Politely Pushy with Eric Chemi

Today’s guest is George W.. - no, not that one, but a man with his own mission to shape this country and make it safer across many industries. George Waller may have more luck than the former president because he - and his company Zerify (formerly Strikeforce Technologies) - have focused on cybersecurity for 21 years and invented two methods of securing video conferencing to protect private data -...

Today’s guest has had quite the whirlwind of a year! That entails the birth of a new baby, a marriage, a major location move and becoming a CEO after graduating Stanford’s MBA program only four years ago. But for Christina Martinez, who majored in microbiology at Princeton as an undergraduate, only motherhood seems to be the biggest challenge. She quickly acclimated as CEO of Traject, a company th...

Move over Rami Malek as Mr. Robot. There’s a new ethical hacker in town, bucking stereotypes about women in STEM – and did we mention that aside from her work protecting systems from dangerous hackers, she has also been an actor? Today’s guest is Gabrielle Botbol, an offensive security consultant at Desjardins. Growing up in France, she was encouraged to pursue her interests in literature and acti...

When you think of cybersecurity, you immediately flash to personal PCs and IoT devices, an organization’s critical assets - and yes, those are all essential components to consider, but today’s guest Francis Cianfrocca, CEO at InsightCyber discusses how his company looks out for and services even bigger corporations that experience a trickle down attack from an organization’s breaches. InsightCyber...

Today’s guest is Sebastian Grady, president of Rimini Street, a company of seasoned engineers that deliver exceptional third-party enterprise software support. Rimini Street tackles customers’ challenges with products from companies like Oracle, SAP, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel, saving clients up to 90% of their total enterprise software support costs. Sebastian discusses why clients prefer...

Today’s guest is Colin Banas, MD, an internal medicine doctor and chief medical officer of DrFirst, which started as an e-prescribing company before becoming an innovative health IT technology company with strength in medication management. What is the “Healthiverse?” Banas explains and details how DrFirst unites healthcare stakeholders who align to improve patient outcomes, connecting people to i...

Today we welcome Sarah Spence to the podcast. Sarah is the CEO of Toronto-based Tadiem, the parent company of three agencies. Tadiem stands for Talent and Decency in Equal Measure and this mantra has helped Sarah see The Great Resignation through a different lens, providing her with an understanding of employees and their thought processes, as well as why her company was not hard hit by this world...

Today’s guest is Rob Enderle, owner of the Enderle Group. He is a tech and business analyst, thought leader, and journalist who was once ranked number 1 for his influence in the U.S. and Europe and named to the top 10 in Asia. Today, analyst rankings are not a thing, which could be the way crypto is headed in the future (Rob has mixed thoughts on the subject and that of NFTs - which you’ll have to...

When you see Steve Carell use a Blackberry as his character Michael Scott on The Office, do you assume Blackberry was an advertiser? Very often, when we see brands on TV, we figure they paid for play, but here’s a surprising fact: 60% of companies don’t actually pay production companies to appear on a show. There’s often a partnership and process benefitting both parties.  Today’s guest, Stacy Jon...

Did you watch the Black Mirror episode “Smithereens” starring Topher Grace? In the Netflix special, Topher’s Jack Dorsey-like character is so focused on meditation and seeking life purpose that he’s fled his tech company for the wilderness, neglecting the chaos wrought by technology and social media. Well, today’s guest isn’t Topher and no, it’s not Jack, but it’s someone we find to be interesting...

Americans Trust Local News Over Social Media and 67% Trust Local over National News. Politics may be dividing the nation, but if there’s one thing that unites Democrats and Republicans it’s the local TV news. This medium now ushers in more viewers than national news and is appealing to a surprisingly younger demographic. In fact, local TV news has a bigger audience than either national or cable ne...

Today’s guest is Elia Wallen, the CEO and founder of Hotel Engine, a company that was established to be the middleman between businesses and hotels for more seamless corporate travel. Elia discusses how his team sought to alleviate the headache that booking hotel rooms can bring to companies and their employees, and how Hotel Engine offers technology to save time, money and eradicate the hassles t...

