to grow. Am I correct here in my analysis, wait 6 months for it to grow?

19:35 Bryant Williams: So I would think of it like this with the technology, from a human lens or perspective, we are coming in right where the sperm meets the egg. Um, you know, right at right at first contact. And so that is where we’re making the changes. And once that that seed or that embryo is built, um, it’s getting planted or it’s, you know, going into the ground and it’s growing from there. So, at that point, nature is, you know, working its course.

20:04 Bryant Williams: Uh, the peanuts, uh, gets planted in the spring, uh, comes out in the fall. Uh, and from there, um, you know, we’ve got other avenues on where we’re taking it for replanting uh, for additional testing and for building uh, commercial products.

20:19 Jim Beach: Okay. But you still have to. Basically, innovate at the speed of nature.

20:23 Bryant Williams: Yes.

20:24 Jim Beach: Oh, that’s not good.

20:25 Bryant Williams: Well, you know, I’ll tell you this, though, that, um, for us, there’s a number of things that you think about how you could, um, accelerate or maybe uh, push it faster and further. But, you know, for something like this also too. You got to keep in mind that, um, I think doing things the right way, building trust and proving that it will work on a larger scale. Um, there’s certainly things we could do to, we’ll call it speed it up.

20:54 Bryant Williams: Um, but, you know, I think taking the right steps and making sure things are done appropriately isn’t the most critical piece about making this this come real.

21:04 Jim Beach: So how far do you think you are away from the goal? Two more iterations, 5 more iterations?

21:10 Bryant Williams: Uh, you know, our goal, you know, and I think we’ve said this in a number of different uh, uh, different uh, places, but 2027, um, our plan is to have a commercially viable product next year. Um, and, you know, the exact timing of that. You know, we haven’t said, but next year, very realistic to have something where, you know, if you wanted to, um, you could potentially go out and purchase.

21:36 Bryant Williams: And obviously there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done from a regulatory perspective. Uh, and then, uh, you know, publishing our studies and things like that. But um, it is very realistic to potentially have something for next year.

21:51 Jim Beach: That would be amazing. And then what does this lead to? Does this lead to legumes or, you know, potatoes or anything else that this uh, shoot off would uh, this technology would take obvious?

22:03 Bryant Williams: You know, I think for us, and I can only speak to so much. The peanuts are our lead product. Um, we have another project that we’re working on that we’re very excited about that, you know, maybe in another, uh, few months, uh, 2 or 3 months. I can come back to you and I can share more with your audience about that next project. But um, this technology can be applied to uh, a number of different applications.

22:30 Bryant Williams: Um, so, you know, if, to your point, if it’s a potato that uh, maybe has more protein. Um, I think there might be some some serious interest with that. Um, maybe it’s, uh, you know, almonds and uh, allergies there. I think there needs to be more attention. You know, there’s a lot going on in the world, but there needs to be more attention towards our food supply. Because I think now more than ever.

22:57 Bryant Williams: We’re seeing challenges with climate stresses, we are seeing, you know, different types of diseases and bacteria affecting crops and making a challenge for, um, you know, all major food companies. So we believe we can be the uh, the leading innovative uh, solution provider for all agricultural foods.

23:14 Jim Beach: That would be great. Minneapolis is the city to do it. Cargill is the company to buy you.

23:20 Bryant Williams: They are, you know, I drive past their headquarters. I would say like maybe once or twice a month. I mean, I, you know, why Zeta is like literally 10 minutes away from me, uh, and I find myself out there for a number of different reasons, um, you know, through the course of a week or a year. Um, and I’ve got some very strong connections there, um, just from my past food, food industry.

23:46 Jim Beach: Yeah.

23:47 Bryant Williams: So, um, no, and they’re a fantastic company. I mean, the work that they’ve done and, you know, surprisingly too, as big as they are, they are still very heavily interested in innovation and bringing out new items for consumers in the industry.

24:02 Jim Beach: Yes, I think they’re, uh, If you’re okay with food that’s been chemically treated. They are very good at what they do. So, uh, certainly they’re feeding 1000000s more people than we used to be able to anyway. Bryant, I love what you’re doing and you get an A plus, you’ve done it all, right? I can’t see anything that I would improve upon. Apparently, I’m going to be on the jar with surrounded with all of my pets is what I’m hearing for the label.

