BizBooks: Recent Episodes
Danielle
In this gripping rags-to-riches instant classic, Matt Higgins provides the blueprint he used to go from a desperate sixteen-year-old high school dropout caring for his sick mother in Queens, New York, to a shark on Shark Tank and the faculty of Harvard Business School. Told with raw emotion and radical transparency, Higgins writes the definitive tome on the oldest life hack in history: burn the boats.
From Sun Tzu to Julius Caesar, the ancient Israelites to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, there’s a bold and highly effective tactic seen throughout history—when leaders want to motivate their troops for success, they destroy all opportunities for retreat, and fully commit to the mission. They burn their boats; it’s win or perish, and the clarity of sheer desperation propels them to victory.
But the conviction of crisis decision-making can also be harnessed in peacetime to achieve unfathomable success. Higgins draws upon extensive research, historical precedent, and dozens of firsthand case studies—from actress-turned-entrepreneur Scarlett Johansson to NFL Coach Rex Ryan—that prove merely contemplating Plan B diminishes the probability of ever achieving Plan A. Now a self-made serial entrepreneur with a $1 billion consumer portfolio of some of America’s most iconic brands, Higgins explains how to burn the metaphorical boats that undermine total commitment, ranging from imposter syndrome to paralyzing anxiety to toxic leadership.
Burn the Boats is the manifesto for anyone looking to level up their life while navigating risk. Each chapter includes clear, actionable advice that readers can immediately start applying to their own lives, along with inspiration drawn from dozens of real-life success stories. This book will give you the courage to confidently go all in on your life’s true purpose.
Topics in this episode include:
01:00 - About Matt
10:49 - Having empathy in business
20:33 - Determining the best use of your time
29:50 - Optimizing your mental health
40:10 - The importance of pattern recognition
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Burn-Boats-Overboard-Unleash-Potential/dp/006308886X
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
International leadership expert Jocelyn Davis presents twelve timeless female archetypes reimagined and refreshed with stories of literary and everyday women who fought, cajoled, commanded, schemed, or blasted their way free of the chains that bound them.
Discover your personal types, along with inspiration and strategies for expanding your range, tapping your inner power, and unleashing your natural leadership in work and life.
Topics in this conversation include:
00:42 - About Jocelyn Davis
08:05 - The Amazon Archetype
13:01 - Navigating the Amazon Archetype as a business leader
20:30 - Women who are experts in negotiation
27:52 - The Jesteress Archetype
Buy the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Insubordinate-New-Archetypes-Women-Lead/dp/1637553870
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
The Bullseye Principle is the definitive how-to guide for communication, collaboration, and execution for leaders in the corporate arena. With these “soft skills” trending above technical knowledge in executive wish lists, this book provides invaluable guidance for new and experienced leaders alike; from the planning stages to the outcome and beyond, the discussion features critical insight and actionable tips based on award-winning methods. Polish your presence, utilize intention, influence emotion, engage workers, build relationships, make connections, and leverage the power of storytelling―it all comes down to technique.
This book shows you everything you need to know to start communicating more effectively, starting today. The success of any communication rests more on how the information is conveyed than what that information actually is; at every level, in every sphere, effective leaders strive to master key skills that inspire, empower, motivate, and more.
Topics in this episode include:
00:41 - About Gary
07:31 - The Pindrop Principle
18:50 - Navigating speaking to large audiences
26:00 - How to handle resistant audiences
33:40 - Creating a personal branding statement
40:00 - Transformational change and 'yes, and'
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Bullseye-Principle-Intention-Based-Communication-Collaborate/dp/1119484715
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
In The Power of a Graceful Leader, Alexsys Thompson shares how to begin integrating who you are and how you lead. Through her experience with this disconnect in her own leadership and having coached hundreds of leaders in their integration journey, Alexsys offers tools, tenets, and some relatable stories to support you in your journey toward becoming an integrated and graceful leader. You will find yourself making better decisions, building healthier relationships, and experiencing joy, love, and compassion as you transcend into the leader you were born to be.
Topics in this episode include:
01:30: About Alexsys
09:00: Negative impacts of patterns of condemnation instead of grace
15:20: Conscious leadership
24:44: Being compassionately powerful
35:15: The act of gratitude
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Graceful-Leader-Alexsys-Thompson-ebook/dp/B08SJ4GSRV#:~:text=Graceful%20leadership%20embraces%20the%20ability,such%20an%20important%20leadership%20principle.
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
From executives complaining that their teams don’t contribute ideas to employees giving up because their input isn’t valued--company culture is the culprit. Courageous Cultures provides a road map to build a high-performance, high-engagement culture around sharing ideas, solving problems, and rewarding contributions from all levels.
Many leaders are convinced they have an open environment that encourages employees to speak up and are shocked when they learn that employees are holding back. Employees have ideas and want to be heard. Leadership wants to hear them.
Too often, however, employees and leaders both feel that no one cares about making things better. The disconnect typically only widens over time, with both sides becoming more firmly entrenched in their viewpoints. Becoming a courageous culture means building teams of microinnovators, problem solvers, and customer advocates working together.
In our world of rapid change, a courageous culture is your competitive advantage. It ensures that your company is “sticky” for both customers and employees.
This book provides you with the practical tools to uncover, leverage, and scale the best ideas from every level of your organization.
Topics in this episode include:
01:31: About Karin and David
11:40: How to provide a psychologically safe environment
22:03: Chronic restructuring and why it's a big mistake
30:13: Navigating the narrative
36:05: Empowering your employees
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Courageous-Cultures-Karin-Hurt/dp/1400219531/ref=asc_df_1400219531/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459680637280&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4743187583971387121&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007481&hvtargid=pla-923415162948&psc=1
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
In Automate Your Busywork: Do Less, Achieve More, and Save Your Brain for the Big Stuff entrepreneur, founder, and CEO of Jotform Aytekin Tank delivers a can’t-miss blueprint to help you make the most of your most precious asset: time.
You’ll explore what’s possible when you offload repetitive tasks, why automation has democratized innovation, and how you can use cheap―or even completely free―no-code automation tools to transform your ability to focus on what truly matters in your business and life.
Aytekin Tank is a founder, productivity expert, automation enthusiast, and the bestselling author of Automate Your Busywork. His entrepreneurial passion and firm belief in creating tools to make organizations more productive led him to build Jotform, a bootstrapped global SaaS company that provides powerful online forms to tens of millions of users.
In addition to serving as the CEO of Jotform since 2006, Aytekin frequently contributes to Fast Company and Entrepreneur. A developer by trade but a storyteller by heart, he writes about his journey as an entrepreneur, shares advice for other startups, and provides insights on leadership, productivity, and using SaaS technology within workflows.
