Working on Purpose: Recent Episodes
Alise Cortez, PhD
Do you want to help create a world where people are passionate about their work, inspirational leadership helps team members realize their greatness, and capitalism thrives while serving the highest causes? Me too. The working on purpose program is a thought leadership engine that enlightens and inspires listeners with insights from elite business leaders and novel subject matter experts. Together, we’re working on purpose to steward the future of work and business to elevate us all.
Fear. A powerful and necessary human emotion. Yet, deadly once it seeps into the very DNA of an organization. Once there, it silently and insidiously drives dysfunction in every aspect of the organization: strategy, operations, cross-functional collaboration, human capital management, team dynamics, employee engagement, and employee well-being. It’s not about removing fear or denying it, but rather to transform our relationship with fear. In this episode, we learn how to achieve both high performance and employee wellbeing by addressing how people relate to their fears individually and collectively.
Developing your ability to lead effectively in a remote or hybrid environment has become a whole new game. Learning to be an effective leader in this demanding environment requires you to be agile enough to grow and, lead and influence the team at a time when so much change and turmoil is still occurring. This is the new normal. Are you fit for the job? And how can you lead your team so they can perform at their best and succeed?
As close to 40 percent of employees returned to the office in March, the notion of “the workplace of the people” has become clearer than ever before – and it’s been quite a challenge for senior leadership. In this episode, we talk with a work culture guru about the more democratized environment appearing in workplaces around the country, and how leaders can take the reins on purposeful work and employee wellness.
Let’s get real – it’s difficult and uncomfortable for almost everyone to talk about race and racism at work. And yet, doing so in a way that increases understanding and connection is essential to reduce the costs of the lack of diversity in your organization. Study after study proves again and again that diverse businesses perform better on every metric that businesses use to evaluate success. It’s time to move away from excuses to take action on diversity and inclusion and recognize that there is still so much you can do to foster an environment of equity where all stakeholders can feel comfortable, welcome and wanted, and valued for their contributions. Yes, that’s the world we all want to live in.
In this conversation with the author of FIXED, she helps listeners to effectively articulate ideas and goals that encourage tangible and strategic development. Works of art are engaged to address breakdowns in communication, navigate new landscapes, and remove assumptions. She shares how you can use the powers of observation to promote best practices and more effective problem-solving. Since the pandemic began, Amy has worked with a myriad of organizations to address various issues through the lens of art, including burnout, unconscious bias, and navigating the new landscapes that COVID has presented. Amy gives listeners tips to hone their powers of perception and discover deep-seated truths that can obstruct clear-thinking and optimal decision-making.
Many people set artificial limitations on themselves and their lives. They convince themselves they can’t reach their highest goals because they’re simply too far out of reach. What they need is someone to help hold up a mirror to their full potential and what lies beyond their immediate perception. A coach can help activate and awaken what is already present in someone and ignite their flow state. And in that place, all manner of possibilities await. In this episode, we talk with an executive flow coach who helps people realize their wildest dreams. Tune in and glimpse the possibilities for your own life.
Leading in today’s COVID times requires a whole new breed of competency. The workforce’s needs and wants have changed, and employees are voting their preferences in strong numbers by resigning from their jobs, often before their next one is secured. Leaders are scrambling to keep their businesses running and are desperate to find ways to shore the tide of departing talent. In this episode, Dr. Garlick provides a perspective on the importance of companies stewarding a good experience for all stakeholders and the critical roles pride in work and pride in the company play in keeping them fulfilled and staying.
Are you and your team willing to take personal risks for the sake of your company and its performance? No? Why not? Likely because there exists at least some element of workplace toxicity that is stifling innovation, collaboration, succession planning, and productivity. Particularly attuned to the critical effects of a toxic environment, Melanie spent more than 20 years of progressive corporate experience studying the impact leaders and workplace cultures have on employee security and performance. Through that effort, Melanie learned how to shape a corporate environment to manifest powerful teamwork, authentic communication, diverse creativity, and heartfelt loyalty.
“Do you really care about me? Or, do you just need me to get the work done?” Such a common refrain among a frazzled workforce still weathering the COVID fallout after two years. People everywhere have gotten sick with the virus, their loved ones have died from it, and the intensity of it seems to have both led to burnout and elevated what is wanted and possible in life. As employees contemplate their choices and options, they are increasingly leaving their current employer often without having a new job secured, a phenomenon referred to as The Great Resignation. Companies understandably are, for their part, scrambling to remain viable in a world turned upside down by supply chain issues, labor shortages, and a whole myriad of other challenges. As the pandemic continues to unfold, one trend is that talent, especially the millennial generation which comprises the majority of workers, is on the hunt for companies who will honor their well-being.
The term “purpose” has been deployed superficially by companies to appear virtuous without the benefit of using it as a core operational principle. Companies that treat purpose as an existential intention that informs every decision, practice, and process are thriving in today’s times where business is expected to be a force for good in the world. This new breed of stakeholder capitalism adopts purpose as their operating system, perceiving it as a vital animating force with near-spiritual power. As a result, these companies can navigate the tumultuous terrain of multi-stakeholder capitalism far more adeptly than most, increasing value for all stakeholders, including investors, over the long-term.
Confidence, or the lack of it, is the ultimate deal maker or breaker, and no one is immune from its tenuous presence. Whether just starting your career or leading a large organization, and everything in between, your ability to learn, improve, and apply confidence makes all the difference in your desired achievement. In this conversation with the Director of Performance Psychology Program at the United States Military Academy West Point, you will learn how to understand confidence, build it, protect it, and rely upon it when your performance matters most.
There is promise for a brighter future when we learn to lead by unlocking a new navigational system built on the Unfolding Path. By enacting the set of reinforcing commitments and practices that underpin the Unfolding Path approach, we can create a powerful cycle that builds on itself. When we lead from this way, the more we find our inner stability and power, the more we step into the fullness of who we are and who our lives want us to be, and the more we all shine and lift everyone around us. This is your invitation to shine by leading brighter.
Purpose is essential to a fulfilled life. Yet, it’s not necessarily about “finding” our purpose as much as it is building a concrete web of purpose that suits our goals visions, and desires. Crafting your purpose doesn’t have to be difficult. When you do so, you can transform your role at work into something much more fulfilling, build positive relationships, and connect your work to service and beyond. Crafting work well worth the effort.
What’s your relationship with change? Friend? Enemy? We seem to do better when we opt for change. But what about those foisted upon us? In this playful episode, we’ll learn about 8 counterintuitive superpowers that help us develop a “flux mindset.” The future of work, our climate, personal relationships suppl chains, investing, and technology – they all require radical changes in our response and connection to them. This episode will help equip you for a vibrant, innovative future.
Did you know your business could be so much more than an engine of profitability? That through it, you and your team can be much more impactful and exponentially more valuable? The way to do it? Shepherd your business, with brilliance, guts, and grace, to venture outside the superficial into the profound, past the collection of things into the realm of connection. Go beyond fragmentation into belonging, past the ordinary into the extraordinary, beyond transactions into transcendent experiences. Here as evolved leaders we become alchemists of possibility and can create “a beautiful business,” crafted intentionally with conscious capitalism principles and an eye to making the most of your one, precious life.
Want to unite your remote team and elevate them to a whole new level? How about incorporating Virtual Reality (VR) to blend exquisite human creativity with the extension and scale of technology? You can utilize VR to connect remote teams to enable learning what comes from diving off with wild abandon that can only come (safely) with VR! We’ll learn from the ever-adventurous CEO of Vestigo just how to make this happen by inviting everyone to go into a VR headset and shatter communication barriers by having teams meet in VR worlds in which their survival depends on their ability to listen and be heard. Next level!
What if we lived every day of the year as if it were Christmas – and as if we were Santa Claus? What if we let ourselves be called into a higher state of being that embodied love, gratitude, and giving, every day – not just during the holidays? It’s a good bet that not only would our own immediate life and well-being skyrocket to a higher level, but the ripple effect could literally cascade across the world. Christmas is a state of mind that is available to us all, no matter what religion we observe. Let it live on every day of the year and thread us together as a unified, grateful whole.
Corporate “short-termism” is killing a robust, resilient and purpose-driven future. Companies are governed by the quarterly profit reporting system that encourages short-term, smaller value results. The opportunity is to help companies and their leadership to develop smarter, more strategic financial incentives and instilling an ownership culture among employees to take actions that materially increase long-term value by linking strategy and execution to the core drivers of Total Shareholder Returns.
Did you know your business could be so much more than an engine of profitability? That through it, you and your team can be much more impactful and exponentially more valuable? The way to do it? Shepherd your business, with brilliance, guts, and grace, to venture outside the superficial into the profound, past the collection of things into the realm of connection. Go beyond fragmentation into belonging, past the ordinary into the extraordinary, beyond transactions into transcendent experiences. Here as evolved leaders we become alchemists of possibility and can create “a beautiful business,” crafted intentionally with conscious capitalism principles and an eye to making the most of your one, precious life.
Ambition is a precious resource in life that can drive people to pursue all manner of initiatives important to them. But pursuit of ambition at the expense of growth and well-being has serious repercussions. Learning to understand the source of ambition and the strengths and weaknesses associated with its pursuit are critical in transforming the energy transmitted into a worthy result. This episode explores seven “frenemies” of ambition, healthy ways to optimize it, and discusses ways companies can create a culture where ambitious people thrive.
System Choreographers. These are the disruptive big picture generalists rule breakers that drive high impact system innovation. They comprise an emerging career breed that pushes innovation beyond simple products and incremental change. They are a passionate band of talent that help organizations confront the “wicked combination of urgent threats and exceptional opportunities.” In this episode, we meet a leading member championing the cause, Dan McClure.
We can choose to respond to whatever life serves up to us, no matter how grim, heart-breaking, or devastating. We can and, arguably, must develop resilience to help us deal with and grow from those experiences. And happily, humanity has an infinite wellspring always available to each of us in the endeavor. It comes in the form of the defiant power of the human spirit, which is man's capacity as a spiritual being to resist and brave whatever conditioning, circumstances or suffering he may face or endure. On the near eve of Thanksgiving, this episode peruses the importance of wandering through the darkness to find the light and celebrates the magnificence of what every human being can do and be in life when we summon the defiant power of the human spirit.
With the vision and dream to make logotherapy available officially in the MENA region, Daliya Zgheib founded LOGOTHERAPY MENA, a Meaning Centered Institution, which primary cause is to help people find meaning and purpose through logotherapy and existential analysis. Her vision of the institute is to build communities and empower individuals to undergo a fulfilled life primarily anchored on meaning and this through spreading the philosophy, teachings and practices of Logotherapy in the MENA region and reaching all the sectors of the community. This episode explores her goal to anchor the MENA region in meaning as a basis to build communities and overall nations.
What the world needs more than anything right now goes beyond a simple or even shared purpose. It needs to be a collective purpose, a single rocket ship we can all fuel, board, and navigate with, together. Unless every one of us, together, embrace the critical prioritization of the whole, our most well-intended efforts will continue to be undone by others choosing not to play along. And we certainly won’t meet the contracting timelines drawn by the crises we face. The LEAD WITH WE philosophy and approach build on previous notions of purpose-based capitalism, then thrusts it light-years forward, because this prescription calls for all of us to act on a single purpose. That’s our only hope for continued business relevance. For our very survival.
More than 60 percent of American adults report they feel isolated, with a similar trend in Europe. The consequences are dire for individuals and the businesses that employ them, manifesting in mental and physical illness, decreased productivity, and toxic workplaces. Workplace and social violence can also result from loneliness. The key to health is to increase your relational energy, which may also delightfully elevate your purpose.
Meet Ethne, where passion meets purpose. With a focus on social injustice, this dynamic organization is out to eliminate the double jeopardy of poverty and its manifestations that hinder the empowerment of women and children. Powered by the meaning underlying the word “ethne,” its name is a reminder that we are all called to lead meaningful lives, serving one another beyond the scope of our geographical constraints.
After nearly two years of havoc brought on by COVID-19 and blood, sweat, and tears of executives working to survive the ongoing pandemic, business owners are seeking guidance for reinvention and recovery. Customers have shifted purchasing behaviors, staff has turned over, markets have changed, and hybrid working models continue to challenge. This episode with turnaround expert Lisa Gable features her experience in leading organizations in times of dramatic change. She shares concrete tips for ensuring business continuity and ways to shift to help ensure future viability and growth.
The field and inquiry of purpose is about to take a whole new leap into the possible. By taking what we know of the physical world through the science of color, we can understand more about our internal would through color theory. Color can give us access to conscious and unconscious purpose. In this episode, we enjoy a fireside chat with Dr. Smith who has spent a lifetime researching and practicing leadership, organization and social systems development inside large and complex organizations like the World Bank and the United Nations. He lets us in on how he continued to discover and iterate his model based on purpose being the source of power and how it’s expressed in at least five dimensions. He also shares his ground-breaking additional lens through color theory to illuminate our purpose choice. Hearing the narration is rather like being taken on a tour of his fine mind, bearing witness to the unfoldment of his consciousness, while elevating our own understanding of the topic through a profoundly simple elegance.
Business can be such a force for good in the world, especially when it is consciously and purposefully crafted and executed. Building on a long career in technology, we learn in this inspiring and possibilities-blasting episode just how large-scale and multi-stakeholder enlivening business can be. Tune in to learn the birth story of Regenrus, a woman-owned, women-led, heart-centered and science-based social impact community. The company is guided by a sense of reverence for all life and a collaborative spirit. Its stakeholders share a sincere commitment to awakening a renewed way to achieve wellness, balance and joy while making a difference for people, animals and our planet.
After decades in pursuit of striving, working, competing, achieving, and accumulating, we can draw from wisdom and serenity in navigating our second half of life. In this deep and connecting conversation with two Sage-ing mentors, we discuss the newest frontier in human development to set a path and purpose for the boomer generation to complete life with fulfillment while creating a legacy.
At a time with ever increasing change and uncertainty, it is extremely challenging to set a course direction in business. As the pandemic has highlighted, successfully navigating this uncertainty can be the difference between success and failure. Yet, we humans are naturally wired to “wait and see” when uncertain of a way forward. In this episode, the authors of Provoke share how the best leaders move faster than their peers to identify and shape important inflection points. In short, they take action to provoke the future, rather than react to that which has been brought forth by others.
Samuel Cook learned a thing or two about how precious and fleeting life is during his tours serving in the US Army and losing a brother early. Those experiences instilled a steadfast determination to do all the things, with focus and intention, that both he and his early departed brother wanted for themselves. Add on a life-long study of history and teaching it, and today you have Samuel at the helm of SanityDesk. He and team are out to craft a better digital world in the otherwise “surveillance capitalism” world we live in where big tech takes our data and packages it without our consent. Behold the possibility of a future of free will, informed by choice, powered by conscious capitalism principles.
Behold a new frontier of organically grown thought leaders, courtesy of the philosophy and culture media outlet, Planksip. On this platform, emerging writers and thought leaders have the opportunity to literally sip on the planks of fellow members’ works, while each lifting the other in growth and inspiration. In this episode, founder Daniel Sanderson shares why he created this platform and his vision of what it can do to help launch and develop a whole new breed of philosophers and academics.
A call for human-centric organizations is in order, says Executive Advisor and Futurist Deborah Westphal. This new organization embraces the messiness and beauty of people, iterates policies and procedures, and constantly challenges and refines strategies and goals for both itself and all the stakeholders it serves. Human-centered organizations optimally balance technology, business, and people to create a human-centered future that lifts us all.
Natalie Benamou found her career of 29 years entirely altered when Covid hit. Her world came to a crashing halt when trade shows were cancelled right and left. Doors were swiftly closing everywhere. And that’s where the magic happened. In that vast, ever opening gap which Natalie then began to see as a window, she got quiet and listened for that which called her. She could then turn her passion of empowering and lifting women and express it as her purpose through the HerCsuite platform she created. We all need a hand up, with a steady diet of mentors and advisors to guide and empower our efforts. HerCsuite is Natalie’s hand up for women.
Much of what traditional diversity programs teach is wrong … and sometimes illegal. The EEOC said that our focus needs to be more on building skills so we can create an environment of workplace civility, which means focusing on such topics as trust, tolerance, and conflict resolution -- and not teaching about different cultures. No one should ever be denied an opportunity to work or be promoted, yet they often are due to bigotry and misguided diversity and inclusion policies. We’ll learn from a white, Anglo-Saxon protestant, straight guy that diversity, inclusion, and tolerance initiatives often miss their intended mark and what we can do to more effectively address them in the workplace.
In an age when people ache for meaning and purpose, there is a tremendous opportunity to connect with nature to let in its wonder. Doing so affords emotional and spiritual well-being and can awaken the path to purpose. In this episode, we learn from wildlife conservationist and journalist Swati Thiyagarajan the sheer magic available in the everyday nature around us. She helps us see that only when we love the planet we live on can we save it.
Lars Peter Niessen has managed to find a special niche most of us like to avoid – he’s got a knack for working productively in “messes” and has done so all over the world. His mission through the organization he has created and stewards is to see the crisis for what it really is and change the outcome. Critical to necessary change is often very uncomfortable truth, another unusual area he is adept at navigating. In this episode, we learn from this soft-spoken wizard how he blends truth and humanitarian efforts to enable agencies to make the world a better place for us all.
Most people lack the clarity of who they really are and seem to be in an endless search for a better job. And this is the problem; people are looking for a good job, the ideal job, instead of first figuring out their purpose, why they are here on earth. When you understand your purpose, the work you pursue becomes the channel through which you express that purpose. Purpose gives us crazy energy and courage. In this episode, we explore with a “Sweet Spot” Career Coach just how to go about putting our purpose to work.
People are yearning to tune in to their unique reason for being, desperately seeking ways to matter. Purpose is available to anyone, anywhere in the world, and when we discover and serve from it, we encounter unparalleled fulfillment and can make the difference worthy of our one, precious life. In this fireside conversation, a few of the women who authored their story in a soon-to-be-released anthology weigh in on why the world needs purpose and what can happen when we live from it. Ours is a collection of stories, from Australia to Zambia, featuring women of all ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, and areas of influence sharing our paths to discovering our purpose, finding ways to express our gifts, and in doing so, making contributions that better the world.
The ache for meaning and purpose can quite literally drive us to insane ends. Ask Ken Banks. His pursuit of meaningful work that makes an impact took him to do volunteer development work Zambia and Uganda, work at a primate sanctuary in Nigeria, then teach English in Finland among other pursuits. Along the way, he leveraged his technology talents to create a text-messaging platform for non-profit organizations in developing countries. And that seemingly simple act has cascaded a wave of impact he could hardly imagine and is still humbled about today. Meaning and purpose are essential, and we will literally go to the ends of the earth to find it.
It’s hard to remember the times when people began a business, in order to make a “boat load of money.” Of course, that still happens. But more and more people are looking for ways to balance profit and purpose through their business – AND society and customers are asking them to do the same. Enter the B Corp certification for business. Rather than focusing on profit maximization, these business owners and leaders consider the impact of their operations on their workers, customers, suppliers, community and the environment.
Today’s business climate calls forth the best leaders and companies can offer. No longer is it sufficient to simply offer a well-positioned product or service to remain viable in today’s ever-evolving consciousness in business. Companies must embrace purpose and giving in order to stand up to the scrutiny in today’s business climate that expects them to steward a better tomorrow, especially around ESG (environmental, social and governance) initiatives. In this episode, we learn how Founder and CEO Charles Antis of Antis Roofing and Waterproofing goes “all in with both arms” to answer the call of purpose and profit.
Come along with us in this conversation as we discover the new consciousness weaving its way through communities of women, connecting, caring, and uplifting each other. Activated through the power of circle, there is increasing evidence of an emerging culture of community-minded activists and artists collaborating to create the change we all desperately need. The feminine soul is rising, and she is running for office and changing policy to create new communities connected through caring. Enter the embrace in a brave new world.
After committing to 50/50 of his time equally between work and a service project, Bob Graham found himself enjoying a golden age of personal transformation. He founded Namaste Direct in 2004 as a project for his family foundation to assist low-income women microentrepreneurs in Guatemala with their business development. Using three techniques – individual mentorship, financial literacy classes, and small loans – they have trained nearly 4,000 women to make more money and lift them from poverty. This episode explores where the vision came from, Bob’s transformation along the way, and the difference they are making to generations to come in Guatemala.
Who could have predicted the recent trifecta of a global pandemic, recession, and level of social unrest around such matters as the George Floyd murder? An unprecedented level of sensibility toward what is expected of business leaders on environmental, social, governance (ESG) issues affecting companies has emerged. Now is the moment for businesses and brands to determine what they will stand for. Figuring out what you think about and will do on matters of social justice, inclusion, climate change or pay equity can energize the positive forces of company character, helping your organization attract and retain loyal employee, customer and investor followings that strengthen communities. Doing so is not just good for the bottom line but also enlivens the overall ecosystem in which you operate.
People are hungry for meaning and purpose. People want to know the work they are important and the work they do matters. Consciousness is evolving as education and interdependence across the world increases. Gender roles are changing, as men and women share domestic roles at home and participate alongside each other in the workplace. To become our best selves, both genders are learning from each other to claim their highest humanity. In this episode, we explore embracing the feminine in order to heal and transform men on a deep level and the benefit of infusing compassion into masculine workplace cultures.
Nutritionists tell us that we are what we eat. As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Arthur Ciaramicoli believes that we are what we perceive. We are in a dark time and in need of enhanced empathy to allow us to regain our civility and our sense of reason. The cancer in the United States is deep and it is growing, but it is still curable if we devise a treatment plan that we are all willing to implement. This episode will teach us how.
East meets West in this mindset as we discover how moving from surviving to thriving starts with moving from a destination to journey mindset. Getting access to powerful tools along the journey, like self-awareness and learning how to gauge our energy fuel help us propel meaningfully along the path. Finally, learning how to recognize and navigate past obstacles along the way is essential to live the biggest, best expression of our purpose and make the contribution we crave.
Work and the people with whom we do it can be such a source of connection and fulfillment. Yet, it often presents frustration, misunderstandings, and grievances. Part of the problem is that companies don’t have a viable culture that supports open communication when things go awry – people don’t feel comfortable sharing their hurts and disappointments. That’s when problems can escalate to bigger levels than need be. Companies that create a culture and set of practices to address these ongoing opportunities for misunderstandings so people feel heard, understood, appreciated, and the situation rectified are positioned to avoid discrimination and harassment while enjoying stronger engagement and growth.
Men are in crisis - a crisis of roles, expectations and conflicting signals. An opportunity exists to look to the wisdom traditions that can offer spiritual guidance along the journey to heightened consciousness. You’ll need courage, and curiosity, and a good guide. Gabriel Keczan shares how he helps men connect with deeper purpose through embodiment and relationship to awaken their hidden powers.
Through a social technology for governing and operating a team, holacracy takes the best from Getting Things Done and Agile approaches to yield a dynamic approach to collaboration and productivity. It involves continually evolving the team structure based on small experiments and new information. Everything starts in Holacracy with ‘tension.’ Things are not going the way you want. With Holacracy, you can use this tension as fuel for moving forward and improving productivity while developing the skills of each team member.
