The Bizgnus Podcast: Recent Episodes
Douglas Caldwell
• A veteran coach offers tips and what to avoid
• Can you actually love your business – and your life?
Consultants and coaches run into a lot of stuff over a career, much of it never to be spoken of. In a career that has taken her across Canada and the United States, Laura Watson, founder of Venture Coaching International, may well have heard it all.
She joins us for this Bizgnus Interviews episode to talk about how a typical organization can get the most out of a coach.
Venture Coaching has provided life and business coaching to entrepreneurs and executives since 2003. “We exist so you can love your life and business,” Ms Watson writes. “There is no ‘cookie-cutter ‘coaching.”
For more information: https://venturecoaching.ca
• AI might help – up to a point
• “There will not be a replacement for a human being”
(Total Recorded Time is 20:12)
ENGLEWOOD, N.J. – The foundation of any business is the customer. But customer relations – that interaction between a business and those who give it money – can be challenging.
So can artificial intelligence help?
One of the world’s authorities on customer experience and strategy execution says perhaps.
“I think that AI will do some mundane work that we probably don’t care to do anyway,” says Lior Arussy, author, consultant and creative change agent.
“but I am a firm believer that when it comes to authenticity and human touch, there will not be a replacement for a human being.”
Mr. Arussy’s insights and methods have been put into practice in more than 200 corporate transformations worldwide. He is also the author of seven books, including “Dare to Author!” (Greenleaf Book Group, October 2024) and “Next Is Now,” (Simon & Schuster; May 2018).
For more information: https://www.liorarussy.com/
• Does religion have any business in business?
• “It really comes down to ethics”
(Total Recorded Time is 15:00)
Artificial intelligence, also called AI, “lacks consciousness, self-awareness, emotions, and subjective experiences, which are fundamental aspects of religious belief. AI cannot genuinely ‘believe’ or ‘practice’ religion in the way humans do,” says ChatGPT when asked to write about AI and religion.
But what does a human religious scholar and entrepreneur think?
“It really comes down to ethics,” says Philip Blackett, an author, consultant and entrepreneur who previously has worked with FedEx, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Chick-Fil-A.
“AI is a technology that isn’t inherently good of bad. It just depends on the person who uses it,” says Mr. Blackett, who got his Masters of Divinity degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Philip Blackett is our guest in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.
He is the author of six books, the newest of which is “Disagree without Disrespect.”
For more information: www.philipblackett.com
Johns Island, S.C. -- Steve Selengut carries some secrets that he’s eager to share.
Mr. Selengut manages investment portfolios and has written a book to help investors in their efforts for a financially firm retirement.
He says he’s developed a methodology for producing spendable income far in excess of the 4 percent generally needed by retirees.
Steve Selengut is our guest in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.
He says his book, “Retirement Money Secrets,” (RIC LLC, August 2023) explains the six basic principles and understandings needed to safely steer investment portfolios into and through retirement without dipping into principal.
For more information: https://theincomecoach.net/
• The greatest astronomer you’ve probably never heard of
• “Milton was a very humble guy”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:49)
You’d be stretching the definition when you called him a high school dropout. That’s because Milton Humason quit high school after just two days.
This teenage mule skinner guided mules up steep, rocky trails to the summit of Mount Wilson, east of Los Angeles, where what would then be the world’s most powerful telescope was being installed.
He was 30 years old and the best job he could find as a high school dropout was as a janitor at the observatory. But over the next decade he skyrocketed to becoming the world’s foremost observer and photographer of distant galaxies.
By the time he was 40, he had co-discovered the Big Bang Theory with Edwin Hubble, after whom the Hubble Space Telescope is named.
Did you catch the name? Biographer Ron Voller joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews to correct that.
One of Einstein’s theories stated that the universe was static. Messrs. Hubble and Humason, using the telescope, proved that the universe is not static but expanding, thus disproving Einstein’s theory.
“Milton was a very humble guy,” Mr. Voller says. “He believed that Edwin Hubble should get the credit for the work, for the discovery. He believed in the discovery more tham Hubble did.”
Mr. Voller’s latest book, “Hubble, Humason and the Big Bang: The Race to Uncover the Expanding Universe,” (Springer Praxis Books) tells Milton Humason’s amazing story,
He is also the author of “The Muleskinner and the Stars” (Springer 2015). Mr. Voller is working on his third book, “Bang! Goes the Universe” on cosmic origins and our understanding of them.
For more information: ronvoller.com.
• Bakersfield teacher taps 10 of the greatest for their wisdom
• “I think we kind of fetishize to this ethic of victimhood”
(Total Recorded Time is 15:00)
As the nation grapples with what some say is the most divisive politics since the Civil War, a civics teacher in Bakersfield may have an answer.
Jeremy Adams has tapped the wisdom of ten of the nation’s past leaders to offer ideas on how to heal today’s divide, especially with young people.
In this episode of Bizgnus Interviews, Jeremy Adams explains what he’s found.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/GUf4nORwwOQ
“Lessons in Liberty,” (Broadside Books; May 2024) highlights ten great Americans who came before us, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who have overcome differences by virtue and good character.
“We are largely byproducts of the voices we hear,” Mr. Adams says. “And a lot of those views are not positive, they’re not empowering … they’re very cynical, they’re very negative.
“I think we kind of fetishize to this ethic of victimhood in a way that’s not healthy for using our liberty in a meaningful way.”
Mr. Adams teaches at Bakersfield High School, in California’s Central Valley. “Lessons in Liberty” is his fifth book.
For more information: https://jeremysadamsauthor.com
• Why you need to vet people and information before you act
• Surrounded by armies of crooks, here'what can the average person do
(Total Recorded Time is 18:12)
Welcome to 2024 and the seemingly everywhere fake-it-till-you-make-it founders, win-at-all-cost politicians, and plain old-fashioned hucksters.
Surrounded by armies of crooks, what can the average person do?
Cynthia Hetherington has some ideas. The cyber security expert joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews….
Ms. Hetherington says today’s problems mean you should thoroughly vet would-be employees and ideas.
She provides specialized training for investigative professionals through the OSINT Academy, and has authored several books on conducting cyber investigations, including her latest, “OSINT: The Authoritative Guide to Due Diligence: Essential Resources for Critical Business Intelligence, 3rd Edition” (Hetherington Group (June 2024).
For more information: http://www.hetheringtongroup.com
• Adam Wallace says customers seek value, not just low prices
• Pricing strategies that will boost the bottom line
(Total Recorded Time is 18 minutes)
Your customers are value-hunters, not just bargain-hunters. Many will pay a premium for your products or services if… if they save time, solve problems, make them feel good, and more. The key is finding the value that makes your offering irresistible.
Pricing strategist Adam Wallace says for smarter pricing – to make sure you’re not leaving money on the table – find out what your customers value and will happily pay more for
Adam Wallace joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews with ideas that could help you gain and retain customers.
Adam Wallace is the author of the new book, (Re)Value: Raise Your Prices and Build Your Legacy,” Business Expert Press; July 2024. In the book, he says he distills his years as a Fortune 100 fixer into pricing strategies that will boost the bottom line.
Mr. Wallaceserves as an interim executive and board member for private companies.
For more information: www.AdamWallace.com
• Learning to match your behavior to your beliefs
• Plus an explanation of what’s not quite right with bacon ice creram
Douglas Squirrel has been coding for forty years and knows more than something about artificial intelligence and business. A lot more.
But he is also concerned with something far more basic than fiddling with ChatGPT and its rivals. Mr. Squirrel says a successful digital transformation for any organization must start with a conversational transformation.
Douglas Squirrel joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews to explain.
His experience includes growing software teams as a CTO in startups from fintech to biotech to music and coaching leaders in improving their conversations, aligning to business goals, and creating productive conflict.
He lives in Frogholt, England, in what he describes as a timber-framed cottage thought to have been built in the year 1450. He is the author of “Squirrel’s Tech Radar,” “Decoding Tech Talk,” and “Agile Conversations: Transform Your Conversations, Transform Your Culture,” co-authored with Jeffrey Fredrick.
For more information: www.douglassquirrel.com
• Mental strength is the attribute that most directly correlates with exceptional achievement
• Today’s leaders, whether in business or elsewhere, need classic mental toughness
SAN DIEGO -- Fortitude. Confidence. Boldness. Decision-making. Sounds like a situation-wanted ad from Braveheart.
But no, this is not that of a Scottish rebel of 700 years ago. It is part of the mix that
Scott Mautz says is needed in today’s leaders, whether in business or elsewhere.
Mr. Mautz speaks from personal experience. He is a former Procter & Gamble executive who ran four of the company’s largest multi-billion dollar businesses and is also author of three best-selling books, “Leading from the Middle,” “Find the Fire,” and “Make It Matter.”
He joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews with tips and examples that can help make you a stronger leader.
Professionally, and personally, mental strength is the attribute that most directly correlates with exceptional achievement, even in the face of considerable challenges, Mr. Mautz says.
For more information: https://scottmautz.com/
• Jeff Sigel calls for better work environments and more fulfilling careers for middle managers
• Take 20 minutes for ideas on bolstering your middle managers
Middle managers have it tough. They are caught between, well, just about everything. Middle managers are directing work and they are performing work—and the dual nature of these roles can be challenging.
Jeff Sigel says he has answers tested in companies of all sizes that create better work environments and more fulfilling careers for middle managers.
He shares some of those ideas in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.
“Mddle managers often find their job so difficult because they don't really understand their role is actually three different roles at the same time,” Mr. Sigel says. “Most people find the job so hard because they never get explained that leading other people is actually a real part of the job.”
Mr. Sigel is principal onsultant for Proprioceptive LLC, a consultancy focused on turning strategy into action by developing middle management excellence.
He is author of the new book, “The Middle Matters: A
Toolkit for Middle Managers.”
For more information: https://jeffsigel.com/
• Gene Jones has 1,500 thoughts in his recipe book
• The game show host and fire-eater seeks the wisdom of the ages
Gene Jones is a collector of sorts. Not of balls of string. Nor coins or stamps. Mr. Jones collects wisdom.
His latest endeavor is a new book, “Consolidated Wisdom: The Ultimate Book of Quotations For Success, Happiness, and Health,” (Dreamquest Publishing, May 2024).
He joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews to share some of the more than 1,500 bits of wisdom that he put into his new book.
In addition to 35 years as a game show host, Mr. Jones is also a creativity coach and producer who, according to him, began his career “as a professional juggler, magician, and fire-eater”
For more information: www.genejoneswisdom.com
• In 10 minutes, Tom Griffiths offers a
lifetime of advice
• “I help small business owners have a
growing and more profitable business”
Where did all the money go? Any business owner
wondering that might also wonder if they had ever made
any money.
Business management consultant Tom Griffiths says he’s
heard those questions too many times, often from
business owners totally emeshed int the weeds of running the business.
“I help small business owners have a growing and more
profitable business so they can achieve their personal and professional goals.” Mr. Griffiths says. “My goal is simple:
to help my clients go from feeling overwhelmed [and]
stressed about the finances.”
Over the next ten minutes, Mr. Griffiths offs advice and
tips that cen help even them most be-weeded small
business owner get closer to running their business like a
CEO, with the numbers driving sound decision making.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz3j4o8xg8k
For more information:
www.synergycfosolutions.co
As you assemble your team, your money and your resolve to start a new business, keep in mind the need to give back.
Our guest in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews, Jeff Maine founder of Bluffton, South Carolina-based Pay Proudly, says he had a twofold mission: to provide business owners with payment clarity and to support communities through charity.
How’s that working out? Let’s find out.
Mr. Maine says his company directs a portion of credit card processing fees collected to nonprofits and charities on behalf of his merchants.
For more information: https://www.payproudly.com/
• Matthew Fornaro offers advice to those striking ot on their own
Thinking of starting your own small business? Better get out the legal maps, that is, the legal advice you’ll need to avoid problems down the road.
Matthew Fornaro is a business attorney whose Florida practice is aimed at helping smaller businesses.
In this episode of Bizgnus Interviews, Mr. Fornaro offers advice from his more than 20 years of running a small business that serves small business.
Before starting his law firm, he was an attorney at two large law firms focusing on civil litigation. He is a member of the Florida Bar and the District of Columbia Bar.
For more information: https://fornarolegal.com/
• Julia Carlson says to grow real wealth, you have to transform your relationship with money
• True financial success goes beyond numbers
The cat is doubtful, but your dog probably loves you. Another thing that loves you is money.
So says financial advisor and author Julia M. Carlson, who has just published "Money Loves You," (Joan of Arc Publishing, March 2024).
Ms. Carlson is founder of Financial Freedom Wealth Management Group, which she says promotes a “holistic wealth management philosophy.”