Topics in this episode include:
01:23: About Aytekin
09:36: Automation framework
19:06: Workflows vs. business processes
28:05: Multiplying your solutions using AI
39:30: How to apply automation principles in real life
Get his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Automate-Your-Busywork-Achieve-Brain/dp/1119901731
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
When the world’s biggest brands want to improve their approach to converting customers using their digital marketing strategy, they call Neil Hoyne – Google’s Chief Measurement Strategist and Senior Fellow at the Wharton School.
In his first book, Neil offers a simple, research-backed playbook that anyone can use to find their best customers and develop relationships that last. Under pressure for quick results and facing fierce marketplace competition, too many marketers are boxed into spaghetti-to-the-wall forms of digital marketing that limit the potential of their long hours, countless experiments, and warehouses of data. And in the end, they watch their competition sprint ahead.
But what if you built a business around long-term relationships with customers, using data to understand who they are, what they need, and where to find more customers just like them? You can. And you’ll leave your competitors, with all of their data and their short-term thinking, to poke around in the scraps.
In Converted, you will learn how to:
• Understand the full value of each relationship
• Engage in an ongoing conversation with your best customers
• Ask the right questions so you can anticipate your customers’ needs
• Find more great customers A real person is always on the other end of the transaction.
Converted shows you how to win their hearts. Neil has served as an analyst, researcher, inventor, lecturer and, in his words, the father of many forgettable slides of glossy funnels and Venn diagrams. A witness to and participant in billion-dollar successes, and instructive failures, all in the pursuit of building indestructible customer relationships through digital media.
A key player in the executive rallying cry to be more “data driven.” As Google’s Chief Measurement Strategist, Neil has had the privilege to lead more than 2,500 engagements with the world’s biggest advertisers. His efforts have helped these companies acquire millions of customers, improve conversion rates by more than 400 percent and generate billions in incremental revenue.
Immensely proud of the degrees he’s earned from Purdue University and UCLA, Neil returned to academia in 2018 as a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. This is his first book. He hopes you like it.
Topics in this episode include:
00:40: The origin of Neil's book
08:00: The goal of data for small business owners
16:40: How to gauge your customers more to get the data that you need
27:00: Enticing people to take more surveys
38:00: Figuring out your customer lifetime value
Get the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/688629/converted-by-neil-hoyne/
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Covid-19 has heightened career uncertainty in a workforce landscape dominated by turbulence and change, and it is directly impacting how people are entering—or re-entering—the workplace. But as Lindsey Pollak makes clear, the pandemic merely accelerated career and hiring trends that have been building. Changes that were once slowly spreading have been rapidly implemented across all industries.
This means that the old job hunting and career success rules no longer apply. Job seekers of all generations and skill sets must learn how to thrive in this “new normal,” which will include a hybrid of remote and in-person experiences, increased reliance on virtual communication and automation, constant disruption, and renewed employer emphasis on workers’ health and well-being.
While this new world is complicated and constantly evolving, you won’t have to navigate it alone. For twenty years, Pollak has been following the trends and successfully advising young professionals and organizations on workplace success. Now, she guides you through the changes currently happening—and those to come. Combining insights from both experts and professionals across generations, she provides encouraging, strategic, and actionable advice on making lifelong decisions about education; building a resilient personal brand; using virtual communication to remotely interview, network, and work; skilling and reskilling for the future; and maintaining self-care and mental health.
Like your personal GPS, Pollak equips you to handle workplace obstacles, helping you see them as challenges to navigate rather than impossible roadblocks. There is no perfect path to a dream career, but with Recalculating you’ll be prepared with the necessary skills and tools to succeed.
Topics in this episode include:
00:41 - About Lindsey
06:42 - Choosing your mindset
14:17 - The power of the word 'yet'
19:22 - Changing landscape of traditional education
27:10 - Interview advice for college students
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Recalculating-Navigate-Career-Through-Changing/dp/0063067706
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
The latest edition of The New Rules of Marketing and PR has been completely revised and updated to present the most innovative methods and cost-effective strategies.
The most comprehensive update yet shows you details about the pros and cons of AI and machine learning to automate routine tasks. Your life is already AI-assisted. Your marketing should be too, but there are challenges to be aware of. As the ways we communicate continue to evolve, keeping pace with the latest trends in social media, including social audio like Clubhouse, the newest online video tools such as TikTok, and all the other high-tech influences, can seem an almost impossible task. How can you keep your product or service from getting lost in the digital clutter?
The eighth edition of The New Rules of Marketing and PR provides everything you need to speak directly to your audience, make a strong personal connection, and generate attention for your business.
An international bestseller with nearly half a million copies sold in twenty-nine languages, this revolutionary guide gives you a proven, step-by-step plan for leveraging the power of technology to get your message seen and heard by the right people at the right time. You will learn the latest approaches for highly effective public relations, marketing, and customer communications―all at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising!
The definitive guide on the future of marketing, this must-have resource will help you:
Incorporate the new rules that will keep you ahead of the digital marketing curve
Make your marketing and public relations real-time by incorporating techniques like newsjacking to generate instant attention when your audience is eager to hear from you
Gain valuable insights through compelling case studies and real-world examples
Topics in this episode include:
00:52 - How the book evolved to the 8th edition
07:44 - How video has changed messaging
13:40 - How to effectively incorporate video into your company
19:18 - David's take on the risks of rebranding
28:38 - AI and machine learning in marketing and PR
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Marketing-Podcasting-Newsjacking/dp/1119854288
About Gene: About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
A customer-base audit is a systematic review of customer buying behavior using data captured by its transaction systems. It will help you answer questions such as:
-How healthy is your customer base?
-How realistic are your growth objectives?
-How do your customers differ in terms of their behavior and value?
-How has the quality of your customers changed over time?
-What changes in customer behavior lie behind period-to-period changes in firm performance?
-What is important to your high-value customers?
-Which products help you acquire and retain your best customers?
Fader, Hardie, and Ross present five “lenses” through which an executive can address questions like those above. The answers are often lurking in various parts of the organization, but it is rare to find all the relevant analyses in one place, let alone performed on a regular basis (as an audit should be). Yet without such a basic, systematic understanding of the foundations of the firm’s primary source of cash flow, how can executives make informed decisions?
Pete Fader is the Frances and Pei-Yuan Chia Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His expertise centers on the analysis of behavioral data to understand and forecast customer shopping/purchasing activities.
He works with firms from a wide range of industries, such as telecommunications, financial services, gaming/entertainment, retail, and pharmaceuticals.
In addition to his various roles and responsibilities at Wharton, Fader co-founded a predictive analytics firm (Zodiac) in 2015, which was sold to Nike in 2018. He then co-founded (and continues to run) Theta to commercialize his more recent work on “customer-based corporate valuation.”
Fader is the author of Customer Centricity: Focus on the Right Customers for Strategic Advantage (2020, 2012) and coauthor of The Customer Centricity Playbook (2018) with Sarah Toms. He has won many awards for his research and teaching accomplishments.