What would the world look like if we began teaching children about their unique talents and ways of being that can better the world? How would helping people discover their purpose at a very young age, and then choose careers to live it through, increase well-being, productivity, and even peace in the world? In this episode, we talk with Founder and Chief Shineologist Dr. Claudia Been about this very work she is doing through the House of Shine to help more people be their best and help bring it out of everyone they touch.
The power of a sincere “thank you”: Priceless. Everyone wants to know they matter and the work they do makes a difference. What if all your leaders could show they care for their team members? And what if you had a way to systematize appreciation across your entire organization, with everyone being able to express their gratitude for others? Learn how employee recognition can be implemented, scaled and unleashed to power engagement, connection and retention.
In this conversation with the ever insatiably curious Professor Wright, we take a deep empirical dive into purpose and how people experience it. How people gain access to their purpose and apply it is the focus, and Dr. Wright shares what he’s learned over a lifetime investigating how to change our behavior to have a better life.
Soliciting and listening deeply to understand the perspectives and experiences of your employees, and taking action on the feedback, is a business imperative that cannot be overlooked in today’s business world. People crave meaning and purpose in their lives, and work is a profoundly important contributing component. Conducting regular, anonymous employee engagement surveys to continue the open exchange between employees and leaders is essential for individual flourishing and company success. Going beyond measures to improve engagement and equip employees with training to address and manage their own mental health and well-being, even better.
Aiming to make a difference in the world beyond earning healthy profits is good for the health and vitality of all shareholders in a company. The world has so many problems and opportunities awaiting a motivated workforce to take on. Employees know when they’re part of a great organization, something much bigger than themselves, and they dig deep to apply their efforts to perform higher and vie to remain part of such an organization. In this episode, we learn first-hand through Matt Gerber’s experiences the profound difference corporate social responsibility and environmental social governance investing initiatives make in communities and how being part of them raises the motivation of all employees involved.
Effective leadership starts with defining your internal bearings through deep personal exploration. Your highest leadership aspirations are the result of reflection that helps you define your higher purpose as a leader, contributions that hold meaning for you in knowing what kind of leader is it important for you to be, and why? Standing on that foundation, employing grace in your leadership becomes the game changer, where your approaches, behaviors, connection with the men and women you lead, and your demeanor begin to reflect the evolution you want for yourself while positively elevating the lives you touch.
How’s this for good news? If you don’t like your job, you have the power to instantly improve it today by simply sprinkling in a social purpose contribution. What does that mean, you ask? You can stand for something more at work – to help or serve people beyond whatever your job calls you to do. Where and how you do so is entirely of own your beautiful and uniquely “you” creation.
Host of the Leadership Hacker podcast and author of the Leadership Cake likens the fundamentals of leadership to the essential ingredients of a delicious cake. Every leader needs to find the right mix of those ingredients to form his or her “cake,” while developing a distinctive and memorable taste that informs their legacy. This episode summarizes the approach Steve has employed to developing leaders from junior level to international CEOs of global organizations.
Want to live an extraordinary life? Or, are you content with one that is flat, repetitive and run by fear? Purpose, vision, and values go a long way in creating a life of fulfillment and impact. We’ll learn about these essential ingredients and more in a fireside chat with Robert White who has spent more than 50 years teaching 1.3 million people learn high-impact personal and leadership effectiveness.
Most people ache to matter, to make a meaningful contribution during their time on earth. Others would also like to be remembered long past their lifetimes through their achievements and contributions to society. In this episode, we learn about the idea of memorial capacity, the aspects and pathways of legacy, and how to craft a strategic legacy plan that best optimizes our talents, abilities and resources.
Many people understand purpose existing for people as an on/off switch – either you’ve discovered it for yourself or you haven’t. Yet, there is so much more to purpose, which has been described as occurring as four distinct stages expressing wildly different levels of impact. Further, purpose exists in human beings, companies, institutions, and nations. This episode takes a deep dive into purpose and its expressional impact, and explores its potential in a self-aware cosmos that is ever evolving.
It is hard to argue in today’s fluid workplace against the need for ongoing learning and development, constantly gaining new skills and stoking the ability to innovate and handle change. Some organizations are masters at providing professional development opportunities better that offer various ways to consume the content to maximize the learning experience and application ideas. This episode showcases how Cornerstone League stayed agile during the COVID pandemic to innovate novel ways to engage members with fresh content created from evolving societal and workplace needs for a vibrant learning environment for all.
Effective leaders know the value of ongoing learning and receiving mentorship and support from others. In this episode, we learn from the CEO of NAFCU about why emotional intelligence is critical as a servant leader in today, some of his recommended hiring and managing practices that fly in the face of many companies, and the importance of guarding and nurturing culture while stoking the communication channels to steward the workforce during the trying pandemic times.
Two of the biggest aspects that hold people back from pursuing their biggest, best life are their self-confidence and fear. The question is, will you learn to develop and harness those concerns in life to fuel your pursuit of your dreams, or will you let them hold you back and rob you of a fulfilling and impactful life? In this episode, we talk with Renee Cermak about the importance of stewarding our self-esteem and what she’s learned in two decades to help people realize their potential.
When John Baker was considering what to do for work, he asked himself, what’s the most important problem in the world I can help solve. The answer was how people learn, which led to founding D2L 20 years ago. Today, he’s out to upskill the workplace to raise the talents of humans working alongside technology and work strategically to re-start the economy in the pandemic era.
The power of a sincere “thank you”: Priceless. Everyone wants to know they matter and the work they do makes a difference. What if all your leaders could show they care for their team members? And what if you had a way to systematize appreciation across your entire organization, with everyone being able to express their gratitude for others? Learn how employee recognition can be implemented, scaled and unleashed to power engagement, connection and retention.
We can learn surprising things about ourselves when we practice creativity. We learn about our own biases, limitations, and fantasies, among many other useful aspects. Organizations can also solve business problems with collaborative creativity. And when individuals come together to collaborate creatively, there is a transfer of energy and a nurturing intellectual intimacy that not only gels the team but also provides tremendous fulfillment to each person contributing. Practicing collaborative creativity, then, facilitates innovation while elevating employee engagement, performance and retention – a pretty good case for putting collaborative creativity to work at your company, today!
Whether you’re a seasoned leader or just getting started in the role, there’s a good bet there are aspects of your leadership that can be strengthened when you do the hard work on yourself. After all, an unexamined life is simply not worth following and at its worst can be incredibly destructive to the followers left in their wake. In this episode with 20-year leadership veteran Tim Spiker, we learn about effective leadership that is “inwardly sound” and “others focused.” Tim founded Aperio, which is a Latin word, meaning to uncover, lay bare, make clear, or reveal, and that’s the approach he takes to helping leaders learn about themselves and become effective in their role.
Where have all the entrepreneurs gone? We seem to be producing less of them each year. Josh Spodek says this is due in part our educational system that teaches compliance at the expense of pursuing interests and passions in learning. He’s out to teach people to take initiative and pursue their passions all over their lives – and that entrepreneurship is available to virtually everyone. He’s our modern-day Galileo, with a PhD in Astro Physics and a heart for the environment, and is also on a mission to make sustainability a central concern for everyone – individuals, leaders, and companies across the world. We each have something important to teach and share to help others. Let’s find that passion and get you to work sharing it!
Archetypes provide individuals and companies a powerful way to access their own story, symbols, patterns and passions. When we know who we are at our core and have language to articulate it, our own essence thrives in the world and we derive strength, motivation and focus from living it. Using the power inherent in Archetypes, CultureTalk opens doors to a more conscious and positive way of interacting and communicating, helping people realize their greatest potential and organizations carry out their unique missions.
A couple of years into his first job at Morgan Stanley in New York, Deval Sanghavi realized he wanted to be in India, to focus on the lives of the many millions that live without dignity and equity. So the Texas-born investment banker packed up, came to Mumbai, and co-founded Dasra. Its very first workshop, for around 20 non-profit organizations working with children, was to support them in learning from each other – and this collaborative, learning philosophy remains central to how Dasra functions today, nurturing powerful partnerships among stakeholders across the spectrum – including government, donors, organizations, experts and the media. In this incredibly inspiring episode, we learn how Dasra is out to uplift one billion lives and the scaling collaborations it harnesses to realize its vision.
Part one of a meaningful life is to become acquainted with one’s purpose; Part two is to put it into action through its helpful expression and service to others. Pursuing purpose is our ultimate life nourishment and is well worth the journey to steward it along over the course of our lives. Drawing from the experiences of 30 careers and a lifetime of study and inquiry, Dr. Holly Woods has learned to help people discover purpose across their development stages and reformulate their businesses to align with that is uniquely who they are.
The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be the great shake-up force in companies across the world. Pivoting as a company operating in these times and supporting employees in a virtual environment has elicited many necessary changes in human capital practices. In this episode, we listen in as a young start-up company shares its lessons learned and approach to pivoting operations to support the needs of a vastly changed workforce and pave the way for a vibrant future.
A conscious purpose-driven business deserves an investor that is here to liberate it to fulfill its purpose. Traditional financial services, capital markets, and investors are not aligned and thus, able, to support the needs and purposes of these types of businesses. Traditional financial firms and investors seek to maximize financial return and in doing so, constrain, control and restrict these purposeful conscious businesses from operating with a long-term perspective. In this episode, we meet Serviam Investors, a new venture built on conscious capitalism that seeks investors who want Good Returns – and who desire to invest not only their wealth, but also their time and talent to enable purpose and positive change that impacts the world in a purposeful and lasting way.
Howard Shore is on a mission to impact 500,000 people. And he wants to do so by helping business owners create businesses that are not “about me,” but rather out to change the world. He revels in helping companies and leaders play not to win but to be “different.” To achieve remarkable results, business owners need to learn how to run better, faster “circles” and infuse at least one of his four purpose movements within the business model.
What would it take for you to step out of your comfort and into the challenge of transforming to your best and highest self? The journey is well worth the work, and along the way you just might discover your purpose. People who live from their purpose are incredibly fulfilled as they positively impact the lives of countless people. They know their lives matter and each moment is precious - there is profound fulfillment in serving the world with your gifts. The world needs more of you, pulling deeply from your passion and purpose, which inspires others to do the same. We’re ready. Bring it.
Business will experience more change in the next 10 years than it has in the last 40. Every business will become a technology company, and every business will become a data company. Investments in information technology will be a strategic imperative for every organization. The gap between companies that invest, and those that lag, will widen dramatically in the 2020s. Artificial intelligence, the internet of things, automated machines, blockchain, augmented reality, and 5G networks hold infinite promise to grow business and elevate humans alongside technology. In a time of great possibility, those organizations with the strongest sense of purpose and the greatest will to drive change will prevail and make the biggest difference in the world.
The tables are turned in this episode as Alise Cortez, Host of Working on Purpose radio, is interviewed through the “essence mining” method by Danny Gutknecht. He teases out what matters most to her and surfaces her path to purpose and how it is expressed through the work she does. We learn her surprising career aspiration from her youth that thankfully got directed to a more, shall we say, suitable representation and expression in who she has become and how she uses her talents in the world.
A paradigm shift in business is urgently needed, especially on the heels of the pandemic that has served as a major wakeup call and has helped us understand the inextricability of environmental context in operational health. Having a static purpose statement is wholly insufficient to steward an organization to vibrancy. Instead, we need leaders who recognize that the organizations they lead are living, breathing, and growing organisms that must be cultivated to become agile, fluid, and adaptive. The shift will be very uncomfortable and likely painful, as growth always is.
Living to our fullest potential takes energy and effort, along with a strong and focused mindset. You’ll need to summon passion, perseverance and then, just get TO it. When you “Go All In” you give your very best. When you give everything you’ve got to make the world a better place, you are living up to your true potential. No matter what you’re working on, get to it and “Go All In.”
Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to choose between making money and making a difference. Salespeople who genuinely understand how they can make a difference to customers outsell those who only focus on internal targets and quotas. In an era where organizations often believe that money is the primary way to motivate salespeople, Selling with Noble Purpose offers and exciting and sustainable alternative.
Bob Chapman has had a series of arresting insights that have completely changed the way he builds his businesses and his approach to leadership. He’s come to realize there is a leadership crisis in the world that stems from not giving leaders the skills and courage to care for those they have the privilege to lead. It starts with helping leaders to see each team member as someone’s precious child and engaging them through the transformative power of empathetic listening. Contrast that view with the traditional approach taken in business to consider people as functions and objects to be used and manipulated to achieve owner and company goals. Today Bob stands to spread the message that the more we can combine work with caring, the more fulfilled we will be and the further we collectively advance.
Having studied and practiced leadership for 30 years, Jeff Lovejoy is on a mission to package and share everything he’s learned. And he’s doing so in digestible “bite-sized” or “jellybean-sized” chunks called “quips.” This episode surveys some of the more salient points he believes are especially important to lead and motivate people in today’s purpose economy and pandemic times.
Michael Oster has discovered a way to help high achievers “level up” in life. He’s created a framework that teaches people to harness competency-strengths combinations as “weapons of construction” to make progress on any issue in life. Being defined by competencies, and informed by strengths, we are able to accomplish our goals more efficiently. And happily, the more we accomplish, the greater our motivation to reach for more.
Companies spend a lot of time and budget recruiting new talent into their organization, adding headcount to grow and replacing that which moves on or retires. Often overlooked as a strategy to source talent is the alumni which already hold an affinity for the organization. This episode explores the opportunity of maintaining meaningful connection with alumni to power talent, marketing and community initiatives.
Living life fully takes energy and a choice toward a path to purpose. It also takes being authentically true to yourself, listening carefully to your own calling, despite what well-intentioned people direct you otherwise. Herb Sennett has earned several college, university, and seminary degrees even though his guidance counselor in high school told him he needed to go to trade school since he would never make it in college. And he’s poured more in a life of 75 years than most could pack in 125. Little wonder he’s come to be known as the Chief Encouragement Officer, authors the Living Life Fully blog, and champions happiness as a way of life.
Coronavirus has presented so many unique challenges to education. Moving education online at the drop of a hat, then figuring out how to continue to support students, how to support parents becoming teachers with no training, how to return to face to face education, and how to address the digital divide has been an incredible learning curve. There is no right answer, but without purpose, we cannot create meaningful learning in education in this digital divide. With all the struggles that we are facing around the world at the moment, education is at the heart of all of them, because education is what should develop the skill to listen, to engage, to question and to grow. Whether we are looking at addressing racism, creating equality, wearing masks, whether to take a vaccine, all of these things require thought, discussion and further consideration.
Imagine someone you love is standing at the precipice of their own death. They’re about to leave behind those they hold dear, and their passing will leave a hole in your life. How can you ease their pain and give them a way to leave something of themselves behind? The human voice is such a powerful relationship tool, and yet when people die, it’s gone. Unless there’s someone there to catch it. People ache to share their greatest hopes, dreams, disappointments, and learnings. And when they pass, loved ones miss the voice that came with the being and hearing what their lives represented. Barbara Altounyan, a 30-year BBC TV and radio veteran and her team live to capture the stories of those soon to depart - and do so with profound appreciation and outright revelry.
Many of us will spend a good portion of our lives getting over and recovering from the events of our childhood. It’s the steps we take, the work we do, and the grace we grant ourselves that can make all the difference as we work to unfold into our very best. It takes bravery, a strong dose of authenticity and sometimes a blind leap of faith. But the journey is oh so worth it. In this episode, Sherri shares her story of how she went from surviving her life to thriving.
There is a growing urgency, a hunger to experience more meaning and purpose in life and at work. Danny Gutknecht further asserts that the need to actualize is becoming a cultural phenomenon. Throughout history, there have been those who moved away from institutions and struggled to assume responsibility for their own meaning and tap the essence of who they are through various practices and inquiries. One by one, people are slipping off the chains, turning away from the cave wall, and crawling out into the sunlight to realize their true potentials for the first time. Join us as Danny illuminates how people individuate by differentiating themselves along the path of meaning and how organizations can help them along their journey.
Transformational leadership casts a vision and empowers the team to realize it through inspired performance. Hugh Ballou works with non-profit and church leaders because he knows they often must work even harder to realize their vision, as they don’t have the power of the paycheck to push for performance. What keeps Hugh going is the profound difference those organizations make in our communities when they are led well and bring their vision into a reality. Don’t we all want to know we’ve made a difference, and when Hugh hears this from his clients, it melts his heart.
Entrepreneurs and innovators are a powerful force that have contributed tremendous value to the business world and communities they serve. Often fueled from great passion and emboldened by a team inspired by their vision, they have built great organizations and amassed impressive wealth. What these individuals do with all their money when they successfully exit their ventures has helped change the world. This episode showcases examples of people from across the Indian diaspora who amassed wealth and are making remarkable contributions to the world we live in. It also invites soon-to-exit entrepreneurs a path to channeling their energies and resources to leave meaningful legacies.
): Motivation is the driving force behind any action or lack thereof. And yet it is little understood beyond simple extrinsic and intrinsic types, and thus often lacking in opportunity to leverage inside many organizations. Imagine what would happen to your company’s results if you as a leader understood what detracts from each team member’s motivation and instead learned how to feed it. In this conversation, Motivation Factor Institute founder and I discuss their M Factor model which addresses one’s energy, needs, talents, and purpose.
Confronting change. Intentional growth and development. Gearing up for the next promotion. Transforming through crisis and the everyday. These are just some of the reasons people and organizations hire coaches. There are numerous approaches to developing people through coaching. In this episode, we discuss the narrative coaching approach in relation to integrative development to help create transformative encounters in the workplace.
The pursuit to purpose is the pursuit to matter. If you want to find out how to be motivated, ask why. If you want to find your purpose, ask who. Purpose is about solving a problem for someone, and answers: Who am I, and who am I supposed to help? This is part of the Purpose Factor formula to unlock and apply purpose. Who needs happiness when fulfillment is available by helping others and growing in the process of the service?
Upon receiving a terminal diagnosis for his newborn daughter, Christian Kromme the technologist set out to learn everything he could about biology and nature to look for some way to save her. That journey would ultimately set her on a path to thriving in health, usher in the understanding that social and technology evolution mirrors that of nature, and newly emerge as a futurist. His optimistic message is that humanity will advance toward a more meaningful future when our social and business systems evolve alongside technological innovation and allow us to more fully live with meaning and purpose.
Whether you’re an established business owner or just starting out on the journey, Patrick Bet-David has some pearls of advice he’s learned as a very successful entrepreneur. An immigrant from Iran, he enthusiastically embraces the capitalistic opportunity available in America to anyone willing to work to realize their dreams. His own experience of founding a financial services marketing company at age 29 with 66 agents in one office to growing it to more than 15,000 agents with 120 offices in 49 states and Puerto Rico in just over 10 years, along with a ferocious appetite for reading and learning from others has proven fertile ground to cultivate his astute perspective on business.
Mental health is in crisis in America. We are seeing double digit increases in anxiety, depression, and suicide. And yet available to us all is the opportunity for meaning and fulfillment through our work and being of service to others. Living our purpose releases positive chemicals that improve your physical health and your emotional outlook. But learning to tune into our own mental health can be a challenge. Joyages was created to help. By providing short two-minute videos and confidential self-assessments Joyages helps people develop skills and habits to find their purpose, master relationships, reduce stress, and improve their emotional health.
Emotions are “energy in motion” and much more of a potent force in our lives than most people understand. When we leave them unexpressed, stuffed, unacknowledged, or numb them out, emotions have to go somewhere so lie in wait, latent, for the opportunity while often growing bigger and more intense. And then they can unexpectedly erupt in our interactions with others or even make us sick. Learning where emotions originate in our body and how to use them to get present to what we feel and desire is a life-long, enriching opportunity. And when we get better at recognizing and addressing our own emotions and those in others, we become much more adept at communication and improve our overall health.
Work is at least one-third of our lives, if not more. And yet, only 16 percent of the global workforce is fulfilled in the work they do. That figure is at least partly so because the leaders inside many organizations do not see people as individual, wholly unique beings with special talents – but rather as “human resources” to be dispatched or engaged in a set of tasks. The tremendous opportunity that beckons is to first stop believing the lies we’ve come to accept as truths about work and how it gets done, and instead begin to focus on and prize each individual on the team and within the organization that uniquely powers its mission. Through this new lens, we can create a world where people love their work and bring their best.
People ache to find their purpose. And often, it’s been with you your whole life – you just didn’t know how to recognize it as such. That persistent, niggling part of yourself that just won’t let you alone? Probably your purpose. That thing that everyone recognizes as being uniquely you and they count on for? Probably your purpose expressed. For Sheryl Lynn, her purpose was ultimately recognized as that insistent calling toward anything that brought her joy. She recognizes she needed it, and so does everyone else. And now, she’s built a platform around her brand called JOYELY. And she’s supporting a Joy Movement set to serve 1 billion people as they find, be, and share their joy with the world. Take a seat, you’re worth it.
When you’re UP to something in life, you’re going to need a good dose of resilience to push through the inevitable hurdles that stand between the place you are today and where you strive to be tomorrow. That’s when you lean in on your inner “sisu” the Finns gave us to reach for that gritty, can-do spirit to unleash creativity and better problem solving. There, you’ll find your inner bravery and bravado, ferocity and tenacity to keep fighting when the going gets tough and you most want to quit. Learn how in this episode.
What does leadership in the COVID-19 pandemic look like? The answer greatly depends on the leader and has massive ramifications as life and business have been turned upside down. In this episode, Leadership Women’s president and CEO shares straight from the trenches how she refocused her leadership to reassure the team through her presence and cast a vision for their brighter future. Together, they are forging a path to innovate new ways to serve their members and unite the 42 years of cohort participants who have gone through their programs. A nurturing testament to the power of women at the helm.
Doing business in today’s increasingly interdependent marketplace on one shared planet calls for conscientious and enlightened leadership. Adherence to sustainable business practices that are economically viable, socially responsible and environmentally friendly is the order of the day. In this episode, we talk with a sustainability and ethics expert about essential high-impact corporate sustainability leadership attributes and how they are being applied by well-known and successful companies to produce profit while tending to the lives they touch.
The coronavirus pandemic has provided a forced hard re-boot. Everything has now changed in the way we live, work, and do business. And in confronting COVID-19, we’ve finally realized that we are a planet of people unified and interdependent as one and that we must steward our way forward very differently. Rooted in higher purpose, servant leadership, and a multi-stakeholder orientation, individuals and companies alike now have the opportunity to create a conscious culture that ushers in a better future for our everyday lives and the way we do business across the world. Let’s dig deep into our passion, purpose, ingenuity and grit and make this new and much improved future a reality.
Want to vastly improve the quality of your life, relationships, and work? In this technological age when gadgets handily separate people from meaningful connection, embracing the Japanese concept of ichigo ichie offers a richness to the everyday moment and encounter. Learn how you can harness this simple practice to become aware of and in tune with the magic and wonder in everyday interactions and enjoy greater peace, fulfillment, and creativity.
Turns out there’s a simple, yet powerful dynamic that enables business to thrive today: Purpose as the crucial foundation and execution as the catalyst to fulfill it. Striking the right balance is the opportunity. And when leaders help employees align with the organization’s purpose and facilitate their experience of work as a meaningful and a worthy way to spend their precious lives, fulfillment and committed work effort result. And the glorious cycle is reinforced as employees passionately contribute their talents and more revenues and profit are generated.