24:31 Jim Beach: So I’m excited about that. And I can’t wait to have you back in a couple years and getting an update.

24:38 Bryant Williams: Thank you.

24:39 Jim Beach: When is the video shoot for my label for me on the label?

24:43 Bryant Williams: Well, you know what? We’ll have your people talk to my people. I know you’re a busy man, but we’ll get something on the calendar and see what we can do to make you get you a special limited edition.

24:57 Jim Beach: Yes. I’ll have my pets get in touch with your pets. Try and how we find out more, get in touch, follow online, and get on the waiting list to find out when things start to appear in the markets.

25:10 Bryant Williams: Please visit our website, nurturednuts.com. We are building quite the waiting list of potential folks that are looking for samples. Um, uh, also on LinkedIn uh, very active. So we have a number of other events coming up to this month in October. We go to a number of trade shows. Um, and then you can uh, email me, bryant@nurturednuts.com. Or you can also email our general inbox. hello@nurturednuts.com. But please reach out.

25:38 Jim Beach: Fantastic. Brian, congratulations on a great, great idea and amazing execution, and thank you so much for being on the show.

25:45 Bryant Williams: Thank you so much, Jim.

25:47 Jim Beach: And we will be right back.

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25:51 Station Bumper Voice (unidentified): Well, that’s a wonderful question, actually, Gil.

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26:15 Station Bumper Voice (unidentified): School for Startups Radio.

26:16 Jim Beach: We are back, and again, thank you so very much for being with us. Very excited to introduce another great guest. Please welcome Gina London to the show. She is an Emmy Award-winning CNN correspondent anchor, and now is with the Malone group and is the CEO of Language of Leadership. She is also got a new book out called Amplify You: How to Connect More Powerfully in an AI World.

26:40 Jim Beach: She has interviewed people like Desmond Tutu and has worked with amazing companies, like Salesforce, SAP Oracle, PwC, KPMG, Merck, all of the biggies. Gina, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?

26:51 Gina London: I am doing great. It’s fantastic be with you, Jim.

26:55 Jim Beach: Likewise, congratulations on the book, amplify you. Great topic with all of the AI scares and have you seen all of these class graduations that they filmed, all of the colleges back in May and the speaker would get up and mention AI and the entire audience would start booing him. Did you see those?

27:13 Gina London: I have seen those. Yes, absolutely, because people, especially the younger generation are like, look, we want to craft our own future. We don’t want to be taken over by AI. I just saw actually recently a CNBC poll that said 82% of Gen Z said technology is making us feel more isolated. We want to have more skills to take control of our human connections. So the book came at a great time.

27:39 Jim Beach: Yes. Well, how do we get? More power in an AI world or how do I increase my voice when it’s all AI slop filtered?

27:47 Gina London: Yeah, yeah, well, no kidding. First of all, put the device down. Don’t picturing your body into a prawn or a shrimp all shriveled around that little device in your hand. But in all seriousness, I have the book divided into 3 sections. Say it, look it, be it. And I want people to go back to basics because I think for a lot of us, if we’re a bit older, maybe the muscles around human skills have atrophied.

28:15 Gina London: And for the younger folks, some of them haven’t actually powered the skill up and got the muscle memory even started yet. So the say it section starts with, how are you taking control of how you talk to yourself, because you’re the first person that you talk to every morning, and the last person you talk to at night. And then there’s the second section gets into around, say, around how do you actually think about how you send messages when you’re actively listening.

28:44 Gina London: Or how do you actually even have conversations with the other people. And so I get kind of every little stone that I can. I unturn it so we can identify it together, build it back with more purpose, and little by little, really start to skill up on these essential human connection skills. Then I get into look at it. And then I put it all together in an application lab for be it.

29:09 Jim Beach: Okay, I love that. I love the breakdown. Let’s go back to the say it part, right? You divide that up into the Joneses. I hate the Joneses. They’re always doing things better than me. And so the comparison traps, and then self-talk, and then turning our voice into something that’s positive. So how do we deal with all of this comparison BS that’s going on? It’s like some families go on vacation every weekend.