Ms. Carlson says true financial success goes beyond numbers — it's about aligning financial strategies with individual values, dreams, and life goals.
For more information: juliamcarlson.com
or
financialfreedomwmg.com
• Winning tennis coach offers tips to ramp up your leadership
• “So going from great to superior is that little extra”
“Hit down on the ball!” Countless tennis coaches have made that entreaty to students in countless tennis lessons.
Coaches know it takes more than properly whacking a ball to win a match. And Rusty Komori knows that and a lot more, proven by his boys’ varsity teams winning an unprecedented 22 consecutive state championships, a national record that still stands.
Mr. Komori now coaches executives, is host of a televised series in Hawaii and is author of three books.
In this episode pf Bizgnus Interviews, Mr. Komori offers tips that he uses to help leaders ramp up their success.
“All of us are capable of achieving so much more than we think we’re capable of achieving,” Mr. Komori says. “So going from great to superior is that little extra.”
For more information: www.rustykomori.com
• Cyber security expert offers ideas for businesses
• “Understand that the risk is out there”
TRT is 16:00)
Terrence Ziemniak calls himself a fractional executive, helping a number of small and larger businesses to fend off cyber criminals and the troubles they bring.
His background includes stints leading teams of all sizes involved with information security.
He says that no matter the size of a business, its leaders need to be working daily to protect it from attacks by cyber criminals.
On this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, he offers ideas and suggestions.
“Understand that the risk is out there,” he says. “Understand the big drivers, understand the expectation.”
For mor information: https://www.techcxo.com/
• Expert takes readers from nightmare to sweet dreams
• Why you read between the lines
(TRT: 19:12)
What can we learn about insurance from Goldilocks, Rapunzel, Humpty Dumpty, Old Mother Hubbard, and others? Chantal Roberts knows.
Ms. Roberts, who calls herself an insurance nerd, has written a book putting lessons about insurance into major rewrites of traditional fairy tales.
She says that insurance -- just as in fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and fables -- what appears to be an innocent story often contains a deeper message. Ms. Roberts says that if you want to know what is actually going on with your insurance, you need to examine the small print and read between the lines.
Ms. Roberts has previously written two books. Her newest book is “Once Upon A Claim: Fairy Tales to Protect Your Ass(ets),” (Tilting At Windmills Press; May 2024).
She says the new book provides consumers with a better understanding of property and casualty insurance and claims.
For more information: tiltingatwindmillspress.com
• Then comes the hard part
• “If you publish the book yourself, you do the marketing”
Put words onto a computer’s screen, enough to make a paragraph, then a chapter and perhaps, eventually a book.
Then what?
Michael Bergen of Montreal has done that four times, creating a series of historical novels called “The Rutherford Chronicles.”
In this episode of Bizgnus Interviews, Mr. Bergen talks about becoming an author and suddenly discovering he was once again in charge of a small business.
And like every startup, he is trying to find customers.
“I guess the worst mistake I made was believing that the editors I was using were professional and knew what they were doing,” Mr. Bergen says.
Now the goal is getting people to buy his books.
“The biggest challenge to an independent author like myself is marketing,” he says. “It is finding your readers. The big companies do the marketing [so] if you publish the book yourself, you do the marketing. That’s about ninety percent of the work.”
For more information: https://www.michaelgbergen.com/
• Management of capital means more than money
• “Human capital should be a primary…focus for startups”
(Total Recorded Time is 20:38)
Many new businesses -- even those with mountains of money from venture capitalists or angel investors – fail and fail quickly.
While there’s a long list of typical reasons for failure, Nikki Blacksmith says there’s an often under-appreciated reason: mismanagement of human capital.
“Human resource problems … put the startup at risk for failure,” writes Ms. Blacksmith, chief executive officer of Symeta Behavior Science and co-author of a new book on the subject. “We argue that human capital should be a primary, rather than secondary or tertiary, focus for startups.
“Without the right people all the other components are moot because it is the people who generate ideas, make decisions, and execute all of the business functions.”
Ms. Blacksmith is an adjunct faculty member at American University in Washington, D.C., and has nearly 15 years of experience as a scientist-practitioner, focusing on psychometrics, selection, decision-making, and entrepreneurial performance.
She’s the co-author along with Maureen McCusker of the new book: “Data-Driven Decision Making in Entrepreneurship: Tools for Maximizing Human Capital,” (CRC Press; April 2024).
For more information: https://blackhawke.io
• How much of a disconnect is there between business and ethics?
• “Ethical leadership matters!”
If you were to ask 11 people if they thought they were ethical in their business, 12 of them would say “yes.” But we see on the news every day that’s not true.
Where’s the disconnect and, if there’s a general answer, why?
Richard Swegan may have an answer. Mr. Swegan is the co-author of the new book, “The Practice of Ethical Leadership,” (Routledge, April 2024). He is also founder and principal consultant of Arch Performance of Wexford, Penn.
“With power comes responsibility. That is why ethics matter,” write Mr. Swegan and co-author Florian Engelke in their new book. “Ethical leadership matters!”
For more information: ethicalbottomline.com
• Geonomics entrepreneur outlines the opportunities
• What you can learn from a mongoose
(TRT is 21:10)
If you could just find the key to your Wayback machine, would you zip into the past to be at the start of the microchip industry? Or at Steve Job’s side as he crafted the first Mac? Or something else?
No need to wish to return to yesteryear for a ground floor opportunity, says biotech executive Stan Rose. The next revolution of science is underway now with artificial intelligence being applied to biology.
He says “synthetic biology” is emerging, with “creation of organisms or products derived from those organisms.
Mr. Rose, the founder of a series of successful startups, joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.
Following a kidney transplant, Mr. Rose has continued to contribute to science and medicine. His firm, Rose Ventures, Inc., works with early-stage companies developing life science products and services.
He is the author of the new book, “Can't Tame a Mongoose: Memoir of a Genomics Entrepreneur,” Miles Pond Press (March 20
For more information: www.roseventures.net
• Why some industries seem asleep at the switch
• Using AI to stop problems from developing
(Total Recorded Time is 22:00)
The AI doctor is in. We don’t mean a robot but management consultant Tommy Ogden who has some advice about using artificial intelligence in business.
Mr. Ogden is co-founder of the Houston-based boutique IT advisory firm Activera Consulting where he leads their project excellence and data and AI practices.
Mr. Ogden holds two masters degrees - an MBA from University of Houston and an international business degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
For more information: https://www.activeraconsulting.com
• A leadership strategy that centers around interoception
• “Emotions feel hard for so many”
(Total Recorded Time is 16:17)
Who might make a better leader – one who is emotional or one who suppresses emotions? It’s likely that Kim Korte, a Napa, California-based consultant and author, would say the former.
She has developed a leadership strategy that centers around “interoception,” the body’s sensory system that creates the sensations called as emotions. Ms. Korte says studies have shown "a causal relation between interoception and the rationality of decision making.
Ms. Korte is the author of the new book, “Yucky Yummy Savory Sweet: Understanding the Flavors of Emotions.”
“Emotions feel hard for so many,” she writes. “Without having to journey deep into your past, is there a way to identify and process them?”
For more information: www.kimkorte.com
• Jeremy Shapiro says peers can offer the right mix of advice
• Making the transition from “solopreneur” to “business owner”
SAN JOSE, California -- Jeremy Shapiro says he has spent more than a quarter of a century helping small business owners make the transition from “solopreneur” to “business owner.”
It’s the common problem of working “in” their business instead of “on” their business.
Mr. Shapiro joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews to offer some ideas.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ybVY04vSm8
For more information: https://bayareamastermind.com/
• He says mediocre marketing contributes to the high failure rate of startups
• “They fall into the trap of this sea of sameness”
(Total Recorded Time is 22:48)
SANFORD, Florida -- Daniel Den is an entrepreneur who says he has taught successful marketing to thousands of small business owners over the past two decades.
“What we've found is there is a lot of people when it comes to marketing and sales where they think marketing and sales is taking a look around inside of their market and cherry picking,” Mr. Den says. “Actually, they fall into the trap of this sea of sameness.”
He says mediocre marketing contributes to the high failure rate experienced by eight out of ten startups.
Mr. Den was hoping to become something of an inventor of toys but after finding the needed engineering courses were, to him, a boring way to spend one’s life in college, “I became fascinated with marketing and sales almost two decades ago.”
Mr. Den is the author of the new book, “Ideas That Influence."
For more information: https://www.bigideasbox.com/
• What happened when Liam Naden went to work on his brain
• “I was forced to try a different approach”
(Total Recorded Time is 22:24)
AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Liam Naden was a wild success. And then he wasn’t.
He says he went from being a millionaire by his mid-40s to losing everything and becoming homeless.
That’s when he decided to slice his brain into four parts. Not literal brain surgery, but through study determining that the brain has four major “parts” that when used properly can lead to success in business and life.
Liam Naden explains what he discovered and how he puts it to work in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.
“I uncovered this when, after a lifetime of personal development and spirituality study and application (and success as an entrepreneur) … I was forced to try a different approach,” Mr. Naden says. “This led me to an understanding of how the brain really works - and how it is the key to all of the results we get in our life.”
For more information: https://liamnaden.com/
• Marilyn Jenkins offers advice you can use today
• “Your customers are digital”
(Total Recorded Time is 12:12)
HOUSTON, Texas -- Google. It’s been in business for just a quarter of a century but it has in that time wriggled its way into almost every aspect of daily life, especially business.
Is it now too complex for a small business to tap into?
Marilyn Jenkins, a digital marketing expert, has written a new book that she says is designed to give any local business the tools and instructions to dominate their local Google searches.
She joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.
“In this day and age, your customers are digital. You need to be in front of them when they have a need,” Ms. Jenkins says.
Her company helps local businesses using paid ads and Google Business Profile optimization.
She says her book, "The Google Business Profile Training Guide," teaches businesses how to dominate local search.
For more information: https://maximizeyourgbp.com
• Leadership coach says it just means you’re human
• Where did you put your electric pen?
(Total Recorded Time is 14:50)
You’ve heard of the electric pen, of course. No? It was invented by that guy Thomas Edison. And it was one of his many failures.
The great inventor, who had more than 1,000 patents in his name, also had failures.
Failure is being embraced by Steve McCready, a psychotherapist who has taken that knowledge and experience and become a leadership coach.
He says he prefers to work with leaders of small businesses “around mental performance.”
He joins us with some examples in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.
One of Mr. McCready’s key messages is how to “reframe” failure.
“Just because you’re part of the problem doesn’t mean you can’t succeed, it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you” he says,. “It means you’re human.”
For more information: www.stevemccready.com
• Executive recruiter offers tips for both job seeker and those looking to hire
• From Down Under to the United States
(Total recorded time is 22:00)
BRISBANE, Australia — Richard Triggs has written books for both ends of your bookshelf. His "Uncover the Hidden Job Market - How to find and win your next senior executive role" was a best seller and is now in its second edition.
Mr. Triggs is now writing for the other end of the shelf – a book aimed at managers, "Winning the War for Talent - How to attract and retain top performers."
Richard Triggs is our guest in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.
Mr. Triggs says he and his company, Arete Executive, have placed more than 1,500 senior executives or board members over the past 15 years. Over the last 15 years, Richard and his team have been responsible for recruiting over 1500 senior executives and board directors into roles across his native Australia and now the United States.
He has also coached over 2,500 senior executives and board directors through their job search.
For more information: https://www.areteexecutive.com.au/
• Chris Moe coaches companies toward that goal
• What’s Ozempic got to do with it?
(Total Recorded Time is 22:45)
AUSTIN, Texas -- So you’ve been making your own maple syrup for years and now you think you could sell it on Amazon.
You and ten-thousand other people with an affinity for boiling tree sap.
Enter Chris Moe, chief executive officer of Austin, Texas-based Cartograph, an e-commerce company that helps food brands sell their products on Amazon.
“E-commerce has moved back to the types of products that make sense,” says Mr. Moe, “which tends to be lighter, non-meltable, non-breakable and not too big.”
Chris Moe offers some ideas on Amazon marketing and more – including the new impact of the drug Ozempic -- in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/PoUFaPJW_HI
Before developing Cartograph, Mr. Moe was a consultant with McKinsey & Company and, earlier, with Semper Capital Management L.P.
For more information: www.gocartograph.com
• Memphis firm says progress can be seen quickly
• “I have fallen in love with the process itself”
(Total Recorded Time is 11:46)
She may look young, but Kaylee Johnson says she has been digging into the details of social media since er parents let her get her first social media platform at the age of 13.
Now she is chief executive officer of Memphis-based Digital Journey, a company that provides consulting on the ins and outs of digital marketing and social media.
“By working with many different organizations and their social media platforms, I have fallen in love with the process itself,” she writes.