This episode offers an inspiring and compelling promise. If we want to live in our diverse world with ease and joy, we all must re-evaluate the ideas we accepted as naïve children observing biased adults. Our future depends on us making this effort and committing to a journey of uncovering the truth about ourselves and others. There we will be part of creating a world based on compassion for all, rather than small-minded perspectives that limit the potential of many for the favor of a few. We can all learn to employ curiosity and wonder when encountering others who seem different from us on the surface. And in doing so, we will be delighted in the wonder of each unique person we encounter while helping create a connected, peaceful world that beckons us home.
What would your company – and the world – look like if you as a business leader or owner managed to help each employee recognize that his or her individual contribution made a meaningful difference to the world, every day? And you as a leader were focused on how to position your company or department to help solve some of the stickiest problems facing the globe today – and let your employees devote 10% of their time to these special projects? I’ll tell you: Each individual employee would go home at night knowing their one, precious life was being spent in service of worthy causes and give mightily of their talents to make the company succeed. A worthy aspiration for any company, I so applaud DSM’s model of the promise of enlightened business and enriching workplace.
A leader is the person literally “out front,” which means being on display and in full view of an array of discerning parties affected by your decisions. It takes courage and conviction, but what an incredible difference you can make to the lives of those you touch in this capacity when you are consciously looking to positively impact all the stakeholders you serve and challenge paradigms. In this episode, we talk about “enlightened leadership,” and hear how Dr. Cary Israel completely overhauled Collin College where students and staff flourish; business, government, and education work together, and the surrounding community is enriched and lifted.
Business and the system of capitalism can do so much better than narrowing the focus on profits over people and the environment. When governed by conscience and tapping into the collective magnificence of the human spirit, imagine a world where business leads the charge to heal what ails society by unleashing its vast access to human and material resources. When we aspire for greater heights, we’re more likely to achieve them, so let’s. Why would you want your life as an individual or an organization to stand for anything less?
Social enterprise as a business structure is increasingly being chosen by conscientious people to do business while living key values. Capitalism can be such a force for good and when a business is designed with intention to serve all stakeholders, the social impact it cascades can lift entire communities and change lives. In this episode, we learn how Jin-Ya Huang has been championing social impact and community development her whole life and became an accidental entrepreneur along the way.
The “broken rung” in companies, where 72 women are promoted to their first level management position, next to 100 men, is a problem Dr. Keithline Byrne and team are hard at work to help women overcome. In this conversation, she shares the secret sauce Her New Standard takes to developing leadership in women. And she challenges women to cultivate their own leadership brand and promote it, develop and exercise strategic thinking competency, and solicit constructive feedback for continuous improvement – a few catalyzing agents that accelerate the journey.
Passion and purpose often come from the most surprising places. Tom Hulsey found his passion to help serve others combatting cancer after the winning mindset he’d leaned on to perform Ironman competitions got him through his own bout with prostate cancer. In this episode, we talk about the parallels between cultivating an intentional mindset to support extreme physical endurance competitions and how it can also be leveraged to pursue your purpose. We are also quite purposefully evangelizing the cry for men to monitor their health and get screening for cancer. Men, we want you around and healthy!
What do you suppose could be possible if you learned to tune in and listen to that inner urging voice that so desperately is trying to guide you in life? And you stop “shushing” it going about your busy routine? What miracles, what new heights, what new possibilities could be present for you – if only you were able to tune in? This, my friends, is the urgent call of purpose. Answer it.
Life offers spectacular opportunities to achieve dreams, realize potential, and suffer through hardship. The attitude we adopt in response to what life serves up can be the difference between a fulfilled and victorious life or one registered as disappointing and the victim of circumstance. Yet, the magnificence of the human spirit to persevere, take responsibility for choices made, and create a desired future to step into is positively captivating. In this episode, we meet a woman who went from Super Woman business executive, to burdening life spectator, to fulfilled writer and speaker, a marvelous and inspiring transformation. Life is for the living – yes, let’s!
Tired of trying to distinguish yourself and navigate a career in a large corporation? Consider a tech start-up! Today’s tech start ups have big ideas, are well-funded, and they need people who can join the team to bring their vision to fruition. Start-ups offer fewer barriers to entry, versatility in roles, and can provide a very handsome financial return, when the right start-up with a sound product and growth plan is considered. And if you seek a role as executive leader, consider there are 500 CEO opportunities in Fortune 500s in contrast to the numerous leadership roles in the 46,000 start ups across the US.
Mike Coles loved reading stories to his young son, but his frequent travel schedule and subsequent divorce introduced a dilemma that inspired a creative solution to maintain the cherished tradition. Turning to technology, what began as a way to record himself reading stories to his son to hear in his absence, would ultimately become a new product that teaches children to read and speak various languages while also strengthening families across generations. In this episode, Mike shares how his love and desire to remain connected to his son ultimately took him on the quest to building a mobile application which also allows him to realize a powerful and personally meaningful vision that betters the world.
Mother Nature is calling her daughters, and Homeward Bound answers with a 10-year global leadership initiative, set against the backdrop of Antarctica. This initiative aims to heighten the influence and impact of women with a science background in order to influence policy and decision making as it shapes our planet. In this episode, Dr. Jeanette McConnell shares her 2019 experience alongside 99 other women from 33 different countries and takes us into the epic last three weeks of the program – in Antarctica.
Want to make a profound difference in this one, precious life you’ve been granted? Learn how to change someone’s life for the better in a single conversation. It will take a certain mindset, a clear heart, and being fully present, among other essentials discussed in this episode. And sometimes timing is critical – being able to have this kind of dialogue with someone in their hardest times can be incredibly valuable. The world needs more people who can change a life in a single conversation. Are you – or can you become – one of them?
What if we lived every day of the year as if it were Christmas – and as if we were Santa Claus? What if we let ourselves be called into a higher state of being that embodied love, gratitude, and giving, every day – not just during the holidays? It’s a good bet that not only would our own immediate life and well-being skyrocket to a higher level, but the ripple effect could literally cascade across the world. Christmas is a state of mind that is available to us all, no matter what religion we observe. Let it live on every day of the year and thread us together as a unified, grateful whole.
A company’s success is heavily determined by the quality and transforming potency of the talent it can attract. Companies that selectively hire for their culture and the vision they are growing into position themselves to win while inspiring the new employees with meaningful work and a bright future. Part of this growth strategy entails training front line managers with “boots on the ground” tactical skills to increase productivity and reduce friction from otherwise poor communication among team members. Cast a compelling vision that people want to be part of creating, enable and power the team with effective training, and then get out of the way!
“It just feels right” or “I go with my gut” are very common ways we have been encouraged to make decisions. Yet in today’s complex social and business environment, this emotional or instinctual approach simply does not serve us well and has actually been proven disastrous for leaders. More than 100 known cognitive biases have been identified and represent reminders that to be effective we must learn to engage our rational and logical brain to intervene. In this episode, we explore some common cognitive biases that interfere with effective decision making and diminish desired results in relationships and business and provide a powerful decision making model that improves the quality of everyday life and the bottom line results of business.
Most of us ache to live a full life of contribution and impact, one we're proud of and leaves us fulfilled. At 71, having made large waves in the Public Relations and Fashion industries early in her career, Lynne Franks launched a global women's leadership platform 20 years ago that continues to build steam and momentum. This while she champions human rights, women's empowerment, and climate initiatives to help transform our planet into a more equitable and sustainable place for the generations to come. May we all find just a fraction of her passion and purpose for ourselves.
Unconscious bias is a short cut technique we all employ to try to deal with the constant onslaught of information we confront every day. Using it in the workplace often results in limited input to decisions to hire, promote, and develop individuals within the organization. The more we can be challenged by others and ourselves to consider and re-evaluate how we perceive and judge others, we develop acumen to more quickly recognize our unconscious bias and become effective in joyously dancing with life. And like this episode’s guest, the more intentional and aware we can become about how we take in the world, the more we can literally dance with it to enjoy it deeply, make a greater impact on those we encounter and serve, and thread together the different aspects of our lives that stitch together into a rich tapestry.
Anxiety and depression are the most common mental health diagnoses in the US, followed by substance abuse disorder. This is due in part to our tendency as an individualistic society to assume alone more day-to-day burdens than our collectivist society brethren who rely on a broader community to handle the pressures of daily life. This conversation encourages us to become enlightened as to how the trials and tribulations of everyday life can impact our mental and spiritual health. And in the most helpful and optimistic way, it reminds us that we should embrace how the miracle in us can become a powerful energy to offset the debilitating affects of what can otherwise emerge as anxiety and mental or spiritual depression.
Serve first. Never stop learning. These are just two of the key lessons shared from top business leaders that distinguish their careers of service and impact. In this fireside chat with Bruce Waller, we highlight the 10 most valuable lessons he’s learned from top business leaders, career advice from his book “Finding your Lane, and his key takeaways serving as a Texas SHRM State Council District Director as he seeks to inspire people to navigate their career with purpose.
Military men and women face an enormous challenge transitioning from active duty to the civilian world, often describe it as the hardest thing they’ve ever done. Leaving behind a life and mission governed by purpose and putting their own life on the line in service to it, veterans often find re-entry to civilian life lacking and thus isolate themselves without help and resources. The GallantFew organization exists to help veterans reclaim hope and purpose in their lives as they reintegrate socially and professionally back into the civilian world.
Is this you, the aspirational human, aching to realize your potential? Do you have a desire to grow and evolve, but are not acting on it? Do you live with a constant nagging feeling, a dissatisfaction with your life, a persistent unhappiness from not meeting your potential? Then, you are likely perpetually carrying the discomfort as wasted days and self-contempt. The way out is to embrace that discomfort without numbing it away, welcome fear as a co-passenger in your ride to achievement, and develop a new mindset that emboldens your thoughts and feelings in transit to a new and brighter future. Guest Rachel Stewart will teach you how.
Today’s business climate calls for a move away from a focus on shareholder primacy to one that includes serving all stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders. Doing business in that world means more than ever, employees and customers are in the driver’s seat. And that translates to customers favoring trust-based relationships for purchases AND employees taking on more responsibility for their own engaged efforts on the job to ensure their own success. Welcome to the new frontier!
Human trafficking is modern-day slavery and victims, often sourced through their vulnerability, are subject to force, fraud or coercion for the purposes of forced labor and/or sexual exploitation. With 24.9 million victims across the globe, this atrocity represents a waste of a person’s one, precious life and must be halted to usher in a world where all people are free to live beyond bondage to others, a decidedly higher plane of consciousness than we currently dwell. The United Against Human Trafficking organization stands to insure we live in a world that is intolerant of buyers and sellers of human beings.
19 years as an award-winning corporate businesswoman was not the ticket to fulfillment … until Michele discovered comedy as her platform for freedom and a way to help others through their struggles. It took realizing that inauthenticity was the way she was successful in her corporate roles – being someone she was not. Almost overnight, Michele found being true to and honoring her tragic past and the way she navigated through it, opened a path to a new career. Too many of us fall prey to making excuses to changing careers – “we’ve got too many years in one industry” or “we’re too old to start something new.” Once Michele came to terms with her past and embraced it as a unique set of circumstances that set her apart from others, she could no longer ignore the screaming inner voice that called her to her new career. This episode is her story.
As advances in medicine extend the lifespan, baby boomers and traditionalists are finding they have more years to live and experience life, post careers. Perspectives and even definitions of retirement need changing to usher in the choice of living life as either “an elder or old fart,” as Susan Sokol Blosser likes to say. In this episode, we talk about the new frontier of retirement, which includes managing loss, recapturing joy, and living with gratitude and generativity, which provides powerful purpose and energy to enthusiastically embrace aging.
According to the Boardroom Project, 51% of the population and almost half of the nation’s workforce are women, yet they are still significantly underrepresented in boardrooms across the country. The Government Accountability Office estimates it could take more than four decades of women’s representation on boards in order to approach parity with their male counterparts. The Boardroom Project aims to cut that target date by half by educating and exposing young girls to the business sector to kickstart their careers. This nonprofit also provides professional women the support they need to climb the corporate ladder through various board positions on corporate and non-profit boards.
In a world where so many people are desperately seeking greater meaning in their lives, the Japanese concept of “ikigai” just might offer the holy grail. Ikigai can be thought of as a framework for understanding who we really are and living a more meaningful life. With the inexorable rise of AI, machine learning, and automation, humans are often left wondering where we fit in. And as the pace of life gets faster and faster, an optimal work life balance seems evermore elusive. Ikigai offers us the structure to find meaning, purpose, and harmony.
As the world changes, so must our marketing and strategic orientation to it. Gone are the days of competitive advantage to best peers and emerge as number one in the marketplace. We are now in an era of collaborating with all manner of unlikely suspects including our customers, suppliers, and even our competitors. Our major business and societal problems cannot be solved alone. It is time to unleash our unique ability as a species to strategically cooperate, mobilize contributors, foster innovation, and open the field of resources available to us to achieve the impactful results desired.
How do you respond when life knocks you down? Way down? When one day you seem to be on top of the world, living the high life of running a successful business, playing golf at the country club, running for political office, and partying, to the next when you find yourself in prison for the choices you made along the way? Here is where choice and mindset play strong: You can continue down the spiral you have been falling down, or you can quite literally, change everything. Mike Rouse chose to change everything in his life post incarceration, in order to open a path to passion, fulfillment, impact, and success.
In our ever technology-fueled world, increasing our self-awareness and mindfulness is the order of the day. Doing so helps us cultivate creativity, compassion, and trust-based work, essential components for employees and companies alike to thrive. As more individuals work to discover their purpose and bring it into the world, human consciousness rises across the world and the possibilities for creating a whole new way of living and working are endless. And when leaders work on mindfulness and their inner dimension, focusing on cultivating more awareness and connection with the health and well being of their employees, customers, other stakeholders, and communities, conscious capitalism naturally follows. And business becomes a greater force for good, everywhere.
Creating a workplace culture that governs a company is guiding principles and mission and keeping it alive and vibrant is essential to compete in today is competitive marketplace. Customers and employees alike know when a company is culture is healthy and will opt in and out of it accordingly. Alkami is a recognized leader in innovative thought leadership in many areas, including its own distinguished culture. In this episode, we learn why culture is critical to meaningfully create, and then leverage as a governing force that informs and guides daily thinking, acting and connecting within the organization. Alkami also shares its signature culture compounds and some practices employed to keep it vibrant and strong.
We have been so conditioned to make a living and aim toward retirement from work so we can finally start enjoying life. Unfortunately as so many people have learned the hard way, it turns out this approach is not at all conducive to well-being or longevity. Withdrawing from the workforce and being a productive member of society often translates to reduced mental function, depression, poor health, and even an early death. While achieving financial means to sustain an ongoing life is essential, continuing to share our talents and be of service helps us maintain meaningful connection to others, continue to learn and grow, and give us a will to live. Please don’t ever stop working – whether you are being paid or volunteering!
Every one of us has had a childhood that has provided memorable experiences and critical life lessons. It is entirely up to us to exercise our freedom to choose the attitude we take to this set of experiences to make sense of and tell our life story. We also have the rich opportunity and responsibility to determine the life lessons and contributions all these experiences and encounters have helped us into becoming the distinguished person we are today. There is a unique human being that has emerged over the course of our lives as we respond to what life serves up. Can you articulate how your life lessons distinguish you, and are you sharing this unique being to make a contribution to the world? Hope Mueller is – and it’s inspiring and empowering!
Everyone deserves to have photos that are as impressive and beautiful as they are in real life. Capturing our “story” and who we really are as we live our purpose is incredibly compelling and ushers people toward us who opt into our energy and vitality. And doing ourselves justice means working with a professional who knows how to capture our truth and elicit our essence. This is an intimate, trusting, transformative interaction between you and the person who captures your soul. The resulting images attract magnetically to those who dwell, or desperately want to dwell, in your purposeful world.
Did you know your pet comes into your life to teach you specific lessons? And that he also has his own life mission? I didn’t either until I talked with Dr. Joanne Lefebvre. There is so much we can learn about ourselves and the planet we all share, if only we’ll suspend our anthropocentric view of how the world works and listen to and be present with our beloved pets. In doing so, we will become not only better versions of ourselves, but may even further discover or deepen our own purpose.
Life can serve up some powerful punches that can seem incredibly cruel and unfair while in the throes of wrestling with them. Often, hardship is a tremendous opportunity in disguise to discover just who and what we can become in life. It’s so important to remember that we always have the freedom to choose our attitudinal stance to whatever pummeling life serves up. We can see ourselves as hopeless victims of an unfair fate. Or we can reach down deep into our core while focusing on serving others as we dig out way out, which is the route Karen Millsap took. She is a beautiful example of a person transformed through her response to gut-wrenching hardship who now lives a meaningful life of passion and purpose helping others heal and enjoy greater well-being.
There is a meaning crisis on a global scale that is draining the life out of people and the organizations that employ them. People hunger for meaningful connection with others, a life and work of purpose, and to enjoy a bigger, more beautiful life. And yet, there is so much employees, leaders and organizations can do to alter this tide and humanize the workplace while not just turning a profit but making the world a better place. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Pattakos, aka “Dr. Meaning,” about how individuals can empower themselves, and leaders and organizations can implement, the new discipline called MEANINGology® to advance the human quest for meaning in life, work, and society.
Have you ever felt an irresistible nudge encouraging you to step outside of your comfort zone? According to Wei-Li Shao, more often than not, this nudge isn’t a question, but rather an answer. After spending 18 years in the pharma industry and experiencing a severe health scare, Wei-Li decided to take the leap and pursue what he calls his “2.0”. In this episode, we hear Wei-Li’s story in depth -- highlighting the moment he learned of a sudden brain tumor, and the journey it took for him to heal and finally feel a sense of “home” after switching industries to work at Omada Health. While many of us wait for something to force us outside of our comfort zone, Wei-Li encourages us to take our nudges seriously and take action through a series of bite-sized steps. Be prepared to be inspired, deeply moved, a bit shaken off your feet.
As the world changes, so must our marketing and strategic orientation to it. Gone are the days of competitive advantage to best peers and emerge as number one in the marketplace. We are now in an era of collaborating with all manner of unlikely suspects including our customers, suppliers, and even our competitors. Our major business and societal problems cannot be solved alone. It is time to unleash our unique ability as a species to strategically cooperate, mobilize contributors, foster innovation, and open the field of resources available to us to achieve the impactful results desired.
It’s never too late to “hack your career” and create the life you ache for. Of course, you’ll need a system that engages your heart, head, and body and keeps you in “kinetic action” toward working on that audacious goal. We talk with the Talent Architect Melerick Mitchell about his proven system to help you spring yourself from an apathetic or under-fulfilling career to one that gives you greatest access to making the impact worthy of your one, precious life. You will walk away with a strategy and tools to launch you on your new journey!
Young girls and women across the world can do so much when educated and inspired to live and work to their fullest full potential. What’s needed for girls and women of all ages is a community that nurtures and feeds their growth and development, that teaches them to serve others through humanitarian causes which develops critical self-esteem and confidence, and that gives them access to inspiring examples of girls and women making a profound difference through their work and service. And certainly, girls and women are at their best when they discover and nurture their passion and purpose and then bring their talents mightily into the world to make the impact they deserve and all of us desperately need.
Companies increasingly need a high-performing workforce contributing their full talents in order to remain competitive, especially at a time when unemployment is at the unprecedented rate of 3.8 percent. Yet, many organizations opt to spend precious budget on recruitment at the expense of investing in engagement and retention. Leaders can create work environments, job tasks, and team interactions that elicit persistence, intensity, and discretionary effort that really makes a difference to the bottom line. What they need to distinguish is the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and to leverage the power of a “pull through” plan.
Most of us will wrestle with some existential angst over the course of our lives, pondering the essence of our existence and our place in the world. We may dive deeply into a spiritual quest, determined to learn some answers for ourselves. And we may plunge ourselves into completely new personal and professional situations, ever trying to find where we are “supposed” to be in life. But few of us will embark on the intense pursuit of adventure as guest Sophie McLean has been on, yearning to discover an existential meaning and escape the tedious routine of her life. Having had to confront sadness and despair, she chose numerous experiential and spiritual expeditions to develop her consciousness and competencies. Today she is riveted on supporting public figures and world leaders to end the eternal search for oneself and serve their best game in service of humankind.
Everyone wants to matter, to make a difference in the time they are walking across the planet. One potent way to matter is to be a leader. And whether your leadership is based on position, expertise, or character – or all three, it is powered by influence, which can be developed in a variety of ways. This episode draws from the leadership lessons in the book, Growing Influence: A Story of How to Lead with Character, Expertise, and Impact by Ron Price and Stacy Ennis.
Never doubt the impact of living your purpose and speaking that truth can have. Bob Hopkins is a Dallas philanthropist who has been teaching elementary school children across the world how to volunteer in order to help them become the best version of themselves and contribute dynamically to their communities. In this episode, we talk about some of his programs and the effect they had on then 9-year old Amit Banerjee who could never forget Bob’s words. He took them home with him and they completely transformed his family conversations and actions to embrace philanthropy. Now at age 20 Amit is running Philanthropy Kids to keep his mission alive and growing by celebrating and inspiring philanthropy in the next generation of youth.
Starting with the end in mind is a powerful way to steward our lives. All of us hunger to know we matter, that our existence makes a difference in the world somehow. Yet, creating a life of meaningful connection, service to others, and legacy is within our grasp when we reverse engineer our lives. In this episode, we talk with Rabbi Daniel Cohen about the importance of doing so and the rich results it brings.
For some, the path to purpose is about healing what is broken in us. It’s a call to finally embrace and lean into treating that which has ailed us often for decades. There is a tendency to be reluctant to accept the call, as the forces pulling us away from that which we were intended test us mightily. In this episode, we hear how Scott Wilson’s crucible moment ultimately gave him the invitation he needed to give up his chase for money and prestige, and surrender to a life of service, gratitude, and considerably more peace and meaningful connection.
Forward-thinking companies serious about remaining vibrant and competitive recognize the need and benefit to develop women as strong contributing, fulfilled professionals and thought leaders. Women lean toward creating environments where team members are supported in their own growth, enjoy collaborating, and are encouraged to step out and innovate. Yet the corporate environment may not recognize the unique development needs of women and can be hostile as they try to balance growing their career with family demands. Thus, women often choose to depart, creating a performance and innovation vacuum inside companies. Diane and Alise converse on how observing these trends led them to convene the Women on Purpose Thought Leadership Summit in Portland, OR Sept 2019. Designed to bring women from across the nation together to engage deeply in the latest best practices of fulfillment, engagement, well-being, and leadership and cascade the ripple effect back into their respective organizations.
Becoming present to your purpose and then opting in can be seen as your life’s evolutionary opportunity. What if you consider that your job in life is to become conscious and present to your purpose, and then live it as large as you can to make the most impact you can on the planet and make the world a better place? Would that change the choices you make, the work you do, and how you live your one precious life? Learning how our ego keeps us in survival and growing into our essence is a start. Guest: Karen Hoyos
Staying relevant today in business often requires scaling and growing the operation. In addition to addressing the critical processes and procedures to support growth, leaders can powerfully leverage culture to drive top line and bottom-line revenue growth. When done well, a healthy culture shows up with a vibrant, engaged workforce that is focused on outstanding customer service and mutual admiration and respect among coworkers. The pinnacle of all these activities spurring growth is strong leadership, the absence of which is extremely palpable and obvious in daily operations and the financial strength of the organization’s ability to effectively compete in the marketplace.