29:36 Gina London: Yeah, well, especially when you’re looking at different things on Instagram or TikTok, it does seem like everybody else but you might live this charmed life. So one of the things I start off with is a story, as you mentioned, I interviewed Archbishop Desmond Tutu, years ago when I started out with CNN, and I was on stage with this man who was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and there was another man, Jim, this former president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias.

30:04 Gina London: He also got a Nobel Peace Prize. So I’m a new CNN room about 29 years old. I’m intimidated myself to be on a stage interviewing both of these guys in this day of peace. And while I’m sitting in the green room, looking over my notes. Oscar Arias comes up to me and he’s really confiding in me, says, I don’t know how I can share the stage with this man because here he was an incredible person in his own right, but he was comparing himself to another person that he felt intimidated by and intimidated by.

30:38 Gina London: And that lesson for me was, you know what? When we’re busy comparing ourselves, somebody else is also comparing themselves. And the lesson there is, there is always going to be somebody with, you perceive, they have more, where in this case, Oscar Arias thought that Archbishop Tutu had more charisma, was more of a dynamic personality. And in many ways, he was, but that doesn’t take away, and didn’t take away from the uniqueness of the quiet confidence that Oscar Arias could demonstrate.

31:07 Gina London: And that’s what I shared with him. I’m like, lean in to your story. Tell your story in your own voice. Don’t try to emulate or imitate somebody that you’re not. And that’s the premise of the whole book is that we’re talking about how to amplify the you that you are, not turn you into somebody else. So comparisons are natural and yet getting to know yourself more and be comfortable with who you are and how your story matters and then starting to use the tools that help you tell that story is where I want everybody to start.

31:41 Gina London: Because another thing I say, Jim, is it, look, there’s always going to be somebody with more money, more charisma, bigger boat, but that doesn’t mean that your story and your light isn’t worth sharing. You are worthy and you deserve to be heard.

31:56 Jim Beach: I love one of the things you say in the boat, uh, in the book that if you’re having a competition for the biggest boat, buy a sailboat would be different in your own way. You know?

32:09 Gina London: Exactly. I just, I just took, I live I live full time in Ireland and I just took up sailing myself in the last couple of months. And it is one of the most amazing sports, by the way, because you have to be present. You have to be focused on the direction of the wind on what it’s doing to the sale, on where the water is around you. You cannot be focused on anything else.

32:35 Gina London: And I think that’s a good lesson for ourselves too, when we get so busy comparing ourselves to other people. If we can kind of turn inward and think about what’s our own value? Who are we? That’s a way to start to think about, hey, I have, even if I didn’t climb a mountain or jump out of a plane. I still have an impactful story about some little peace in my life that’s going to impact somebody else and I want that anybody to start to feel like they can take more control of how they share that.

33:09 Gina London: And so that’s part of the premise of the book as well.

33:13 Jim Beach: Oh, there’s a horrible story about the guy who was climbed Mount Everest, and he was so proud of it, and he was doing a lecture series, and he got put on the same stage as Weihenmayer, the guy who climbed Mount Everest, blind. Yeah, he’s like, okay, quickly you got to make an adjustment, you know? You give them.

33:34 Gina London: But in all serious, but in all serious, those are the kinds of pivots where if you get really focused on how, Oh man, I’m not going to measure up to this story. And then you think, wait, I could tell a story of my own disappointment. I could tell the story of how my story might not be, quote, the best story, but it still got some component of it, or I can talk about maybe the person that went along with me on the trip that wouldn’t have if we hadn’t had a meaningful conversation.

34:07 Gina London: I think what happens is we get stuck sometimes on what we’ve planned and not remembering that our audience, whoever they are, they don’t know what we plan. They only know what we end up delivering and how we handle the situation, whatever it is. So keeping, I call it in my book, your external awareness mindset and that flexibility. When you have those 2 in sync, you can make adjustments in real time that still leave people with a positive feeling.