Topics in this episode include:
01:11 - About Peter
09:50 - Methodology to predicting customer behavior
20:25 - Not all customers are created equal
24:34 - Factors to keep in mind when evaluating long-term customers
30:54 - Peter's thoughts on survey data
38:10 - Valuing a business by auditing your customer base
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Customer-Base-Audit-Journey-Customer-Centricity/dp/1613631618
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
This deep-dive into the revolutionary EOS method to strengthen a company's process component will help leaders at all companies run better businesses and live better lives. If you own, run, or lead in a fast-moving business, you're likely driven by passion and a desire to be free.
Many leaders mistakenly believe instilling rigor and discipline for process throughout your organizations will inhibit freedom. They couldn't be more wrong. It's when you're stuck in the day-to-day, putting out fires and cleaning up messes, that passion turns to frustration. Freedom seems somewhere between elusive and impossible. The secret to getting unstuck is process. This inspiring, informative field guide will prove it's possible to establish rigor and discipline for process while also increasing creativity, flexibility, and innovation.
Process!, written by Mike Paton and Lisa Gonzales, will help you identify a handful of core processes that make your business uniquely valuable. You'll learn how to document and simplify the major steps in those processes so they can be done the right and best way, every time. Finally, you'll execute a simple, step-by-step plan that is helping entrepreneurs around the world consistently get the results they want.
Mike Paton has spent every working day of the last 15 years helping thousands of leaders around the globe run better businesses and live better lives. An EOS Implementer and sought-after speaker, Paton succeeded Gino Wickman and spent five years as EOS Worldwide’s Visionary, is the host of the top-rated podcast The EOS Leader, and co-authored two books in the Traction Library – Get A Grip and Process!
He’s grateful to be living his ideal life – helping others master the timeless disciplines and practical tools of the Entrepreneurial Operating System.
Topics in this episode include:
01:08 - About Mike Paton
09:07 - Process doesn't destroy freedom, it creates freedom
19:35 - Documenting the process
23:33 - Communication and training as part of the process
31:03 - Keeping the system simple
36:20 - Leading to help employees manage themselves
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Process-Discipline-Consistency-Will-Business/dp/B0BHLGY2R7/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2DVM9E6GI3XTQ&keywords=mike+paton+process&qid=1680740005&s=books&sprefix=mike+paton+process%2Cstripbooks%2C74&sr=1-1
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Saving Main Street is an unfiltered, up-close examination of a small group of business owners and their employees, their struggles, and their strategies to survive. It is an eye-opening tale of grit, perseverance, and entrepreneurial spirit that follows three businesses: a restaurant owner and his rambunctious staff, an immigrant running her own hair salon, and the owner of a “non-life sustaining” gift shop—alongside a larger cast of vividly drawn characters.
Gary Rivlin focuses on the first days of the Covid lockdown and the ensuing eighteen months of chaos, including the personal and financial risks, a contentious presidential election, and contradictory governmental guidelines—all which compounded the everyday challenges of running an independent business trying to attract and retain customers who expect low prices, convenience, and endless choice.
Rivlin keenly observes small businesses from all angles, examining commonly held “myths”; contradictions in government policy; enormous racial and class fissures; a national self-identity intrinsically connected to the ideal of small business, and how the decline of this American way of retail impacts our notions of American exceptionalism, community, and civic duty.
As Rivlin reveals, there’s something enduring about small business in the American psyche. Life will have changed in unprecedented ways on the other side of this pandemic, yet hard times will also create opportunities, offering hope and survival.
Topics in this episode include:
00:53 - About Gary
06:55 - Gary's thoughts on the COVID lockdowns and mandates
19:41 - The Federal Reserve and Treasury's role during COVID
23:58 - Paycheck Protection Program
27:40 - Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program
40:20 - The role of politicians during COVID
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Main-Street-Business-COVID-19/dp/0063065967
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
A #1 Amazon Best-Seller, Thrive provides leaders with a clear blueprint for building a high-performance culture. Drawing on extensive experience in change management, organizational development, and performance consulting, Andrew Freedman and Paul Elliott share their systematic approach, known as the Exemplary Performance System (EPS), in a way that enables leaders to take immediate action to shift workforce engagement and performance.
Thrive teaches leaders how to create clarity and alignment around what high performance looks like and how to replicate it at scale, identify and eliminate barriers to performance excellence, effectively align individual and team priorities with those of the company, and build organizational systems and processes that accelerate business and financial results.
Purchasing Thrive also gives readers access to more than twenty accelerators—downloadable tools, templates, and artifacts to help leaders implement the processes and practices that Andrew and Paul share throughout the book.
Andrew Freedman is a lifelong advocate for maximizing human potential and creating positive change, both personally and professionally. For more than twenty-five years, he’s been a driving force in designing strategies that provide leaders with a foundation to translate individual, team, and organizational talent into tangible business growth.
As Managing Partner of SHIFT Consulting, he’s helped countless companies across diverse industries flourish through vibrant company cultures and a high-performance mindset. Additionally, through his work as an affiliate faculty member of the University of Baltimore, Andrew’s continued goal is to use his insatiable passion for human performance to inspire new generations of business leaders with the art and science of creating and executing successful, people-focused business strategies.
Topics in this episode include:
00:48 - About Andrew and Paul
07:25 - Defining success
17:18 - What to do when previous high-performers are not performing well
25:13 - Identifying whether somebody will do well in their jobs
28:55 - Motivating your team
38:26 - Using a balance score card to amplify results
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Thrive-Leaders-Building-High-Performance-Culture/dp/154451607X/ref=asc_df_154451607X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=475795130774&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16484615843778310309&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007481&hvtargid=pla-1164642357513&psc=1
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Is unabated inflation the new normal? Inflation is back and here to stay. For companies, this means that the world in which they do business has fundamentally changed.
This book examines inflation from multiple perspectives and offers actions and strategies for companies to cope with and manage it to ensure their survival. For businesses and consumers, it is not a question of eliminating inflation, but how to cope with it in order to suffer as little damage as possible. This includes not just price management, but also sales, finance, purchasing, cost management along with digitalization and innovation activities in equal measure. It also requires corporate cultural change, which if managed fast and successfully, the prospects of defeating inflation and thus ensuring the survival of the company are good.
Hermann Simon is the Founder and Honorary Chairman of Simon-Kucher & Partners. He is an expert in strategy, marketing and pricing. He is the only German in the “Thinkers50 Hall of Fame” of the most important management thinkers in the world. In German-speaking countries he has been continuously voted the most influential living management thinker since 2005. The magazine Cicero ranks him in the top 100 of the 500 most important intellectuals.