Kaylee Johnson offers some tips about surviving in the digital age in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
For more information: https://www.digital-journey.net/home
• Colette Phillips says cultural IQ bridges culture gaps
• Discovering what’s often invisible to white leaders
(Total Recorded Time is 18:35)
Businesses and nonprofits are faced daily with how to best meet goals of diversity, equity and inclusion. DEI expert Colette Phillips says cultural IQ bridges culture gaps among the Black, brown, and white experiences that whites often don’t even realize.
And she says improving one’s cultural IQ just takes some homework and an open mind.
Colette Phillips explains in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.
Colette Phillips is president and CEO of Colette Phillips Communications in Boston, Mass., and founder and president of Get Konnected! and The GK Fund. In her business, she advises C-level executives and corporate teams as well as developing public relations branding and communications strategies.
Her new book is “The Includers: The 7 Traits of Culturally Savvy, Anti-Racist Leaders,” (BenBella Books; January 16, 2024.)
For more information: https://www.cpcglobal.com/
• The your list of kung fu icons, add Craig Cooke
• “Showing up every single day and grinding it out”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:00)
(LAGUNA HILLS, Calif.) — Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and many others made careers in television and movies thanks to their skills in kung fu. Craig Cooke is taking the martial art in a different direction: into business leadership.
Mr. Cooke, an entrepreneur who started a “digital first” company on the internet long before “digital first,” “digital transformation,” and other buzzwords of today were created, says leaders should follow the principals of kung fu to be more effective.
He explains it in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
He started his company with two college buddies, each putting in $1,300 to open the doors.
But bootstrapping it wasn’t the only challenge. Another was starting a company in an industry that hardly anyone knew existed.
“It was 1996 and the internet was new and we had started actually a digital-first company … before that was even a term,” he says. “The industry was so new there wasn't a lot of people that really knew what it was so there was a lot of education that we had to do … so it took a while to get traction.”
For anyone hoping to start a new business, Mr. Cooke has some advice. He says one key to success is very simple: “Showing up every single day and grinding it out.”
Mr. Cooke has put his story into a new book, “Business Kung Fu,” (Joint Venture Publishing, Blue Sky, November 2023).
To WATCH the episode, please click here:
https://youtu.be/LkWWBPmjnTs
For more information: www.csquaredpro.io
• Businessman Chris Lautenslager says companies should prioritize purpose as much as profits
• “Allowing all Americans to be justly rewarded for their contributions to their work”
(Total Recorded Time is 14:35)
In this audio-only episode of Bizgnus Interviews, we talk with Chicago businessman Chris Lautenslager.
He stresses that he’s a through and through capitalist but one who sees better ways for the economic system to work for more people.
Mr. Lautenslager says the extraordinary wealthy rarely share the credit or their wealth with the employees, vendors and community that made organizational success a reality.
Mr. Lautenslager, who has a masters degree in finance and economics from Northwestern University, says he feels it’s his mission to help redefine the hierarchical, shareholder-first corporate model and foster companies that prioritize purpose as importantly as profits.
He is the founder of Get Looped, a platform to showcase the value and benefits of a collective prosperity for people, businesses and communities.
Today, he helps businesses and CEOs incorporate prosperity with profitability into their business practices.
And the changes he calls for might be just in time. The Harris Poll in a survey of some17,000 U.S. adults in 2020 found that only a quarter believed that the current form of capitalism ensures the greater good of society.
“It’s not that capitalism doesn’t work or that the drive to create a highly profitable organization can’t be,” he says. “Quite the contrary, it is the revision of capitalism and the creation of a common vision through the guiding principles of Get Looped and supporting partner organizations, that we foster balanced, thriving businesses by allowing all Americans to be justly rewarded for their contributions to their work and their lives.”
He is the author of the book “The Prosperity Loop,” (Redwood Publishing LLC, October 2022.)
For more information: https://get-looped.com/
• Sam Adeyemi has a different approach
• “The moment I went on radio – from the first broadcast – it was ‘boom’”
(Total Recorded Time is 11:59)
As a leadership coach, Sam Adeyemi has a different approach.
“The measure of a leader’s success is in contribution, not acquisition,” Mr. Adeyemi says.
He explains it in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews
Born in Nigeria, Mr. Adeyemi started his adult career as an engineer but found he had little interest in it. Things changed when he had a short, weekly program on a local radio station.
“I underestimated how much people needed to know to live their lives to succeed,” he says. “The moment I went on radio – from the first broadcast – it was ‘boom.’”
His program expanded to a network of African radio stations, with his career “engineered” to help leaders.
Now Atlanta-based, Mr. Adeyemi has switched to internet programs and is author of the new book "Dear Leader: Your Flagship Guide to Successful Leadership."
For more information: SamAdeyemi.com
Psychologist and professor Tom Norris says an answer to the divisiveness that is rupturing society can be as simple – and as difficult – as a “cup of tolerance.”
That’s also the title of his recent book.
He joins us for a cup of tolerance in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
(Poor internet connections required extensive editing of the content.)
Mr. Norris has taught in the Religious Studies Department at Florida International University since 2005. He also taught psychology courses at St. Thomas University and Miami International University. With more than 50 years of counseling experience, he is the head of a spiritual and pastoral counseling agency.
www.tnorris1111@gmail.com
• The “franchise maven” has some advice
• “You want them to take you through the process”
(Total Recorded Time is 23:33)
(LICKING, MISSOURI) -- Thinking about getting into business through a franchise? There are literally thousands to choose from, ranging from giants like a McDonalds tothose folks who scoop up dog doo-doo. Yes, that’s a franchise.
The guy who know it is Gregory Mohr, a serial entrepreneur and for the past ten years an advisor to people thinking about buying a franchse.
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Greg Mohr talks about the plusses and the minuses of becoming a franchisee.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/w-7hR5h_Ko0
But before writing that check to get a franchise, wait, Mr. Mogr says. You need to make sure the business is a good fit for you and your experience.
“You want them to take you through the process,” Mr. Mohr says, “so they’re making certain you’ve got what it takes to be successful.”
In his career, he has managed restaurants, been a micro-electric circuit engineer, owned and operated dry cleaners, storage units, rental properties, and franchises.
Mr. Mohr is the author of “Real Freedom, Why Franchises Are Worth Considering and How They Can Be Used For Building Wealth.”
• A childhood of anger and blame blossoms into love and harmony
• “Highly effective leaders that lead with love will retain their personnel”
(Total Recorded Time is 26:24)
(St. GEORGE, UTAH) -- Paul Zolman says he has a new way to use what he calls “the love languages” to improve customer service and create a more effective sales team.
Love? Sales? Really?
Mr. Zolman explains his ideas in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/LkA2-_6SW48
“Highly effective leaders that lead with love will retain their personnel,” he says.
Mr. Zolman says his system has roots in an unhappy childhood where anger and blame were common threads to daily life.
But that has changed for him.
“I’m not stacking annoyances any more,” Mr. Zolman says. “What’s happening is I’m stacking kindness on top of kindness, on top of kindness, on top of kindness to get to the higher levels of love.”
For more information: www.roleoflove.com
• Tips on getting from operator to owner
• “Basically, I was an employee who owned 100 percent of the business”
(Total Recorded Time is 25:10)
(SCOTTSDALE, Arizona) -- It’s great to start a business but many entrepreneurs then find that they are stuck in that business, running it with little or no time to plan its future or even to take a real vacation without checking emails and calling the office just to see how things are going.
Robert Poole has heard this story countless times as he advises business owners how to extricate themselves from the machinery to become the leaders their businesses need.
“I have been an entrepreneur and owned a B2B marketing company specializing in cold calling for 22+ years,” Mr. Poole says. “We scaled from zero and no funding to millions of dollars in revenue over this time.”
But then his partner and co-founder died, throwing Mr. Poole into the business as an operator,
“Basically, I was an employee who owned 100 percent of the business,” he says.
Because of this experience, Mr. Poole says he started focusing on how to change the company so he was no longer a critical cog in the wheel and wasn’t necessary for the business to function on a daily basis.
Since then, Mr. Poole says he’s been focusing on how to help other small business entrepreneurs make the same transition from operator to owner so they can enjoy the freedom and get the time back that they most likely got into business in the first place.
For more information: https://www.totalbusinessresults.com/
• Author suggests ways the divide between the U.S. and Iran can be bridged
• “One of my great-grandfathers had 25 wives and concubines”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:54)
Can technology bridge the divides between the United States and Iran?
In this episode of Bizgnus Interviews, we hear from Afarin Bellisario, an American who grew up in Iran and got her doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She says her unique background places her squarely at the intersection of technology and society.
Her latest project is a novel, “The Silent Whispers,” that she says tells the story of an Iranian woman's battle for freedom in the early 20thCentrury amid profound societal changes and her forbidden love for a Russian reformer.
Ms. Bellisario says it sheds light on issues such as East-West relations and the over a hundred years of Iranian women’s struggle for independence.
“One of my great-grandfathers had 25 wives and concubines,” she write. “I have a PhD from MIT.”
For more information: https://www.afarin.net/
• This executive coach says it’s time to change
• “Shockingly, we took some approaches to leader development … right out of OSHA training”
(Total Record Time is 22:42)
(LAGUNA HILLS, Calif.) -- Stop wasting your money on traditional executive coaching. That radical thought is expressed by a veteran executive coach, Lori Mazan, who has coached some of the nation’s top business leaders over the last 25+ years.
Traditional coaching works perhaps 10 percent of the time, researchers say.
“[T]he skills and capabilities developed don’t get applied on the job. This challenges the very foundation of executive education, but it is not surprising,” write Mihnea Moldoveanu, a professor at the University of Toronto, and Harvard Business School Professor Das Narayandas in a recent edition of the Harvard Business Review.
Ms. Mazan agrees. “Shockingly, we took some approaches to leader development in the past that came right out of OSHA training,” she says. “That’s been shown … to only have about a 10 percent return.”
She says another big change over the years has been time.
“One of the big changes has been the length of time you have to develop leaders,” says Ms. Mazan. “In the last century, people stayed at their organizations a long time. Now, even leaders stay at their organizations less than five years.”
Lori Mazan explains what’s wrong with traditional executive coaching and talks about how it should be in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews.
Lori Mazan is co-founder, president, and chief coaching officer of Sounding Board, Inc., which she says offers “a tech-driven, human-centric approach” to leadership development.
Ms. Mazan packages her strategies in her new book, Leadership Revolution: The Future of Developing Dynamic Leaders (Wiley; October 2023).
For more information: SoundingBoardInc.com
• Ben Owen says it could be your inner saboteur
• “In doing the work that was required to see it in myself, I started seeing it in my clients”
(Total Recorded Time is 15:59)
(Dubai, UAE) -- Benjamin Owen says many people are letting an inner enemy hold them back from full success in life and business.
A professional high-performance coach with over 15 years of experience in long-term results-based coaching, Mr. Owen says success begins when one realizes this and then takes steps to surmount it.
“I've overcome divorce, a business breakdown, and my own inner saboteur,” he says “I didn’t realize until I was in my 30s how much I’d let my inner enemy ruin my life.”
He says he was hardly unique. He has used that realization in his career as a coach to high performance people. “In doing the work that was required to see it in myself, I started seeing it in my clients,” Mr. Owen says.
Ben Owen joins us in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews to talk about inner obstacles to success.
Mr. Owen is one of the founders of the “Awakened Man Project,” which he describes as “about men awakening to their potential.”
For more information: https://www.awakenedman.org/amp-mastermind
• Professor finds the source
• “The problem with the court is that it has become too political”
(Total Recorded Time is 26:19)
(Chandler, Arizona) -- Americans’ approval of the U.S. Supreme Court and their trust in it are near their lowest points ever, according to a September survey by the polling firm Gallup.
It says the public is divided over whether the court’s ideology is about right or too conservative.
Going forward, says Gallup, concerns about Supreme Court justices’ acceptance of gifts and lavish trips, particularly among two conservative justices, may further sap the public’s approval of and trust in the nation’s highest court.
Joseph Russomanno doesn’t mince words. He says it’s a stench.
The Arizona State University professor, who specializes in studying the First Amendment, says the Court has transformed itself from a revered institution into nothing more than just another political institution, which is a primary reason the Court’s public popularity has plummeted.
In his book, "The 'Stench' of Politics: Polarization and Worldview on the Supreme Court," (Lexington Books, (November 2022), Mr. Russomanno explains how the Supreme Court has been transformed.
Mr. Russomanno says the high court could be moved back to a more nonpartisan middle ground. “One is term limits,”he says.
If the jurists had “an end point to each of their times on the court, that would be helpful.”
He also says the court ought to be expanded to perhaps 13 members instead of nine. He says just nine would hear a case, similar to the way lower federal courts work.