34:35 Gina London: And that’s what the whole idea of amplify you and becoming more intentional about your positive human connections goes back to that often quoted Maya Angelou line of you don’t, people don’t know what you, what you said necessarily, but they definitely know and remember how you made them feel. And that’s something that no matter in what kind of interaction we have, we have an opportunity to leave someone with a positive feeling about that communication experience and everything in our lives is essentially a communication experience.

35:05 Gina London: We have conversations. Those are the relationships, and most conversations that we have, Jim, are with ourselves. So we start with that.

35:13 Jim Beach: I have a really mean self.

35:15 Gina London: Well, first of all, you we build up what I call the ad principle, your awareness. Your desire, and then your discipline or the daily work. So I would start with the awareness of you. You have the awareness of that. So now we go, okay, what do we want to do with that? How much of that is serving me, how much of that might necessarily situationally not be serving me.

35:40 Gina London: How do I dial it up when it’s going to be impactful and appropriate? How do I maybe put some guardrails on or dial it down when it isn’t going to serve the other people building relationships? Are we not building relationships?

35:54 Gina London: And so when we have that awareness piece, and if you don’t have it from yourself, ask, because if you find a trusted person like a teacher or a friend or a coach or a coworker, that you actually trust, and they’re not just going to say, yes, you’re great to everything, that can build that awareness, and then the next piece is, do you want to take some more control over it?

36:19 Gina London: Do you want to learn how to dial up and dial down, not to be fake, but to be demonstrating intentional value or intentionality or purposefulness around the kind of communication interaction you’re going to have.

36:31 Gina London: And then, like this CEO that I was working with, this morning, who has a great story to tell, but he hasn’t exercised the instrument of his voice and the intentionality of his body language to make the best impact of those, that story he wants to tell, that’s where the discipline of stretching your muscles and learning to, quote, perform a little bit is going to make that impact of you. That much more impactful, positive, persuasive, convincing whatever it is you’re trying to do.

37:01 Gina London: Hopefully it’s a mutually beneficial outcome, which is also stress in the book. This is not about exploitative skills. This is about learning how to take more control of skills that will have a mutually beneficial outcome for yourself and for the other people that you’re interacting with.

37:17 Jim Beach: Gina, have you seen the fired Disney CEO in the news in the last couple of days, Bob Chapek?

37:24 Gina London: No, I know that I’m going to be caught off guard on this one. I don’t know this. Yeah, I do a lot with American history, with American news, but that’s what I don’t know.

37:36 Jim Beach: Twelve hours old. His new book is out and so he’s on all of the TV shows right now.

37:42 Gina London: Oh, okay.

37:43 Jim Beach: Very quickly. He’s being labeled bitter and angry and, you know, just bitter. And you know, he’s the guy who got fired. You know, right after he got hired a week before COVID and as soon as they got done with COVID, they fired him basically. And he certainly has a, uh, it’s all everyone else’s fault mentality right now. And so he’s catching all sorts of flack for, I think these exact issues that you’re talking about.

38:10 Jim Beach: He’s presenting himself in a very, I am the victim type way with his $79,000,000 exit package.

38:17 Gina London: Oh, that was his severance.

38:19 Jim Beach: Oh, you know, and so it’s just so hard to, I don’t know. Let’s keep going through the book. I’m going to, we’ll see if it pops up.

38:28 Gina London: Well, I mean, and I can only reflect briefly on what, you know, what might have been the CEO’s memoir or what have you. And I think over here on the side where I’m living, and I think it’s the number one seller over in the U.S. Too, but the Spencer, the, um, the Princess Diana’s brother came out with a book recently about Princess Diana, and there’s still a lot of bitterness and frustration and his, and his story.

38:56 Gina London: And I think it’s backfiring on him a little bit. And so sometimes when we think about our, no, it’s not to say that people can’t have whistle blowing or they can’t have legitimate frustrations and share things like that. But when you think about where you’re coming from and the perception that other people have a view and the message that you’re trying to deliver.

39:19 Gina London: That’s one of the premise, the foundational, um, strategies of my book is to truly think before you send out whatever message it is, for example, like with the Princess Diana book that, that Princess Anna’s brother wrote or about the CEO, that he’s left his job and now he’s really frustrated and blaming other people for his ouster, that you think about how is this going to land with the audience first? What’s their perception of me?