Adam Echter is a Partner and Head of the Silicon Valley office at Simon-Kucher. For 17 years, Adam’s career has focused on value-based sales. He gained 12 months of focused sales training at The Timken Company and then worked in outside industrial sales for the next five years. During his time in industry, Adam developed his sales skills from outside sales to restructuring, engaging, and empowering sales teams for industrial companies of various sizes, ranging from 100 million dollars to several billion. He has helped design pricing and sales organizations on three continents, installed enterprise-level pricing software for several Fortune 100 companies, and supported sales engagement for thousands of sales professionals around the World.
Topics in this episode include:
01:00 - About Hermann and Adam
10:55 - Using data to beat inflation
18:28 - Communicating price increases with your customers
25:35 - Why you shouldn’t fully pass on 100% of your cost increases to customers
36:25 - Utilizing price escalators to beat inflation
40:29 - Dynamic pricing vs. multi-dimensional pricing and other pricing systems
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Beating-Inflation-Concrete-Effective-Corporate/dp/3031200926/ref=asc_df_3031200926/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=598359424988&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8086719900228207612&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007481&hvtargid=pla-1817689984547&psc=1
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
For decades, organizations of all sizes and in all industries have struggled at project management. Even though employees primarily worked together in physical offices, rare was the project that came in on time and on budget and delivered what stakeholders expected.
The M-F/9-5 in-person world of work is gone forever. Depending on the country, more than nine in ten people would rather quit their jobs than return to the office five days per week. Brass tacks: Remote and hybrid workplaces are here to stay, and they pose formidable obstacles that complicate managing projects and launching new products.
Against this backdrop arrives Project Management in the Hybrid Workplace, Phil Simon's timely and highly anticipated follow-up to his award-winning book Reimagining Collaboration. In his inimitable style, Simon adeptly fuses critical research and concepts from a slew of diverse and seemingly unrelated fields, including Agile software development, human resources, supply chain management, organizational behavior, cognitive psychology, and labor economics.
Brimming with detailed case studies, penetrating insights, and practical advice, Simon's twelfth book is a tour de force. Product owners, new and seasoned PMs, service providers, freelancers, small business owners, and students taking PM classes will benefit from Project Management in the Hybrid Workplace.
Phil Simon is a frequent keynote speaker and recognized authority. He is the award-winning author of thirteen books, most recently Low-Code/No-Code: Citizen Developers and the Surprising Future of Business Applications. He helps organizations communicate, collaborate, and use technology better. Harvard Business Review, the MIT Sloan Management Review, Wired, NBC, CNBC, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and The New York Times have featured his contributions. He also hosts the podcast Conversations About Collaboration.
Topics in this episode include:
00:56 - About Phil
07:06 - How many people want to work in the office?
14:03 - Downsides to efficiency
19:50 - The Waterfall Method
26:25 - What is Social Capital?
32:34 - Adopting a good project management platform Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Project-Management-Hybrid-Workplace-Simon/dp/B0B199PYNQ
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Whether negotiating in business or your personal affairs, life is a series of negotiations you should be prepared for: buying a car, negotiating a salary, buying a home, renegotiating rent, and deliberating with your partner. Taking emotional intelligence and intuition to the next level, Never Split the Difference gives you the competitive edge in any discussion.
After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a hostage negotiator brought him face-to-face with a range of criminals, including bank robbers and terrorists. Reaching the pinnacle of his profession, he became the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator. Never Split the Difference takes you inside the world of high-stakes negotiations and into Voss’s head, revealing the skills that helped him and his colleagues succeed where it mattered most: saving lives. In this practical guide, he shares the nine effective principles―counterintuitive tactics and strategies―you too can use to become more persuasive in both your professional and personal life.
Topics in this episode include:
01:13: About Chris
07:15: What is cognitive bias?
16:29: Demonstrating empathy
20:53: De-contemplation
26:00: Overcoming barriers
32:30: Accusation audits
39:10: Breaking down the word 'fair'
Get his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/0062407805
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10-person company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Artificial intelligence is much more than a sexy marketing gimmick. At its core, it’s a powerful business tool that can make operations and decision-making more efficient, employees more productive, and customers delighted.
Unfortunately, leaders who want to take advantage of artificial intelligence often don’t know where to start. The process can feel overwhelming—from analyzing existing processes and software systems and choosing where to apply AI automation, to preparing every tier of the organization for the transition.
In this practical guide for business leaders, Kavita Ganesan takes the mystery out of implementing AI, showing you how to launch AI initiatives that get results. With real-world AI examples to spark your own ideas, you’ll learn how to identify high-impact AI opportunities, prepare for AI transitions, and measure your AI performance.
Simple and compelling, The Business Case for AI gives leaders the information and resources they need without statistics, data science, or technical jargon. Whether you want to jumpstart your AI strategy, manage your AI initiatives for better outcomes, or simply find inspiration for your own AI and machine learning applications, The Business Case for AI is your blueprint for AI success.
Kavita Ganesan is an AI subject matter expert, advisor, speaker, educator, and founder of Opinosis Analytics, an AI consulting and training company. With a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and over fifteen years of experience in the field, Kavita has delivered more than two dozen successful AI initiatives for a wide range of organizations, from midsize operations to Fortune 500s. An educator and collaborator at heart, she helps thousands of leaders and AI practitioners around the world through her blog articles, coaching and training sessions, and open-source tools. Learn more at kavita-ganesan.com.
Topics in this episode include:
00:58 - About Kavita
10:00 - Deep Learning
16:16 - Robotics and AI in warehouses and factories
19:40 - Addressing foundational gaps when it comes to AI
26:00 - How AI can improve business processes
33:44 - How to leverage machine learning to improve processes
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Business-Case-Strategies-Real-World-Applications-ebook/dp/B09TRS55K8
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
In When Women Lead, Julia Boorstin brings together the stories of over sixty of those female CEOs and leaders, and dozens of new studies. Her combination of narrative and research reveals how once-underestimated characteristics, from vulnerability and gratitude to divergent thinking, can be vital superpowers—and that anyone can work these approaches to their advantage.
Featuring new interviews with Katrina Lake, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jenn Hyman, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Lena Waithe, Shivani Siroya, Julia Collins, and more, When Women Lead is a radical blueprint for the future of business, and our world at large.
Julia Boorstin is CNBC’s Senior Media & Tech Correspondent and has been an on-air reporter for the network since 2006. She also plays a central role on CNBC’s bicoastal tech-focused program “TechCheck” delivering reporting, analysis, and CEO interviews with a focus on social media and the intersection of media and technology.
Topics in this episode include:
00:55 - About Julia
07:30 - Women and the Metaverse
12:00 - Addressing unconscious bias vs. Pattern Matching
25:25 - How men and women differ when it comes to taking risks
29:55 - What is the "confirmatory standard?"
