#75 Product Development and The Power of Continuous Learning with Ben Bauman III

Thinking That Matters with Elizabeth Mahusay

Ever wondered how to approach new challenges with fresh eyes?

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ben Bauman, the Director of Product Development at Southwestern Consulting.

In this episode, Ben shared his journey from working in the lottery industry to software development, and now to consulting product development. He emphasized the importance of continuous learning and how his voracious reading habit has significantly contributed to his professional growth.

Ben discussed the challenges he faced early in his career, including overconfidence and the realization that there was always more to learn. He highlighted the role of mentors and the value of reading in overcoming these challenges.

Ben also shared a personal story that underscored the importance of being present and cultivating thinking that matters. He encouraged listeners to read more, stay curious, and always strive for growth and improvement.

Key takeaways from our conversation:

• [00:02:49] Challenging your thinking development

• [00:03:56] Reading as a tool for professional and personal development

• [00:07:45] The Mental ABCs of Pitching

• [00:13:49] Seeing problems with fresh eyes.

• [00:15:17] Coaching young baseball players

• [00:20:28] Growing your talent stack

Books Mentioned:

1. Fiction:The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

2. For Young Athletes:The Mental ABCs of Pitching by Harvey Dorfman

3. For Work:Buyology by Martin Lindstrom

More about Ben:

Ben Bauman loves working with the Southwestern Consulting team and helping our team of world-class coaches, trainers, and speakers change client lives. Serving as Director of Product Development, he works to forecast and to identify areas enhancing client-centric value, to increase client and coach retention, and to optimize the sales funnel with innovative product offerings. Above all, he supports SWC's mission to be the leader in personal and professional growth.

In his free time, he enjoys coaching youth sports and volunteering to help leagues in the Wilson County, Tennessee area.

He previously served as a Senior Product Manager for SP+, leading two great product teams. Their Sphere Commerce Mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) team has built a mobile app that is one of the most advanced mobile point of sale processing solutions in the parking and transportation industry. The "Booking Engine" product team he work with has built a white-labeled ecommerce platform to sell parking for our clients.

To summarize his prior career in the Lottery industry, Lottery instant games (or "scratch-offs") are Software Products, sold at retail alongside other CPGs. In the product management world there's a phrase "learning by shipping", and he has shipped over 150 monthly product launches (over 500 individual games) with total sales over $16 billion.

Moreover, Ben is a collaborative servant leader and team-builder who enjoys active listening and sharing data-driven insights to solve complex problems for customers. Serving customers in the area of product management, product marketing, category management, consumer research, and operations management.

💡Getting involved with youth sports at the elementary and middle school level, has been eye opening for the opportunity to help our youth. Children aren't getting enough physical activity at school. One mind blowing example was my child's 5th grade gym class time the class was told to sit in the bleachers and play games on their laptops during their gym class, while another group of students "took a volleyball test" on the gym floor. With my younger two kids, Teachers aren't correcting spelling errors on written assignments.

We have to hold ourselves and our kids to higher expectations so they can succeed in the real world.

Southwestern Student Coaching program pairs students (ages 13-21) with a highly-trained student coach to hone in on their unique growth areas and equip them with the real-world skills they need to succeed, both inside the classroom and beyond.

For youth ages 13 and up, Southwestern Student Coaching helps youth and young adults create core habits and

https://southwesternconsulting.com/coaching/students/students

💡 Join the Growth Group initiative and Elevate your journey with our live, in-person training sessions, designed to ignite your potential and drive remarkable growth with a vibrant network of dynamic women!!

💡Powerful Women Growth Group https://www.eventbrite.com/e/809187500597?aff=oddtdtcreator

Know more about Elizabeth Mahusay:

Elizabeth grew up a self-starter who as a young woman prided herself on her independence and self-sufficiency. She found herself challenged to develop deep and meaningful relationships because of her prideful “know-it-all” approach to life and work. She projected that she was perfect yet struggled to deal with failure, thoughts of insecurity, and the feeling of inadequacy. Through her study of the Bible, time as an entrepreneur, and the accountability of some great mentors Elizabeth, is a transformed woman. Today, she passionately invests her time helping others transform their thinking.

Elizabeth is author of the recently published Transform My Thinking, God study on the book of Philippians. She has published over 170 YouTube videos and hundreds of Facebook Live videos ranging from topics of business building, daily encouragement/motivation, inspiration, marriage, and Bible exposition.

Connect with Elizabeth:

Facebook: @elizabethbmahusay/

Instagram: @ebmahusay/

Youtube: @ElizabethMahusay

Website: https://elizabethmahusay.com/