“The problem with the court is that it has become too political,” Mr. Russomanno says.
In addition to teaching thousands of ASU students Mr. Russomanno, who received his doctorate in 1993 from the University of Colorado, has written nearly two dozen refereed journal articles, five books, nearly two dozen conference papers and nearly 40 published reviews and commentaries.
For more information: https://tinyurl.com/JRussomanno
• Brian Childrerss taps AI for full solutions to each fraction
• “I see it as a multiplier for the work we are doing”
(Total Recorded Time is 17:30)
Brian Childress loves fractions, perhaps because he is one.
Mr. Childress is a “fractional” chief technology officer.
He joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews to tell us what that really means and why he makes more money with his side hustle than a regular job.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/cXddWro_Qu0
While Mr. Childress is usually brought on board to solve old problems, he is an optimist when it comes to a future working with artificial intelligence.
“For me, AI is a really powerful tool,” he says. “I see it as a multiplier for the work we are doing.”
He says he is routinely using various types of artificial intelligence to help solve his clients’ problems.
“We’re going to see it take hold in the enterprise, in businesses … in three to five years,” Mr. Childress says, adding that AI has already started helping companies manage and leverage the mountains of data that they have.
For more information: https://brianchildress.co/
• Adrienne Simmons explains how to find new energy as you age
• “I started to become more aware of people all around me suffering from … chronic fatigue and or brain fog”
(Total Recorded Time is 22:54)
It happens to a lot of people. After about age 50, one’s energy level seems to drop, pounds are easier to add and the work-work-work and play-play-play days seem unattainable.
That happened to Adrienne Simmons. But instead of trying to bring that lifestyle back or just slowing down, she turned the changes into a business.
In this episode of Bizgnus Interviews, Adrienne Simmons explains what she did.
After she turned 50, Ms. Simmons noticed changes in how she felt.
“I was living the same lifestyle that I'd lived in my 30s and 40s,” she says. “Worked full time, socialized after work, partied into the wee hours of the morning and with that came lots of take out, alcohol and party favors.”
Recalling that her father had died at a comparatively young age, she set about changing her lifestyle.
Shortly after that, she says she started to notice two things. “People started complimenting me on how energetic I was and … I started to become more aware of people all around me suffering from various levels of chronic fatigue and or brain fog,” she says.
That resulted in starting her lifestyle coaching business.
For more information: http://www.energyforlife.energy
• The key is to also empower
• “The 9th stratum is the operating level of high performers”
(Total Recorded Time is 20:01)
It’s customary for managers to delegate tasks to their staffs. But that often backfires, with managers having to get into the nitty-gritty to save the task and wondering why they bothered to delegate in the first place.
Sales management expert Aaron Salko says stopping at delegating is wrong. What’s needed, he says, is to empower those to whom you delegate.
“Leaders of organizations have the right mindset but they don’t necessarily always know how to acknowledge and perpetuate the performance,” he says.
Mr. Salko joins us in this episode of Bizgnus Interviews to outline a better path to success.
Mr. Salko, founder and creator of The 9th Stratum, is a sales management professional with the privately held retail and industrial packaging firm Stephen Gould Company.
“The 9th stratum is the operating level of high performers,” Mr. Salko says, explaining his study of the top performers in a spectrum of professions. “It’s their ability to master the skills necessary that are critical to their career.”
He says effective leaders understand that delegating a task is also an opportunity to empower team members toward their own growth, which builds a stronger, more successful team, and greater team loyalty.
His new book is “The 9th Stratum: Your Guide to High Performance,” (9th Stratum Publishing LLC, September 2023).
For more information: stratum-nine.com
• Expert calls for creation of soulful work cultures
• “There is a dramatic difference between people who are love-driven and people who are duty-driven”
(Total Recorded Time is 26:05)
The percentage of employees who are engaged with their work recently hit an all-time high: 23 percent. The others – nearly eight out of ten – do the bare minimum to keep their jobs – or less.
“Employees who are not engaged or who are actively disengaged cost the world $8.8 trillion in lost productivity,” says Gallup, the company that compiles the numbers, in its 2023 “State of the Global Workplace Report.
Jo-Ann Triner, president of Soulful Work LLC of Worthington, Ohio, hoes to do something about it.
“The disintegration of our culture is actually going on,” she says. “We were headed to this place from the first industrial revolution.”
Ms. Triner says from the earliest factories, workers were told to essentially check their souls at the door. “This is pure business. Anything love-related, anything personal had to be out of the equation.”
She says the economy of the early 21st Century has certainly changed from the first industrial revolution – and not necessarily for the better. “We have fewer people rising up,” she says. “So we stay in this stagnant place.”
In this episode of Bizgnus Interviews, Jo-Ann Triner what is wrong with the economy and what can be done to improve it.
Jo-Ann Triner says her new book, "Soulful Work 2.0: Powered by Inner-Person Potential," (SacraSage Press, July 2023) was inspired by her fascination with callings as vehicles for expressing infinite love within communities.
“There is a dramatic difference between people who are love-driven and people who are duty-driven,” Ms. Triner says.
Ms Triner holds a Ph.D. in educational administration with thirty years of service in high-level leadership roles. Now in her second career, she is founder and president of Soulful Work LLC, set up for the advancement of principled leadership and the creation of soulful work cultures.
For more information: soulfulwork.net (under development as of 10/09/23)
• Your managers are spending on-the-job time looking for a new job
• “More people need to give a damn at work”
(Total Recorded Time is 19:58)
In a recent report, Gallup says managers are more likely than non-managers to be:
• Disengaged at work
• Burned out
• Looking for a new job
• Feeling like their organization does not care about their wellbeing.
Now there’s a short list of changes that could make a big difference for managers and those they’re supposed to lead.
Everyone likes short to-do lists. And Charlie Gilkey has come up with one that’s short in words but could be huge when it comes how organizations work.
“One of my chief goals … is for us to remember the humanity of the people we work with and to increase our skills of empathy,” he says. “More people need to give a damn at work.”
Charlie Gilkey is a business author, speaker, coach, and entrepreneur specializing in leadership, teamwork, and productivity. His new book is Team Habits: How Small Actions Lead to Extraordinary Results(Hachette Go, August 2023).
Mr. Gilkey says most people quit or stay at their jobs because of the same four to eight people they interact with daily – their “work team.” Improving how the team works together, whether it’s in-person or remote, betters team members’ work life, he says.
He offers these seven tips:
• Agree as one team that it’s a good thing to ask for help
• Be intentional in how you include people, particularly introverts who prefer to contribute more quietly and deliberately
• Bring up innocent mistakes in real time -- not weeks later -- and with grace
• Remove decision-making bottlenecks by knowing when you do—and don’t—need management’s involvement
• Keep a team decision-making log with a program like Notion or Confluence
• Prevent overstuffed meetings by limiting sessions to single-topic categories, such as planning, brainstorming, updating, or celebrating
• Eliminate “crutch” meetings -- the inappropriate ones used to deal with matters that have no place in a team meeting
For more information: http://www.productiveflourishing.com and https://betterteamhabits.substack.com/
• In buying coaching for your team, don’t overlook the mid-levels
• “I'm trying to shift focus to the benefits of coaching”
(Total Recorded Time is 22:59)
A retired U.S. Navy commander and former university professor, Walt Morgan knows about management training. But too often, he says, companies buy professional coaching for so-called senior leadership, overlooking middle level positions.
“I'm trying to shift focus to the benefits of coaching for small business owners and middle level managers,” Mr. Morgan says.
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Walt Morgan explains why not training mid-level managers is costing organizations.
At the University of Colorado, Mr. Morgan has honed his message with its Leadership Minor since its inception, working as an advisor on its founding committee beginning in 2014. A developmental coach and leadership consultant, he is also the founder of Translational Lift Coaching.
“But more than anything, I am a curious partner in exploration, growth and development for those who are intentional about their journey,” he says.
For more information: https://tliftcoaching.com/
• Something was missing in Lynita Mitchell-Blackwell’s life
• “People want more out of life than to just be happy”
(Total Recorded Time is 19:46)
Lynita Mitchell-Blackwell had accomplished a lot: She was an attorney, an author, an entrepreneur. Most people would be happy with that success. But she says she realized that the accolades and achievements did not create lasting happiness.
There had to be something more.
“The ‘Great Resignation’ has made it clear that people want more out of life than to just be happy,” she says. “They want to be fulfilled and have peace and joy. Joy comes from within.”
Lynita Mitchell-Blackwell joins us on Bizgnus Interviews to rerveal how she has finally found joy along with material success.
For more information: https://www.lynitamitchellblackwell.com/bio
• The secret to a thriving team and culture lies in one skill
• “Ask more questions. That’s a leadership behavior”
(Total Recorded Time is 23:13)
Think your staff is really into their jobs, ready to help push the organization to new heights? Think again.
Nearly 1 in 5 workers say their workplaces are unbearably toxic, according to the American Psychological Association’s just-released 2023 Work in America Survey. Adding to that bleak picture, a recent Deloitte study finds that when it comes to employees’ well-being, leaders are entirely out of touch.
What an opportunity for improvement, say two of the nation’s top experts in how people communicate with each other.
There’s no reason leaders can’t create positive, meaningful experiences for their teams, say Julien Mirivel and Alexander Lyon, authors of the new book Positive Communication for Leaders: Proven Strategies for Inspiring Unity and Effecting Change (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; July 7, 2023).
The secret to a thriving team and culture, they say, lies in one skill: how you communicate positively.
“We do see these positive communications behaviors making a difference in the lives of professionals,” says Mr. Lyon. “Ask more questions. That’s a leadership behavior … much more so than telling people what to do.”
“One of the powerful ways of engaging with people is to find a way to disclose in a way that’s not going to hurt the other person,” adds Mr. Mirivel.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus Interview: https://youtu.be/T9s03HW4Azo
Please click here to listen to the interview or to download the audio file:
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bizgnus/episodes/The-overlooked-skill-that-can-quickly-level-up-your-game-e28op64
About our guests:
Mr. Mirivel, who holds the title of Distinguished Teaching Fellow at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and Mr. Lyon, a professor of communication at SUNY Brockport, are known for their research into optimum communication skills.
Originally from Paris, France, Mr. Mirivel, who earned his PhD in Communication in from the University of Colorado at Boulder, is among the founding scholars in the emerging field of positive communication. He’s author of The Art of Positive Communication and How Communication Scholars Think and Act, and has delivered hundreds of keynotes, trainings, and workshops on effective communication. He is a TEDx speaker and founder of the Positive Communication Network, a community dedicated to creating better social worlds through positive communication.
Mr. Lyon, who also earned his PhD from the University of Colorado, Boulder, is a professor of communication at SUNY Brockport who has published original research in peer-reviewed journals, including Communication Monographs, Management Communication Quarterly, the Journal of Applied Communication Research, and Communication Studies, and in his first book, Courageous Organizational Communication Case Studies. For the last two decades, he’s consulted or spoken to audiences at Nike, Google, Visa, and the Center for Homeland Defense and Security. He also hosts the 490,000+ subscriber YouTube channel, Communication Coach Alex Lyon, and is the founder of Communication Coach Academy.
For more information: https://www.julienmirivel.com/
For more information: https://www.alexanderlyon.com/
• The secret to a thriving team and culture lies in one skill
• “Ask more questions. That’s a leadership behavior”
(Total Recorded Time is 23:13)
Think your staff is really into their jobs, ready to help push the organization to new heights? Think again.
Nearly 1 in 5 workers say their workplaces are unbearably toxic, according to the American Psychological Association’s just-released 2023 Work in America Survey. Adding to that bleak picture, a recent Deloitte study finds that when it comes to employees’ well-being, leaders are entirely out of touch.
What an opportunity for improvement, say two of the nation’s top experts in how people communicate with each other.
There’s no reason leaders can’t create positive, meaningful experiences for their teams, say Julien Mirivel and Alexander Lyon, authors of the new book Positive Communication for Leaders: Proven Strategies for Inspiring Unity and Effecting Change (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; July 7, 2023).
The secret to a thriving team and culture, they say, lies in one skill: how you communicate positively.
“We do see these positive communications behaviors making a difference in the lives of professionals,” says Mr. Lyon. “Ask more questions. That’s a leadership behavior … much more so than telling people what to do.”
“One of the powerful ways of engaging with people is to find a way to disclose in a way that’s not going to hurt the other person,” adds Mr. Mirivel.
About our guests:
Mr. Mirivel, who holds the title of Distinguished Teaching Fellow at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and Mr. Lyon, a professor of communication at SUNY Brockport, are known for their research into optimum communication skills.