In the crazy hustle of today’s busy life, people crave meaning and purpose. Meaning is literally everywhere, though up to each of us to uniquely find and embrace it. Logotherapy is not just a theory of psychology, but a way of life that focuses on making life meaningful. Add purpose – which includes a focus on something and others beyond ourselves – and now you’ve got an irresistible mix that makes all the difference in the world to life. As guest Batya Yaniger says, life calls us to courage, calls us to compassion and calls us to authentic being. Viewed in this light, struggles and challenges are a call to action and a path to meaning.
Growing up and graduating high school comes with a lot of stress and pressure in today’s exceedingly competitive times. And in a world so connected by technology, it is ironic that so many of us do not feel meaningfully connected to other people. Experiencing bouts of anxiety and depression is normal for teens – but asking for help from adults (and not fellow students and friends) is not common. Teen rock star Griffin Holtby (www.griffinholtby.com) shares about his own experience with depression, anxiety, and abandonment and how talking about them openly and “telling his story” while singing on stage has helped his own healing and facilitated that of countless others.
According to Dr. Ciaramicoli, a “soulful leader” is a leader who leads with authenticity, integrity, and empathy. And we can all tell on a visceral level when we’re in the presence of such a leader. Not only do such leaders employ empathy, which is a powerful assessment and connector tool, but when they lead with “soul” they produce higher financial bottom line results than their colleagues. It turns out that creating and leading a workplace that is meaningfully connected and soulfully led also creates competitive advantage.
In this episode we talk about the relationship between money and purpose. It’s a new world out there today. With more people choosing to put off marriage for longer and more marriages ending in divorce, women especially need help learning how to invest and manage their money. The same is true for charities and foundations as they work to increase the size of their endowments and operational capacity. In this episode, we talk with the number one ranked female charted financial analyst in Texas about how what’s in our wallet today can be used to create the life you most want and its special relationship with purpose.
In this conversation, we drink from the inspirational firehouse of a woman on a mission to uplift people, help them find their purpose, and change their lives for the better. We talk about how she developed her voice and message from overcoming difficulties in her own life and how she helps audiences accept the gift of challenging experiences, how to live from their list of IFs (if only), and her fresh take on what she calls the currency of life.
In a world of merciless change as a constant, it can be perplexing that so many of us resist it and find ourselves stuck in mindsets that simply don’t serve us well. At the same time, there is much in the world that should change and be reformed, yet stubbornly seems disinclined to do so. Enter Dr. Trillion Small, who’s on fire with a mission to positively change hearts and minds, elevate emotional intelligence, and work toward restorative juvenile justice. Now, that’s something worth getting up for each morning!
Everything in life is energy, and that energy is connected through our thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and actions into the cosmic consciousness. Raana Zia shares her own journey toward understanding this powerful mindfulness and how embracing it led to her own transformation from corporate finance executive to author and consultant in personal development. In this episode, we talk about her new book Your Hidden Light: A Personal Guide to Creating Your Desired Life, including a simple four-step creating process designed to create the reality we so desire.
Purpose: It’s worth digging for, and something no one can ever take away from us once we discover it. It gives us courage, clarity, and focus to act in the face of uncertainty, something every leader needs in today’s volatile, ambiguous, and chaotic world. And the impact living and working from our purpose is overflowing and includes the gifts of ongoing growth, a strong sense of identity, choosing the “hard right” over the “easy wrong,” energy that motivates the individual and promotes engagement across the organization, and fulfillment which is far more meaningful than fleeting happiness. These are just a few of my favorite takes from Nick Craig’s new book, Leading From Purpose.
Y Scouts is on a mission to connect 10 million people with work that matters. They’re doing it in a way that completely revamps the way hiring inside companies is done. With candidates, they begin the conversation not with a job requisition listing required skills and experience – but rather a conversation about their own unique “why” in their work. Sounds like a revolution to me! I’m in. Are you?
Paul Ratoff is inspired by the magnificent contribution non profit and for profit organizations make to the world. And they can make an even bigger impact when they are led from purpose and all their stakeholders are inspired from the broader purpose. In this episode, we talk with Paul about where his passion to help companies discover and operate from purpose came from, learn some specific ways leaders can start to put his practices to work in their companies, and are invited to join Paul and the movement to lead and work from purpose!
Humans are amazingly good at hanging onto old misgivings and pain from the past. A life-long accumulation of hurt can completely derail the pursuit of a passionate and purposeful life, unless we can awaken ourselves to limiting pain and trauma. In this episode, we talk with Rachel Clissold who’s made it her life mission to recover rapidly from pain, trauma, illness and master their psyche so they can live a healthy, happier life.
Life is full of an enormous array of experiences ranging from ecstatically beautiful and profoundly moving to devastatingly painful and debilitating. It’s the way we frame and respond to these experiences that makes all the difference. In this episode, we hear Brandy Neece’s story that set her on a path and helped shape her into an emerging spokesperson. Today she is living her purpose by sharing a traumatic experience she navigated and the journey since. Her intent? To help her audiences start to break free from whatever is holding them back from chasing their dreams and living the life they deserve.
What will you do with your one, precious life? Full of “nexts,” you get to decide daily just what comprises this life of yours. It’s easy to get pulled down by the sheer momentum of everyday life. It takes dreaming about the life you want and all its “next steps” and then striving to make it so. If you’re UP to something, there’s a very good chance you will need help, guidance, or support to bring it into fruition. In this episode, Extra Mile Shawn Anderson and I talk about the vitality going for our dreams in life gives you, and how you can find catalysts to make them come true. We urge you: do something worthy of your one precious life.
It’s the holidays, and there is joy everywhere! At least, that’s so with guest Sherri Schwartz, who celebrates both Christmas and Hanukah each year and decorates with an uncommon zeal. She throws herself into her relationships all over life – her family, her community, her customers, and of course her favorite dog Bernie (the subject of a recently released book). AND, she is hopelessly passionate about her work as a decorator and purveyor of window dressings and carpet. This woman is on fire for life and the joy of relationships and the holidays. Tune in to learn just what you can learn from her and catch some of her contagious energy!
Dean Lindsay is a keynote speaker with a humorous and engaging approach. He is an expert and award-winning author on influence, connection, goal setting, sales, and customer service. Dean shares his perspective that progress leadership is the new way forward past change management. Few of us embrace change, let alone having someone manage that for us. But we do welcome progress. Leaders have the opportunity to help followers make change meaningful when they help them see how it's progressive in their world.
In the age of artificial intelligence and robotics pressing for more productivity and efficiency in the workplace, people across the globe are increasingly feeling more disconnected and depressed as a result. The world of work used to be a place where people enjoyed accomplishment, meaningful relationships, and purposeful existence. With the speed at which technology is accelerating across our lives, we all need to become much more mindful about when and how to appropriately use technology and allow its ongoing development. Leaders especially have the opportunity to create and sustain the socially connected workforce that employees crave. The pay off will be a workforce that is more fulfilled, productive, and engaged and less prone to turnout and turnover.
As the world turns on the axis of change with technology and artificial intelligence, huge shifts coincide in what it means to participate in the workforce as human beings. One area that is lagging and thus presents a real opportunity for evolution is the way men and women interact as leaders in organizations. The time is ripe for each gender to bring their very best to their leadership, while drawing from and strengthening the other. In this episode, we talk with J.G. Boccella about what he sees as a moral imperative to bring the genders together in a stronger partnership in the workplace, which he says begins with a simple but well-phrased invitation.
Got a great idea? Does it need protecting and if so, how? Do you know how to monetize the idea and turn it into a business or some kind of offering? In this exciting episode, we talk with intellectual property attorney Angela Langlotz about just what entrepreneurs can do to develop, protect, and market their intellectual property assets. If you’ve got something percolating and think there may be an entrepreneur living in you, tune in – this episode is for you.
If there’s one thing we can all count on, it’s that our lives will come to an end. And it’s that finality that we can summon to harness a tremendous sense of purpose across our lives. We get just one shot at this thing called life – what will you do with your precious gift? Our enemy is complacency, believing we have “our whole lives in front of us,” yet we simply have no purview into just when we will leave the world. All the more critical that each day we live with passion, anchor ourselves in energy and gratitude in connection with others, and work on purpose. In this episode, we talk with someone who has a very unique vantage point on the matter: undertaker Elizabeth Fournier.
People are hungry today for meaning, passion, and inspiration. Finding purpose in our lives and work can not only generate those critical elements but also provide a certain integrity across their lives that guest Phil Sotok sees as missing for so many people. In this episode, we talk about why purpose is such a governing force today, how artificial intelligence and robotics are part of what will be a changing workforce that catalyzes higher human contribution, and how companies and their employees win when they work to increase the quality of their interpersonal relationships.
Sharon DeMattia found herself stuck in a life of external achievement, but lacking purpose. She observed the trends of disconnection—depression, anxiety, school shootings, suicide, war, and decided to act towards a different definition of success. She founded The AIM Project, a global art initiative about human connection, possibility, and freedom. The path she walked is an amazing adventure! She is taking on and speaking about what challenges us most as we race towards the future. The AIM Project has a mission to break down the walls we have built within ourselves, each other, and to open creative, collaborative space on the other side of what we fear.
There’s a lot of talk about mindset these days. We all know that being around hungry, driven people inspires us to improve. But what almost no one understands about mindset is that it’s hard to change in isolation. It’s not just about reading books that help you grow. You need to get advice from peers on how they overcame the same problems and frustrations you’re facing. A powerful way to gain access to these very people is by joining a Mastermind group. In this episode, we talk with Ronan Leonard, aka, The MasterMind Guy.
Police officers place themselves in harm’s way daily, have a duty to serve, and confront the difficult position of being with people often in their worst moments. How that police officer shows up on the scene can make all the difference in the outcome. And according to Deputy Chief Danny Barton, there’s room for improvement. And so as a man of purpose, he has taken a firm stand to help officers cultivate self-awareness, develop emotional intelligence, and employ servant leadership to improve their performance and effectiveness. This is his personal stand and he’s out to change the world, starting in Coppell, Texas and touch -and improve - one life at a time.
A small percentage of the world’s population actually wants to go to work on Monday morning. Something has gone terribly wrong in the corporate world and how the workforce is led today. But how did we get here? More importantly, what can we do to intervene in what looks otherwise to be a sure revolution in the workforce? In this “fireside chat” with renowned leadership expert Dr. Lance Secretan, we learn about the common business practices that are destroying the passion leaders say they stand to elicit in their enterprises and glimpse the way forward toward a much more inspiring life in the corporate world.
At a fundamental level, people across the world over crave connection to others and to a meaning and sphere larger than themselves often manifested in their spirituality. A significant number of them are in various stages of discovering their own unique purpose that can they can translate into meaningful work. It turns out this discovery really takes something from us to accomplish – and when we do discover our purpose and put it to work – everyone around us wins. In this episode, we talk with motivational author Shawn Anderson who travels the world encouraging people to always “go the extra mile” in pursuit of their dreams and just what it takes to do so.
Individuals and leaders in organizations are well-served when they embrace curious life-long learning, both in their work and their own self-awareness. Using a suite of assessment tools appropriate for your organization and initiative can be a powerful place to start. In this episode, we speak with Rebecca Bales of Lumina Learning about their suite of offerings and how Rebecca and I use them in our consulting and coaching work.
Meaning and purpose are serious words in today’s juxtaposed world of technology, artificial intelligence, and robotics. It seems impossible to go a day without hearing something about purpose; I even saw the sign “food on purpose” as I passed a café in an airport recently. But did you know that we are actually living and working in a purpose economy today? Just what does that mean for our careers, our leadership, and companies across the globe? Tune in to this episode with purpose expert Aaron Hurst to find out why purpose is so important, what you can do to get in touch with your own, and how companies are catalyzing it for magnificent returns.
At a time when people crave meaning and purpose across their lives, companies have a real opportunity to make the difference and impact that truly sets them apart as employers and providers of goods and services. For some companies who have stood the test of time and managed to reinvent themselves to remain vibrantly viable, it’s not enough simply to generate increasing revenues. Instead, there is a much bigger governing force: purpose. In this episode, we hear how DSM channels its purpose and increased employee engagement and revenues, while guiding its strategic investments across the globe. Prepare to be inspired!
Cheryl Polote-Williamson is on a tear to empower women across the globe to embrace their own leader and entrepreneur from within and unleash themselves powerfully into the world. Helping women to become self-sufficient and thrive while becoming strong business women is in her DNA. In this episode, we drink from the firehouse of this passionate powerhouse who shares why working from purpose is so powerful, how we can develop stronger acumen as entrepreneurs and leaders, and why philanthropy and storytelling fortify anything we do. Join us for a powerful hour of inspiration!
At a time when we are constantly bombarded with messages that the world has innumerable problems, from disease to hunger to terrorism, here stands a counter voice. From her simple but purpose-empowered beginnings growing up on a farm, she learned early to pursue her passion and deliver her work from a purpose. Today, she has enjoyed speaking from most forms of media – newspapers, books, radio, and television. And her message is about empowering people to live their best lives, find their purpose, and give back to the world. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Cynthia Brian.
Generation Z youth graduating from high school today literally can enjoy a beautiful, open canvas of endless possibility in their lives. They can study anything they want, pursue any career of interest, and be anyone they want to be. Exciting in abundant possibilities. Daunting in the dearth of choices. And how will this new talent show up in the workplace? In this episode, we talk with junior high school student Kate Benedict about her young trek to discover and develop her passion and talents and apply them in an eventual career. From an early focus and years of dedication to dance, Kate is grounded in her resolve to pursue a career in broadcast journalism as she travels the globe to share the stories of lives she encounters. And she knows how to ground herself in her strengths to unleash her best in this career. Look out, world, for this young dynamo – you just might find yourself on the other end of her microphone in an interview!
What would you do with your life if you knew you had a sooner-rather-than-later expiration date? How would facing that finality alter the direction of your life? Or would it at all? Gwen Rich knows she has limited time on the planet due to her breast cancer diagnosis and is doing anything but complaining about it. She’s living life large, out to make the biggest impact she can on others with her time left, and savoring every moment. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we all lived like this and worked on purpose to leave a legacy, even without a terminal diagnosis prompting our urgency?
Though women have made strides in business and leadership, there is still much room for growth and improvement. Women need other successful women who inspire and show them the way. Good news, ladies! Help is in this jam-packed episode with Kate White who has forged a gorgeously “gutsy” life and career and is here to tell us how we can, too.
Intuition has been ascribed by Steve Jobs as the highest form of intelligence. Yet, many people across the world have yet to fully understand its power to dramatically unleash creativity, desired results and yield enriched lives. At a time when depression and suicide across the world are increasing, Dr. Joy Martina offers a simple solution to help all of us thrive – to develop our intuitive intelligence.
In today’s fast and furious workplace where artificial intelligence and robotics reign strong and information is everywhere, more people crave meaning, significance, and purpose. Not just in their every day personal lives, but also at work where we now spend about 40 percent of our lives. And the companies that respond to that existential calling by leading from purpose within a culture that elicits meaningful work increasingly make a beautiful contribution to their customers and employees while financially outperforming their competitors.
Selling for many people might register on the fear scale just one rung below public speaking. But why, when selling well gives us so much access to meeting amazing people and making the impact in the world we deeply desire? In this episode, we will get a fresh perspective on the world of sales from Debbie Mrazek, a professional who’s made it her business to help people get the results they want in sales. We’ll talk about strategies for selling, having sufficient sales time planned, and how we can tap others to help and then celebrate in our success.
Roland Haertl has been playing at work his whole life. After several decades of founding and running companies, when most of his peers are spending quiet years in retirement, Roland is enjoying his 80s traveling the globe and bringing his latest invention to market. And what is it? Why, the Interlude Folding Mobile Chair, of course – just what people of all ages use to continue living comfortable yet adventurous lives on their own terms of mobility.
There’s much talk about the importance of leadership to set a clear vision, engage the hearts and minds of individuals within an organization, and drive critical business results. And we hear about different types of leaders, as researcher and author Goleman differentiate – situational, commanding, visionary, democratic, affiliative, pacesetting, coaching. Which one of those should we be? Do we change our position as leaders, depending on the environment and task at hand? Maybe it’s more about the way we lead and the person we show up to be as a leader. Maybe it’s more about pushing ourselves to be brave, courageous, authentic, and just plain bold – even when we don’t think we can be.
The profits in your business come from ongoing decisions made. Some of those decisions happen daily; some are the strategic ones made for the longer term. Lauren shares the seven key areas that impact profits of the business, positively or negatively. She also discusses the timing of when decisions need to be made. Her real-world examples are powerful and will shift your thinking.
Speaker, consultant, author Steve Gavatorta takes on this highly relevant topic in his book, In Defense of Adversity: Turning Your Toughest Challenges into Your Greatest Success. The purpose of this book is to act as a roadmap and supply a foundation to help people thrive in adversity and not just survive it. In the book and this episode, Gavatorta describes how adversity, failure, change, and conflict can be catalysts for positive change – opportunities to evolve into who we were born to be.
Work – we do it all our lives. From landing our very first job, to transitioning in and out of the workforce to raise children, to completely reinventing ourselves past 50, we cover it in this episode with career expert Mac Prichard. We talk about productive ways to interview and network and how to access the hidden job market. And finally, Mac shares his own why in doing the work he does and his purpose in owning two B-Corp companies that use the power of markets to solve social and economic problems. In thanks to listeners hearing this podcast, he gifts you a free chapter to his latest book at macslist.org/workingonpurpose
Do you have a business idea you ache to see to fruition in the form of an offering or a business? Are you wondering if you have the stuff to make it as an entrepreneur? Or do you desperately need to improve how you propose doing business with someone, in the first place? If there’s an affirmative response to any of these questions, you will enjoy saying YES to this episode featuring entrepreneur Brian Onorio, the creator of Proposa.
“We are innovative!”, “We never look back!”, “Recession? What about it?” In this episode, Dr. Erika Jacobi shares the findings of her truly remarkable research study that explored the cognition and mindset in successful businesses in the way it reveals itself through member conversations about their company. What she found was a dynamic mix of overwhelming thought homogeneity on the one hand versus a less dominant creative tension of thought diversity on the other hand. To find out whether your company has the collective mindset and cognition that it takes to spark innovation and success, tune into this thought-provoking conversation.
Rachael Melot is on a tear to evangelize mentorship, entrepreneurship, and success for women. Women tend to apologize for what they want and the success they achieve. Join us in this episode as we talk about why women need to meet their own expectations of success, what perceptions they have to change to do success on their own terms, and how they can support and empower each other as women along this journey.
What do you ache to be and accomplish in life? And do you have the sheer ambition, persistence, and work ethic to achieve it? I recently had the profound pleasure to cross paths with and be touched by the pure grace and strength of Ashley Kate Adams - akastudioproductions.com. In this episode we witness the power of the human spirit to pursue dreams with resolute intention, the magical power of seemingly unexplainable sheer persistence to continue on against life’s loss and immense grief, and the wonder of a social network who is committed to seeing you through and contributing to your journey.
Millennials will comprise 50 percent of the workforce by 2020. Do you have an effective strategy in place to market to them and attract them to your employment brand? Then once they’re in the door as employees, are you on solid footing to manage and motivate them? In this episode, we converse with Generational Guru Sherri Elliott-Yeary about these topics and others relative to the five generations living today.
Is your head spinning from the rapid changes in technology? And how do we stay in real dialogue when life encourages us to live at 140 characters or less? In this episode, we talk about the tumultuous changes in the workforce fueled by digital transformation, how companies can prioritize people as they navigate the chance, and how the art of dialogue can be resurrected as a vibrant practice.
In this episode, we venture into a warm and personal exchange between Abhijit and Alise that explores how understanding neuroscience can help our relationships across all of life. We talk about how meditation and mindfulness can give us access to our inner state and how doing so can help us continue our spiritual journeys in ways that may even contribute to a more peaceful world.
People are the engine that companies run on. Yet, many companies struggle with their human capital practices as they are first established or as they grow over time. Creating an environment and job tasks that motivate employees to want to give their best is no small order. And finding ways to keep employees engaged and persisting even through organizational challenges or restructuring can perplex even the quite experienced executives. And finally, recognizing employees for their performance and contribution comes in many forms – which ones work well for your organization?
Amazing the power of a simple piece of feedback. It can mean the world to us on that day, or it can crush us for eternity. But maybe, when requested and received over the lifetime of a career, it can shape our professional growth, create meaning and fulfillment, and ultimately be the ripple in a wave to cause greater connection and appreciation across the globe. In this episode, we learn what feedback means to Pay Compliment and the possibilities ongoing feedback means to careers, employee engagement, and performance in companies across the globe.
Change. It’s everywhere. Whether we actively seek it, or it’s foisted on us at work or in our personal lives. Downsized or just asked to move on? With a dose of courage and choice, we can entirely reinvent ourselves for a better professional future, if we want. Or, if we are coached well or can manage to change our own thinking about what the world presents us. In this episode, we talk with a whole person coach who has walked the talk, reinvented herself professionally, and is now on a quest to help more people transform their lives and become the person they most wish to be. Tune in and join us on the journey!
According to the Gallup Organization, the employee engagement rate at the average U.S. company is 29 percent. That is dismal by most any standard. As an owner, shareholder, or leader in a company, creating a culture that significantly increases employee engagement ought to be priority one. What results could your company realize if every team member came to work every day excited? What if each employee were committed to the company’s vision and their role in making it a success? What if had a company full of high performing people? And you consistently attracted and retained top talent? Just what could your company accomplish that is simply not possible today?
Gary Alan has made a life as American talk show host and journalist. He is an ardent researcher who exchanges ideas on current events and looking into the lives of guests with national eminence. In this conversation, he shares some of the ideas and insights he’s gained by interviewing on his “The Express” radio show extraordinary people up to remarkable things.
People are the engine that companies run on. Yet, many companies struggle with their human capital practices as they are first established or as they grow over time. Creating an environment and job tasks that motivate employees to want to give their best is no small order. And finding ways to keep employees engaged and persisting even through organizational challenges or restructuring can perplex even the quite experienced executives. And finally, recognizing employees for their performance and contribution comes in many forms – which ones work well for your organization?
Society and the workplace are undergoing transformation as gender dynamics shift in initiative taken and roles assumed. More women are graduating college today than men. Men in committed relationships are opting to stay at home to care for the children. Male counterparts are on the receiving end of companies granting them assistance to find jobs in their new cities of residence, alongside their career-climbing female counterparts. There is a decided rising tide for women who are taking charge of their lives, unleashing their passions, and working on purpose. And some of these women are considered “alpha females,” who are making a big splash in boardrooms, in their communities, and with their families, and are the subject of this episode.
Advances in technology are constantly changing the way we live and work. Think back not that long ago when we physically went to the library to check out books or sent a courier to ferry a document from one office to another. Now, thanks to the internet, we just click a few buttons and have the information or service we want. The number of new technology apps being launched daily is mind boggling. Soon in the future, technology will continue to evolve to include driverless cars that shuttle us to work that is situated in smart cities. Energy and other necessities of life and industry will be further networked into a central heartbeat. What possibilities does this new frontier open for us in our everyday lives and how we do our work? Tune in and let’s see!