39:45 Gina London: And when we think about the audience first, that sometimes changes how we might share or what we might share. And that’s not necessarily that we have to put everything always in a positive spin, but that when you think about the audience’s reaction first, it does change things and it is iterative, and that might be a good place to start for any kind of communication, whether or not if it’s a tell all book or not.

40:12 Gina London: How is the audience going to receive it? Because they are going to have a reaction. And is it going to be one that you expect or one that sounds like what you’re saying might be backfiring a bit.

40:25 Jim Beach: Yes, very good advice. Back to look it. So, yes, we did say it. Let’s go to look it now. Give us some more depth here, please.

40:35 Gina London: Absolutely. Look, before you say a word. Now we’re here on a radio format, so there’s no visualization of me, but if there were, you would be making like any human being that can see. You’re going to be making a visual judgment or a visual takeaway or signal about not just, we do get a little bit, Jim, about clothing and grooming and that, the whole attire thing.

40:58 Gina London: But we’re also going to be taking a look at, do I have a face that looks like I’m comfortable or I’m authoritative, or I’ve got confidence, or I’ve got energy, all that stuff around how I be, how I can send body language signals. What’s my posture when I walk into a room? What’s my eye contact when I look around at other people? Am I looking super busy or am I looking that I care and can see and value other people?

41:27 Gina London: Do I look comfortable in my skin or do I look tense and nervous? All that stuff is another set of muscle that you can exercise. Am I telling a story about how my students should get enthusiastic about something or my or my teachers or my colleagues should get enthusiastic about something, but my body language is flat. If so, if my face doesn’t match the emotion of what I’m saying, there’s a disconnect.

41:52 Gina London: And typically when we’re listening to someone or watching someone, if there is a disconnect between what their body is sharing and what their voice is saying, we tend to believe the body language.

42:04 Jim Beach: Yes, very true. There’s another expression you left out, a face for radio. Some of us are just too ugly. Do not be on radio. And…

42:14 Gina London: I do not… I do not make… I do not make any kind of judgments on your physicality on its own for sure, but, but I will, I will play with this for a second because let’s just say there’s a beautiful human being. And that human being is sharing something with an audience and that’s supposed to be uplifting, but they have a scowl on their face or they have a real, I’m too cool for you face or a, I don’t care about you face or I’m not interested in you face.

42:46 Gina London: It doesn’t matter how physically attractive someone is, if they are not showing that warmth. Likewise, let’s say somebody isn’t dealt all the beauty cards in the world. And yet, when they come out on that stage, they come and talk before a group of students, and they’re genuinely looking into the eyes of the people, and they look like they care, and they’re looking down at the faces, and they’re leaning in a little bit, and there’s a smile on their face.

43:14 Gina London: Suddenly, you’re going to be more attracted, quote unquote, to that person because their body language is reaching across in a compassionate, caring way. And this stuff is not to be manipulative, but it is to say you can take more control of the you that you bring to any interaction. And it is a combination of how you speak to yourself, how you use your voice through others, how you power up your body language, and then how you put that together with the words and your situational awareness so that you’re creating meaningful conversations in real time.

43:48 Jim Beach: All right, be it. The third part, and you start off with something aim. Take aim. What’s aim?

43:55 Gina London: Ames is my foundational strategy that goes in 3 letters, 3 words for hopefully easy application, audience, intent message. I’ve talked a little bit about audience already. That’s putting their hopes, dreams, and fears in the first position to help you move words in a way to connect. So not to manipulate, once again, or to prey on those fears, but to maybe reassure around those fears, if you’re talking about something that people are going to be worried about how can you offset that at the beginning?

44:25 Gina London: Intent is to be really, really clear. What is it you want them to take away? What is the action you want them to do? The eye and aim, Jim, does not stand for inform because that is boring and people are going to listen. They’re not going to do anything. The eye is, what do you want them to do with it? What’s that first action you want them to take?