38:13 - What to consider when joining networking support groups
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/When-Women-Lead-Achieve-Succeed/dp/1982168218
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Exit Right delivers the hard-earned lessons about selling your startup and decisions that lead to successful exits. From negotiation to valuation to breaking down a term sheet, managing legal costs, and handling emotional turbulence—this unparalleled guide covers every critical aspect of a technology startup sale. Learn where deals get into trouble, how to create alignment between negotiating parties, and what terms you should care about most. Above all, learn how to win in both the short and the long term, maximizing your price while positioning your company for a legacy you can be proud of.
Mark Achler is Managing Director of MATH Venture Partners. Additionally, Mark teaches Entrepreneurship at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business. Prior to MATH, Mark was the Senior Vice President of New Business, Strategy and Innovation for Redbox. He is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded four companies as well being a partner in an earlier venture fund called Kettle Partners.
Mark has an undergraduate degree in Social Studies Education from Purdue University and is a frequent speaker, resource and ardent champion for the entrepreneurial community.
Topics in this episode include:
01:10 - About Mark Achler
10:25 - What is the F.A.I.R Framework?
22:50 - Examples of companies buying other companies
29:44 - Why you need to have an annual exit talk
36:30 - Why Cap Table Management is one of the most important decisions you need to make
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Exit-Right-Startup-Maximize-Return/dp/1544525990/ref=asc_df_1544525990/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=564670366290&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2492043758215391607&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007481&hvtargid=pla-1629054639578&psc=1
About Gene: About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
A Practical Guide to Buying a Business: Locating a Business, Performing Due Diligence, Valuing the Enterprise, Raising Funds, and Closing the Deal provides a comprehensive overview of the acquisition process-from locating a business a business to the final contract. The information is presented sequentially with sample forms, checklists, and agreements.
Robert J. Chalfin is the CEO of The Chalfin Group Inc., a Metuchen, New Jersey-based firm that offers advisory services in connection with the purchase and sale of closely held businesses, strategic planning, and valuation. Mr. Chalfin is an owner/investor, corporate board member, and consultant to several businesses, many of which are in the information technology sector. He has invested in, operated, and developed real estate. For eight years he served on the Board of Directors of Raritan Bay Medical Center and Raritan Bay Health Service Corporation.
Mr. Chalfin is an attorney, CPA, and a Lecturer in Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He teaches graduate-level courses on acquiring closely-held businesses and real estate entrepreneurship to MBA candidates. Mr. Chalfin has presented seminars to numerous professional organizations on a variety of topics including buying and selling businesses, strategic planning, and business valuation.
Topics in the Episode Include:
00:43 - About Robert
03:58 - The Strategic Buyer
09:30 - Why it's important to understand why somebody is selling their business
20:38 - Differentiating a good Seller's Memo vs. a bad one
31:55 - How Robert approaches helping a buyer of a business
39:47 - Valuing a business
48:11 - How often does a seller stay involved in the business?
Get the Book Here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Straight Talk will help you set the foundation for succession planning, whether you plan to exit in one year, five years or 15 years. Every owner will exit his or her business one day. In this fast-paced easy read, we explore the critical strategies and tools that pave the way for a successful exit -- on your terms, and we help you avoid the pitfalls that can derail your best intentions.
Abby Donnelly, Founder of The Leadership & Legacy Group, works closely with business owners and CEOs to develop successors who can run the business profitably and sustainably and both parties have confidence that the new leaders are ready. She helps them navigate the often complex conversations and challenging emotions that come with a transition of this magnitude. She guides clients in their 50s and beyond who are facing a transition, to discover their meaningful and rewarding next job, next career or next chapter.
A fourteen-year veteran of Procter & Gamble, Abby led improvements in leadership effectiveness, productivity, and streamlined business processes. She was a partner at Sandler Training, a franchise specializing in sales and sales management training, for over eleven years and she is a graduate of the University of Florida with a Master of Statistics. Her clients consistently appreciate her ability to get to the root of an issue. She asks powerful questions and is exceptional at providing clarity, keen insight and fresh perspective. She can identify the barriers that get in the way of success and provide powerful guidance to help leaders make intentional change, improving performance and delivering better results.
Topics in this episode include:
01:48: About April
10:15: When there's no qualified buyer
15:32: The real ugly truth about succession planning
20:13: Thinking beyond the sale of your business
27:08: Why your people are your biggest asset
39:38: Answering "what's next?" - Three things to uncover about yourself once you sell your business
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06...
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
With twenty years’ experience as an acquisitions intermediary, John Martinka knows the ins and outs of succession planning and the industry. In Company Growth by Acquisition Makes Dollars & Sense, he guides you through the planning strategies you need to purchase and nurture additional business interests.
Starting with nineteen compelling reasons to consider growth through acquisition, Martinka explains how to find the “hidden” market: businesses not actively listed for sale but open to offers. He covers financing, deal structure, due diligence, valuation, and how to build a winning transition plan. Most importantly, he shows you how to get the deal done so you can reap the profits.
From financing options to the importance of developing a positive relationship with sellers, Martinka offers a nine-step process to grow your business through the exciting world of acquisitions—all supported by real-life examples and interviews. If you’re ready to grow your business, you need this book.
Topics in this episode include:
00:56- About John Martinka
11:13- When busy owners want to buy another company
20:13- What to consider for free cash flow
31:15- Is it all about debt maintenance?
38:34- Conventional debt vs. SBA
43:47 Why growing your company through acquisition makes dollars and sense
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Company-Growth-Acquisition-Makes-Dollars-ebook/dp/B07982TSTC
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
This is the ultimate guide for small business owners to quickly learn actionable steps they can take to protect their most valuable asset from a range of risks especially cybersecurity, fraud, reputation risk (social media), and workplace violence. Chock full of relatable, real stories that perfectly bring to life key risks, this easy to read, always informative and sometimes funny how-to-guide arms readers with advice, tips—and importantly—access to time-saving, free and low-cost tools they can use to immediately implement effective risk management strategies for their businesses.
Ivy Walker is a serial entrepreneur, award-winning author, teacher, business coach, and award-winning director and executive producer of documentary films. Ivy has founded or co-founded multiple companies, including Helios Digital Learning, a company using digital storytelling to help business professionals and students improve their ethical decision-making, Purpose Workforce Solutions, a staffing firm that specializes in connecting the aspirations of disconnected youth to job opportunities, and AskCoda, a risk-management platform for small businesses.
Ivy's professional background includes successful stints at Fortune 500 companies in consulting and investment banking and experience in private equity and the social venture/non-profit sector.
Topics in this episode include:
01:28: About Ivy Walker
09:45: What is Occupational Fraud?
16:29: Ivy's expert insight and advice on cyber attacks.
21:29: Investing in training to protect yourself against cyber attacks.
32:31: Applying Ivy's risk management steps.