What does it take for leaders to encourage or even cause innovation in their organizations today? It takes a strategic focus and a rigorously applied set of ongoing actions across and through the organization. The right mix of talent and the conversational tone and culture are potent components of the ingredient mix as a platform to launch innovation. To stimulate the environment toward ongoing innovation, leaders will need to cast meaningful and inspiring visions and purposely engage in two-way dialogue with the team members. Leadership assessment and development, strong change management, and culture transformation work are critical parts of supporting innovation in the long term.
What we do with life’s challenges makes us the people we ultimately are – it’s how we respond to life’s curve balls especially that determines our character and what we achieve. It’s truly astounding, and can be incredibly intimidating, that possibility is boundless. We can reinvent ourselves over and again, if we summon the courage and put forth the worthwhile effort. We’re only as stuck in our lives as we convince ourselves to be. Question is – what is it that each of us aches to become in this lifetime? And can we find the courage, determination, and persistence to realize these precious dreams for ourselves? In this episode, we meet someone who has, and might just show us the way, as she continues to reinvent herself.
Customers, especially successful ones, are the lifeblood of any business. Creating successful customers—with a memorable customer experience—is increasingly the differentiator in a competitive marketplace, according to Bill Lee. After all, your buyers, your prospects, your market will find out how much your customers value you—whether you want them to or not—in today’s uber-connected world. Marketing and sales no longer sell to customers—customers sell to other customers. Responding to that reality is not just good for the bottom line health of a business – it turns out it’s also a conduit to an engaged workforce. Tune in to this episode and find out why it matters who we hang out with at work – and just what it is those people say about us in the marketplace.
Getting people in organizations to perform at extraordinary levels may be at the very heart of outstanding leadership. And building a solid team that executes on a leader’s vision and strategy is key. But what does it take to find the right talent, assemble a strong team collection, and elicit their best performance? In this episode, we talk with Mareo McCracken who has carefully studied and now cultivated a set of practices that build teams quickly and effectively.
Do you know your LeaderType(s)? And did you know that you just might have more in common with great leaders, even those who have occupied the United States Oval Office? In this episode, we talk with leadership expert Cash Keahey who has researched 42 presidents and distilled 8 distinct LeaderTypes. Tune in and catch a glimpse of what your LeaderType(s) might be and consider how you can leverage them for great success and impact.
Where the workforce is going in the future is anchored in lessons learned from the past, and also rapidly evolving to meet the ever-changing and competitive global marketplace. Most people embrace the importance of continually learning in order to remain employable, though there is uncertainty on how to integrate human talent with artificial intelligence and robotics. In this episode, we enjoy a “fireside chat” with the Chief Learning Officer and guru of life-long learning Kimo Kippen to explore these topics as well as other workforce trends that affect us all.
Have you ever really considered, “Am I made of the stuff to achieve really great things? Are my dreams realistic?” It turns out, there is quite a difference between how famous, quite accomplished people consider motivation and goals and the way everyday people do. The good news? We can learn something from these stellar humans and apply it to create more of the life we really want for ourselves. In this conversation, we talk with the ever curious author Jeff Haden to hear what he’s learned by studying famous people – and how they structure their lives that can make a sweeping difference to our own.
Each time a New Year clicks past, many of us are overtaken with an extreme resolve to finally go after the goals we believe will fulfill our lives. We achingly pledge, “new year, new me.” But how many of us really surge forth in a disciplined, intentional manner throughout the full year to realize those ardent dreams and fulfill on the ambitions that we know would make the difference between living a rich and full life, or one we feel we need to apologize to ourselves at its conclusion? In this episode, we talk with motivational author Shawn Anderson who travels the world encouraging people and sharing his secrets to always “go the extra mile” in pursuit of their dreams and living the life they desperately want.
In this episode, we hear from one of the most approachable yet talented business strategists, with a long tenure in teaching business people to be more effective at their practice. Ed Kless shares his perspective on creating vision and strategy within organizations and how doing so sets the stage for performance and engagement across the enterprise. He stresses the need to develop and execute through what he calls healing leadership. Drawing from his own years of content development and delivery, he also distinguishes effective consulting as an art and practice.
What childhood memories does Christmas conjure for you? Is it making cookies with Grandma, singing Christmas carols with neighbors, or fighting with your sibling over who gets to open the first present? Just a few days before Christmas, let’s celebrate some of the magic of the season together. We’ll revisit childhood memories, embrace family Christmas traditions, and of course listen in as children’s book author Brandi Dougherty reads from some of her most celebrated works. Brandi will also share how and why she became a children’s book author and what she hopes her books will inspire in her readers. Along the way, both of us share fond memories from the holidays and our connection to family. Intended to be holiday- and family-affirming, this episode has something for everyone and will inspire you to reminisce about your own favorite holiday stories.
Ready for the twist in this episode? We’ll be talking in depth about the importance of finding meaning at work through engagement, even on an existential level. And we’ll dive into how sport, art, and pure play can help create engagement in the work we do…. And we’ll do this by engaging in conversation through the unique lens of a man who lives large with a profession in accounting and comedy, thinks deeply, and laughs often.
The food we eat is often chosen by what is nearby and affordable. But for an increasing number of city dwellers, this availability-affordability measure means buying processed foods from a nearby convenience store and not fresh fruits and vegetables from a grocer. Food deserts, as they’re called, rob its community dwellers of nutritious foods and often contribute to obesity and other health problems. To begin to address food deserts in South Dallas, the Seedling Farm was born and opened in November 2017 and offers free produce to the community. This is a collaborative effort has been brought to life by Dr. Owen Lynch of Southern Methodist University Meadows School of the Arts and senior research fellow at SMU’s Hunt Institute for Humanity and Engineering, and numerous local Dallas urban farm organizations.
The purpose and why of our work must also be carried over to our customers and how we interact with them, specifically how we charge them. Charging by the hour for our work is actually a conflict of interest that cannot be reconciled – and it also limits our own income potential as servants. In this episode, we explore an alternative way to serve and charge and serve customers that brings work well into the 21st century.
By manifesting, we mean to bring into existence that which we clearly intend for ourselves. Though it can sound overly simplistic and perhaps unrealistic to the untrained ear, manifesting that which we desire for our lives and work takes some real work. In this episode, we talk with manifesting expert Tanja Waring who shares her six secrets to create, manifest, and get what you want.
The Thanksgiving holiday is a great time to remind ourselves of the importance of practicing gratitude across our lives including in business and leadership. Living and working from a place of gratitude allows us to appreciate our colleagues, team, and clients – and also recognize and acknowledge who they are and what they do. Expressing how people enrich our lives and contribute their efforts to power an organization forward is an essential life skill that improves greatly with practice. Employee engagement research tell us that most people crave being valued and appreciated in the workplace – in fact, it’s often the number one driving factor to engagement and performance. So, looking for ways to incorporate a gratitude approach to living, working, and leading is what this show is all about.
Almost half of mothers would prefer part-time work, yet only 25 percent of them do. Though there are many benefits to working professionally in a part-time capacity for both the woman and her employer, it can be difficult for women to determine whether going part-time is the right choice for them and then comes the step of actually make it happen. And once the decision is made to move to a part-time capacity, new ways of effectively networking, developing support networks, and managing time become critical centerpieces around which to build and fortify this career-family balance choice.
Founder Isaac Alfton came up with the TriggerGive idea while attending the IE Business School in Madrid, Spain for his MBA. After one too many annoying political posts showing up on his social media feeds, he decided to do something about it. After being frustrated at non-stop political cheap shots on his social media feed, instead of replying with a witty comment, he just made a donation to the opposing side. That idea turned into the startup he now heads, which lets users donate directly to non-profits by simply using hashtags on social media.
IIOT, or the internet of things, is all over our news space. But what does it really mean? And what does it mean for various industries? In this episode, we’ll talk with one of the two founders from IIoT World, a new organization that covers the economic and technological implications of the transformation taking place as IIoT proliferates throughout the enterprise. Their team combines journalistic coverage with data analysis to expose the stories, players, trends and innovations that shape the IIoT.
As human beings, we’re wired to connect socially. It’s how we’ve survived through the ages. And it’s no different when we’re in business, as we need others to teach, inspire, help us grow, and gain access to new customers. Enter The VERO way, whose founder knows in his being that you will become who you surround yourself with. And if you want to grow your competency and business, it is critical to be around others who have achieved more than you and can share their perspective. This is where structured socialization networking can be a powerful leg up.
Born in Scotland into a family with very little means, and having lost his parents in his teens, Tahar could have made every excuse in the book to avoid achieving his dreams. His road to success was paved with numerous failures, and now these lessons provide real value to everyone who hears his message. You’ll discover how this success was earned with hard work, determination and the drive to find and seize opportunities while learning from his setbacks. Tahar will share his secrets, strategies and stories of facing economic downturns, loss of market share, slumping sales and low morale from his employees with a whole variety of other challenges.
Brittany Merrill Underwood has made an extraordinary impact through her dedication over the past 14 years to transform the lives of impoverished women and families through Akola, a non-profit social business designed to empower women in disadvantaged communities through training, employment and holistic care. Currently, Akola provides work opportunities to over 500 women in Uganda and Dallas so they can transform the lives of over 4,000 children in their communities. The non-profit has developed holistic programs in 12 development categories, drilled 23 clean water wells, and has built three training centers throughout Uganda. Akola Jewelry is the first full-impact brand to be sold in the luxury space through their national, every store launch in Neiman Marcus. As a non-profit, Akola reinvests 100 percent of its profits to help women in poverty.
There’s much talk about the importance of leadership to set a clear vision, engage the hearts and minds of individuals within an organization, and drive critical business results. And we hear about different types of leaders, as researcher and author Goleman differentiate – situational, commanding, visionary, democratic, affiliative, pacesetting, coaching. Which one of those should we be? Do we change our position as leaders, depending on the environment and task at hand? Maybe it’s more about the way we lead and the person we show up to be as a leader. Maybe it’s more about pushing ourselves to be brave, courageous, authentic, and just plain bold – even when we don’t think we can be.
Are you living your best life? Of course, none of us aspire to live a mediocre life, but still, why do so many end up working at jobs they hate or choose relationships that are unedifying and unsupportive? Why do so many settle for living lives less than what they truly want to live? This week's special episode explores the question, How do we live our best life? You'll want to be sure to listen to this one as Shawn and I explore the secrets to what turns a mediocre life into a good one...and a good life into a great one. Ready to go for great?
Out to intentionally create and live a company culture that customer satisfaction and business results, driversselect executives are passionate about their mission. Their governing mindset is that they’re not in the “car business,” but rather the “care business.” Big difference. In this episode, we talk up close and personal with driversselect leaders about their determination to enact a virtuous cycle in caring for their customers, how they cascade their culture through their tribe of employees, and the business results these initiatives have yielded.
Many people accidentally find themselves in careers they did not intend for themselves. But not all of them find their joy in having landed there. This guest is an exception, which should delight anyone who has children of their own or who is betting on the next generation who enter the workforce. Having graduated with a degree in Biology, Ms. Wainwright was surprised to get recruited to teach Biology classes at a private high school, accepted, and has never looked back. This episode kicks off the school year and showcases passion in teaching that sparks life-long learning and inquiry that makes learning just plain fun.
We eat every day. But what we put in our bodies makes all the difference in the world to our health. Starting off early in life by learning to choose a nutritional diet is the foundation of a vibrant population. And yet, diabetes is at an epidemic level among Texan children, largely due to uninformed nutritional choices by caregivers. Having access to fresh and healthy food sources is critical to put health back into Texan diets. Growing healthy communities and participating in growing food in school gardens help young people learn how to nurture and harvest nutritious food from the source.
As the state of the workplace dynamically changes to meet technological disruptions and competitive demands, a segment of the working population begins to consider striking out on their own. Doing so requires having a vision that aligns with our own values and a well-considered strategy for growth. Proactively managing cash flow and careful consideration toward scaling the business are often overlooked or ill-considered, yet can be the Achilles heel of the business. Similarly, managing productivity to ensure key priorities get accomplished each day while weeding through the pile of other tasks that can be delegated elsewhere are key areas that must be developed into strengths for founding entrepreneurs to achieve their greatest success. In this episode, the guest shares openly, crisply, and candidly what it really takes to craft a successful business that embodies our desired business lifestyle.
Men and women approach work and sales differently. And both genders can learn something from the other. This episode with a gender expert focuses on how to empower and enlighten women in sales and business.
Every morning we wake up to the news that some seismic shift has occurred in the world of work or international marketplace, like when Amazon announced its intended purchase of Whole Foods. Or, we learn on the headline news that our company will be liquidated which might just mean we’re out of work, a phenomenon that occurred for a Teavana employee recently. What do these changes mean to the ongoing evolution of the workforce and the economic development policies that may undergird and support them? The sheer disruption with which we work today introduces a terrific array of “knotty economic and social issues,” and this week’s guest shares the work he and his institute are doing to investigate them and provide solutions and his thoughts on the immediate direction the world of labor is heading. We’ll talk about how the upcoming conference he is chairing aims to reframe the futures of work conversation including the massive disruptions technology brings.
Have you noticed there’s a lot of talk today about the importance of developing a resilient, “growth” mindset? There’s good reason for it as mounting research indicates the potency and efficacy of a strong mindset geared toward persistence, growth, and possibility. But why do so many people fear and avoid failure, when it’s one of the most potent learning devices ever devised? In this episode, we talk with mental skills and performance coach Edward Watson about how to cultivate a growth mindset and embrace failure. Also, Mr. Watson will share the perspective he’s cultivated about the differences between boys and girls in terms of how they handle stress as derived from the years of work he’s done in schools. Finally, he’ll discuss the perils of a global society’s fixation and over reliance on cell or iphones, and how their use very poorly positions young people entering the workforce.
Sometimes our very best opportunities for learning come from our most devastating life experiences, which is exactly the case for this episode. As an 8th grader, Jaret was only 90 pounds, won only one wrestling match, and was constantly picked on and bullied. He was able to more than double his body weight, get down to 6 percent body fat, and become one of New York’s best wrestlers and eventually became a 3x All-American Wrestler at Bryant University. Jaret's mission in co-creating his company, brand, and product was to help debunk fitness myths that have existed for decades and help millions of people change their bodies naturally like he was able to without deprivation. Today he uses these lessons learned from wrestling to help people develop a winning mindset in all areas of life such as business, relationships and total well-being. He has also discovered an 8-part process to help people find fulfillment.
In our fast-pasted, competition-driven world, glory goes to the ladder-climbers, the highly ambitious, the “movers & shakers” while those who are satisfied with their supporting roles are seen as lacking drive or vision. But a business would utterly fail without the expertise of followers supporting the CEO and the company’s mission. The important question we should be asking is “How can followers win when leaders get all the glory?” Unencumbered by the need to drive toward share value or other leadership challenges, followers can focus on their areas of interest, refining their skills without distraction or over-stimulation. In this episode, Baldwin shares the top five qualities employers seek when looking for great followers to support their companies, some ways followers can improve their success and fulfillment at work, and some things leaders can do for their supporters to promote thriving work environments that everyone will appreciate.
After falling into the restaurant business, Brett Randle found a career that allows him to live his purpose through his faith. Now with 16 locations across the North Texas area, he revels in feeding the stomachs and souls of his customers and 250 employees through his faith-based restaurants. At Soulman’s, he and his team profoundly understand that culture eats strategy for breakfast and so have purposely created theirs to excel at food, service, and cleanliness. In this episode, Brett shares his own journey into the restaurant business, how he and his team created their culture based on faith, the importance of being a creative follower, and how he has developed his own leadership style over the years that lets him live his faith at work.
The workplace is comprised of women who excel at empathy and communication and men who bring the “hard skills” like critical thinking and problem solving… right? Uh no, not so much. But that type of either-or thinking is all too common. Unfortunately, it does not serve the interests of the men and women who make up the workforce nor the businesses who rely on their contribution of talent. So, what can we do to embrace the traditionally gender-associated talents in both men and women in today’s marketplace, and enable each person to contribute to their fullest performance? Tune into this episode to join the movement and “expand the conversation.”
Did you know that there is an actual neuroscience in communication that explains why words have a certain impact on us? And that we can consciously choose language to have an intentional impact on our listeners? No matter what kind of work we do, having the skill to choose our words for maximum impact can make all the difference in our results. And as we navigate our professional lives, it’s likely our interests will change and we’ll feel compelled to seek a new or different ways to make our livelihood – but how to identify our latent or emerging talents? And finally, the manner we manage our diets, finance, and even relationships both at work and at home can be classified as either “cleansing or clogging.” In this episode, we explore these seemingly independent ideas and how they can be practiced and woven together for a happier, more productive set of results at work and at home.
Staff Sergeant Jason Morgan served in the United States Air Force as a member of an elite unit that provided meteorological and combat support for special operations missions. In 1999, with only a few days left in his deployment in Ecuador with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, SSgt. Morgan came under fire by a militant terrorist group and ultimately was thrown from the vehicle he was riding in, crushing his back, and leaving him paralyzed and face down in contaminated water. After two months in a coma, the road to recovery for SSgt. Morgan was long and daunting, plagued with debilitating pain, infections, and dozens of surgeries, as well as a leg amputation. But despite the immeasurable challenges SSgt. Morgan has faced over the past 17 years, he still has an incredible thirst for life and adventure. In this episode, we talk about the importance of overcoming adversity and the purpose that can be found in service to others.
Developing the next generation of the workforce is a formidable endeavor, and one the guest of this episode does not take lightly. Rather, Principal Evan Robb believes students need to develop a growth mindset, be encouraged to think creatively, and are nourished by inspiration, something he relishes providing in his various forms of communication. In this episode, we explore the current challenges in middle school education and how Principal Robb delights in addressing them and turning them to positive advantage, connecting with the community, and serving as a force to raise the bar in education across the nation.
Corporate wellness programs today are common conversation fodder, and on this program we’ve featured many kinds of professionals who specialize in various corporate offerings. But consider the environment we work in and how it’s set up, which can make all the difference to our productivity, comfort, and contentment. And we often take the ambient nature of our surroundings for granted or don’t pay them much mind, until we recognize work isn’t going as well as we would like it to. Or, someone like this episode’s guest comes into a workplace and waves her magic, professionally trained ergonomic wand and poof, we feel more “at home” at work, less tension in our bodies, and able to focus more readily on our tasks. In this episode, we’ll talk about the four “M”s critical to productivity in today’s workplace and a couple of practices listeners can immediately put to work to make their personal and work lives less stressful and more productive.
Today’s workplace can register as incredibly stressful and yet also allow for magnificent opportunities for personal self-expression and the registration of meaningful impact for the employees who work within corporate settings. In order to perform optimally in such a challenging environment, exceptional professionals and leaders are learning the importance and payoff of understanding their fears in depth and working through them to create new, healthier behavioral patterns that are conducive to deeper relationships, better results, and increased innovation. Similarly, working to increase levels of self-confidence in order to leverage that strength across other seemingly non-related situations also gives professionals an edge. In this episode, we talk with a. n expert who helps professionals across many industries, job titles and professions find the courage and confidence to overcome obstacles, achieve targeted results with velocity and ask for what they want, and get it.
During his young teen years, Christopher Scott was given a prophecy by a priest who had occasion to meet him – that he would live a remarkable life – but would have to endure some horrific things along the way. Little did he know at the time just how resoundingly true and sobering this utterance would be. Only a few years later, Christopher would find himself in prison for a murder he did not commit, spend 13 years locked behind bars and miss seeing his two young children grow up and receive his tutelage. During his time in prison, he read voraciously and learned the plight of countless other men who had similar stories of being wrongfully convicted. And there prior to his release, the House of Renewed Hope was born. Today as free men, Christopher and his team travel the state of Texas to investigate wrongful conviction cases and literally breathe hope into the lives of people serving time, many of whom have been behind bars for more than three decades – truly a man “working on purpose.”
What is it we do every day at work? We communicate. At its simplest, that’s speaking, writing, and listening. Since we do these things every day and often all day long, you might think we’d be pretty good at them. But it’s not necessarily so! Few professionals take the time and effort to cultivate these talents, and many view them as “soft skills that are nice to have but not critical to success.” Yet professionals enjoy a clear advantage when able to deliver clear and concise messages, whether in writing or speaking. Persuasive communication skills help us get noticed at work and will often distinguish a career in excellence versus mediocrity. Further, listening and communicating to resolve or minimize conflict strengthens us in a leadership role, when part of a team, or in serving clients. In this episode, we’ll talk with a communication expert who will share information, tips, and communication tools that have transformed careers, and are sure to help you.
At the heart of business transformation is often the kernel of individual, personal transformation – as this episode’s guest can attest. Anna Scheller’s passion in her work is fueled by experiencing the change she experienced in her own businesses as a result of investment in professional sales training. In one year, she increased the revenues in her corporate housing business 50 percent and doubled the volume in her network marketing business. She personally knows the power of setting challenging but attainable goals and rigorous time management to produce enviable sales results. In this episode, Anna shares her keen insights into the art and practice of sales and some of the practices she imparts in her workshops to help bring sales people to their best game.
With a focus on long-term health and longevity, it is important that we stay strong and healthy to contribute to our families, our society, and certainly in our workplaces. It used to be the case that we all wore the badge of honor of sleep deprivation and no time to exercise, but our top tiers are seeing their teams differently today. They want healthy, refreshed, wide-awake team members who are vigorous and strong with a positive attitude. Mindfulness Based Stress reduction programs are on the lips of our executives, and many of our C level executives are participating in these kinds of activities themselves including meditation and Yoga. It’s not enough that we are going for our edge in our fields, we want to say there in good health. This means a cleaner diet, appropriate hours of sleep, vigorous exercise, and a mindfulness based stress reduction program.
What’s in a life? What are all the important twists and turns that help make up a person and turn him into a success? And what critical lessons are learned along the way? In this episode, we speak with CEO Donald Thompson, an African American technology leader who has created and navigated an unlikely path to success and who’s on a tear to help his fellow young and aspiring entrepreneurs and others find their own leadership path. Having grown his own career in technology, then leadership, then founding a few companies along the way, to investing in other companies, he’s got a few things he likes to share with others trying to make it in business and leadership. Tune in for a healthy dose of inspiration, guidance, and education!
How can breaking out of our comfort zone help us become better leaders? Why does being mindful matter to productivity? And what’s this business about acceptance and commitment therapy helping innovation – how so? In this episode, we talk with a leading psychologist from Ireland who shares her expertise and experience working with individuals and corporate clients to help them achieve more purposeful lives and business results. She is easy to listen to and has a flair for painting a colorful picture of her work with poetic language and of course a beautiful accent.
The Hunt Institute will unveil its wonderfully ambitious EVIE project for Earth Day 2017.
Surviving and thriving in today’s business world requires passion, focus, and a healthy supply of determination. It’s not enough simply to have a good idea; rather, executives today must continually refine their business strategy and sometimes their core offerings to respond to the changing demands of the market. As the refinement process ever continues, remaining open to ongoing chance encounters with prospects and opportunities can be a critical strategy for a company to remain viable and vibrant. At the same time, maintaining a sense of intentionality and purpose in everyday activities is important to maintain productivity. In this episode, we talk with a former large-company executive and current entrepreneur about these perspectives that inform his approach to building the start-up company he co-founded.