Originally from Paris, France, Mr. Mirivel, who earned his PhD in Communication in from the University of Colorado at Boulder, is among the founding scholars in the emerging field of positive communication. He’s author of The Art of Positive Communication and How Communication Scholars Think and Act, and has delivered hundreds of keynotes, trainings, and workshops on effective communication. He is a TEDx speaker and founder of the Positive Communication Network, a community dedicated to creating better social worlds through positive communication.
Mr. Lyon, who also earned his PhD from the University of Colorado, Boulder, is a professor of communication at SUNY Brockport who has published original research in peer-reviewed journals, including Communication Monographs, Management Communication Quarterly, the Journal of Applied Communication Research, and Communication Studies, and in his first book, Courageous Organizational Communication Case Studies. For the last two decades, he’s consulted or spoken to audiences at Nike, Google, Visa, and the Center for Homeland Defense and Security. He also hosts the 490,000+ subscriber YouTube channel, Communication Coach Alex Lyon, and is the founder of Communication Coach Academy.
For more information: https://www.julienmirivel.com/
For more information: https://www.alexanderlyon.com/
• Bruce Weinstein explains how he now thrives after financial ruin
• “My main story is about perseverance”
(Total Recorded Time is 21:10)
Persistence could be Bruce Weinstein’s middle name. He describes himself as “a survivor, a grinder, a finder and a minder.” The words point to his two lives, first as a financial advisor who had a successful 30-year career during which he built “a $100 million book of business.”
His second career has seen him rise from financial ruin to create from scratch, with his wife and a loan from two fraternity brothers, an insurance agency that generated over $200,000 of new commission business in its second year.
“My main story is about perseverance, not giving up, dusting yourself off and getting back to the grind,” Mr. Weinstein says.
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Bruce Weinstein tells what happened.
Please Click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/Mh0PhlYnlrY
After losing his first business, he spent four years trying to figure out what he could do to restart his career when he was in his 50s, he says.
“When you stare into the abyss, the choices are do you want to fall into it or do you want to move away from it,” he says. ”I come from nothing. It was nice to make money but I’d been broke before. I believe in myself and my abilities.”
For more information: www.planman.tv
• Roger Pearson uses his experiences to help other business owners
• “Running a business … is really the most gratifying path to happiness”
(Total Recorded Time is 16:00)
Roger Pearson studied to become a teacher. But that didn’t quite result in a career in a classroom. Instead, he has been teaching small business owners ways to improve bottom lines and their lives.
“The important thing about running your own business is [finding out] what you feel your mission is,” Mr. Pearson says. “It took me a lot of years to do that.”
Mr. Pearson was a serial entrepreneur as he searched for the right business for him. “It’s been quite a journey,” he says.
Like a person hiking through a woodland, along the way he picked up ideas that seemed to work. He’s been sharing them with others and offers some of his ideas in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVe-7MOM08c
Roger Pearson is president of Seagull Technologies Inc., in Tampa, Fla.
“In the end, I have found that running a business whose goal is to improve the lives of others is really the most gratifying path to happiness,” Mr. Pearson writes. “Especially when it is one that spans everything from improving health to saving money or taxes and for a few, making a few extra bucks to balance the budget.”
https://seagulltechnologies.com/
• Kay Oliver says humans are still the best writers
• “Having complete control over your story … is very pleasing to me”
(Total Recorded Time is 14:29)
Looking forward to a career as a writer, perhaps scripting a TV series of blockbuster movie?
Ummm. What about those robots that are getting better and better at writing? Or those Hollywood labor problems that are seeing writers on picket lines?
Kay Oliver is a professional writer in Hollywood and is not discouraged. What explains her optimism? She joins us on Bizgnus Interviews to explain why and to offer tips for the next superstar writer.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/I50iVlbQeN8
“Having complete control over your story, which you can do as an author, is very pleasing to me,” Ms. Oliver says.
Ms. Oliver offers “Five Tips to Writing a Compelling Story:”
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Keep your focus on the audience. That means putting the audience's needs and preferences first. What is it about your story that will be meaningful to them?
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Use Your Personal Experiences. This is something AI cannot duplicate. Think about important experiences in your real life and how you might be able to craft them into narratives.
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Use The Power Of Emotion. Engage readers with emotional content. Readers that feel emotionally invested in the characters or story won’t want to put the book down.
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Craft a message. What do you want readers or viewers to take away after hearing your story?
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Make note of all the examples of stories around you. There are great stories all around you - so make sure you take notice! From video games to TV to news articles, there are great stories everywhere. Use them as role models for how to tell your story.
For more information: www.kayaoliver.com
• It can make your company future ready
• “To be future ready and out-perform requires you to take a different approach”
(Total Recorded Time is 14:35)
How’s your organization’s “tech equity?” Business and technology advisor Michael Fillios says medium and even small businesses must go on offense with thoughtful and innovative solutions to future-proof themselves — especially with investments in technology.
But what’s a wise investment of limited funds? And how does one avoid investing in the next Betamax or Blockbuster video store chain?
“Hardware. Software. It could be talent,” Mr. Fillios says of what constitutes tech equity. “It could be the way you automate processes. It could be the way you think about data.”
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Michael Fillios offers his ideas.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/rfMyGc1wu6M
Properly managed, tech equity can help a business “out-perform your competition,” he says. “To be future ready and out-perform requires you to take a different approach to the way you think about technology.”
Mr. Fillios is founder and CEO of IT Ally, a firm for family owned and private equity backed small- and medium-sized businesses. He is a former Fortune 500 global CIO, small business CFO, technology entrepreneur and management consultant with more than 25 years of experience. His first book, Tech Debt 2.0: How to Future Proof Your Small Business and Improve Your Tech Bottom Line, was published by the IT Ally Institute in April 2020. His new book is Tech Equity, How to Future Ready Your Small Business and Outperform Your Competition(BookBaby, May 4, 2023).
For more information: https://itallyllc.com
• Longtime activist targets lies that undermine democracy
• “I feel very worried. I feel very worried.”
(Total Recorded Time is 23:34)
In 1971, Frances Moore Lappe wrote a book that transformed the way many relate to food called “Diet for a Small Planet.”
Now, more than half a century and more than a dozen books later, Ms. Lappe is the force behind the movement called “living democracy.” It seeks to challenge everyday citizens to take active roles in their local and even national lives.
“I feel very worried. I feel very worried,” she says. “Because of all the different forms of media, it is very hard to sort out truth and fiction.”
Frances Moore Lappe isn’t your everyday activist. She joins us for this edition of Bizgnus Interviews to explain why citizen involvement in government is more important than ever.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/ZrWKlW1yIJ8
Her most recent book is “Crisis of Trust: How Can Democracies Protect Against Dangerous Lies,” ( , January 2023). It takes on the American disinformation crisis and offers lessons from democracies leading the fight to combat harmful lies and promote truth.
For more information: https://www.smallplanet.org/frances-moore-lappe
• Still long hours, but they are her hours
• “I decided to ‘produce’ my own life for a change”
(Total Recorded Time is 13:52)
“He (or she) left to spend more time with their family” is a sentence that often brings an all-knowing “r-i-i-i-ght” from those who do not know the real story. But in the case of Shannon Russell, it’s true.
Ms. Russell pivoted from a career as a producer for a major cable entertainment channel based in both Los Angeles and New York City to opening her own small business in the New Jersey ‘burbs. “I had no idea what I could do outside of the entertainment industry,” she writes. “After a lot of soul-searching I decided to ‘produce’ my own life for a change.”
No less work, but a change in the type of work. No more coast-to-coast commutes. Gone was the insane pace of rock and roll music. She opened a children's education franchise dealing with “STEM” (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects so she could be more present with her kids.
That success led to starting a second business: coaching other women as they navigate their paths to find a "second act" career that fills them up, instead of stressing them out.
Shannon Russell tells her story in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews. Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/H03aIWfdBk0
“Too often we are taught to pick a career and stick with it from graduation until retirement, and I motivate others to check all the boxes and do all the things because we only get one life,” Ms. Russell writes.
For more information: www.secondactsuccess.co
• What she said when Bill Gates’ wealth rang
• “I failed my way to success”
(Total Recorded Time is 15:22)
A single mother in an adopted country and in debt to the depth of $135,000, Beate Chelette plowed through what she describes as a decade of mistakes to transform her passion for photography into a global business and to finally emerge successful and with a bit of Bill Gates’ fortune in her bank account.
“I believe that failure is an unbelievably important aspect of success,” Ms. Chelette says. ‘How do I know I’m having a good day unless I’ve had a bad day?”
She says every mistake she made helped her push harder toward success.
“I failed my way to success,” she says. And there’s a secret to that: “You can’t take it personally. That’s the key to it.”
Please click here to watch Ms. Chelette on Bizgnus Interviews:
https://youtu.be/_STM0aFPgjI
She says the acquisition of her company by Gates gave her the freedom to pursue her passions and purposes.
Ms. Chelette is the author of “Happy Woman Happy World – How to Go from Overwhelmed to Awesome,” Chelette Enterprises, 2014.
For more information: https://beatechelette.com/
• Unveiling the core traits that define us
• “People and AI will almost become indistinguishable”
(Total Recorded Time is 20:02)
Steve Bates, a former reporter and editor with the Washington Post as well as other newspapers, has been writing science fiction short stories for more than a decade. Now in his new novel, “Castle of Sand,” (Sunstone Press, July 2023) he grapples with perhaps the most fundamental question of all: what it truly means to be human in a world increasingly reliant on artificial intelligence.
He’s reluctant to make definite predictions, but after studying artificial intelligence for his book, Mr. Bates is prepared to predict the AI future will be neither dystopian nor wildly optimistic.
“I’d say we’re headed to some sort of convergence. And I think that means that AI and humans are going to get married and live together forever after happily,” he says. “It’s not inconceivable to me that we will somehow form a partnership where people and AI will almost become indistinguishable.”
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Mr. Bates talks about what he has learned about artificial intelligence as humanity stands on the precipice of a profound intersection with machines smarter than we are.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/GAwir07C4ZU
While Mr. Bates’ novel is a work of fiction, in many aspects it seems closer to next week’s newspaper that’s tossed on the driveway.
According to the online news service Axios, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers recently asked undergraduate students to test whether artificial intelligence chatbots could be used by nonexperts in causing a pandemic.
Did it work? Within an hour the artificial intelligence platforms suggested four pathogens, MIT says.
“Widely accessible artificial intelligence threatens to allow people without laboratory training to identify, acquire, and release viruses highlighted as pandemic threats in the scientific literature,” the MIT report says. The chatbots helped identify which pathogens could inflict the most damage, and even provided information not commonly known among experts.
Disturbingly, the research also showed that the AI chatbots offered the students lists of companies that might assist with DNA synthesis -- and suggestions on how to trick them into providing services.
Editor’s Note to Readers: The headline and subhead for this story were written by artificial intelligence. Everything else is human-generated.
For more information: www.stevebateswriter.com
• Entrepreneur says to be audacious
• “My belief is you need to step out”
(Total Recorded Time is 20:52)
What makes a superstar in business? What makes most just muddle along, never touching the top,? Roy Osing has an idea. Or as he might put it, an audacious idea.
The veteran entrepreneur outlines his thoughts in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
“My belief is you need to step out. You need to do things that others don’t do,” Mr. Osing says. “You need to get away the world of copying. You need to do things bold and courageous because, quite frankly, that’s what we need in the world.
As president of a major Canadian data and internet company, he credits his “audacious” leadership ways in helping grow the internet-based company from its early stage to $1 billion in annual sales when he left the firm. The company has since grown its internet, television, and cellular telephone sales further, posting operating revenues in excess of $18 billion in its fiscal 2022.
In the years since leaving the company, Mr. Osing says he has devoted his efforts to inspiring leaders, entrepreneurs and organizations to stand apart from the average to achieve their true potential.
“There’s always going to be superstars. The problem is, the percentage of superstars is really, really, small,” he says. “So you have this bell curve with the majority of human beings stuck in the middle of the bell curve. It’s my view that we can move them ten points toward the superstar. Imagine the power, the energy and the performance that would unleash.”
Please click here ti watch the interview: https://youtu.be/rKnybSlj6Vg
Mr. Osing is the author of the “Be Different or Be Dead” book series. He says its latest book, his seventh, “The Audacious Unheard-Of Ways I Took a Startup to a Billion in Sales,” (Morgan James Publishing, May 2022) helps small businesses and nonprofits develop strategic plans.
“You don’t need a five-year plan,” he says. “And you don’t need a $50,000 consulting arrangement.”
For more information: https://www.bedifferentorbedead.com/
• Getting fired was just a bump in his road to success
• “Revenue is turning in the right direction”
(Total Recorded Time is 23:30)
Jerry Fu is not your ordinary pharmacist. He has transformed his career in pharmacy into a career as a conflict resolution coach who helps Asian American leaders.