44:50 Gina London: And if you think that everyone is listening and understanding what your intent is, you’re missing it because you need to message it really clearly because people are checking in and checking out mentally just about anytime anybody’s speaking anything. And when you know that, then that’s your call to action to repeat a line or make that call to action really memorable. Make that message something that they can repeat or that’s got emotionally charge language in it.

45:16 Gina London: Not to fire people up in a divisive way. I’m really here about positive motivation for things, but to tell or share the what you want them to do, Jim, and then with an aspirational why. And I have a lot of clients that I work with and they get this intellectually, but to actually do it as a pull out quote or a little slogan or a little tagline. So the audience can remember it and repeat it and do it.

45:44 Gina London: It’s harder than you might think. They’re like, oh, everybody knows. No, they don’t, because they’re listening to their own little voice in their head or they’re thinking about how hot the room is or thinking about how scratchy their shirt is. There’s a lot of stuff that’s distracting us all the time, not just our phones. So for you to be able to go clearly, with my audience. What’s my intent?

46:09 Gina London: Now, how do I message this in like 8 words or less so that it’s clear and it’s memorable and people can take away and do whatever it is? In an uplifting way, hopefully.

46:21 Jim Beach: How do you calm down before an interview or a big presentation?

46:25 Gina London: Practice, practice, practice. But in all serious, one of the things I like to encourage people to do is to not memorize word for word, because it’s a lot of pressure, and it’s also usually something that if you do blank on one word and you’ve only got the sequence of words memorized, then you have that blank and you don’t know where else to go. And then there’s that jaw dropping moment where you feel like time is suspended.

46:52 Gina London: So know that a little nerves is okay. A little bit of anxiety. I still get nervous before I’m speaking on something, and I use that to remind myself that I care. The day that I don’t feel any nerves at all or any butterflies, it’s probably a day that I’m being too complacent and I need to remind myself that the audience is here for a reason. And then another thing too is I like to encourage people, if you are going to be speaking, don’t just jump right into your content, whatever it is.

47:25 Gina London: Take a couple of moments to, if you’re going to stand to stand and look out at the people, take a moment to say, hey, good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Really glad to be here. Looking forward to hearing your feet, you know, whatever that setup is. I call it the power of the pleasantry. And it’s your own little checklist in your head about, I’m breathing slower. I’m enunciating. My body language looks calm.

47:51 Gina London: I’m looking out at the people before you jump in because when people are nervous, they have a tendency to start to rush. And then they had that external little editorial comment going, oh no, I’m going too fast. And then you go even faster than you forget what you’re saying. And the next thing you know, you’ve had a really bad experience and you tell yourself, I’m a horrible presenter, but there are things you can do to calm yourself to make yourself go more slowly.

48:20 Gina London: So take that body language time, to set yourself, take those pleasantries, to get your voice in a projection and a pace, that you feel controlled with, then begin.

48:30 Jim Beach: Gina, I heard you’re willing to play our little game, the quick 10.

48:36 Gina London: I’m ready.

48:37 Jim Beach: Are you currently sober?

48:39 Gina London: Yes, actually. It’s only 430 when we’re recording this in the afternoon here in Ireland.

48:46 Jim Beach: We don’t care. You don’t have to be sober.

48:50 Gina London: I promise I am.

48:52 Jim Beach: Okay, I am. Government requires us to ask. Do you want to accept a standard wager?

49:00 Gina London: What’s the wager?

49:01 Jim Beach: The bet that everyone else makes.

49:04 Gina London: Well, tell me what it is before I say yes.

49:08 Jim Beach: It’s the bet that everyone else makes. Which is the entry to play the game.

49:15 Gina London: Okay, yes, I’ll play the game.

49:18 Jim Beach: There you go. Number one, your favorite creativity hack.

49:22 Gina London: Change your scenery. Walk away, get away from the screen, make your brain, make some connections that you weren’t forcing it to make. So that would be my, yes, go on.

49:32 Jim Beach: Number two, favorite bootstrapping trick.

49:34 Gina London: Ah, sell before you spend. Get clear on what someone’s actually going to pay for you before investing it all and the shining stuff around it.

49:42 Jim Beach: Name your top passions. Number three.