At a time when few women were in leadership roles, let alone starting their own companies, Sheila Liberman pioneered an entirely new industry. Founding her pharmacist staffing company in 1980, people told her it would never be a real business. By 2008, RPh on the GO USA was earning $35 million in revenues and was the largest pharmacist staffing business in that niche in the country, doing business in 46 states and in Quam and the Virgin Islands. Prior to the sale of her company, Sheila endured a healthcare crisis of her own, her response to which helped usher her into the next chapter of her professional life serving as a health, wellness, and nutrition consultant to people who wish to lead healthier and happier lives.
Entrepreneurs come in many varieties: some are natural born it seems, while others emerge over the course of their working careers. Assuredly, once the enterprise is founded, it reflects the personality and values of its founder. For example, Amazech Solutions, founded by a woman originally from India, prides itself in hiring mothers who don’t all necessarily have a pure technology background. This cadre of professionals bring a curious, inquisitive approach to their software coding that the founder believes sets her company apart from others. Running the business has allowed the founder to have an impact in her community in ways that are congruent with her sense of identity and purpose. And growing the business over the years has challenged her to rise to new levels she didn’t know she had, a satisfying way to cultivate a full and meaningful life.
We all know that work can be and often is … stressful. The demands placed on each of us to perform at our best and achieve the impossible are every day demands that will likely only continue to escalate over the course of our careers. And yet we’re still mere beings with emotions, hopes, dreams, and needs that come with our talents. We get hurt when we get passed over for the promotion we so think we’ve earned. We can develop stress-induced ulcers because of our strained relationships with our colleagues and boss. And sometimes horrible atrocities occur in the workplace – as when a colleague commits suicide or a workplace shooter surfaces. In short, the workplace can induce tremendous traumatic stress and oftentimes on levels we don’t ever register. In this episode, we talk with a professional whose made it her mission to provide an integrative healing approach to companies and individuals across the globe.
Many of today’s fathers in their 20s, 30s, and 40s are doing about half (and sometimes more) of what mothers once did: driving children; assembling their breakfasts, lunches, and dinners; handling their late-night wake-ups; helping out with homework, and more. They are balancing school events with work and business travel, and in some cases finding themselves emotionally torn when they can’t be in two places at once. In short, men are feeling the same tensions and emotions as fathers as women have been for quite some time. But not every boss is aware of this increasingly common phenomenon. According to Care@Work, 87% of working fathers want to be more involved with the family’s daily routine, and work/life balance is twice as important to today’s fathers as it was to their own fathers, says the study. Perhaps, soon, this “working fathers” phrase or an appropriate replacement, will and should come into vogue.
Do you often feel defeated in your never-ending list of things to do in a day and wonder how you can possibly push through another day, let alone a week or month? Do you wish you could find some magic elixir that snaps you out of paralyzing inaction or ineffective performance? In this episode, Shawn Anderson shares a few things he’s learned about how to “go the extra mile” and how doing so can give us access through accountability toward personal transformation that allows us to realize our most precious and previously untapped dreams. And all starting with simply getting off to a better start, every day.
“We work too much, sleep too little, love with half a heart, and wonder why we are unhappy and unhealthy,” says Dr. Arthur Ciaramicoli. Is this modern day’s inevitable life dilemma? The good news is it doesn’t have to be. Effectively employing empathy has a surprising number of benefits, including lowering everyday stress levels and encouraging deeper, more meaningful connection between people. In the realm of work, great leaders using empathy can better tease out the potential in others by listening and learning who they are and what they could do. In this episode, we talk about the debilitating effects of stress, how we can rid ourselves of old negative stories about ourselves, and how performance addiction can really derail us, among several other compelling topics.
The baby boomer generation (born 1946-1964) is in a financial crisis. Most boomers do not have enough money saved for retirement, and want to continue working in any event. In his new book, BOOMER REINVENTION: How to Create Your Dream Career Over 50, career coach John Tarnoff lays out a proven methodology of 5 key steps and 23 actionable strategies to give boomers the resources and confidence they need to keep working. This “second act” career can be not only a financially successful one, but a personally fulfilling one as well. In this episode, we pick up from a previous interview as John shares insights on how to begin a career reinvention, and the reinvention experiences of some of the boomers profiled in his book. Whether you’re in need of a career reinvention yourself or perfectly content where you are, John’s witty and humorous style help us all stay positively focused on the world of work and all it can mean for us.
Most of us spend a good part of the day talking – but are we really holding meaningful conversations that yield the results we want? Probably not. Why no? In part, everyone has a variable level of skill in communicating. Also, consider the myriad of dynamics that influence conversational effectiveness such as conversation styles, emotion, assumptions, intent, context, tone, tempo and reactive brain functions. In this episode, we talk with a communication expert about eight principles that influence every conversation we have, and how having real conversations build relationships, create a platform of mutual respect, and get us the results we want – at work and at home.
For many, finding the time and energy needed to successfully maintain our well-being can prove to be a real challenge, especially for those that must capitulate to America’s fast-paced work culture. With only 24 hours in a day there always seems to be something competing for our time. This is especially true in small to mid-size enterprises, where taking time for renewal can come at the cost of neglecting commitments at work. Happily, more and more companies are learning it is in their best interest to provide wellness programs to their employees that help facilitate their access to a healthier lifestyle. In this episode, we talk with workplace wellness expert Dr. Mike Rucker about how companies are using effective workplace wellness strategies, as well as cover the ins and outs of what makes these types of programs successful.
Navigating one’s career and ever learning is part and parcel of today’s competitive work place. No one can afford to stay idle. You are constantly challenged to create value for your organization while at the same time differentiating yourself from the pack. What’s your strategy for staying ahead and managing how you are perceived by others? What’s your brand? Strong leaders become known for their leadership brand and what can be counted on from them. Once established, a leader can leverage his or her brand to accomplish extraordinary results both inside and outside the organization. In this episode, you will hear from a career coach who helps professionals understand the value of creating a unique brand. He will guide you through a process that will help you be intentional when managing your brand perception.
Founding and developing a successful business over the last 22 years in publishing is admirable in and of itself. But Milli Brown has done something beyond what many other publishers have managed. Not only is she still standing when traditional publishers have gone out of business - she’s also helped disrupt the industry toward employing a “relationship approach” and allowing authors to retain the rights over their own work. In this episode, we talk with Milli about how she got started in the publishing business, the journey she’s taken to stay relevant and strong in the industry, and how she works with authors to help them share their messages and market to reading audiences.
The 3 Dimensions of Emotions is a new way to understand emotional intelligence and find your relational “sweet spot”– the dynamic intersection of power, love, and mindfulness. Human reactivity is the source of most of our interpersonal problems and pain. The 3 Dimensions of Emotions introduces the concept of working the triangle, a unique practice that provides a compelling yet practical road map that can help you move from painful reactivity to productive pro-activity in your relationships. And it works just as successfully for a CEO of a Fortune 500 company as it does for a parent struggling to communicate with a teenager.
What can we learn when life serves up enormous challenges that bring us to our knees? How we respond to extraordinary circumstances is often the difference between being overtaken by the event or rising to a higher level of functioning. The same is of course true for our experiences at work across the course of our careers. After living large and enjoying a rare view from the top, Todd Lamense has had the opportunity to experience some exceptional things in life – like building a successful company and then being subsequently fired from it, along with a long list of other incredibly challenging life events. In this episode, we discuss some of those life experiences that helped make Todd who he is, some of the key lessons he’s learned along the way about life and work, and how negativity can be eliminated in the workplace.
Following a youthful fascination with outer space and what lies beyond the stars launched Robert (Bob) Benkowski into his first career as a senior engineer working for McDonnell Douglas in the Space Station Project Office at NASA, Johnson Space Center. Serendipity would catapult his career into medicine and inform his curiosity and ability to consider many intriguing questions, such as, how are the fields of aerospace and life sciences medicine related and support each other? What can we learn from NASA’s research on human physiology and what does it mean to our lives today? What critical considerations need to be made in developing implantable blood pumps and artificial hearts? And where does artificial intelligence and robotics meet and for what benefit in future medicine? All these questions and more are the subject of this episode as Bob Benkowski narrates in crisp detail his life-long love and dedication to the fields of science and medicine.
Helping startup companies and new executives for existing companies to make sense of the Human Resource technology terrain is John Sumser’s specialty. And he’s been at it for years. John travels relentlessly in an attempt to understand the HRTech landscape as it blossoms and grows. His firm HRExaminer aims to provide an up-to-date, cutting edge point of view designed to make their audience think. They publish reports and regular updates. They examine the state of the art in HRTech and report back to their audience. After all, it's the experience of the technology that drives and shapes the experience of the job and the work people do.
The holiday season is a special time to celebrate what we appreciate about our lives and the people in them, show grace and humility in whatever way our spirituality guides us, and allow ourselves to be swept away by the mystical wonder of the time. For many of us, the season ushers in a precious time to reflect, give thanks, and help others. And sometimes we see in ourselves and others rare and perhaps even fleeting moments when we transcend ourselves to a higher level of being and service to others who may not otherwise be known to us. This magical power of the season can cascade and inform the entirety of our lives, if only for the moment and sometimes, if we’re really blessed, for a lifetime. In this episode, the host shares a heartfelt conversation about the beauty and wonder of Christmas with Santa Claus, while also broadcasting via Facebook LiveStream.
With the ever-changing landscape of the global marketplace and how business gets done, we are hard-pressed to look into a crystal ball and try to predict the future. Yet doing so is a useful exercise if only to cast our thinking and planning into a future state and transcend today’s day to day functions and comparative limited state. A well-crafted approach to consider our future would be to include the vantage point of experts who have spent considerable time and focus on studying and contributing to their industry. Since so much of what makes the world and business go ‘round revolves around the key resource of people, and as we near the end of 2016 and cast our gaze on the New Year, this episode features a Human Resource and Recruiting expert and futurist who will share his vision for the workplace as far as 2025, along with some of the key recruiting and human resource and changes in how the field uses technology.
Executives today are constantly challenged to promote innovation within their organizations while entirely transforming them to higher levels of operation, often in tumultuous times and in highly scrutinized environments. Such is the experience of this episode’s guest. Attempting to recreate the first meeting between Paola Saibene and the host, this episode showcases her executive experience and some of her proudest moments of her leadership career, which is full of colorful examples that tested her creativity, perseverance, and competence. Paola will share career highlights from her 15 years of successfully implementing cybersecurity, by utilizing a holistic ecosystem, that cuts cost dramatically and galvanizes the workforce to adopt the strategic initiatives of the organization, through purposeful and meaningful engagement. Her experience is specialized in advancing and progressing environments that have the tightest constraints, face enormous challenges and have strong limitations.
College students and their families often spend a small fortune investing in education, with the intention of giving the loved one a good start and base on which to launch a successful career. Yet, having a clear career path and strategic approach to building a college curriculum and career plan is lacking for many college-bound students. Worse, many soon-to-graduate seniors still have no idea what kind of work they might ideally pursue, despite graduating with a major. Employing the advice and counsel from a youth career coach is a direction more and more families are using to give their youth the best start to their lives they can. In this episode, we talk with a business and leadership professional who focuses on helping youth and college students make informed choices and intentionally set the direction of their careers, right from the start.
Many young and more seasoned pepole seek a field of work that has a convenient path to entry. That is, they had limited exposure to options, or a family member or friend were employed in a particular field and soon enough find themselves just following suit. Today, many people reinvent themselves and pursue entirely different fields later in life. And then there are the seemingly few and precious minority who discover early on in their lives exactly what they wanted to do for a living in elementary school or earlier. As it were, the host crossed paths with an extraordinary young man, extremely articulate, and something of “an old soul.” In speaking with him about his plans for the future, he boldly indicated he planned to pursue an acting career and had been firm in this plan since at least age 11. Exhilarating to hear! Perhaps both my youth and adult listening audiences can learn a thing or two from this young man about how to identify what we really want to be when we grow up?
Today’s commerce takes place in an international marketplace, and many executives leading the largest Fortune 500 companies have lived and worked across the globe. Their business acumen is informed by a multi-cultural, multi-lingual set of experiences that contributes to their problem solving, operational effectiveness, and innovation initiatives. Recently, after leadership roles in several other Brazilian companies, Mr. Guimaraes invested in a steel structure manufacturing company in Minhas Gerais, Brazil, and then contributed his talents to grow and improve quality, productivity and the leadership of the staff. Some 30 years ago, he turned his career focus on technology, came to the United States, began a career in Information Technology and founded and ran a technology company from Dallas, Texas. We’ll hear about his dual-country adventures in business, what he’s learned about how and why culture matters, and the differences in how he led between countries and across his career.
We live in an “app-driven” world, fueled by brimming creativity and innovation. Technology is everywhere, the world continues its march toward increased digitization, and as a global society we are ever more dependent on our gadgets to get us through our day and keep us productive at work. But are we really making the best use of technology that we could? Are the companies we work in and run making the most prudent use of technology to fuel innovation, reduce monotonous tasks, and empower employees to contribute their highest talents? In this episode, we talk with Rackspace’s Chief Digital Officer to learn his own personal secrets for using technology productively, how he supports his customers to achieve their ideal customer experience, and his thoughts about where the future of technology is headed.
In today’s bustling times, we face personal, business, and cultural challenges that are volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, also known as VUCA. These challenges require situationally aware, adaptive, and strong leadership. Enter flow: When time seems to stand still, the right decisions come easily, we experience a sense of heightened awareness, and optimal experience emerges. In this episode, Dr. Judy shares her research into the flow experiences of firefighters and how training impacts flow-based decision making. This research shows how we can consciously choose to maximize our personal flow experiences, while putting in place the conditions to help others maximize their flow experiences. Incorporating flow-based leadership practices facilitates and enables employees to better align talents to organizational mission, intensify innovation, improve productivity, and increase the bottom line. Ultimately, this extends to personal, organizational, and community well-being.
The business of higher education is a challenging yet rewarding place to make a career and have tremendous impact on thousands of lives. Preparing young minds to successfully enter the workforce and connect them with opportunities requires a relentless laser focus and collaborative team effort, which is the strategic directive adopted by this episode’s guest. In this conversation, we talk about Dr. McMillen’s choice to pursue a career in education, the work he and his team are doing to serve its annual study body of 4,500 and get them productively into the workforce, discuss five trends that affect higher education and how it operates to affect student outcomes.
You are never perceived in a neutral way. You are always making an impression to yourself or to others on your ability to influence others. When meeting someone for the first time your appearance and demeanor have said it all. The questions to ask yourself are – do I have an accurate understanding of these impressions and are they really what I want to convey? And if I don’t like what I learn about how others perceive me, what can I do to change it and manage it to get the results I want? In this episode, we talk with an impressment management guru about what to focus on and how to improve the way you are perceived at work, as well as the link between impressions, business relationships, and performance at work.
Companies across the Western world are finding competitive advantage in embracing a culture of “giving for growth.” Whether of the millennial generation, or among the increasing number of adults experiencing “purpose starvation,” increasing numbers of employees welcome the opportunity to expand their own sense of mission and purpose through volunteerism at work and thus gravitate to companies offering such access. Companies are wise to leverage this cooperative esprit de corps to both have the reach and impact on a community it desires, while also fully engaging the talents and passions of their employees to their own corporate missions. Furthermore, many corporate leaders have learned that that to see desired change in their community, they must get physically involved - one way to do so is to mobilize their own army of do-gooders and inspire them to get involved in their own communities. Net result: increased employee engagement, bottom-line results, and healthier communities.
Brian Williams may be an unlikely success – or perhaps a graceful illustration of responding to life’s early challenges with grit and resilience. He had a hard start in life, having growing up without a father and labeled mentally retarded by teachers. Later, he would go on to receive a full academic scholarship to Texas A and M and receive his Computer Science degree. He later built a career that allowed him to eventually take leadership positions in several Fortune 500 technology companies. After leaving corporate America, Brian and his wife Tasha joined forces to start their own consulting company, Perspectivity International. In this episode, we explore the early life experiences that shaped who Brian is today, his career and other experiences that contributed to the person he is, and the work he does today to alter the way his clients communicate to increase the impact they so ardently aspire.
Recent surveys of global CEOs and board chairmen conclude that human capital is the top challenge they face. Managing change, and finding and keeping staff with the right skills are among the most important business challenges facing business leaders. The human population is getting older. Fertility is falling, and the world’s population is graying dramatically. A smaller workforce will place a greater onus on productivity for driving growth and may cause us to rethink the economy’s potential. With ongoing digitization of the workforce, the stage is set for major change as artificial intelligence brings workplace automation to physically intensive roles and repetitive routines but also to a wide range of other tasks. This coming digitization of the workforce and the powerful economics of automation will require a sweeping change in organizational structures, influence and control. In this episode, we discuss these workforce trends and what organizations must do to keep pace.
When access to education and work opportunity are abundant, it can be easy to take them for granted. Yet, much of the world is still working to improve access to education and economic development. In Peru, a country of 31 million people, males outnumber females in education rates and illiteracy in the rural areas can be as high as 34 percent. Domestic abuse has registered as high as 49 percent among females in certain rural areas where access to education and work opportunities are limited. Thousands of Peruvian girls stay in dysfunctional and violent homes because they have no means to support themselves. In this episode, we feature a Peruvian native turned American citizen who’s on a mission to eliminate what has been seen by many as an unfortunate inevitability and leaving behind the submissive woman while setting free the true Peruvian girl.
Everyone wants to know they matter, and there is so much need in the world and thus opportunity to make a difference. The question is how to connect willing and able volunteers hungry to make a difference with those across the world who need a hand. HELPS International has been in the business of serving Central America for more than 30 years and offers healthcare via medical missions, economic development via fortified agricultural methods, ONIL plancha stoves and water filters, and educational expertise to develop teachers and provide 21st century education to students. In this episode, a lead medical doctor, a HELPS International executive, and the host as a volunteer share their recent experience serving on a medical mission team in Guatemala on the Huehuetenango military base and how the experience informs their own sense of personal and professional purpose.
In today’s ultra-competitive, hyper-connected business environment, many companies are finding their leaders must stay informed of and on top of workforce trends that shape how human capital is acquired, developed, and performs in order to remain viable and innovative. They must find a way to individually activate an authentic work experience for their workforce, which may in part be accomplished by intentionally crafting a purpose-driven culture. Leaders need to continue to develop their skills to elicit employee commitment, elevate productivity and performance, and drive business growth. At the same time, employees are looking for fulfillment from their work and are determined to achieve their full potential. As individuals they need to embrace change to achieve more meaning, mastery, and momentum in their work life, which can in part be accessed by tapping the superhero within to embrace their own potential. In this episode, we explore all these topics and more.
It’s not for everyone but many people will at some point ask themselves, shouldn’t I just be off working for myself? The feeling of self-sufficiency and charting one’s own course in life seems to be a draw for many people across the globe. Being an entrepreneur offers the opportunity to build a legacy organization and perhaps impact a great number of people. But is it truly for you? In this episode, we feature a long-time serial entrepreneur who shares his perspective on what he sees as four kinds of entrepreneurs, the basic business types one can entertain, and some key considerations about oneself to take into account in evaluating whether entrepreneurship is a viable track for you.
Most everyone wants to lead a happy and abundant life and feel they’ve had an impact that made a difference to others. They want to feel productive and meaningfully engaged in their lives. But not everyone finds a ready path to creating such a life for themselves. Or something goes awry along the road of life, and they need help getting back on a fitting and productive path. In this episode, we talk with motivational and productivity expert who helps people find their passion and purpose. Even if you feel you’re on your right path, this episode promises inspiration and guidance to help you pursue an even more productive and fulfilled life.
Our connected lives have made us more aware of the problems facing humanity than ever before, and yet few people feel empowered to be a part of an authentic solution. Dissatisfaction with old models of solving problems combined with the increased awareness of local, national, and global challenges have created a readiness for the emergence of new approaches. In this episode, you will hear of a unique business model of empowerment designed to involve more average people in creating sustainable and rewarding change. We will hear from the founder and visionary behind MPACT Project, a start-up platform combining the popularity of crowdfunding, holistic poverty solutions, and enlightened self-interest to grow a movement of people who care
Outer space - does it allure and call out to you? Does it fascinate you to ponder how the universe and galaxies come into being? How do galaxies grow over time and change dramatically across different regions of outer space? How do they grow their stars, black holes, and dark matter? These are some of the questions that drive the research of this episode's guest, Dr. Shardha Jogee. She will share her early deep fascination with science, how she dared to dream big, and how it all culminated against all odds in her career as an astronomer, professor, and chair of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin. She will discuss some of her exciting research using NASA's Hubble, Spitzer, and Herschel Space Telescopes, McDonald Observatory, and the future Giant Magellan Telescope, and invite young minds to join the journey of scientific exploration. She will also share the excitement of advancing Texas Astronomy in her role as department chair.
Governed by a continuous curiosity for commerce since the age of 10, Mark Phillips has made a life of finding ways to spot opportunities in the marketplace that position him for success. His is a unique perspective that propels him to capitalize on business opportunities that are simply not obvious to most of us. Though he was able to retire at age 32 from the sale of a successful venture, he’s begun and run one venture after another ever since – reveling in the joy of playful and productive creativity in enterprise. Boundlessly energetic, he delights in ongoing enterprise and encouraging others to find ways to be happy at work, so they can lead an enjoyable life – and just have fun!
If we’re fortunate in life, we find and develop strong and lasting connections with important people who really matter to us. They add a beautiful zest that touches us and brings an impossible to describe joy. So, when they leave us and pass on, the grief can be incredibly overwhelming. It was this journey that Marla Lackey unexpectedly embarked upon as she navigated her beloved mother’s passing. A registered nurse working in Labor and Delivery, she reveled in bringing souls into the world – now, she’d have to help usher out the one who’d been incredibly precious to her. In this episode, Marla recollects her fond experiences growing up, what her mother taught her as she died of cancer, and her experience of at first resonating with a quote she’d seen that her “mother had taught her everything she needed to know except how to live without her.” Marla’s new chapter in life and work is to help others through her writing to find hope and gratitude while navigating the grieving process.
Do you know how you are perceived as a leader? What exactly is your leadership image? There are at least 10 key elements of leadership we can develop in ourselves, according to Sharon Burstein, and in this episode we’ll discuss some of them to help you improve your leadership image. We’ll also talk about the importance of being able to motivate the people we lead to inspire them to perform at their best. In fact, Sharon gives 50 of them in one of her books, some of which will be discussed in this episode as well as how they apply in the work setting. Finally, our ability to communicate and connect with others has a profound impact on our success as leaders, and Sharon describes the 95-5 percent rule.
Money, and the way we make good use of it, can mean all the difference to whether we get to live the life we most ardently desire for ourselves and our loved ones. Good financial planning depends on a sound understanding of investments, insurance, retirement, estate, and tax planning. Equally important is a solid grasp of just how all these areas are connected to the people they are intended to serve and the lives they want to lead. In this episode, Ryan McDonald describes why he chose the financial planning profession over medicine and why he loves the work and his connection to his clients. He also helps listeners understand how investments can make money, why considering liquidity is crucial, and the relationship to risk in investments.