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Minute-Risk-Management-Strategies-Business-ebook/dp/B09TQ7XZDZ
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia
In Upstream Marketing, authors Tim Koelzer and Kristin Kurth aim to help address customer needs. In the book they share best practices, research, case studies, and analysis informed by their more than twenty years of experience helping transform client brands and businesses through their work at EquiBrand Consulting, a top management consultancy. The result is a groundbreaking deep-dive into the fundamentals of upstream marketing—the process of identifying and fulfilling customer needs, which relies on the strategic implementation of three core principles: insight, identity, and innovation.
An invaluable tool for business leaders looking for mindset, strategy, and processes that will help them improve their organization proactively, instead of reactively. Upstream Marketing includes meticulous analysis of seven profile companies, breaking down the values and principles that make them great—and offering some how-to tips you can apply yourself. The authors also draw on examples from their own work with clients to help illustrate how applying the principles of upstream marketing correctly and at the right time can impact the health, growth, and success of any business.
Topics in this episode include:
0:54- About Kristin and Tim
10:33- What Are Proprietary Insights?
15:44- The Benefit Hierarchy
26:17 - Identify From an Upstream Perspective
33:33- Brand Architecture
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Upstream-Marketing-Transform-Principles-Innovation/dp/1626347514
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
On this episode, Kathryn Finney shares her experience in starting a business and provides steps to her success.
Finney is the Managing Partner of Genius Guild, a $20 million dollar venture fund & studio that invests in amazing Black founders. One of the most influential women in tech (Inc Magazine), her groundbreaking work has laid the foundation for generations of black entrepreneurs and investors.
On the heels of the events of the Summer of 2020, Kathryn created Genius Guild, a venture studio (Platform & $20MM Venture Fund) to invest in Black entrepreneurs building scalable businesses that serve black communities and beyond. Kathryn raised investment from a number of partners including Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company founded by Melinda Gates, Impact Seat, an investment company led by serial investor Barbara Clarke, and individual investors such as Andrew Bosworth (Facebook) and the Lorenzini Family (Docusign).
Topics in this episode include:
01:20: About Kathryn Finney
09:15: Building Your Internal Foundation
15:05: Importance of a Personal Advisory Board
26:13: Kathryn's Experience of Building Her First MVP
36:38: Centering Your core Values When Hiring
Get her book here: https://www.kathrynfinney.com/build-the-damn-thing
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Donnie is considered one of the leading global minds on sales, business development, and business growth. He is described as the first person to make sales and business development relatable and human. Donnie is also a top-200 Apple Podcast host of the world-renowned Growth Mode podcast. He’s been called a motivator and a straight talker.
In F*cked to Focused Donnie Boivin gives you the systems and advice you need to get out of your own way and truly build the business and life you want. You didn’t grow up as an entrepreneur or have an entrepreneurial family. You worked for others and did what you were told. You are programmed with an employee mindset trying to run a business. It's time to flip the switch and become a CEO.
Get his book here: https://www.amazon.com/cked-Focused-T...
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
As a Black man at the highest levels of corporate America for over thirty years, James D. White has built a deep understanding of how to operationalize and integrate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) agendas. As CEO and Chairman of the global smoothie chain Jamba Juice, he led a remarkable turnaround to make the company a model of strong performance built on a foundation of a diverse, anti-racist culture.
He also draws on the experiences of other leaders at the vanguard of DEI. White writes with his daughter, Krista White, who brings to this book the heart and sensibilities of a younger generation devoted to equity and inclusion and intent on justice.
Business leaders ready to take a bold stance to make the world better for employees, for consumers, and for the greater community: Read this book. As leaders, you have the unique ability to reach thousands of employees and millions of consumers. It's time for you to build a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment and, by extension, a more just society.
This book provides a comprehensive plan for leaders who are ready to get serious about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and to create an anti-racist company culture.
Topics include:
01:04: About James D. White
14:35: How White audited the company culture at Jamba Juice.
19:53: When does the idea of Chief Diversity Officers really work?
29:55: Empty gestures or genuine commitment to changing company culture?
39:58: Is there a way to measure the ROI of a diverse workforce?
Get his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Racist-Leadership-Transform-Corporate-Race-Conscious/dp/1647821975
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
In Rapid Google Ads Success, Claire Jarrett helps readers learn how to create a successful Google Ads campaign.
She talks through examples across industries such as personal trainers, will writers, locksmiths, and personal trainers. She debunks the commonly-held belief that Ads should be managed by a Google specialist.
Drawing from her 14 years of experience and real-life examples, Jarrett delves into strategies that work for developing a profitable Google Ads account.
Rapid Google Ads Success is for anyone frustrated by the complex Google Ads interface, or for anyone worried about poor results from their existing campaigns. This book will change the way you think about Google Ads marketing.
Claire Jarrett was born in Bristol, UK in 1975 and is a qualified school teacher. Her first book, "Successful Google AdWords Strategies" was published in 2009 and her second book "How to Get Selling on AdWords Fast!" was published in 2012. Her brand new Google Ads book "Rapid Google Ads Success" was released on 24th May 2022. Claire lives with her husband Kirk, her children Ben and Charlotte, 3 cats and a dog.
Topics in this episode include:
01:10: About Claire Jarrett
08:53: Why Relevance Is Important
14:32: Negative Keywords
22:48: Remarketing
32:20: Which Ads are Most Effective?
36:05: What are Ad Extensions?
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B253PCLH
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Tyler Cowen is the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and faculty director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
With colleague Alex Tabarrok, Cowen is coauthor of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution and cofounder of the online educational platform Marginal Revolution University.
He writes a column for Bloomberg View; has contributed extensively to national publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Money; and serves on the advisory boards of both Wilson Quarterly and American Interest. His research has been published in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, Ethics, and Philosophy and Public Affairs.
Cowen is host of Conversations with Tyler, a popular podcast series featuring today's most underrated thinkers in wide-ranging explorations of their work, the world, and everything in between. Past guests include David Brooks, Malcolm Gladwell, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek profiled Cowen as “America’s Hottest Economist” after his e-book, The Great Stagnation, appeared twice on the New York Times e-book bestseller list. Columnist David Brooks declared it “the most debated nonfiction book so far this year.” Foreign Policy named Cowen as one of 2011’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers,” and an Economist survey counted him as one of the most influential economists of the last decade.
Cowen graduated from George Mason University with a BS in economics and received his PhD in economics from Harvard University.
Topics in this episode include:
06:02- Defining energizers, creatives, and winners
17:18- Going meta
27:44- Looking for the energizers, creatives, and winners
31:02- The evolution of the legal landscape of interviews
40:50- Convincing talent to join your cause
45:39 - Most thought-provoking studies in the book according to Tyler
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Talent-Identify-Energizers-Creatives-Winners/dp/1250275814
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Emily Morgan is an entrepreneur with an innate heart for supporting others. Emily’s mission is to create freedom for people to do what they love and have a big impact. As the leader of Delegate, she works tirelessly to help reshape the culture of the traditional workforce by providing professional flexible employment for her team while also providing entrepreneurs with strategic workforce options to help them grow more efficiently and effectively.
