Join us to learn all of the juicy secrets of tech leaders - their biggest successes (and failures) - on our quest for gaining that all-important technology edge.

I went from 105-hour weeks and near-divorce to a 40-hour workweek, zero turnover, and no missed deadlines.

That crisis forced me to rebuild everything—my leadership style, my team, and my life.

Now, I teach technology executives how to do the same.

I’ve coached executives from startups to Fortune 500s, helping them turn overwhelmed teams into high-performance A-Teams.

I’m Mike Mahony, a 20+ year CTO, Executive Coach, and creator of the Decentralized A-Team Method. 

My mission: help leaders escape firefighting mode, build autonomous teams, and scale without burnout.

Through executive coaching, digital products, and consulting, I guide tech leaders to:

	•	Cut hours without sacrificing results
	•	Develop teams that deliver without micromanagement
	•	Eliminate chaos and streamline operations

I also serve as a Fractional CTO and NetSuite specialist, where I translate messy systems into clear business wins—whether that’s automations, API integrations, or optimizing data workflows.

And as host of “Gaining the Technology Leadership Edge”, I sit down with top executives, founders, and disruptors to reveal the real stories behind successful teams—the hard lessons, surprising wins, and the strategies they wish they’d known sooner.

Here’s how we can work together:

🔹 Want to apply the Decentralized A-Team Method to your leadership style? DM me “COACH”

🔹 Have a story for the podcast? DM me “PODCAST”

🔹 Need a NetSuite Developer or Fractional CTO? DM me “NETSUITE”

👉 Listen to the show: https://gtle.show

📘 Grab the book: TopTierCoachingServices.com/dcatbook

Mike Mahony

Charles Payne

Navigating the complexities of modern cybersecurity demands executive leadership with a comprehensive understanding of both technological advancements and financial implications. Charles Payne offers a distinctive perspective, leveraging over two decades of experience in capital markets investing to inform and enhance cybersecurity strategy.

As a seasoned leader, Charles uniquely bridges the gap between technical expertise and business realities. His deep financial acumen ensures that cybersecurity investments are strategically aligned with organizational objectives, maximizing ROI and minimizing financial risk in an evolving threat landscape.

Driven by the need for collaborative solutions, Charles established CISOevents™, an exclusive platform for CISOs, C-suite leaders, and industry experts to engage in strategic problem-solving and foster cybersecurity innovation. This initiative accelerates the development and adoption of critical security advancements.

Charles actively supports the future of emerging technologies as an Investor, identifying and funding promising startups with transformative potential. This commitment ensures the continuous evolution of solutions to meet emerging threats.

Charles Payne provides executive leaders with the strategic insights and innovative solutions necessary to build resilient and secure organizations in today's challenging environment. He is a driving force in fostering collaboration and investment for a more secure future.

CISO/CTO

Neptune Media is a leading provider of executive-level summits that bring together top decision-makers, providing unparalleled opportunities for executives and vendors to learn, network, and grow their businesses. Our summits offer a unique opportunity for executives to learn, network, and discuss the latest trends and challenges facing their organizations. With prominent speakers, interactive sessions, and networking opportunities, attendees can exchange ideas, explore new trends, and gain valuable insights into the latest business strategies.

The Neptune Media staff and I are committed to delivering world-class summits that provide exceptional value to our attendees and sponsors. We are passionate about creating engaging and insightful experiences that help executives keep pace with the rapidly evolving business landscape.

Whether you're looking to expand your professional network, gain new industry insights, or connect with other senior executives, Neptune Media has the expertise and resources to help you succeed. Our events are designed to provide a platform for executives and vendors to build meaningful relationships and generate new business opportunities. Join us at one of our upcoming summits and experience the Neptune Media difference for yourself.

Who already knew this? …

It’s astonishing that people don’t understand social media’s purpose.

It’s not just for sharing personal moments.

Investigators use it to gather information about individuals of interest. During my time as an investigator in digital forensics, I employed this tool for this purpose. 

I don’t require your physical device to perform most of the tasks. The reason is you agreed to the Android or Apple phone EULA when you accepted the device. Then there is the application’s EULA. 🤯(Emoji humanly added)

TikTok’s forced sale of its US division made this more evident.

What happens if you stop using social media?

You probably won’t, but even if you don’t use the apps, they still collect data based on your interactions with other apps (including your location).

The TikTok privacy debate did not end with the US agreement. It has escalated. TikTok has updated its US Privacy Policy. It is now one of the most aggressive data collection regimes of any mainstream consumer platform.

It explicitly acknowledges the collection and processing of sensitive personal information under US state privacy laws. Named directly:
• Racial or ethnic origin.
• Religious or philosophical beliefs.
• Mental and physical health data.
• Sexual orientation.
• Transgender or nonbinary status.
• Citizenship or immigration status.
• Precise location data.

The policy goes further. 
TikTok is collecting far more than what users consciously share. 