This week we are joined by Jered Martin , the CEO of OnePitch , a company our host wishes was around when he was a reporter. OnePitch helps PR professionals match their pitches with the ideal media list so they’re only contacting suitable journalists. AI technology is instrumental in this careful matching process with the service designed to carefully look analyze pitches and press releases, scan...

This week’s guest is Tom Carpenter, a principal at the public relations firm Bospar who has more than 20 years of business, marketing and tech PR experience. Tom is known as “the crisis communications expert” and is skilled at advising tech companies in highly sensitive situations. But he began his career conducting PR for one of the world’s leading law firms, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & F...

Toric co-founder and CEO Thiago da Costa joins the show this week. Brazilian tech entrepreneur Thiago shares how his initial attempt to develop a 12-unit building was the impetus for him to start Toric, a tech startup that's already cracking the construction industry's data insight conundrum. Thiago is a lifelong entrepreneur, and he explores the lessons learned from his previous startup...

Author of Make It, Don’t Fake It and tech industry veteran Sabrina Horn felt confident when she started her own communications agency at age 29. However, she learned the hard way about how authentic one needs to be about what they know and truly understand, and the importance of setting realistic expectations with oneself and one’s clients. She explores the concept of “faking it” and how that can...

This week’s episode has our host feeling a tad out of his element while interviewing three powerhouse professionals about Women, Work, and Wholeness . So, he takes the more polite approach rather than a pushy one.  Chris Boehlke, who put the “Bo” in Bospar as the PR agency’s principal, shares wisdom gleaned from her years in the communications industry and explains how “wholeness” is not all about...

Vanessa Yanez joins the show this week. An accomplished communications leader whose experience in the industry and passion for social justice and women’s issues has likely made her the most tireless PR professional historically, she’s also a mom of teen daughters. Yanez is president of PRSA Silicon Valley and was named a 2021 Woman of Influence Honoree. She also oversees content for the Silicon Va...

According to Gartner , end-user spending on cloud computing is set for a 21% hike this year with total spending set to exceed $480 billion. So it’s no surprise that global companies - like yours and ours - are becoming increasingly reliant on the cloud. But like any technology, the cloud is not immune to downtime, so more dependency means that businesses need more ways to mitigate potential losses...

Mega Jewell is VP of social media at Bospar. Her career took her from TV journalist to data scientist to entrepreneur and now here helping companies put their best selves forward on social. Mega talks about her personal journey and lessons learned along the way. She also gets into the differences among the various platforms, how companies can best utilize them (or screw up), and how the game has c...

Next Pathway transforms businesses to the cloud and their CEO leads the way with purpose and integrity. After starting and selling a couple businesses, and again seeing massive growth with his latest endeavour, Next Pathway's Chetan Mathur talks about what he’s learned about finding the right waves to ride and taking the time to truly understand what businesses are looking for when it comes t...

Adam Ritchie walks us through his journey as Founder and Principal of Adam Ritchie Brand Direction in this episode of Politely Pushy.  Adam discusses Invention in PR, and how to avoid falling on the F Side of the Useful/Frivolous divide. 

Public Relations veteran Robin Beaman joins Eric to tell the tales of her career in PR and entertainment. Robin talks about her time managing communications at BET and as the Manager of Public Relations of the Oprah Winfrey Show. Listen to the full episode to see how her experience led to Robin founding Beaman Incorporated, her full-service communications agency. 

Anish Srivastava joins Eric on the latest episode of Politely Pushy. Anish is the Founder and CEO of Telocity , a venture group that believes that thoughtfully designed, technology-based tools can create more accessible and equitable ways of improving the mental health and well-being of young people.  Anish talks about why he is passionate about kids' mental health, and how parents can balanc...

Career Communicator Steve Swasey joins Eric on this episode of Politely Pushy. Steve  talks about the challenges of the 24-hour news cycle, why it is more important than ever to live by HIT - Humility, Integrity and Trust - and how HIT can help brands navigate a crisis.