Emily speaks nationally on the topic of delegation, automation, remote workforces and flexwork culture. She’s been featured in Forbes as a Top 50 Remote Employer, contributed articles to the Huffington Post, and highlighted in the NY Times, Inc. Magazine, NBC News, CNBC as well as numerous podcasts. She is a Goldman Sachs 10kSB Alum, and recent winner of the Philly Chamber of Commerce's Small Business Person of the Year award. Emily is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) and a proud EO Philly Member.
Topics in this episode include:
02:15- About Emily Morgan
07:00- Understanding why we don’t want to let go of tasks to delegate
15:35- Respecting systems
23:48- 5 golden rules of successful delegation
37:04- What makes great delegators?
Get the book here: https://info.delegatesolutions.com/let-it-go-book
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Longtime Square executives Jackie Reses and Lauren Weinberg discuss their book Self-Made Boss: Hacks, and Lessons from Small Business Owners. They reached out across the country, talking to dozens of entrepreneurs with valuable businesses―and invaluable advice. This book is the product of that research. Part starter-kit, part encyclopedia, part inspiration, Self-Made Boss is filled with information not just about who these small business owners are, but how they built their companies, step by step.
Topics in this episode include:
00:46- The careers of Jackie Reses and Lauren Weinberg
10:15- Hiring experts, freelancers, or employees for your business.
21:41- Importance of providing mental health benefits for employees.
28:50- Finding employees in today's labor market.
36:49- Navigating your business's road blocks.
42:10- Diversifying your business.
50:35- How business has changed in the last 20 years.
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Boss-Advice-Lessons-Business/dp/1264264097
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Trey Taylor is the managing director of trinity | blue, a consultancy designed to provide executive coaching and strategic planning to C-Suite leaders. His experience derives from fields as diverse as technology, financial services, venture capital, and commercial real estate development. Frequently featured as a keynote speaker, he has addressed attendees at the Human Capital Institute, the Ascend Conference, and many other engagements. You can find out more about Taylor’s consulting work at trinity-blue.com.
Get his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Trey-Taylor/e/B08LDWHCKF%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Thomas Erikson is a motivator, author and lecturer. His book Surrounded by Idiots is one of the world’s best-selling non-fiction books and has been translated into over 40 languages.
Thomas has devoted over 20 years of his career to helping people communicate with each other, and along the way he's developed practical and functional tools that facilitate both professional and private life.
Get his book here: https://www.surroundedbyidiots.com/en...
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Laurie Weingart co-authored "The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women's Dead-End Work" with Lise Vesterlund, Linda Babcock, and Brenda Peyser.
Laurie R. Weingart is a management professor at Carnegie Mellon University. She has served as CMU’s Interim Provost and Chief Academic Officer and as a Senior Associate Dean and Director of the Accelerate Leadership Center. Her award-winning research has been covered by The New York Times and Business Insider, and published in top management and psychology journals.
Get the book here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/book...
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Matt Watkinson is an internationally renowned author, speaker, and business consultant. He has been cited and interviewed by the world's leading research firms, and invited to address industry leaders worldwide. His first book, The Ten Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences, won the CMI's Management Book of the Year Award in 2014.
Get his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Grid-Decision-...
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Danny is the founding Executive Director of the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship and Professor of the Practice at Brown University. He also runs workshops on Entrepreneurship in corporate, nonprofit, academic, and governmental contexts in countries around the world.
He began his entrepreneurial pursuits while an undergraduate at Brown as a member of the Clearview Software startup leadership team. Apple acquired Clearview, and since then, he has co-founded and sold companies in fields ranging from software and advanced materials to consumer products and media. Danny received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He lives in Providence.
Get his book here: http://dannywarshay.com/book
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience. She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times.
She is also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. Her soon-to-be-released new book, Touching Two Worlds, explores new strategies for finding wholeness in the aftermath of loss.
Get her book here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C91YF17/ref=as_li_tl?camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07C91YF17&ie=UTF8&linkCode=as2&linkId=558562cf7c4a09dfe261500ba920e243&tag=zenfounder-20
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Camille Fournier is an engineering executive and author of “The Manager’s Path”, as well as the editor of “97 Things Everyone Should Know About Engineering Management.”
She is the former Chief Technology Officer of Rent the Runway, a transformative brand that offers unprecedented access to designer fashion, disrupting the way millions of women get dressed. She is also a member of the engineering leadership team at Two Sigma Investments. She is an open source contributor and project committee member for both Apache ZooKeeper and the Dropwizard web framework.
Prior to working for Rent the Runway, Camille served as a software engineer at Microsoft, and most recently, spent several years as a technical specialist at Goldman Sachs, creating distributed systems for managing risk analysis and firmwide infrastructure. She has a BS in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Camille is a well-respected voice within the tech community, speaking on a variety of topics such as engineering leadership, distributed systems, scaling teams, and technical architecture. In 2017 she released her book, “The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change.”
Get her book here: https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Growth/dp/1491973897
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
Clint Pulver is an Emmy Award-winning, motivational keynote speaker, author, musician, and workforce expert.
He’s also fun, dynamic, entertaining – and the no-stress speaker clients love to work with.
A Professional Drummer for over 20 years, he's played with top headlining fellow musicians in venues like the Vivint Arena, the Stadium of Fire, and the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. In 2010 he founded the UVU Drumline known as the Green Man Group, which he directed for six years and went on to direct the Drumline for the NBA’s Utah Jazz until 2015.
Clint was featured in Business Q Magazine as one of their “Top 40 under 40” as a premiere Corporate Keynote Speaker. He has appeared on America’s Got Talent and in feature films with actors such as School of Rock's Jack Black and Napoleon Dynamite's John Heder.
Get his book here: https://clintpulver.com/book/
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
This conversation was with Christopher Mims, a technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, about his new book Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door-- Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy.
Christopher Mims writes Keywords, a weekly column on technology for The Wall Street Journal. Before joining the Journal in 2014, he was the lead technology reporter for Quartz and has written on science and tech for publications ranging from Technology Review, Smithsonian, Wired, the Atlantic, Slate and other publications. Mims, who has degree in neuroscience and behavioral biology from Emory University, lives in Baltimore.
Get his book here: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/arriving-today-christopher-mims?variant=33080441274402
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
This conversation was with Atul Minocha about his new book Lies, Damned Lies, and Marketing.
Atul is a partner at Chief Outsiders, a marketing consulting firm that helps CEOs accelerate growth through strategic planning, customer insight, and disciplined execution of well-crafted marketing plans. With experience in startups and Fortune 500 companies like Honeywell, Kodak, and Toyota, Atul works in a wide range of industries, from automotive and healthcare to industrial goods and technology.
Atul has a degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and an MBA from Yale University. He is a professor at the Hult International Business School, a mentor and an angel investor with Sierra Angels, a Vistage speaker, and a Forbes contributor.