It’s just about opposite from where he started. Mr. Fu says he was so reluctant to deal with conflict that he was ultimately fired.
But he says he took that as a wake-up call. He joins us for this edition of Bizgnus Interviews to talk about what happened after that bump in his road to success.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus Interview:
https://youtu.be/FfBqIIVgKUs
Mr. Fu says he works with Asian-American professionals on their career and life journeys, focusing on resolving his clients' conflicts at work, in culture, and within themselves.
Mr. Fu is still developing his coaching business. “Revenue is turning in the right direction, but still not to the point where I can quit my day job” he says.
He says he has had to adapt and improve as a leader, which means “engaging the conflict I disliked so much.
“Ironically, my ongoing struggle with conflict became a fascination. Now, I help others take on the same challenges,” he says.
For more information: https://www.adaptingleaders.com/
• Kevin Palmieri left a six-figure job to take on podcasting fulltime
• “I didn’t expect to be where we are today”
(Total recorded time is 25:24)
Next Level University has no bookstore, classrooms, or even an animal mascot. It’s a daily podcast that has attracted a following of more than 750,000 listeners.
“I've helped grow the podcast into a multi six-figure business,” says co-founder Kevin Palmieri.
“The podcast is the top of our business model but below that we have coaching,” Mr. Palmieri says. He coaches on how to do better podcasts -- and mindset. There is a link, he says: “A lot of people are being held back by themselves.”
Mr. Palmieri caught the podcast bug after being interviewed for a podcast. It was like a duck suddenly realizing it loved to swim. “I just wanted to sit down with people and have deep conversations. I didn’t expect to be where we are today,” he says.
He says he left a six-figure job to take on podcasting fulltime, despite little, if any, income from his initial online efforts. “I sustained it on credit cards and grit pretty much in the beginning,” he says.
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Kevin Palmieri talks about how he gave up a career he loathed to try the uncertain world of podcasting.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus Interview: https://youtu.be/dFAjd_Nh_Dc
Since 2017 he has notched more than 1,300 podcasts and still keeps a seven-podcasts-a-week schedule. “I like being my own boss and being able to says whatever I want on my own platform,” he says.
For more information: https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/
• Pete Wasmer just wanted a burned-out pool light fixed
• “Nobody else has a mobile app that the customers can use to have what I call an ‘Uber-like’ experience”
(Total Recorded Time is 21:00)
When a light burns out in your swimming pool, replacing it is usually a job for the pool guy. When you can reach him.
Veteran businessman Pete Wasmer was faced with that problem. And while he eventually reached the pool maintenance company, the hassle that was involved led Mr. Wasmer to develop unique software that is now being used by many service companies.
“Nobody else has a mobile app that the customers can use to have what I call an ‘Uber-like’ experience,” he says.
Pete Wasmer talks about his software and being an entrepreneur in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/abul00nxkGk
Earlier, Mr. Wasmer developed a national platform that he says changed the powersports industry by leasing – not selling or renting -- Harley-Davidson motorcycles. “We focused on creating a single system where data was input one time. It created all the documents that you needed,” he says.
Funny how things will sit in the back of the brain, only coming out when they can be applied to a different set of circumstances. The data management Mr. Wasmer created to deal with leasing Harleys has become the foundation for a new cloud-based software-as-a-service company, Pure Coastal, which sells ProValet, software that lets its users deal with job scheduling, payments and more, especially customer communications.
For more information: https://provalet.io/
For more information: https://www.purecoastal.life/
• Serial entrepreneur offers tips from his own experience
• “As business owners, there’s more to it than just your business”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:30)
From selling shoes to running a company that renovates bathrooms to helping other small business operators actually enjoy ownership, Pete Mohr has been an owner or advisor to a myriad of small businesses.
These days he says he's spending most of his time helping other business owners with simplifying their entrepreneurship. He says most of the people he works with are doing okay financially, but they're no longer keen on working 50, 60, even 70 hours a week or more at their businesses.
Is it really possible to get to a more even work-life balance? Pete Mohr offers some ideas in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/fIT5kslGKhY
“Small business owners are the backbone of our communities and if we can help them survive and thrive, we'll help the communities that exist around them,” he says.
Mr. Mohr says he has developed a bit of shorthand for success, cautioning that real success stems from turning bullet points into action.
He has “5 Ps” for business success, “5 Fs” of better decision making and “4 As” of accountability.
“As business owners, there’s more to it than just your business,” Mr. Mohr says. “We become business owners because we want a better life. You as the business owner shouldn’t always be giving your life to support the better business, the better business should be there to support your better life.”
For more information: www.speaktopete.com
• Serial entrepreneur offers tips from his own experience
• “As business owners, there’s more to it than just your business”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:30)
From selling shoes to selling Harley's, Pete Mohr has been an owner or advisor to a myriad of small businesses. One of his most recent projects is the successful launching of Chrome Capital into a national platform using leasing to put more riders on more Harley Davidson motorcycles.
He says he's spending most of his time these days helping other business owners with simplifying their entrepreneurship. He says most of the people he works with are doing okay financially, but they're no longer willing to work 50, 60, even 70 hours a week or more at their businesses.
Pete Mohr talks about ways to improve work-life balance in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/JOHQEHFlqYM
“Small business owners are the backbone of our communities and if we can help them survive and thrive, we'll help the communities that exist around them,” he says.
Mr. Mohr says he has developed a bit of shorthand for success, cautioning that real success stems from turning bullet points into action.
He has “5 Ps” for business success, “5 Fs” of better decision making and “4 As” of accountability.
“As business owners, there’s more to it than just your business,” Mr. Mohr says. “We become business owners because we want a better life. You as the business owner shouldn’t always be giving your life to support the better business, the better business should be there to support your better life.”
For more information: www.speaktopete.com
• A happy and engaged workforce is the backbone of organizational success
• “Life is too short to live stuck in a rut”
(Total Recorded Time is 17:41)
How do you get to be a popular leadership coach?
Here’s one way: “I was a failed pre-med student,” says Jerry Dugan, who has developed a career and business of coaching executives to become more effective leaders.
In two decades of offering his training sessions, Mr. Dugan reminds leaders of a fundamental too often forgotten: A happy and engaged workforce is the backbone of any successful organization.
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Jerry Dugan offers insights from his two decades as a leadership coach.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/BgvX6mHAhYw
After two decades of leadership experience, for nearly eight years Mr. Dugan has been the host of the Beyond the Rut podcast. But on the air or as a coach, he says that at his core is the concept of “servant leadership.”
“In a nutshell, it is taking care of the people who report to you so that they can take care of the mission or the customer,” Mr. Dugan says. “I learned it in the military. It’s communicating to the team.”
He says his personal mantra has helped guide him. “Life is too short to live stuck in a rut,” Mr. Dugan says, “So really think about what you want out of life. What do you want to be known for after you’re gone? What kind of impact do you want to make?
“Go start making that impact now. Life’s too short, too fragile … and it’s too quick,” he says.
For more information: https://beyondtherut.com/
• Since 9/11, four times as many in the military die by suicide than in combat
• “The more veterans I talk to these days are ashamed of their military service”
(Total Recorded Time is 29:22)
Active-duty military know they could be asked to put their lives on the line in times of armed conflict.
But to see a steady loss of life during peacetime because of suicide – that’s a problem a former Army officer says needs to be better addressed.
Tara Fields resigned her commission as a captain with the Kansas National Guard after her efforts failed to get top brass to deal with the steady loss of lives through suicide.
“I love the Army,” says Ms. Fields, author of the new book Tracer Patient. “I would do it again but … the more veterans I talk to these days are ashamed of their military service. ”
She says while the large majority in the military do a good job, a minority, including many in positions of power over policies, are incompetent or worse. “We quietly retire them. We sweep them under the rug,” she says.
Tara Fields talks about the suicide problem and what could be done to solve it in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/OwFO3S6U2zY
It’s not a small problem. According to data reported in 2021 by Brown University's Cost of War Project, about 7,057 service members had been killed in various military operations since 9/11, while more than four times as many -- 30,177 – had taken their own lives.
Department of Defense data show that the National Guard has a higher overall suicide rate than other branches, including active-duty soldiers.
“This should not be happening in the world’s best miliary,” she says. “We can do better.”
Ms. Fields served 12 years in the military, eight of those on active duty. In the Kansas National Guard, she was a behavioral health officer. She says she quit after her calls for changes were largely ignored by those up the military food chain.
She is the author of the new book, “Tracer Patient,” (Writers Republic LLC, March 2023).
For more information: www.t4therapy.org
• Dai Manuel sees AI as the future of coaching
• “The world’s most robust health AI coach”
(Total Recorded Time is 19:43)
What do you do after you’ve run a successful major retailer?
How about being a life coach?
Dai Manuel, author of the book “Whole Life Fitness Manifesto,” (Life Tree, 2016), says he began his quest for physical and financial fitness as a teenager.
And now he’s making a new turn: helping pair artificial intelligence with lifestyle improvements.
Dai Manuel reveals his remarkable story in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
His business experience includes a nine-year stint as chief operating officer of and partner in Fitness Town Inc., a chair of fitness centers in British Columbia.
He’s now working with a startup planning to develop an app that uses artificial intelligence. “What we’re trying to create is the world’s most robust health AI coach,” he says. “Anybody anywhere as long as they’ve got the internet can have a health coach.”
For more information: https://www.daimanuel.com/
• What has Nicky Billou learned?
• “I’m in the people business”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:00)
Nicky Billou says he has interviewed more than 300 of the world's top thought leaders including Jack Canfield, John Maxwell, and Marie Forleo.
So what does one learn about life, love and perhaps business after listening to so many experts?
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Mr. Billou tells us. It may surprise you.
Mr. Billou, a serial entrepreneur, is president & CEO of Toronto-based eCircle Academy, which offers training for coaches and consultants to grow their businesses.
“I’m in the people business,” he says. “It’s my entire mission to be of service to the entrepreneur.”
For more information: https://www.ecircleacademy.com/
• Cathy Nesbitt runs the quietest farm in North America
• “I set about to do this without any business savvy”
(Total Recorded Time is 23:55)
Farming is actually pretty noisy: the bleating of sheep, mooing of cows, oinking of pigs and so on. Even an apple orchard can be loud what with birds singing in those trees.
But Cathy Nesbitt is a quiet farmer, perhaps the quietest of all, despite having a thousand head of livestock at any given time.
Ms. Nesbitt raises worms. For fun – and profit, she says.
In business for more than 20 years selling worms by the pound for indoor composting, Ms. Nesbitt says she stumbled into entrepreneurship.
“I set about to do this without any business savvy,” she says. “Nobody in my family or my circle … was self-employed. I just saw a solution to a big problem.”
The self-made worm advocate says that worms are going to play an ever- increasing role in waste management, soil production and therefore food security.
“Food waste is a simple way that we can mitigate climate change and create 'black gold' to grow more delicious, nutritious food,” Ms. Nesbitt says.
And, she says, “a worm composter offers a tremendous learning opportunity for all ages.”
She says she’s had her share of adversity in building her business. “You can imagine that not everyone wants to have worms in the house,” she says. “Daily laughter is now a huge part of my health plan.”
Ms. Nesbitt runs a free, weekly “laughter club” via Zoom. Click here for more information: http://www.cathysclub.com/
For more worm info: https://www.cathyscomposters.com/
• “American Idol” finalist Christina Cewe is now writing children’s books
• “I made a decision to follow my heart”
(Total Recorded Time is 11:37)
Anyone who reaches the finals of the television program “American Idol” can atterst to the years of practice and disappointments that had to be overcome. Christina Cewe did it, becoming an American Idol Top Ten Finalist and a recording artist, traveling the world writing and recording music.
And then, while at the top, she decided to go in a completely different direction.
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Christina Cewe talks about following a dream only to rethink her goals.
Now she likes to be known as a mother of three and a children’s book author. “I made a decision to follow my heart,” she says.
She is the author of the children's book, "I Believe in Me, Do You Believe in You?" (BookBaby (November 2022).
The writing of the book is also close to her heart, having written it when her first son was just two years old. She says she hoped the book’s message would help guide him as he grew. “I’ve always used the message with my children, teaching them you can do whatever you want in life, you just have to believe you can do it,” Ms. Cewe says. “
For more information: https://www.ibelieveinmedoyou.com/
• Remember SEO? It never left and now may be more important than ever
• “And they’re not looking for you”
(Total Recorded Time is 26:26)
Remember SEO? The letters stand for search engine optimization. And even in these days of the frothing over artificial intelligence, good, ol’ SEO – when done right – can boost a business like a rocket, says Lorraine Ball, an Indianapolis-based marketing strategist.