Imagine your job is to make beautiful music and move and inspire people across the world with the beauty of your song. And consider you discovered this talent and have been cultivating it from the toddler years, thanks to the gift of a beloved grandfather who imparted his inspiration and recognized talent when he saw it. In this episode, we learn how international singer and composer Stephanie Zelaya found her passion at age 3 and continued her quest to develop it into a beautiful expression of who she is today in her early 20s as she tours the Americas. Singing in Spanish and English, she shares her early influences, key milestones, and educational opportunities and what she hopes most to give her listeners. Many people ache to discover the work they were meant to do and often lack the courage to pursue it once they do. Tune into this episode and listen to Stephanie share her story and you just might find your own inspiration to reach for the stars and follow your own life’s dreams.
Considering retirement after a long career in corporate America, but just aren’t sure if you have saved enough money? Or maybe you one of the “working worried,” sure you’ll be the next one at work asked to leave, and you’re not ready to hang it up yet? Once entering the job search, many seasoned workers find themselves applying for countless jobs, only to hear the constant refrain, “thanks but you’re overqualified.” Others consider starting a new business but just don’t know if they’re on the right track or have what it takes to successfully operate it. The future seems increasingly uncertain especially for the Boomer generation in relation to how they experience work and earn money. In this episode, John Tarnoff shares his insights on unique issues facing Boomers and what they can do to radically alter their future by considering the possibilities to reimagine and reinvent themselves in surprisingly new ways to literally thrive in the new economy.
Being a leader in today’s generationally diverse workplace is more complicated than ever before. Managers and leaders are being required to increase greater employee engagement using new tools to connect and collaborate to bridge the generational gap. Factors such as rapidly changing technology, an uncertain economy, mergers, closings, and layoffs have made today’s workplace even more challenging to lead. The attitudes of the generations vary from how they value loyalty, want to be rewarded, to staying on the cutting edge of technology. While some organizations are trying to figure out which generation’s way of leading is best, when in reality there is no cookie cutter solution - no generation is better or worse, they’re just different. This episode features the Generational Guru who helps organizations identify the obstacles and opportunities for leadership within each generation and understand the potential impact everyone can make as a leader.
Are you wondering how to ignite engagement in your workforce? Or perhaps you’re curious about the various ways people experience meaning in their work? In this episode, two long-time colleagues enjoy a conversation about their perspectives on and experience with helping companies address employee engagement. For a twist, David Lee interviews Alise Cortez, the show’s host, about her 10-year plus research efforts to understand how people experience meaning in their work and its relationship to their sense of self or identity. Alise queries David about his views on why employees “just aren’t that into their employers,” and some things employers can do to change that and foster employee engagement.
The biggest problem today in education is determining what you want to do. Once this is done, the next challenge is to determine the correct path to get the career you want, and ultimately, how to pay for the necessary training or education. Even though these questions are basic, they are very difficult to answer without the proper tool and advice. Adding to this burden, consider that a majority of college students take six years to complete their four-year program, and of the 60 percent who do complete it, the extra two years cost an additional $40,000 and $45,000 in opportunity loss. The majority of the students come into college with the intent of “figuring it out.” Because of this “old school” approach the student, and many times the family, incurs debt that impacts the future – buying a house, car, and even marriage. With the solution from College Choice Today, blending the right balance of science, technology, and expert help, there is not an excuse for not getting it right.
Let’s face it – relationships of all types can really be difficult. That’s especially true when we find ourselves living, associating or working with individuals who use psychological or spiritual abuse as a method of harm. A surprising number of people exhibit various personality disorder characteristics that manifest themselves in behaviors toward those closest to them. Our guest in this episode has a unique window on this world in her counseling practice focusing on recovery from hidden abuse. In this episode, we discuss Shannon Thomas’s choice to enter the field, how she developed her career into her own business today, the six stages she uses to guide her clients toward recovery, her perspective of how and why psychological and spiritual abuse occurs today, and the signs we might use to recognize that we ourselves are in a toxic relationship and then what we can do about it.
How can organizations catalyze the exchange of completely different talents while productively connecting the generations in today’s workplace? Consider the benefits of reverse mentoring, which allows new or junior members of an organization to coach longer-term or senior members in areas of their strengths – perhaps such as the use of technology. Imagine how empowering such a culture would be to a company and the increased engagement, performance, and retention that would result. Then imagine the competitive advantage that could be afforded a forward-thinking organization utilizing this human capital strategy. Now, ask yourself – has your organization put forth the effort and created a platform for reverse mentoring to occur as part of your normal, everyday practice? If not, tune into this episode to learn what’s involved and how doing so could make a real difference in your company’s heart beat and bottom line.
As an Adjunct Faculty at Southern Methodist University teaching communication and career preparation courses, I enjoy a unique window on the world of hopeful and anxious students preparing to transition into gainful employment. To share it, I thought it would be fun, insightful, and perhaps inspirational to interview current students wishing to embark on their careers in Communication as well as those who have since found their footing in the workplace. This dynamic interview format representing eight voices showcases the hopes of current students and the steps they are taking to prepare for their chosen careers, as well as short snippets from recent graduates describing their approach to starting their careers and the advice they have for other students about to enter the workforce.
Some people seem to intuitively know how to choose a suitable career. It all just seems to fit – personality, aptitude, talent, pace of work, how we relate to people. When we choose a career that just resonates with who we are at our core, we often encounter less resistance to forge a successful path forward. No negotiation, no pushing through things, just “flow.” We may even find working for ourselves in our chosen field a viable option. If you can relate to this, or perhaps would like to relate to it, this episode has something for you. We’ll be talking with a professional woman three decades into her Accounting career who shares how she successfully navigated her path toward entrepreneurship, how she incorporates Profit First concepts into her own business and service offerings, and why she thinks running her business is far more secure than any job she could ever hold.
Are you an educator ready to strengthen your professional potential or increase your impact in the classroom? Or, did you struggle as a child to navigate the educational system and believe that your struggle can be used to elevate that impact? Do you wish you could recapture the passion for your work you once had? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, this episode has something for you. We talk with Dr. Mary Howard about her 4-decade career in education and her dedication to breathe new life into passion for teachers across North America. She’ll be sharing some key strategies she teaches educators in her popular seminars and some key tips from two of her books, while also sharing her own career journey. Dr. Howard is a dynamic, caring individual who will leave you inspired to pursue your own passion and equip you with some information to help you better connect with those you serve, regardless of the business you work in. Join us!
Think about the pivotal moments in your life and where you were living. What was happening in your career and your relationships? Notice any significant events or patterns? In this episode, we talk with a seasoned real estate professional whose work helped her realize how the homes we live in create the individual chapters of our lives. Such a powerful way to help us make sense of important aspects of life over the course of time. Our guest will also share how her own business lens shifted, what caused it to do so, and the impactful results that came afterwards. Finally, we’ll discuss the power of being in a Master Mind group and the important ways we can all achieve more through this association than anything we can do on our own.
What if every day you knew you were making a life-changing difference to at least one child through the work you do? What if you knew that without the organization you led the children who came through your front door might not see their next birthday? Or would perhaps have to be returned to the very people who took advantage of or abused them? Many people hunger to make a difference through the work they do and yearn for the time or opportunity that lets them do so. In this episode, we learn how a successful corporate executive has unleashed her talents into the nonprofit arena and been transformed herself in the process of serving children while celebrating Jonathan’s Place 25-year service in the field.
Have you been considering leaving your current job to pursue your heart-felt passion? But maybe you’re worried about the loss of stable income and the prospect of an uncertain future? After a long and circuitous career in various corporate America roles, Kim Ortiz decided that life was too short to not do what she loves. So she opened a photography studio to create beautiful heirloom portraits for her clients that will last a lifetime. But just how did she make the leap to ntrepreneurship? What were the twists and turns along the way? And how does she continue to market herself to stay busy and productive? In this episode, Kim shares her unfolding journey to entrepreneurship and what she’s learned along the way that just may help you get your own footing.
Somewhere in the middle of a corporate career spanning over 30 years with a Fortune 500 company, Betti took a trip. She signed up for a cattle drive in south Texas, and riding a horse for the first time in her life herding Texas Longhorn, she began the most challenging and rewarding journey of her life. She learned a lot about not only the magnificent animal she rode, but personally experienced and untimely created a unique catalyst for growth and self-discovery. These powerful skills and concepts shaped what would become the incredibly successful Communicating with HorsePower Program. Betti has delivered to countless audiences and companies these powerful leadership techniques to meet top business trends - including Connecting with Customers, Liquid leadership, Developing Cultures to Grow Revenue, Engaging Clients and Employees, Strengths-Based Leadership, and Working Agility - Embracing Change and Adapting Effectively. Hang on and get ready for the ride of your life.
Running for any office takes enormous amounts of time, energy, and a passion for the cause. Winning the position of Dallas Independent School District Trustee for District 2 is the hope for Dustin Marshall who has long been captivated by the prospect of education reform. His platform includes addressing four main priorities: early education, empowering principals, racial equity, and teacher development. In this episode, Dustin describes his own experience of navigating school and being raised by a single Mom, how he became fascinated by and committed to education, and his rationale behind each of the four priorities he wants to address if elected. Given his full-time role as CEO, husband and father of four young children, Dustin is clearly driven by purpose in his pursuit to win and serve in the trustee position.
Do you love what you do and enjoy working for yourself but feel stretched too thin? Maybe you’re working entirely too many hours without achieving the results you want or deserve? Or, perhaps you aren’t working as productively in your day as you can. Many women start a business to share their professional gifts and hope doing so will allow them precious time for other important parts of life. But for many, the workload becomes consuming without a sufficient return on investment or significant income stream. In this episode, we talk with small business coach expert Leslie Hassler as she shares 7 pillars to help women take their service offerings from hectic and horrendous to sane and successful.
The 1960s women’s movement was of monumental importance to advance the conscious development of women. But what response did it evoke in men? Where do men derive their sense of connection and meaning in today’s times? And how do men navigate their lives against the backdrop of ongoing change in their female counterparts? In this episode, we explore the journey of one thoughtful, engaged man who has spent a quarter century cultivating his own perspective on life on the planet as a man and the wonderful discovery he’s made helping coach his fellow comrades in their common quest toward deeper self-awareness and authentic integration.
If you are considering a career that requires obtaining federal security clearance, or you’ve just been curious about what it’s like to work for the Department of Defense, this episode is for you. Did you know there are countless jobs that require a federal, military, or industrial security clearance, or even a simple background investigation, to be hired? Absent concrete knowledge of the process, many people make avoidable mistakes that result in not obtaining the security clearance they need to start their job. In this episode, a special agent with 21 years of experience conducting such investigations shares his wisdom, experience, and tips to get through the process efficiently and effectively, so you can get to work.
When work is fulfilling and fun, why would you ever want to quit? That’s Bob Hopkins’ philosophy, and with it he has joyously cultivated a long life and career full of profound enrichment while making an impact literally across the globe through an astonishing number of initiatives. His PAVE program, or Philanthropy and Volunteerism in Education, is about changing lives by giving children a new outlook on life through Service Learning and Community Involvement. Bob´s program follows first and second graders for three years. These formative years, with the assistance of college students in their classroom each week, celebrates amazing outcomes. The results have given children self-esteem, that has increased their academics and consequently their choices. Overtime, Bob believes the PAVE program lessen crime rates and eventually eradicate poverty. What an incredibly noble mission and legacy to leave.
Do you constantly feel behind schedule, ever pedaling on the hamster wheel toward an impossible schedule or crazy goals? Are you getting the results you really want – at work, at home, and in life? If not, maybe it’s because you’re not sufficiently inspired or committed to a course of action. Or could it be possible you haven’t yet learned a few simple keys to personal productivity that could literally turn your life around? In this episode, Lauren Midgley will share from her personal arsenal of proven strategies to help you get caught up and on top of your productivity.
People often hunger to find purpose in their work. They wonder, where do others get that sense of mission? And how do I find it for myself? Well, sometimes it appears right in one’s own back yard and is born from simple day to day life. Ask yourself, what do you really care about and spend time and energies on today? And do you know other people who are focused on similar things but need something beyond the current marketplace offerings to address it? If so, you just might find yourself staring straight into the beginnings of your mission and purpose at work, as our guest Charmaine Solomon discovered. And in her case, she and her comrades have taken that initial mission and dream to found a full-day continuing education program for adults with disabilities, and made it into a reality that casts a vision for even broader impact in the future while allowing her to leave a legacy for her special needs son.
Climbing the corporate ladder. Success. Making money. Isn’t that what many of us have been taught comprise the good life? I mean, we live comfortably and can afford a nice lifestyle with lovely vacations. It all should be good, right? Then, how come we don’t feel fulfilled? Why does it seem to get harder and harder to get out of bed and drag ourselves into the office? If you can relate to this story line, this episode may just be one you need to hear. Mary Miller shares her story of career ascent, misery in “living the dream” she worked so hard to achieve, and how she came to see the light on the other side of the tunnel toward a new and ultimately much more rewarding way to do life and career. She shares some of her key lessons along the way and how she has helped other women define their own version of success overruling the “shoulds” they have been told all their lives.
There are distinct moments when life serves up seemingly impossible challenges, predicaments that should completely break us, almost as if to see just what we’re made of. Fresh off a divorce, in career transition, lacking health insurance, and living with a friend in a small apartment, Brandon Cumby was already in a tender place when he received the perfect-storm sucker punch of electrocution and was not expected to survive. Miraculously, with the incredible support of family and friends and his indomitable spirit, Brandon emerged with a new lease on life. He is sharing his story in the hopes doing so will encourage others to dig deep into themselves to go for their own dreams as he is his own. Not only has he recaptured his own health after his devastating accident in 2012, he has since run four marathons and two 50K races. His story is a testament to the human spirit and how living an intentional and purposeful life can be born of tragedy.
If you are at all intrigued with the TV mini-series Making a Murderer, you’ll have to catch this episode. Imagine being arrested, then imprisoned, for a murder you did not commit and spending 13 years behind bars. During that time, you are forced to leave the care and raising of your two young children in someone else’s hands and adapt to the harsh reality of life behind bars. With many other twists and turns, including the confession by a fellow prison mate to the very crime for which he was serving time, Christopher Scott has a worst-nightmare story to tell. Remarkably, he now spends his freedom investigating innocence claims, fighting for release of wrongly convicted people who are still incarcerated, and advocating for legislative changes.
Pregnant and alone at 18, her life should have turned out much differently than it has. But she made a promise to God that she would care for her son with the help of His guidance. With few options after high school graduation, she worked minimum-wage jobs and lived on Medicaid and food stamps. And recently while completing her doctorate, she navigated through significant healthcare challenges that tested her resolve. Today, at age 41, Dr. Cortney Baker has a very full and happy life. She is the CEO of a state-wide, multi-million-dollar healthcare agency with over 300 employees. Now in the process of developing her new consulting and executive leadership coaching business and on the speaking circuit, she continues striving to meet her potential and takes great satisfaction in her various activities to give back to the world. In this episode, Dr. Baker gets real about her journey and shares how she navigated this successful path despite her adversity.
With purportedly 90 percent of all established businesses failing within five years, it’s a wonder many companies ever make it in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace. Ever wonder how these entrepreneurs get their ideas? What keeps them going along the way? What did they actually have to go through to succeed? And how in the world did they keep themselves motivated and performing through all the ups and downs? In this episode, we get to know one very successful Dallas entrepreneur who shares his story of building his business from a one-man shop into a thriving multi-million-dollar company only 10 years later.
Women and girls are surging forward at an unprecedented rate in many parts of the world. Girls outnumber boys in university enrollment, and women are increasingly seen in leadership roles at work in North America. Yet, much work still needs to be done to create a unified, supportive fabric that facilitates expression of the unique needs and talents of the female gender. As our social world evolves to open more opportunities for women, its own members need guidance and vision for what a vibrant and sustainable future looks like. Women and girls can in fact be their own worst enemy, which is why Plaid for Women began its NoMeanGirls campaign, among its many other initiatives to support healthy connection among women and girls. In this episode, Co-Founder and CEO of Plaid for Women shares how and why this dynamic organization was born, the specific kinds of programming they’ve developed to support women of all ages, and its future plans to improve the lives of women across the globe.
Work. It touches so many parts of our lives – our ability to achieve important goals, whether the impact we hope to have on others is registered, our ability to enjoy the lifestyle we want, and even how we interact with our partner and children. As we near the end of 2015, I can’t help but muse a bit on three key trends I see that affect how people experience their work and what they might mean to their fulfillment, engagement, and productivity. In this episode, we discuss entrepreneurship, the shift toward more androgynous work and domestic roles, and the “soft areas” of leadership, development, and engagement from the vantage point of self-actualization and human capital optimization.
What childhood memories does Christmas conjure for you? Is it making cookies with Grandma, singing Christmas carols with neighbors, or fighting with your sibling over who gets to open the first present? Just a few days before Christmas, let’s celebrate some of the magic of the season together. We’ll revisit childhood memories, embrace family Christmas traditions, and of course listen in as children’s book author Brandi Dougherty reads from some of her most celebrated works. Brandi will also share how and why she became a children’s book author and what she hopes her books will inspire in her readers. Along the way, both of us share fond memories from the holidays and our connection to family. Intended to be holiday- and family-affirming, this episode has something for everyone and will inspire you to reminisce about your own favorite holiday stories.
A chance encounter. A room full of interesting people. A serendipitously assigned dinner seat. All culminated at the Dallas Opera opening night in October to allow my meeting with Edo Popken. Immediately noticing his distinguished looks and outstanding stylish dress, and realizing he was a sponsor to the event, I was intrigued and so inquired about his line of work. I soon learned he was the proud descendant of four generations of clothiers but had his own story to tell, one I was eager to hear. In this interview, we hear Edo Popken describe his early yearning to design automobiles only to harken back to clothing, why he so fervently believes in the work he does designing upscale men’s clothing, how he positions international travel to stimulate his creativity, and what he hopes to lend to the clothing industry in his own entrepreneurial quest. Edo Popken is approachably real while living a zestful life, purposeful yet playful, and completely driven by his own values as a businessman.
Are you one of the many people who would like to pursue another line of work but feel you’ve either invested too much time in your current role, or are maybe just too old to change course? Well, think again. In this inspiring conversation, Malka Drucker shares why she diverted her career from full-time and prolific author to rabbi at age 53 and explains why you too might consider pursuing your own career dreams that come later in life. She also discusses her pioneering work teaching Ageing to Sageing and the profound richness and societal impact this latter stage in life can have for everyone of all ages. Join us for an all-faith embracing celebration of life and work – and consider the possibilities that may be lying dormant and waiting to be activated for your own future.
Jim Rohn once said: Don't let your learning lead to knowledge - let your learning lead to action. Entrepreneurs are sponges when it comes to learning, but the ones who succeed are the ones who take intentional action on their learnings and embrace the discomfort of accountability. And they are humble enough to know that they needn't and shouldn't go it alone. In this episode, learn how to fast-track your business success by engaging in a structured approach to mentorship, accountability, progress tracking and success – or MAPS, and find the booster shot you and your business need by engaging in growth accelerators such as CEO Space. We chat with a long-time entrepreneur and co-founder of a platform designed to put the afterburners on your rocket ship. What a wonderful way to work -- by helping others realize their dreams, this entrepreneur has found her own true calling.
Knowing who we are as a person and being able to express ourselves in life and at work is a profoundly important part of the human experience. But what if something seemingly as given as your gender at birth does not fit who you know yourself to be? There are approximately 700,000 transgender people living in the United States today, so the experience is more common than we may imagine. In this episode, we’ll meet Dr. Jillian Weiss who knew at a very young age she was meant to be a woman, made the transition from male to female years ago, and today enjoys a very satisfying and productive life as a professor and a lawyer representing the transgender community. She will describe the gender transition process and the important planning and resources that best accompany it, explain what employers can do to support their transgender employees, and talk about her own experience of transitioning and career choice. An important discussion for changing times.
What motivates people to give their very best each day at work? What best practices guide human capital to ensure employees are empowered, motivated, and growing? And what can we learn about how to lead and manage an organization’s talent by listening in our interviews with well-recognized CEOs across the United States? These topics and others, shared in a completely digestible, down to earth manner, comprise the pearls shared in this episode by an entrepreneurial CEO successful with his own company who also hosts his own radio show on talent. Listen in and join the dialogue.
On this Veteran’s Day, almost a century after President Wilson began the tradition to commemorate those who had served their country, this special episode features a 25-year Air Force veteran who colorfully shares her story with humor and wit. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the millions of service men and women who have dedicated themselves to securing world peace and allowed us to live as proud and free Americans. And in their service, military personnel learn unique skills that are incredibly valuable for the employers who put them back to work in the civilian world. This episode is dedicated to the millions of veterans who have heroically given their time and even their lives – to talk about what it means to serve and what we as a collective society can do to support them when they come back home.
Captured live at the Behind Her Brand book launch at Noah’s Event Center in Plano, Texas, this episode celebrates the 11 contributing authors and provides a sneak peek at some of their most fervently held beliefs and most significant experiences as discussed in the book. Behind Her Brand: Expert Edition, literally hot off the press, has dual purposes. First, this book is designed to help readers understand the journey, the lessons, obstacles, thought processes, disappointments, and victories that entrepreneurs go through when building their businesses. Second, this diverse group of experts provides readers with applicable tools that they have used to help them build sustainable and enriching businesses. Readers of the book and listeners to the program will be inspired, encouraged, challenged, and better equipped to pursue their own dreams, whether in life or business.
Serendipitous interventions in our chosen career path can yield surprisingly satisfying results. Dr. Kathleen Kuehnast set out for an academic career in anthropology but found herself in the middle of a crisis situation while working on her dissertation in the post-Soviet country of Kyrgyzstan. Setting aside her academic aspirations, she accepted the call to action from the World Bank to help Muslim women adapt to the complex social and economic changes during the post-Soviet transition in the 1990s. This single act would set in motion a full and ongoing career in international development, unification of gender interests, and helping people in conflict work toward peace. Dr. Kuehnast’s work reminds us all to be open to unplanned opportunities in our career paths along the way – and to recognize that each and every one of us can be every day peacemakers, if only we choose to be.
Did you as a child, or perhaps even today as an adult, absolutely love animals – and maybe even sometimes prefer their company over humans? Do you want to ensure they’re loved, rescued and well cared for, and understood? My guest in this episode loves her work as a zoologist and is specifically most focused on caring for birds of many plumages. Her passion is to ensure these beautiful creatures have the best life they can while in captivity and that she accurately understands and conveys their voice. An avid conservationist, she cares about our planet and all the creatures that dwell on it. Both on the clock and off, she’s engaged with various efforts to defend the beauty and pristine nature of this world we call home. This episode lets us in on a little of the life and times of Gwen Harris, who has trekked various parts of the world in her pursuit to learn about animals and how we can understand and preserve their livelihoods.
In this episode, we learn the story of how technology and convenience meet the personal touch of old-fashioned medical care delivered straight to the home. Taking a cue from Uber and Lyft, the idea was born by a young couple in Dallas who saw a need in the marketplace to serve patients requiring urgent medical care when their primary care physicians were otherwise not readily available. MEND, their newly created company, specializes in the treatment of common illnesses and injuries, which require prompt evaluation, but aren’t serious enough to require a visit to an emergency room. In today’s on-demand world, MEND seems to be just what the doctor called for.