Get his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Lies-Damned-Marketing-Separate-Fiction-ebook/dp/B097NRJ4HP?geniuslink=true&tag=scribemedia-20
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
This conversation was with Pamela Slim about her new book The Widest Net: Unlock Untapped Markets and Discover New Customers Right in Front of You
Pamela Slim is an author, business coach and the co-founder with her husband Darryl of the Main Street Learning Lab in Mesa, Arizona. A former corporate director of training and development at Barclays Global Investors, Pam focused her first decade in business as a management consultant, working with large companies such as HP, Charles Schwab, 3Com, Chevron and Cisco Systems. Since 2005, Pam has advised thousands of entrepreneurs as well as companies serving the small business market such as Keap, Progressive Insurance, Constant Contact and Prezi.
Pam partnered with author Susan Cain to build and launch the Quiet Revolution. Pam has written three books: Escape from Cubicle Nation (named Best Small Business and Entrepreneur book of 2009 from 800 CEO Read), Body of Work (2014 with Penguin Portfolio) and her latest The Widest Net (2021 with McGraw Hill). In 2016, Pam launched the Main Street Learning Lab in Mesa, Arizona, a grassroots, community-based think tank for small business economic acceleration. http://pamelaslim.com/ke
Get her book here: https://pamelaslim.com/the-widest-net...
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
This conversation was with author and email marketing strategist Meera Kothand about her new book The One Hour Content Plan.
Meera is an author and speaker who specializes in making marketing for your online business ridiculously simple. She’s got 7 books on the Amazon Best-Sellers list including “One Hour Content Plan,” “Your First 100” and “The Blog Startup”. She’s also the founder of MeeraKothand.Com, an award winning site listed as the Top 100 sites for solopreneurs 3 years in a row, and the popular CREATE Planners.
Over the years she has developed a reputation for making the most complex topics simple and smashing misconceptions about what you HAVE to do in order to be successful in business. Think of her as your "Minimum Viable-Maximum Impact Biz Evangelist" Through her best-selling books and marketing courses, Meera has taught over 80,000 students and readers, giving them the confidence to build super fans + sell out their digital products without sleaze, cringle or “you’ve gotta haves” - so they can build a community that’s obsessed with what they’re offering. She has been featured on Marketing Profs, Addicted 2 Success and several other sites.
Get her book here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074T5ZHP7?...
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
This conversation was with author Dan Roam about his new book The Pop-Up Pitch.
Dan Roam is the author of five international bestselling books on business-visualization and communication clarity. The Back of the Napkin was named by Fast Company, The London Times, and BusinessWeek as the 'Creativity Book of the Year.' Dan's latest book, Draw to Win, debuted as the #1 new book on amazon.com in the categories of Business Communications and Sales & Marketing.
Dan is a creative director, author, painter, and model-builder. His purpose in life is to make complex things clear by drawing them and to help others do the same. Dan has helped leaders at Google, Microsoft, Boeing, Gap, IBM, the US Navy, the United States Senate, and the White House solve complex problems with simple pictures. Dan and his whiteboard have appeared on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and NPR.
Before founding Digital Roam Inc, Dan served as Client Partner & Creative Director at Razorfish, Scient, The Interactive Bureau, Red Square Productions, The Moscow Times, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Dan graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz with degrees in Biology and Fine Art. Dan is a licensed pilot, avid runner, and landscape painter.
Get his book here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/154...
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
This conversation was with Retired four-star General Stan McChrystal about his new book Risk: A User's Guide
A retired four-star general, Stan is the former commander of US and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) Afghanistan and the former commander of the nation’s premier military counter-terrorism force, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). He is best known for developing and implementing a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, and for creating a cohesive counter-terrorism organization that revolutionized the interagency operating culture.
Throughout his military career, Stan commanded a number of elite organizations, including the 75th Ranger Regiment. After 9/11 until his retirement in 2010, he spent more than 6 years deployed to combat in a variety of leadership positions. In June 2009, the President of the United States and the Secretary General of NATO appointed him to be the Commander of US Forces Afghanistan and NATO ISAF. His command included more than 150,000 troops from 45 allied countries. On August 1, 2010 he retired from the US Army.
Stan is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches a course on Leadership. He also sits on the boards of Navistar International Corporation, Siemens Government Technology, and JetBlue Airways. He is a sought-after speaker, giving speeches on leadership to organizations around the country. In 2013, Stan published his memoir, My Share of the Task, which was a New York Times bestseller; and is an author of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, which was a New York Times bestseller in 2015. Stan also co-authored Leaders: Myth and Reality, a Wall Street Journal Bestseller based on the epochal Parallel Lives by Plutarch. A passionate advocate for national service and veterans’ issues, Stan is the Chair of the Board of Service Year Alliance. In this capacity, he advocates for a future in which a year of full-time service—a service year—is a common expectation and opportunity for all young Americans. Stan is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the Naval War College. He also completed year-long fellowships at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Get his book here: https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/libra...
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
This conversation was with Marty Cagan, author of EMPOWERED.
Marty Cagan is a Silicon Valley-based product executive with more than 20 years of experience with industry leaders including eBay, AOL, Netscape Communications and Hewlett-Packard.
Marty is the author of the book “Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love” which presents techniques for creating winning products. Before founding the Silicon Valley Product Group to pursue his interests in helping others create successful products through his writing, speaking, and advising, Martin was most recently the original leader of Product and Design for eBay, where he was responsible for defining products and services for the company’s global e-commerce trading site. Marty now works with technology companies from across the globe on improving both innovation and velocity.
Get his book here: https://svpg.com/empowered-ordinary-p...
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
This conversation was with Jon Picoult, author of From Impressed to Obsessed.
Jon Picoult is the founder of Watermark Consulting and a noted authority on customer and employee experience. From Fortune 1000 CEOs to budding entrepreneurs, Jon has advised business leaders worldwide on how to cultivate loyalty in both the marketplace and the workplace. His insights have been featured by dozens of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Inc., NBC News and Forbes.com (where he is a regular contributor). Jon’s landmark study on the ROI of customer experience is one of the most widely cited pieces of research in his industry.
His new book, From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans, will be published in October 2021. Prior to establishing Watermark, Jon held senior executive roles at Fortune 100 companies – leading service, operations, distribution, technology, sales and marketing. Early in his career, at the age of 29, Jon earned the distinction of becoming the youngest executive officer in the over 150-year history of a leading, global financial services company. Jon earned his A.B. in Cognitive Science from Princeton University and his M.B.A. in General Management from Duke University.
Get his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Impressed-Obse...
About Gene: Gene Marks is a former columnist for The New York Times and The Washington Post and now writes weekly on political, economic, management and technology issues affecting small and mid-sized businesses for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, Forbes and Entrepreneur. He runs a 10 company financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.