“When you build your website and you want people to find it, they’re going to go … to one of the search platforms,” says Ms. Ball. “And they’re not looking for you. They’re looking for a company that does what you do.”
She says that’s where a website maxing its SEO attributes will snag the search engines and be displayed to people looking for answers.
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Lorraine Ball offers ideas on what she calls “Common Sense SEO.”
Ms. Ball is founder of the Indianapolis digital agency Roundpeg.
“Too often, business owners obsess about ranking for a specific key word, losing sight of the fact that it is people, not Google who actually buys from then,” Ms. Ball says.
She says there are simple, specific steps small business operators can take to improve their SEO and visitor satisfaction with their website.
“As websites have become more and more complicated, there are a lot of rules,” she says. “And sometimes for small business owners, those rules are absolutely overwhelming. You hear all the buzz words and it’s enough to make your head spin.”
A professional speaker, business owner and former corporate executive, Ms. Ball is host of the podcast “More than a Few Words.”
For more information: https://morethanafewwords.com
• Five branding tips for small businesses
• “When you build a brand, think of building it one customer at a time”
(Total Recorded Time is 19:38)
When you think of branding, what comes to mind?
And what about your brand? We are flooded with brands jamming every communications channel we use.
And that makes connecting with customers frustrating at best.
Branding guru Kim Rozdeba says branding is a process, not a goal. He’s developed what he calls the “five C's of branding” and he joins us in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews to explain.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/OO2RmpoK5cY
“When you build a brand, think of building it one customer at a time,” he says.
Mr. Rozdeba has more than 30 years of experience in marketing and branding, working with major brands as well as running his own independent shop.
He is the author if the book, “Branding Queens: Discover branding secrets from twenty incredible women who built global brand dynasties,” (Rozdeba Brand & Co, April 2022).
For more information: www.rozdeba.com
• Ken Paskins offers some solutions and something for free
• “We have a special for your listeners in May”
(Total Recorded Time is 21:43)
(Just want to hear the offer? Fast-forward to about the 19-minute mark.)
Like most business leaders, it’s likely you have tried to find a better balance between your business and your life outside of the business – if any,
Ken Paskins says he has an answer.
He’s the founder of the Shift Spot, an online gathering spot for business leaders that he says offers ways to solve business problems, attend expert training events, to allow leaders to scale with ease, avoid burnout and achieve balance in their lives.
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Ken Paskins explains more.
“Also as I mentioned we have a special for your listeners in May,” Mr. Paskins says. “We are going to open our doors to a sneak peak of what our members get inside our community. We are hosting a 5-part marketing intensive for business owners only. Heading up this event is a killer CMO, who has worked on the Opra Show.”
Mr. Paskins says this will be “100 percent free” to Bizgnus Intervies listeners.
He says those interested should email to winter@theshiftspot.com and say BIZGNUS PODCAST “and we will send them a free invite.”
• Entrepreneur and author has a toolkit to fix that
• “These skills are learnable”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:14)
So you’ve spent four to six years in college getting your degree. But while it may have opened a door or two to entry-level jobs, now you realize it is not the ticket to career success that you thought.
Enter Mark Herschberg, an entrepreneur and author of the book, “The Career Toolkit,” (Cognosco Media LLC, January 2021). It has the subtitle “Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You.”
“These skills are learnable. We don’t always think that way,” he says. “You may not be a natural leader, a natural networker, but if you put in a little effort, you will get good at it.”
He’s the guest in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
Mr. Herschberg is founder of Cognosco Media LLC, which has a new patent pending content distribution platform. It markets an app it calls the “Brain Bump” – not a bump from a whack on the head but as a way to remember content one has read, watched or listened to.
With more than a dozen patents to his name, he has been teaching at MIT’s Career Success Accelerator for 20 years in addition to building multiple startup companies as a CTO.
For more information: https://www.thecareertoolkitbook.com
• Instead of pushing for a sale, try this technique
• “When I am ‘selling,’ I am really listening and putting myself in that person’s position”
(Total Recorded Time is 14:17)
The answer to long-term sales success is not the “always be closing” system but rather finding the real needs of a customer and addressing those concerns, contends sales consultant Darleen Priday.
She teaches empathetic sales, a technique that can build relationships, attract the right clients and create a better customer experience.
“I’ve talked to so many entrepreneurs and small business leaders that have an amazing offering, but hate sales,” Ms. Priday says.
Empathetic selling and relationship building is the core of long-term sales success, she says.
“When I am ‘selling,’ I am really listening and putting myself in that person’s position to see what is best for them,” Ms. Priday says in explaining empathetic selling. “What is really going to help them and what is going to be meeting their needs versus just doing my sales pitch.”
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Ms. Priday explains her approach to selling and offers tips on how to hire better sales people.
• This nonprofit says it is
• “We believe that every worker should understand their rights in the workplace
(Total Recorded Time is 16:07)
It has faded into history but back in 1946, coal miners walked off the job in the U.S. for months in the largest strike in U.S. history, forcing a government temporary takeover of the mines. The miners had a lot of gripes – from pay to safety. But what if such large concerns and even much smaller ones were quickly solved to everyone’s benefit?
Could there ever be a global workplace in which individuals were valued and accorded dignity and respect, where fair business practices thrived?
A Washington organization has those goals in mind. It’s called Workplace Fairness.
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Workplace Fairness Executive Director Edgar Ndjatoutalks about the progress he sees toward those goals.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus Interview: https://youtu.be/zpTX8YEU0Ws
“We believe that every worker should understand their rights in the workplace,” Mr. Ndjatou says. “The workplace should be free of harassment, full of productivity and that people feel they have dignity when they go to work.”
Workplace Fairness was founded in 1994 as the National Employee Rights Institute. The name of the organization was changed in 2001 “to reflect our effort to link the knowledge and work of employment rights attorneys with that of non-legal organizations and other individuals who are concerned with issues of fairness in the workplace.”
Mr. Ndjatou’s previous experience includes practicing employment law for nine years, including co-managing his own law firm.
For more information: https://www.workplacefairness.org/
• What every organization needs – and what to avoid
• “Entrepreneurs and innovators need to think about how society is going to react”
(Total Recorded Time is 17:22)
Are you suffering from “innovation fatigue?”
That’s the term used by Los Angeles Times technology columnist Brian Merchant who says that over the past 20 years, “there’s been advance after advance — some of them great and compelling, others less so” making it harder to be completely optimistic about any of them.
Michael Goldsby, who is chief entrepreneurship officer at Ball State University where he is also distinguished professor of entrepreneurship, says even if some might be feeling drained, such an attitude could endanger companies. But not just any innovation is good, he cautions.
“Entrepreneurs and innovators need to think about how society is going to react,” he says, “because if society doesn’t like the way it’s perceiving that innovation, through legislation and other means they can shut those types of things down.”
It didn’t quite happen that way for Eastman Kodak. Instead, its failure to recognize game-changing innovation – digital photography replacing film -- doomed the company.
“There’s a lot of research that says it doesn’t hurt a big company to have maybe just a small group exploring the possibilities of other technologies,” Mr. Goldsby says.
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Michael Goldsby offers his thoughts on how to recognaize and cultivate innovation in organizations.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/e0iWHAkc5aA
In addition to dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles on entrepreneurship, business ethics, self-leadership, fitness and wellbeing, creativity, and innovation, he is co-author of the books “Corporate Innovation: Disruptive Thinking in Organizations,” “Innovation the Disney Way,” and “Design-Centered Entrepreneurship,” now in its second edition.
Mr. Goldsby helped design, build, maintain, and operate a golf course owned and managed by his
uncle Les and Aunt Joann before receiving his doctoral degree. He has also run in 25 marathons
(including eight Boston Marathons) and participated in Ironman triathlons.
For more information: mind2momentum.com
• How underdogs become champions
• “I’ve passed on a lot of business
(TRT is 21:13 )
An an 18-point underdog, the 1969 New York Jets went on to win the Super Bowl that year. The so-called Hitless Wonders, with the worst batting average in the American League, the underdog Chicago White Sox went on to win the 1906 World Series. In politics, an underdog from a small state, Joe Biden went on to win the Democratic nomination and then the presidential race in 2020.
There’s a lot to be said for being the underdog.
Mike Sullivan more than agrees. He’s president and CEO of the advertising agency Loomis and he’s made a career out of turning underdog businessess into champions.
He tells us more in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
In growing his business over the past 30-plus years, Mr. Sullivan says sticking to his beliefs has resulted in a great team that also subscribes to the same ideas, but has also resulted in losing some business.
“I’ve passed on a lot of business,” he says. “I try not to get into relationship with clients that don’t share our values -- or at least enough of our values.”
He is candid about the result. “I’ve passed on all sorts of opportunities frankly that would have accelerated the revenue growth of the organization dramatically but would have ruined the culture.”
Mr. Sullivan is co-author of the book, “The Voice of the Underdog: How Challenger Brands Create Distinction by Thinking Culture First,”). (BizComPress, August 2020. Mr. Sullivan’s co-author, Michael Tuggle, is an award-winning creative director and writer with more than 25 years in the ad world
For more information: theloomisagency.com
• Steven Grasse takes risks and is rewarded
• “The reason I like money, is it’s a tool to create more”
(TRT is 26:14)
It is said that to be creative you need to have lived an interesting life. But Steve Grasse says that with the
right awareness and attitude, anyone can hone their creativity and inspire change in their field and the world at large.
Mr. Grasse is the founder of Quaker City Mercantile in Philadelphia and creator of brands like Hendrick’s Gin,
Sailor Jerry Rum, and Pathfinder.
He says by keeping an open mind, taking risks, and developing authenticity, it is possible to channel
basic entrepreneurial spirit into a brand, a business, a creative practice, or a life that breaks with tradition
to achieve the remarkable.
Steve Grasse goes into detail in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N4HSD9NyEs&t=4s
Mr. Grasse has seen his creativity help create a large branding company, launch numerous products and
bring him a comfortable life.
“The reason I like money, is it’s a tool to create more,” Mr. Grasse says. “We don’t view money as a means to
an end. And it’s a race against time as we’re only going to be on the planet for so long.”
Steven Grasse is co-author with Aaron Goldfarb of the new book, “Brand Mysticism: Cultivate Creativity and Intoxicate Your Audience (November 2022 Running Press).
His previous books include “The Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World,”
“Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History,” and “The Cocktail Workshop: An Essential
Guide to Classic Drinks and How to Make Them Your Own.”
He lives in Philadelphia and New Hampshire with his family.
For more information: https://quakercitymercantile.com/
• Recession – or worse – ahead, warns economist
• “There’s a good chance we’ll have a recession in 2023”
(Total Recorded Time is 25:02)
The nation’s economy, if not the world economy, is facing a severe downturn, says economist Murray Sabrin, an advocate for free markets.
“If you look at what the Federal Reserve has been doing in terms of manipulating interest rates, creating trillions of dollars in 2020 to fend off COVID lockdowns … and now we are seeing the results of that with the very high inflation rate for 2022,” he says in an interview recorded in December 2022.
“I think we’re going to have a recession this year because we have the inverted yield curve where short-term rates are above long-term rates,” he says. “Historically when that happens, within a year or so a recession hits. There’s a good chance we’ll have a recession in 2023.”
Mr. Sabrin explains his outlook in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/sskZzUGmMhE
Mr. Sabrin emigrated to the U.S. with his parents in 1949. He became an educator teaching finance at Ramapo College of New Jersey. He also dabbled in politics when he was the first third-party gubernatorial candidate to debate the major party candidates in a race for governor.
Although he lost, getting about 5 percent of the vote, Mr. Sabrin says he still had an impact on public policy, changing New Jersey laws involving free speech, auto insurance and highway speed limits.
Now emeritus professor of finance at Ramapo, he is the author of several books including “The Finance of Health Care;” “Navigating the Boom/Bust Cycle: An Entrepreneur's Survival Guide;” and his latest book, “From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story.”
For more information: murraysabrin.substack.com
Or www.murraysabrin.com
• Marine Corps veteran turned author says quantum mechanics points to an inner god
• “I’ve come around to this idea we all have a god inside us”
(TRT is 24:15)
David Richards went from a lifetime in the military to a business professional, yoga instructor and author. His childhood was spent in various parts of the United States, as well as three years in Okinawa, Japan, as a miliary dependent. He joined the Marines after graduating from Penn State with a degree in English and served fifteen years on active duty before deciding to leave the military to pursue his own passions.
Mr. Richards says he believes that every human being has untapped reservoirs of imagination within them – as if everyone has a god inside them.
“Google right now is working on quantum computer that within the next two years will be able to solve problems that our best computer now cannot solve in a trillion years,” he says. “With my understanding of quantum physics, I’ve come around to this idea we all have a god inside us.”