49:44 Gina London: Um, human connection. Communication, storytelling, positive leadership, and my daughter.

49:48 Jim Beach: Number four, the first 3 steps in starting a business R.

49:52 Gina London: Oh, find the real problem. Get close to people who have it in some connecting way through marketing or for LinkedIn or what have you, and then create something that they will pay for you to solve.

50:04 Jim Beach: Number five, the first way, or the best way to get your first real customer is…

50:09 Gina London: Start with the people that you already know and who trust you and tell them clearly what you can do for them or for others and ask for the business or ask for an introduction to others who you can continue to ask.

50:23 Jim Beach: Number six, your dreamiest technology is…

50:25 Gina London: Oh, the dreamiest one would be that AI gives us time to be more human and not to continue to go further with AI. I don’t want technology to replace our connections. I want it to remove the friction that keeps us from connecting and I want us to skill up our commitment to making real, meaningful human connections.

50:44 Jim Beach: Number seven, best entrepreneurial advice.

50:46 Gina London: Oh, don’t wait until you’re ready. Start, learn, ask, adjust and repeat.

50:50 Jim Beach: Number eight, worst entrepreneurial mistake.

50:52 Gina London: Underpricing yourself because you want someone to be great because you’re just so grateful that someone wants to hire you, value your expertise before you expect anyone else to. Don’t undervalue yourself.

51:02 Jim Beach: Number nine, favorite entrepreneur and why?

51:04 Gina London: You know, I have met her, and so I’m going to say this. Sara Blakely, she created Spanx. And I’m happy to say that I do on occasion wear them. And it’s, it was her idea. She bootstrapped it. She retained ownership, and she made her personality part of the brand.

51:21 Jim Beach: And number 10, favorite superhero.

51:23 Gina London: So, of course, I’d be tempted to say Wonder Woman, but I’m going to choose my mom instead because she is the original Wonder Woman for me when my dad died when I was 11. She went back to college, got her master’s, put my daughter—my, excuse me, my sister and my brother and me on an incredible path of parenthood, and so for sure, my mom.

51:45 Jim Beach: Wow, that’s a good answer. All right, do you know, while we calculate the score and find out the winner of the wager, how do we get in touch when we find out more and get a copy of the book?

51:58 Gina London: You can go to certainly any place where you get your books online like Amazon or Barnes and Noble. If you’re over in the UK. We’ve also got it over on the Amazon.uk and amazon.i, but for sure, if you want to check out all more about me and also get the book, GinaLondon.com.

52:17 Jim Beach: Ooh, that’s a good URL. You got lucky with that.

52:20 Gina London: Yeah, I did. I got it early. So there’s no other Gina London out there. It’s just me.

52:26 Jim Beach: I thought Jim Beach was unique, but I had to buy it. Spent like $900 on it. There used to be a car in Malibu, not Malibu, Venice, named Jim Beach bar. Anyway, it went out of business. Oh, Gene, I’ve just been giving your score. Oh, I’m oh, I am devastated for you. You got a 94, which is an excellent score, but you have to have a 95 to win.

52:50 Jim Beach: Apparently, we’ve had a couple of English judges who just don’t like anything. Ireland-related, I guess. I don’t know. That’s not me. And so they ding do a little bit. And we always play for a Tesla, so I’m looking forward to receiving a new Tesla sometime soon. Thanks a lot, Gina.

53:08 Gina London: You’re very welcome, but I wouldn’t support Elon Musk or Tesla, so you’re not going to get it for me.

53:15 Jim Beach: Well, you know, we can’t bend the rules of the game. The rules are the rules, you know. I didn’t write the rules. I don’t have anything to do with them. They were imposed upon us by our founders and our elves.

53:28 Gina London: Got you, okay. Well, good luck. Good luck with that.

53:32 Jim Beach: Yes. All right, Gina London, thank you so much for being with us.

53:36 Gina London: Oh, wonderful time to be with you, Jim. Thanks a lot for having me.

53:41 Jim Beach: We are out of time for today, but you know what we do. We come back. Be safe, take care, and go make a $1,000,000 Bye now.