After many successful ventures in his career, James Archer finally found his true calling at age 52. He’d had a strong inkling early in his life that languages and the humanities were the direction he should take for his career, but the conservative times in which he was reared dictated the tried and true, practical field of Engineering. He enjoyed a long career and much success in this technical field, only to discover that after a half century of life this insistent inner calling could no longer be silenced. It only took a brush learning Spanish to ignite the flame. In this episode, we explore the founding and initial development of The ShareLingo Project, a social enterprise that aims to make a lasting difference to the world by connecting cultures, breaking down stereotypes that separate people from different backgrounds and social levels, and better unify the people of the planet.
What can we learn about the human condition by working with people who exhibit impulsive behavior patterns and emotional dysregulation? And how do we know we’re the right person who can actually make a difference doing this kind of work? Choosing a field of study and career is easier when we learn early in life what’s suitable to our personality, interests, and talents. Such was the case with Penny Kruger, who realized in high school that friends sought her out to talk about things that bothered them. She was approachable, and friends seemed to trust her with the intimate details of their lives. That talent, so completely natural to her essence, along with her appreciation for the profound human connection the work provides, is the secret sauce in her practice today. Igniting new awareness and growth in her clients fuels her to continually polish her craft – knowing she gets to make a difference in the lives of her patients and fellow practitioners, while they also do so in hers.
Upon first hearing Dr. Rosenberg speak at a conference, I was struck by the extremely impressive career he has built combatting disease and violence across the world and the modest manner in which he spoke. As a meaning in work researcher, I immediately recognized that Dr. Rosenberg has been working at a level of achievement and impact many people hunger for in their lives but often don’t quite attain. I wanted to have Dr. Rosenberg on my show to gain a glimpse of what was behind this man who had given himself to public service and done so much for the world. In this interview, we talk on a personal level as Dr. Rosenberg shares why he chose the field of public health, the profound role his mentors have played in his life, and the sense of pride and connection he’s experienced serving side by side with his fellow committed professionals in their common quest to improve health for the world's most vulnerable people.
Becoming all we can be. Leaving a lasting legacy. Making a difference in our communities. Many of us yearn to experience our lives and the work we do within it on this profound level. We want to know we are constantly improving and developing our abilities to ever become the person we most want to be while making a difference along the way. But absent some strong guidance and support from those who’ve gone before us or who can encourage us on as accomplished peers and role models, we may not achieve these dreams. Everyone needs and benefits from mentors, or better yet, a whole community of them. In this episode, we talk with two leaders of Leadership Women who make it their business to help women across the nation develop their leadership capacity and connect them to other powerful examples of women who share the drive to matter and lead.
See if you can follow this recipe, will you? Start with one part loving, supportive, and encouraging family who knows how to have fun. Add in one joyful, vivacious kid. Stir in another part tremendous discipline, focus, and determination. Add a dash of entrepreneurial spirit, maybe a little effervescent energy. And what do you suppose you get? In this case, your recipe would yield Gavin Doyle, who found his joy of Main Street USA in Disneyland at age 4 and has cultivated this passion over the years into a very successful business enterprise. Having always had a mind for business, he started with a lemonade stand, later began offering family vacation planning packages to Disney, and then created two popular websites devoted to all things Disney. Now, at age 17, he’s finishing his last year of high school, applying to colleges, and has just published his first book. Kind of makes you wonder – what could you do with the right inspiration and support?
Everyone can expect to encounter a series of challenges throughout the course of their lives and careers. Some are small, short-term impediments that test our persistence or creativity to overcome a problem. Others are really big, hairy obstacles that last for many years and may make or break us in the end. Navigating through such incredibly strenuous times helps us realize just what we’re made of. In this episode, we meet a very successful speaker and trainer who shares her story of going blind at age eight, navigating through school and college, and going on to realize her dream of teaching public school. She shares why she was so passionate to teach and what she learned about herself along the way. She also describes some of the messages she imparts to her speaking audiences today, along with her seven leadership principles. If you’ve got something trying to hold you back in life or work, you’ll be glad you tuned in for her wisdom and inspiration.
Today many people hunger for meaningful work that feels satisfying, facilitates engagement, and allows them to make a difference. Steve Taylor has found his perfect match in a company that celebrates his competitive nature, rewards his strong service orientation to customers, fits his values orientation, and facilitates his own leadership development. Originally introduced to the opportunity at RDO Equipment Co. more than eight years ago, he finally agreed to an interview, and he hasn’t looked back. Steve is powerfully connected to the history and story of RDO Equipment Co.’s founding and revels in the pervasive company culture to bring out the best skills and talents in its employees in service to customers. And the results speak for themselves – Steve has been continually promoted over the years and enjoys leading his agricultural equipment sales team to exceed sales goals and operational initiatives. How about you – have you found your perfect match?
With so many possible careers available to us today, how do we ever choose which one to pursue? Whether we are transitioning from one field to another or just starting out, how do we notice when one opportunity somehow stands out among the others? Once we do make a decision as to a direction, we have to prepare for the field and get that first job. Then there’s the social aspect of the work – what will my friends and family think of my path? Will they approve of my decision and support me? Can I really make a living doing what I love? And what dreams do I have for my future – what do I hope to accomplish? In this episode, we will explore all these questions and more from the vantage point of a 24-year old just starting his career in the wine industry.
Does the Tooth Fairy still visit your house? We hope so! All the magic and wonder that alleviates the pain of losing a tooth comes with the promise of money – or perhaps something even more fun – when the Tooth Fairy pays a visit. This is exactly what two women from the Portland, Oregon area have discovered in their quest to start a business based on the childhood memories so many of us share. What a delightful and creative way to express their talents and earn an income. Tune in and learn how the women got the idea, why they’re in the business of delighting children and parents, and how they continue to develop and grow the business.
Is it really true that if we do not keep learning in today’s fast-paced international marketplace, we’ll fall behind? Everyone benefits from having a set of technical skills that ground them into their respective fields, whether those talents are in engineering, accounting, manufacturing, or marketing. But what about those soft skills, those abilities that allow leaders to be effective with and through other people at work? Today as more and more companies do business across cultures, having a set of strong people skills that enable leaders to empower, motivate, and continue to develop their teams is good business. Everyone wins – the team whose skills are continually being developed, the leader who now gets to do more and more interesting work because she’s empowered and developed her people to work at a higher level of output, and certainly the organization that employs them which now has a stronger culture of engagement, performance, and overall bench strength.
The workplace has radically been altered in the last 15-20 years and will continue to morph and change with technology and market trends. The manner in which people seek and apply for work, engage in their jobs, and whether they choose to remain in one field or with a single company is constantly evolving. The ground seems to be literally moving under our very feet, a phenomenon which can produce both tremendous anxiety while ushering in unforeseen opportunities. In this episode, we’ll gain insight from a preeminent career coach and counselor to learn how job seekers can set themselves apart from their competition, take a pulse on the general economy and see how people are feeling about the job market these days, and consider some future trends that will affect us all.
Croatia Dream is a tourism business in the city of Split in the country of Croatia, nestled along the Adriatic Sea. Founded four years ago as an agency for villas and apartments in Croatia, the nimble company now offers full service in seven languages for travelers to Croatia - amazing accommodation, all kind of transfers, excursions, and adventure tours. And each of the three principals work 15-hour days during the busy season and absolutely love their work. They then relax, travel the world, and recreate during the off season – a wonderful work-life integration. But how did this company run by three entrepreneurs all in their 30s come into existence? Built on a profound love for their country, the business was launched when a serendipitous opportunity to rent office space came available, and the three decided to leave their various other professions and join forces. As a tight-knit team, they take great pride that their professional solidarity makes them even stronger as a family.
Today’s dynamic international marketplace is driven by innovation. And that innovation often comes to us at the hands of entrepreneurs who somehow see an opportunity in the marketplace most of us simply can’t visualize. That is, unless you’re an innovating entrepreneur yourself. These enterprising business people have a special knack for the creation of a product or service - and here’s the important part - that people will actually pay for. It is one thing to have a great idea, quite another to have one that translates to value creation. And then there’s the strategy and operations skills required to get the business up and running. So much goes into creating a business, it’s no wonder the vast majority fail before they go on to realize success. This week, we celebrate innovators and entrepreneurs who keep at it and let their passion guide their next enterprise.
What’s cookin’ in Texas? Ask Dotty Griffith. Her humorous insights and instruction reveal what makes Texas cuisine so big, bold, and beautiful. This is a woman who not only knows her way around the kitchen but has also hob-knobbed with some of the most loved and celebrated Texas chefs. Whether it’s a simple grilled peach salad or a perfectly smoked beef brisket, Dotty knows the secrets to make food delectably memorable. She has enjoyed an extensive television and culinary teaching career and loves bringing food to life with flair.
Are you one of the lucky people out there who literally grew up in the business you’d ultimately spend your life as an adult? Blaine Wright, a professional horse trainer with his own racing stable currently working with 60 horses, has a story just about like this. Having grown up working in his parents’ horse race training business, he learned early that he had a real knack with animals and felt at home around them. Over the years he experimented with other kinds of work, though none could quite get him out of the starting gate like the sight, smell, and connection with horses. He simply could not resist the ongoing tug back to the race track and the magnificent animals who ran around it. Despite the challenges of working in a business that requires his near total focus seven days a week, Blaine has stayed true to his passion. And the results speak for themselves - not only is he very successful in his business but he has managed to cultivate a beautiful and rewarding way of life.
What would you do to make your dreams come true and live your life’s purpose? It’s certainly not an easy path for most. Would you restructure an incredibly well established and successful business? Start a PhD program in order to change fields? Move to a different continent? Start a brand new subsidiary from scratch? Erika Jacobi did all these things and more in order to live fully to her values and allow her true identity to emerge in her life and work. Leaving Germany, she started over in the United States where the opportunity to reinvent herself as a scholar, earn a PhD, and pursue a career in Organizational Change Consulting coincided. Tune in to hear about her lessons learned, what she did to forge ahead to realize her dream, and why pursuing this dream was so important.
Initially unsure of what to study or pursue for work, Dr. Edward Fischer tended bar for a while and then his parents sent him on a trip to Guatemala for a little rest and redirection. And that fortunate intervention helped him fall in love with Latin America and ultimately study anthropology. Today Dr. Fischer makes a career studying people all over the world, including how they participate in the economy, and has written several books chronicling his study experiences. Professor Fischer also deeply cares about malnutrition in children, knowing the profound difference a good diet makes to a youngster’s overall cognitive and physical development. He created the Mani Plus program in Guatemala, which relies on locally sourced ingredients. In all of his study and travel, Dr. Fischer has come to realize that while people’s socioeconomic circumstances can vary widely, at the end of the day they still value aspiration and opportunity, dignity and fairness, and commitment to a larger purpose.
The path of least resistance in a career is not always the best long-term fit, nor the most fulfilling. And worst still is when we ignore the persistent voice in our heads telling us exactly the career path we know is right for us. Dr. Malea Maynard learned all these lessons and then some, as she transitioned mid career from Audiology to Medical Doctor. She had known since she was a young child that she wanted to be a doctor but somehow convinced herself it just wasn’t meant to be. At age 32, while in the midst of her work in Audiology, she decided to go to medical school. She simply could not ignore the persistent inner compass that kept telling her that this was the work she was meant to do. In exchange for heeding this compass and with the investment a lot of time, effort, and money into this path of medicine, Dr. Maynard has been handsomely rewarded with fulfillment and purpose as a Family Medicine physician
Once you get to the top, how do you know when it’s time to let go? At a time when women were rarely decision makers in business or agriculture, Susan Sokol Blosser, a pioneer in the Oregon wine industry, distinguished herself in both. For over three decades, Susan managed every aspect of Sokol Blosser’s winery operation. As the vineyard manager, she drove the tractor, did hand work, and used a forklift to load grapes onto flatbed trucks. As president, she saw Sokol Blosser grow to become one of the largest and most innovative Oregon wineries, with national and international distribution. Then, at the height of her career, Susan made an extraordinary decision – to step away from the work she loved and transition control of the winery to her children. The book Letting Go is the engaging account of how she made that decision, the surprising challenges she faced, and the unanticipated journey that ensued and the good life that followed.
After careful consideration of a college major, you navigate a thoughtful and successful career. Years go by and you learn a ton along the way and enjoy knowing you’re making a valuable contribution to your employer. Then, seemingly out of the blue, you enter another stage of life where you want something else from life and your work. The question is – should you stay or should you go? There are certainly advantages to each route. How do you choose what’s right for you? And once you do decide, how do you strategize that transition and make that new path work for you? If you can relate to this story or any of these questions, tune into this episode as Dr. Shelette Stewart discusses how she learned to connect her career with her calling and her profession with her purpose and how she espouses this same path for others in order to maximize personal fulfillment and professional success and drive performance, productivity, and bottom-line profitability.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could stumble onto an unexpected hobby and manage to turn it into a business? And what better if that something involves the curious complexities and full-palette flavors of, well, beer? That is almost exactly what happened with Jacob and Lindsay Sloan of Dallas, Texas. Smart, forward-thinking young professionals, their passion for beer turned business venture is at an early stage, so they both work other full-time day jobs. Their zest for crafting beer and coming up with new recipes keep them going while they learn entrepreneurship and the fine art of running a business. Tune in to learn their story and what they hope to accomplish in the future.
What can drive, focus on continuous improvement, and a good mentor do to catapult your career? A lot, says Donald Thompson who refers to himself as The Unlikely CEO and is in fact writing a book of the same name. After a year of college football, Donald left school to start his career in Sales at age 19 as a determined and ambitious young man bent on success. Today, standing at the helm of several technology companies, he is focused on leadership and leaving a legacy. An insatiable student of life and business, Donald has attained extraordinary success in his 43 years while developing a focused, can-do perspective that has served him well in both his personal and professional lives. Join the conversation as he shares his lessons learned, perspective on common mistakes people make to inhibit success, and what he believes has contributed to his own success and happiness along the way.
Ali Tiegs took the 20 year plan to complete her education and delayed her career gratification, never losing sight of goals in life but aware of what it would ultimately take to obtain them. Priorities play a very significant role in achieving success and even in her later career as a teacher, principal, and executive director, she looked at the end result first, then worked her way backward in order to achieve the desired outcome. While in her 20s, she purposely opted to postpone completing college and instead focus on her marriage and motherhood. After raising her three gifted and talented children, she set out at age 42 to finish that college degree and seriously develop her career. Now, some 24 years into very fulfilling work in education and administration, she enjoys strong connection and fulfillment in her work, making the journey all the sweeter. Ali’s story reminds us that each of us can enjoy several careers and it’s never too late to pursue our dreams.
The importance of finding a niche to serve in today’s marketplace cannot be overstated. In fact, entrepreneur and author Dan Schawbel recommends everyone be known for one big thing. In his case, Dan began his career out of college working at EMC, and quickly realized he could be the voice of the Millennial or Gen Y generation. This realization led him to write Me 2.0 and then Promote Yourself, which are international best sellers that clearly speak to an audience hungry for career advice. Recently, Dan founded and directs Workplacetrends.com to provide the Human Resources Community research and advisory membership services. In this conversation with Dan, we’ll cover the gamut of his own career and hear his perspective on current workplace trends, Gen Y, and the importance of self promotion in your career.
What you want out of life can change drastically as the decades of life course by. Many people have a burning desire as college graduates to enter a chosen profession, climb the ladder of success, and enjoy a financially comfortable and respectable career. For many men and women, as they reach their 40s, new or additional longings often accompany this middle age period in life span development. We begin to look for more ways to develop ourselves, realize our potential, and enrich our lives. That’s partly what prompted Annette Anderson to begin taking, and then teaching intensive personal development workshops while having a very successful career as a healthcare executive. Once hooked, that initial taste for personal exploration blossomed into a spiritual calling to help others navigate their sacred path. Today as an ordained teacher, Annette’s ever curious quest for spiritual nurturing and ongoing unfoldment continues along her own path aside those she serves.
Have you ever felt like you couldn’t be your real self at work? Or, do you knowingly hold back or stifle important parts of yourself because you somehow feel pressure or uncertainty? Many people hunger to bring their true selves to the workplace, but when there are so many pressures to fit a certain mold or follow some kind of prescription to get results, how do you dare to be real? And in a world of work that’s rife with change, where all the old rules don’t apply, what do you do? What does it mean to be a truly authentic leader? These are just some of the questions we’ll address with OnStage Leadership Founder and Director Kimberly Davis. Whether she’s speaking to small business owners, Fortune 500 leaders, or leaders of the future, Kimberly is committed to connecting people to the best of who they are; challenging her audiences to consider what they need to do, on a personal level, to authentically and powerfully bring their best selves to work and life for real results.
Many of us go through life unaware of the unique lens through which we experience and interpret the world. We aren’t cognizant of the ways our perspective, attitudes, and values inform the way we navigate life and even do our work. Yet, we have the power to harness powerful mindfulness, which can greatly enhance our day to day lives. And what’s more, when we are able to access our unconscious, many more things become possible, and previously not understood phenomenon in life begin to make sense or become clear. Hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming are the subject of this episode, as Dr. Michael Harris discusses his work to help transform lives and even cure medical ailments. Not many people can say they’ve helped Olympic athletes, professional and amateur golfers, CEOs, housewives, children, and returning Veterans. Well, Michael Harris has - he’s helped them get focused, win medals, and enjoy their jobs and their families.
What if your job is making you sick? How can you transition out of a career you spent countless hours and dollars to attain? Once upon a time, an attorney had a successful and rising career, winning juicy settlements for the City of New York. Tragically, litigating created a level of toxicity for Nicole Payseur that ultimately catapulted her out of the combative courtroom and into the yoga studio. Her journey is a road less traveled, beginning with a start in yoga 25 years ago when she practiced it for vanity. Then, when the going got really tough at work, she did yoga for her sanity. For the past eight years, she has been teaching yoga for humanity. She now helps balance students' bodies and minds because she experienced the shift herself. Making a career work for the mind and body enables us all to find our place in the world. Your job does not have to pay your bills while robbing your body. Come and listen to a woman who made the switch and now enjoys radiant health.
After purposely choosing a career in the Human Resource field immediately out of college, Mark Mitford spent the last 20 years gaining a global perspective and expertise on how organizations handle their most valuable asset, their people. With an analytical mind and servant heart, he sought to be the trusted advisor to his leadership peers over the years and thoroughly enjoyed knowing he made a difference. Now, armed with those cumulative years of service, Mark knows he has much to offer small to medium sized companies who desperately need an informed perspective on how to hire, develop, engage and lead their workforce. At the same time, his tenure in the field makes him a bountiful source of advice for job seekers looking to land their next position. Join the dialogue and learn how Mark navigated his own career and what he can teach you about managing your own.
Most adults these days have had at least a couple careers over the course of their working lives. And many people go on to try as many as seven or more different careers over their 50 year work lifespan. Wade Cottingham has really only had two but has absolutely made the best of both so far! After a long stint as a computer programmer, he opted to find a way to work in the actual field in which he was schooled, which was Music, and so began giving piano lessons. Several years into this new career, he discovered something pretty magical: how to completely enjoy every private lesson 100 percent of the time and never complain, no matter what the external variables are. That epiphany and concept coincided with renaming his studio Lakewood Piano Lab, and it has led to a meaningful connection to his work that is simply and elegantly directed from a change in his perspective that continues to endure.
What did you want to be when you were a kid? Did you dream of being an astronaut or a police officer? Where did you get the idea and why did you want to pursue this kind of a career, and did you actually do it? A lot of us have a career dream when we’re a kid, and some of us actually see it through to fruition. Many of us change course several times during high school or college, or are derailed into different work in our early work years changing course as new vista open to us. Our fledgling ideas are early yearnings and guideposts as to what we aspire to be and do in our adulthood, and we often measure our life’s worth according to the extent to which we’ve achieved those childhood aims. Join the dialogue as two middle school girls describe their current career interests, where those aspirations came from, and what they anticipate their chosen paths will yield in their day to day lives.
What would your world look like if you managed to find work and develop a career that allowed you to authentically express your personality, draw on your best talents, and feel like you’re making a real difference to the community you live in? How would it affect your attitude about work and the effort you put into it? What kind of impact would doing this kind of work have on your personal life and how you see yourself? And how do you even find a job like that? We’ll learn the answers to these questions and many more in the conversation with Derek Smith, Vice President of Operations at the Metropolitan Fort Worth YMCA in Texas. He’ll share his early experiences with the YMCA, how he’s built a meaningful career within this well known international non profit organization, and why he feels his work matters.
Considering most people will spend a minimum of 40 years in their lives working, chances are if you have not already, you will soon find yourself at a crossroads in your career or personal life. Perhaps you’re beginning to feel the work you’ve been doing for several years no is no longer fulfilling. Or maybe you’re caring for young children, aging parents, and just need more flexibility to juggle everything. Or, just maybe you are ready for a completely different line of work that allows you greater challenge, personal growth, or self expression. According to Ms. Elliott Yeary, each day is a new beginning. You can start fresh, anticipating what today will bring. Or you can just settle for yesterday's doubts and fears. Which road will you take? Do you take the path to your new found future or stay in the shadows of the past? Join the dialogue as Ms. Sherri Elliott Yeary shares her expertise on personal and career crossroads, including her own journey through a few of her own.
Having spent 25 years as a child and adolescent psychotherapist focused on disadvantaged youth and the special needs population, Dr. Patricia Ruiz sees a completely new target for her clinical services: department stores and franchise businesses. Armed with a lifetime of personal experience raising her daughter with cerebral palsy and encountering the spectrum of welcoming to dismissive customer service interactions, Patricia has some unique and valuable business advice to offer companies who just may be interested in the buying power of the extremely brand-loyal disability minority population. Today, we find her at that daunting precipice, aching to see her business dream become a reality in order to improve the lives of those she has served for a quarter century by teaching business better customer service. Join us to hear why Patricia believes in the viability of her new venture and her initial plans to kick it off and transition entirely from psychotherapy.
It seems simple enough, doesn’t it? You’ve known forever that you were born an artist. Over a lifetime, you work in the jewelry business, paint paintings, and create greeting cards. Producing beautiful paintings was nice and people appreciated them, yet that work didn’t seem to register as having the impact on the community in the way you would like. Exactly how do you elevate yourself to living your purpose with those artistic innate talents and make the difference to which you so aspire? Join the conversation to hear how Marty Ruiz did just that, managing to turn his volunteer hobby to sing into a paid, fulfilling vocation that allows him comfortable work-life integration.
What we do to earn a living can have a profound influence on the meaningfulness of our overall lives. Our careers can be a terrific source of joy, or can manifest tremendous disappointment or angst in us. And sometimes, we just need some kind of change but don’t know exactly what it is. What to do, then, when your career has developed over several years, you’ve gained some valuable skills, and you think you might just be ready to make the leap to self-employment? Join the conversation as Chef Tara Anderson of Tara’s Table, who launched two product lines, Half Pint Palates in 2013 and will be launching Mother Meatball in 2015, shares her journey from a successful corporate executive chef to starting her own company. You’ll learn why she felt compelled toward entrepreneurship, how she made the tough decision to leave a great job, the early steps she took to launch the business, and how her life has since changed throughout her odyssey.