Conversations That Count

What happens when a woman engineer realizes she still calls a guy every time her car breaks down? Patrice Banks, CEO and Founder of Girls Auto Clinic, turned that frustration into a movement empowering women through automotive education. Patrice spent years as an engineer at DuPont before discovering that women are the number one customer in the auto industry, spending $200 billion a year on vehic...

Ashton Blaise spent her twenties building the perfect career in political media only to realize she was living someone else's version of success. Then she burned it all down and found herself through cosplay. Ashton Blaise is a cosplayer, pinup artist, streamer, and content creator who left careers in conservative media, liberal media, and crypto marketing before discovering that the things she lo...

Ashlynne Day showed up to her first convention in a Lady Loki costume she made herself. She didn't even know what cosplay was. People kept complimenting her "cosplay" and she had to Google the word when she got home. Fifteen years later, it's her full time career. Ashlynne Day is a professional cosplayer and content creator who studied fashion, graduated with honors, worked in the industry, and wa...

If you open a Where's Waldo book believing you'll never find him, you won't. But if you believe he's in there and you keep your eyes open while you flip through the pages, he's going to pop up. That's exactly how abundance works in real life. In this solo episode of Conversations That Count, David Shaft talks about the one belief most people are missing after they've built their plan, defined thei...

The most important communication skill you will ever develop has nothing to do with presentations, meetings, or networking. It starts with the words you say to yourself every single day. In this solo episode of Conversations That Count, David Shaft breaks down why self talk is the foundation of every other communication skill you will ever build. Following up on his previous episode about defining...

Overnight success is not a real thing. The real win is showing up, doing the work, and staying the course when nobody is clapping for you yet. In this solo episode of Conversations That Count, David Shaft gets honest about a moment that caught him off guard. After a week and a half without talking to his sister, who is modeling in South Korea, he expected to have some huge life update to share. In...

The Oxford dictionary defines success as "the accomplishment of an aim or purpose." It doesn't say what the aim should be. It doesn't say whose purpose. Most people spend their entire lives chasing someone else's version of success and never stop to define their own. In this solo episode of Conversations That Count, David Shaft talks about why he defines success as freedom and why that definition...

The Cambridge dictionary defines purpose as "an intention or aim, a reason for doing something or for allowing something to happen." That last part is the one most people miss. Because even when you're not taking action, things are still happening to you, and if you're not careful, you're just letting life happen without any reason behind it. In this solo episode of Conversations That Count, David...

What happens when a banker who covers business and finance walks into one of the biggest beauty conventions in the country? He meets 40 business owners in three days and realizes he's been rushing past conversations his entire career. In this episode of Conversations That Count, David Shaft is joined by co-host Savanna Smith, a musician and model who worked the American Beauty Show as a model thro...

The best communication skill David Shaft ever learned didn't come from a book or a seminar. It came from standing at a cold bus stop with his family, figuring out how to smile at a bus driver so six people could ride for the price of one. In this solo episode, David gets personal. He talks about growing up without a car, what those years taught him about persuasion, teamwork, and reading people, a...

A $50,000 salary in Detroit, Michigan buys you the same quality of life as $44,500 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. That means if you keep your salary and move, you just gave yourself a raise without asking anyone for a dime. In this solo episode of Conversations That Count, David Shaft breaks down exactly what to research before you pick up and move your family. He walks through cost of living differen...

It doesn't matter if Mark Cuban is your mentor. If you're a bad mentee, nothing changes. Most people focus on finding the perfect mentor and forget that mentorship is a two way street with responsibilities on both sides. In this solo episode of Conversations That Count, David Shaft breaks down what it actually takes to be a great mentee. He shares the time a mentor told him point blank that he was...

Vinny Farris has run Link Systems International for 25 years, serving colleges and K-12 programs across the country. His COO will correct you on the spot if you call them a vendor. They're partners. And that one word changes everything about how they do business. Vinny Farris is the President of Link Systems International, an online tech-enabled services company focused on student achievement and...

Here's the optimized title, description, and keywords: TITLE: A 20-Year-Old Songwriter on Fear, Selling Yourself, and Knowing When to Be Quiet | Savanna Smith DESCRIPTION: Savanna Smith had a dream she was on a horse in a Western movie, running from her fear. When she woke up, she heard a guitar loop and turned that feeling into her new single "With Me," dropping August 18th on every platform. Sav...

52% of realtors wait four to eight hours to call a fresh lead. By then, someone else already helped them. A new client is like an ice cream cone on a hot summer day in Texas. If you don't grab it now, it melts. In this solo episode of Conversations That Count, David Shaft breaks down speed to lead, why it matters in every industry, and shares the time he lost a client he'd helped before simply bec...

You didn't choose where you started. You didn't choose the poverty, the injury, the illness, or the family situation you were born into. None of that is your fault. But what you do with the rest of your life? That part is entirely on you. In this solo episode of Conversations That Count, David Shaft shares lessons from John Eldredge's Wild at Heart, a knee injury that derailed his athletic career...

You want people to find you interesting? Stop talking. The most interesting person in any room is the one who's actually listening, and most professionals don't know the difference between being quiet and truly hearing someone. In this solo episode of Conversations That Count, David Shaft breaks down why silence is the most underrated communication skill in business and relationships. He walks thr...

The best baseball hitters in history miss the ball seven out of ten times. That record gets you into the Hall of Fame. So why are most professionals terrified of failing even once? In this solo episode of Conversations That Count, David Shaft makes the case that failure is the single fastest way to become a better communicator, a more interesting person, and someone people actually want to talk to...

A bad car accident took David Shaft off his feet for months. No conversations, no team, no daily interactions. That silence made one thing clear: most people have already stopped communicating, and they didn't need a crash to get there. In this solo episode, David shares the real story behind Conversations That Count. Why a director of banking who leads 40 people and built his career on communicat...

When every model in the room is beautiful, the one who communicates wins the room. Savanna Smith figured that out at 20 years old. Savanna Smith is a professional model who went from wanting to be famous her whole life to booking clients in under eight months, not by being the prettiest person on set, but by being the one who actually talks to people. Why introducing yourself to every person in th...

97% of Americans don't have real goals. They have wishes. And most New Year's resolutions are dead by Q2 because there was never a plan behind them in the first place. In this solo episode of Conversations That Count, David Shaft explains why he stopped believing in resolutions and started treating his year like a business with four fiscal quarters. He walks through exactly how he's structuring hi...