If there’s anything political operations do better than most businesses it’s they base their decisions on metrics. Every dollar spent is utilized effectively because money is allocated after a deep analysis of polling and target audiences. In this episode of The Iceberg I’m joined by GOP pollster Brent Buchanan. We dive into the big mistakes businesses make when they focus solely on gut while ignoring metrics.

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Brent Buchanan is an international pollster and messaging strategist based in Washington, DC.

He was recognized by the American Association of Political Consultants as a “40 Under 40” and by Campaigns & Elections as a “Rising Star” and has served in multiple polling, communication, and strategy roles for governors, presidents, legislative leaders, and major corporations. He serves on the executive committee of the International Association of Political Consultants.

 Brent is the founder and president of Cygnal, an award-winning polling, public opinion, and predictive analytics firm also based in Washington, DC, whose clients include Fortune Global 500 companies, foreign heads of state, U.S. senators, congressmen, dozens of state legislative caucuses, and trade associations.  The company is recognized by Inc. 5000 as the fastest-growing private research company in the U.S. and in the top third of growth for all private American companies. Cygnal conducted more than 800 surveys in 2020 and over 1,300 surveys in 2022 in the U.S. and 17 other countries.

 Mr. Buchanan helped create Cygnal’s proprietary Emotive Analysis which quantitatively analyzes voter emotions, allowing campaigns to bypass the logical brain and tap directly into the heart of what voters are feeling, not just thinking.

 Brent does not have any free time because his most important priority is his wife of 14 years and five children ranging from age 13 to age 6.

I have been so blessed to have Christine Osborne in my life. She recently retired after creating and running Wonder Works toy store in Charleston, SC for 31 years. As a member of my mastermind group on the backend of her career, her professional and life advice has been invaluable to me. She’s one of the kindest, sunniest and most giving people I have ever met. I hope you enjoy meeting her on this episode of The Iceberg.

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After 31 years, Wonder Works Head Magic Maker, Christine Osborne, recently sold her Mt Pleasant  toy store location to an employee that had been with her for 26 years. Wonder Works became an integral part of the Charleston community and toy industry receiving countless national and local awards.  Christine wrote regularly for national industry publications and participated  in national media interviews  . She consulted closely with large national toy manufacturers on expanding their offerings to the specialty toy community via testing new concepts. She is well known for spotting and sharing the next trending hot toy.

Currently Christine’s continues to  participate on numerous business boards, and her current roles as Entrepreneur in Residence at her alma mater, College of Charleston and participation on Medical University of SC’s Allied Health Alumni Board , and other national toy vendor boards.  She has mentored well over 200 toy entrepreneurs and continues to help local business owners. She is living her best life with family,  5 grands , pickleball, and art classes. She actively embodies the motto Magic Happenz!

Entrepreneurship isn’t for the weak. Sometimes you have to take big risks, make big sacrifices and bet it all. In this episode of The Iceberg real estate developer Tarry Summers tells the story of how he nearly lost everything he had worked for over eight years and he even had to move into his office and sleep on the couch. 

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Tarry Summers is a real estate developer, entrepreneur, and speaker based out of Columbus, Ohio.

Tarry has experience in a multitude of sales environments including real estate investing, real estate sales, fitness/personal training, bar/restaurant, and network marketing.

He has a mission for success, pursuing passion projects, and assisting other high performing individuals and businesses to do the same.

It’s hard enough to build one business. What kind of crazy leaves a successful and growing business to start a new one from scratch?  A crazy smart guy like Michael Beach who decided to follow his passion for product. That doesn't mean it was easy. It had its tough moments. 

Beach is one of the smartest guys I know in politics. He helped build my biggest competitor and then left to start a company that focuses on data, media consumption and the convergence of television and digital. His company, Cross Screen, has an amazing product my company uses daily. 

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Michael Beach is the Chief Executive Officer of Cross Screen Media, a media analytics and software company that enables marketers to plan, activate, and measure CTV and linear TV at the local level. Michael is also the founder and editor of State of the Screens, a weekly newsletter focused on video advertising that is a must-read for thought leaders in the advertising industry. He has appeared in such publications as PBS Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Axios, CNBC and Bloomberg, and on NPR’s Planet Money podcast.

There’s this thing many entrepreneurs do. We see opportunities and start chasing them, sometimes even neglecting our core businesses and what makes us money. We stop making the main thing the main thing.  It happens for many reasons. Maybe we’re bored. Maybe we see the opportunity to make a lot of money. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. We call it “shiny object syndrome.” Luckily for Brad, he kept his focus on his core business while he made some shiny object mistakes.

In this episode I talk to my close friend and baller entrepreneur Brad Ball about this topic. Brad has become one of my closest business confidants in the last few years. He is the owner of the growing Poogan’s Restaurant Group in Charleston, as well as a short term rental company in South Carolina, Georgia, Costa Rica and maybe other places I’m forgetting. Recently he’s gone hard into early stage investment. I hope you learn a lot from this chat.

I’m joined by serial entrepreneur and investor Patrick Bryant. He’s one of the leading business figures in the Charleston area and someone I rely on for advice in my daily business struggles.  He’s the founder of a software development firm, a video production company, a human resource software company and much more.  The guy is a true baller who has seen all the pitfalls in business. 

He experienced business loss early in life and that motivated him to win big. 

There’s this image entrepreneurs like to share on social media. It’s a picture of an iceberg. Above the surface is the word success. Below the surface are words a bit murkier. Words like stress, failure, persistence, sacrifice, hard work and disappointment.

There are plenty of podcasts that talk about success. Very few like to talk about what’s beneath the surface. That’s what we are going to do on this podcast. We’re going to talk about the hard stuff.

First up is my dear friend Christina Locke. Christina is CEO of Catch Talent in Charleston, delivering technical recruiting services to technology, creative, and government contracting companies.  She’s a real powerhouse as a female entrepreneur.

I think you’ll learn a lot from her on what it takes to win in business.