Under the updated policy, it gathers what you provide, what it observes automatically, and what it receives from third parties. That includes account details and identity verification documents, private messages, drafts and unpublished content, AI prompts and interactions, clipboard content, purchase and payment data, contact lists and social graphs, and an extensive set of technical signals such as device identifiers, keystroke patterns, battery state, audio configurations, and activity tracked across devices.

This is not incidental data leakage. It is formalized, permitted, and documented.

Images and video are treated as analyzable environments. TikTok states that it "identifies objects and scenery, detects faces and other body parts, extracts spoken words, and collects metadata describing how, when, where, and by whom content was created." 
Post a photo near the Golden Gate Bridge and you are not just sharing a moment. You are generating structured data about place, time, environment, and your body, or body parts.

Photos and videos are not just content. They are raw material for computer vision, biometric analysis, and location inference. 

Tik Tok will use all of the collected data, and maintains the right to sell all of it to interested third parties, from vendors to the federal government. 

Leaders must act on this immdiately. Privacy policies are not background reading. They are power documents. When they change, accountability shifts with them.

If you are a user, a parent, a school, a youth facing organization, nonprofits, and public institutions that use TikTok as a communications channel, the update changes the governance calculus. 
Engagement is not a neutral act. It carries serious legal and ethical obligations tied to data protection, duty of care, and institutional risk.

The new policy deserves close reading. At this stage of platform power, and scale of data collection, policy literacy is a governance responsibility, not a personal preference.

Read the policy here: https://lnkd.in/ejbm8THx

Life’s lessons in a classical sense. 

Thanks Alexandr!

Venture Associate at GGW Ventures | Help startups get warm intros | Pitch Deck Expert and Startup Advisor

Your first startup has an 18% chance of success.

But failing won't fix your odds next time.

We love to romanticize failure in tech.
"Fail fast, fail often."

The data paints a different picture.

Founders who failed before only see a 20% success rate on round two.
That is a tiny 2% edge over a total rookie.

Contrast that with a previously successful founder:
They jump to a 30% win rate.

The reality is brutal:
📉 90% of startups eventually die.
📉 Only 15-21% make it from Seed to Series A.
📉 Less than 1% ever IPO.

This journey is designed to break you.

Great founders aren't great because they never fail.
They are great because they ignore the math.

They don't stop at the 20% bump.
They keep building until they become the outlier.

Resilience is the only metric that truly matters. 🚀

How many times did you fail before you succeeded?

Does anyone know what’s real and not Ai anymore?

The last option has an unlimited local and private use functionality.

Artificial intelligence & Marketing Expert

🚨 The Best Free AI Video Generators - 2026 🚨

You can now generate professional-quality AI videos completely free. Four platforms offer text-to-video and image-to-video capabilities that rival paid tools, with realistic physics, synchronized audio, and cinematic quality at zero cost.

Here's what makes each one different:

🎬 Grok Imagine (xAI)
Generates stylized 6-second clips with synced audio effects and music. Optimized for viral content, memes, and expressive animations with fast generation speeds.

Free tier: 20-60 generations/day (varies by region). Access through Grok apps or web with no waitlist.

🎬 Sora 2 (OpenAI)
Produces hyper-realistic videos up to 15 seconds with precise physics simulation and coherent motion. Includes full audio with dialogue, sound effects, and ambient sound for cinematic storytelling.

Free tier: 6-30 generations/day (recently reduced due to demand). Access via Sora app or web with rolling invites.

🎬 Meta AI
The only platform offering truly unlimited free generations with no daily caps. Creates versatile 5-second videos (extendable) with multiple style options and quick animations.

Unlimited generations. Available openly at meta.ai and through Meta apps with no waitlist required.

🎬 Wan 2.2 (Alibaba Tongyi Lab)
Delivers cinematic quality with complex motion handling. The only open-weights model with Apache 2.0 licensing, allowing unlimited local generation with complete privacy control.

Unlimited when self-hosted. Requires 8-24GB VRAM GPU for local installation. Web demo available on Hugging Face.

🔥 Why This Matters
Free AI video generation now matches paid platforms in quality. Creators, marketers, educators, and developers can produce film-quality content without subscriptions or technical expertise.

Wan 2.2's open-weights release is particularly disruptive: run unlimited generations locally with no cloud restrictions, no data privacy concerns, and full customization for developers.

Which one are you trying first?

Links - https://lnkd.in/g_gc6ppH

#AIVideo #FreeAITools #GrokImagine #Sora2 #MetaAI #Wan22 #AITools #VideoGeneration #ContentCreation #OpenAI #xAI #GenerativeAI #AIFilmmaking #TextToVideo #ImageToVideo

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Mike Mahony

Charles Payne

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taplio

The Battle

Mike Mahony

Charles Payne

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Charles Payne's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreCharles Payne's LinkedIn Performance