David Richards talks about his discoveries and his books in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/ygKZs1T9Dp4
Dave Richards is the author of three books, the most recent being the novel “Love Letters to the Virgin Mary,” (Mjolnir Productions LLC, November 2022), which he describes as “an epic love story and one man’s travel through time to find the answers he needs.”
For more information: https://davidrichardsauthor.com/
• He taps ancient wisdom
• “So I thought it was time to up end the way we are talking to each other”
(TRT is 20:56)
Elvir Causevic runs a boutique investment bank in San Francisco. But this is not your staid, buttoned-down banker.
At night Mr. Causevic runs a wisdom school.
An inventor with more than 30 patents who pioneered brain-scan devices while at Yale, he says he is now focused on helping bring “living wisdom” back into daily lives to help heal the divisions in society.
Elvir Causevic is our guest on this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/MAqmOsXUE2U
Mr. Causevic founded UpEnd, where ancient and Indigenous peoples’ causes “are taught and celebrated.” He says that what is taught can help “upend stress.”
“A lot of the problems we have right now are kind of self-inflicted,” says Mr. Causevic. “As in individuals, so in the family, so in the society, so in our country.
“So I thought it was time to up end the way we are talking to each other,” he says.
For more information: UpEnd.com
• Business coach says even grief can help rebuild success
• “I stumbled upon grief as many of us do”
(Total Recorded Time is 22:37)
Failure and grief can be turned into into personal, spiritual, and financial growth, says Kate McKay, a Florida-based business consultant, executive coach and author.
Ms. McKay speaks from deep, personal loss: Her son committed suicide.
“I stumbled upon grief as many of us do,” she says. “And it was up to me and the people who survived him to figure out how we were going to manage that.”
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview: https://youtu.be/Qak8fp_Nvrs
She says her research shows significant differences in how people grieve.
For more information: https://www.kate-mckay.com/
• David Bentall went through one and has learned
• “It was a very, very painful thing for our family”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:23)
Your children. Maybe, just maybe, your grandchildren. But that’s about it when it comes to passing along the family business that you’ve spent a lifetime building, according to numerous studfies.
In a monarchy, where ye old kingdom is expected to be passed down, any objective assessment of an heir’s competence would be considered offensive. Unfortunately, some families adopt this same perspective when it comes to the family business.
In this Bizgnus Interviews edition we meet David Bentall who provides lessons learned from his personal experience as a family enterprise successor and his career advising other family businesses.
Please click here to watch:
https://youtu.be/7Xpn0ElLVQk
For Mr. Bentall, his family’s inability to handle leadership succession resulted in bitter dissolution of one of the largest real estate development companies in Canada.
“It was a very, very painful thing for our family,” he says.
He says he learned from the experience and for the past 25 years has been teaching others how to properly plan for a smooth leadership succession.
Mr. Bentall says that with a family employment policy, both generations can be assisted in making wise choices and getting the succession process right.
Mr. Bentall is founder of Next Step Advisors, which advises family enterprises.
His newest book is “Dear Younger Me: Wisdom for Family Enterprise Successors,” (Castle Quay Books, May 2021).
For more information: NextStepAdvisors.ca
• New writers find it takes more than a turn of phrase
• “It’s one thing that writers should learn early on”
(Total Recorded Time is 17:00)
New authors might be tempted to try self-publishing after getting ignored by traditional book publishers.
Is that they way to go and what pitfalls are there if that road is taken?
One self-published author who says she is seeing success is Angela Orams of Los Angeles, who writes children’s books.
In Bizgnus Interviews, she talks about the challenges of self-publishing.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/W-Tq53sx3r8
Ms. Orams newest book, “Sneaky Sophie and the Token Fairy,” is part of a wider plan to have readers weave the lessons of the story into everyday life. It also opens new revenue streams.
The book comes in a kit with a variety of tokens, some designed to be given to children after losing a tooth, others have messages of encouragement that can be given as a surprise or a reward for doing good deeds.
But there’s another critical element that makes for a successful book, she says: editing.
“Anything that anyone does involving writing requires editing,” Ms. Orams says. She says she uses a professional editor after she has self-edited several times.
Editing is a continuous process, she says. “It’s one thing that writers should learn early on.”
For more information:
https://www.sneakysophie.com/
• They are a gift that helps solidify your customer base – if you handle them correctly
• “People remember these things literally for decades”
(Total Recorded Time is 26:00)
Christmastime. From a monetary point of view, this is the time when retailers often see their financials move solidly into the black. And it’s a time of jolly shopping trips for consumers.
Not. Consumers are often cranky and when they finally get to talk to someone in customer service, it’s an adventure in English as a never-learned language, helping to ramp up anger.
What an opportunity! says Janelle Barlow, a consultant and author who translates research into practical tools to improve customer service and complaint handling.
Complaints as an opportunity? In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Ms. Barlow explains.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/LqDH7sQ59VA
Ms. Barlow notes that according to the 2020 “National Customer Rage Study,” that when 58 percent of customers got no or limited satisfaction from their efforts, while 65 percent left filled with rage and frustration.
Companies should consider any complaint as a gift, since so few customers actually do complain to the company, Ms. Barlow says, adding that unhappy customers are more likely to tell anyone else who will listen rather than make the effort to complain to the people who can remedy the problem.
Poor handling of a customer’s complaint can linger with that now-former customer for a remarkably long time, she says.
“People remember these things literally for decades,” she says. “When I ask them when did this happen, they say, mmm, 30 years ago.”
Complaints that are handled well transform into experiences more positively remembered than if no complaint had been made, Ms. Barlow says.
This means that too many businesses are scripting, out-sourcing, or seriously mishandling their customer service, she says and in the process are missing a key point that customer complaints are a gift to companies that, when handled well, will reap huge rewards.
Ms. Barlow has recently released the third edition of her bestseller (more than 275,000 copies sold to date) of “A Complaint Is a Gift: How to Learn from Critical Feedback and Recover Customer Loyalty,” (BK Publishing, November 2022).
For more information: AComplaintIsAGift.com
• You already have something in you that others will pay money to learn
• “It’s absolutely counterintuitive”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:51)
Alina Vincent hopes to turn her work success into success for other women.
How to do it? She says it’s all about monetizing your experience.
In this edition of Bizgnus Interviews, Ms. Vincent shares her thoughts.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus Interview: https://youtu.be/3gfgYfl4wEI
“The more specific you are with your audience, with the problem you are solving and solution you are providing, you’re going to have success,” Ms. Vincent says. “If you’re trying to be everyone for everybody and try to be everywhere, you’re just going to be overwhelmed and probably not create the results that you want. It’s absolutely counterintuitive.”
She says entrepreneurs can package and monetize their knowledge and expertise to create a leveraged and scalable business.
“Right now, you already have something in you that others will pay money to learn,” she says.
For more information: http://BusinessSuccessEdge.com
• An open mind state can unleash your creativity, expert says
• “Symbolically, we empty our mind, we get very quiet in order to become receptive”
(Total Recorded Time is 29:30)
Stumped for ideas? Feeling your creativity has mysteriously drained away?
Take a walk. Let your mind ramble until the “magic” happens.
That “magic,” to simplify it, is when you have an open mind state where the download of core creativity can happen, says psychotherapist Ronald Alexander, PhD, who is also a mindfulness trainer and a creativity, business and leadership coach.
Mr. Alexander talks about ways to reach an open mind state in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/fxu-C9fWtO0
“Symbolically, we empty our mind, we get very quiet in order to become receptive,” Mr. Alexander says.
In writing his newest book, he interviewed artists, musicians, writers and others who need to tap their creativity for their work and found a common thread: walking.
“They take a daily walk,” he says. “And it’s usually a daily walk in salience.”
He has a private psychotherapy and executive coaching practice in Santa Monica, California, and is the executive director of the OpenMind Training Program that offers personal and professional training programs in mindfulness-based mind-body therapies, transformational leadership and meditation.
His newest book is “Core Creativity: The Mindful Way to Unlock Your Creative Self,” (Rowman & Littlefield, June 2022).
For more information:
www.CoreCreativity.com
Or
https://ronaldalexander.com
• Carolina Billings used her crisis to form a new organization for women
• “My personal mission and vision is to increase women’s visibility and impact”
(Total Recorded Time is 21:20)
Carolina Billings says it was her divorce after 20 years of marriage that was her wake-up call, and a jarring one at that.
“When I came out of that marriage, I found myself very ill-equipped to deal with the reality of running my own life,” she says. “This happens to a lot of women.”
One change was her revenue stream. Instead of two incomes, her household suddenly had one. “The lifestyle that I had grown accustomed to was not something I could afford on my own.”
She says too many women, as she had been, know too little about family finances, putting them on thin ice if there’s a divorce or another major change in their lives.
“You would be shocked how many professional women do not know exactly what’s going on in their family’s finances,” Ms. Billings says.
Out of the ashes of her divorce, coming as she was entering her midlife, Ms. Billings formed a new organization, Powerful Women Today, targeting women who find themselves in similar situations.
She talks about it in this edition of Bizgnus Interviews…
Please click here to watch Bizgnus Interviews:
https://youtu.be/vFzjqCCKSTU
“My personal mission and vision is to increase women’s visibility and impact,” Ms. Billings writes. “This changes their world as well as giving hope and thought leadership to all women.”
For more information: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinabillings/
Website “Powerful Women Today”
https://powerfulwomentoday.com/
raditional approaches to getting the right people in the right jobs could be a mistake
• “You have to develop your capability as a leader”
(Total Recorded Time is 19:20)
Here’s some good news: Perhaps a third of your workers are actually engaged in their work. The rest? Well, nearly one out of five of the people you’re paying is busy trying to find a new employer.
The figures are from Gallup, which has been measuring worker engagement for years. And they’re a tad better than they used to be.
But how do you boost worker engagement, get their sincere buy-in, retain top talent and recruit in these days of fewer talented workers?
Logan Loomis says he has the equation.
The New Orleans-based attorney, executive coach and author says relying on traditional approaches to getting the right people in the right jobs is a mistake.
In Bizgnus Interviews, he tells us why….
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/F1OSI_SfeBs
“We do have a talent crisis,” Mr. Loomis says. “There are not going to be enough people – particularly technical people – to fill the jobs we have in the Western economy.”
Adding to that is retaining top talent.
“You have to develop your capability as a leader to lead in a way that is going to have people want to work for you and stay with your business,” he says.
Logan Loomis is the author of the new book, “Getting the People Equation Right: How to Get the Right People in the Right Jobs and Keep Them,” (September 2022, Penn & Season Press).
As a lawyer who received training on how to fire someone but not on how to avoid bad hires, Mr. Loomis created an analytical way to consistently make better hiring decisions. He calls it the “People Equation” and says it is based on a combination of solid behavioral theory, application, and data.
For more information: www.LoganLoomis.com
• New leaders just need to understand two words
• “It absolutely helps to be a disciplined manager as the foundation of your leadership.”
(Total Recorded Time is 17:15)
Congratulations on the promotion. Or should that be condolences?
Too often, businesses promote people to what is sarcastically called their level of incompetence.
Leadership consultant Bill Treasurer says people newly promoted to leadership positions often discover that what they thought a leader’s job would be and what it is are two different things.
But Mr. Treasurer says it does not have to be that way.
He’s spent decades offering leadership training and with all of that experience has boiled it down to two words. Or maybe many two words.
He talks about those words in this Bizgnus Interviews podcast
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/jl6bwAmFLw4
“Leadership is management at scale,” he says, noting that good leaders must also be good managers. “It absolutely helps to be a disciplined manager as the foundation of your leadership.”
Bill Treasurer founded Giant Leap Consulting in 2002 and has worked with thousands of leaders in the U.S. and beyond, including NASA, eBay, Lenovo, UBS Bank, Saks Fifth Avenue, and many more.
His newest book is “Leadership Two Words at a Time: Simple Truths for Leading Complicated People,”(BK Publishers, September 2022).
For more information: giantleapconsulting.com
• They had his back in the war. Now he has theirs as they struggle in peacetime
• “The paratroopers from our unit are entering the most dangerous periods of their lives”
(Total Recorded Time is 16:30)
Chris Kolenda went for a bike ride this autumn. But not just the usual around-the-block thing.
Mr. Kolenda rode his bicycle for nearly 1,700 miles –from a cemetery in Nebraska to the nation’s most prominent cemetery –Arlington.
A retired Army colonel, Mr. Kolenda wanted to honor the memories of six men killed in action while under his command in Afghanistan in 2007.
And he hoped to raise funds for miliary families where the veteran is struggling -- sometimes fighting drugs, sometimes depression, post- traumatic stress or other ailments.
Mr. Kolenda also used his ride to call attention to the problem of suicide among military veterans. One estimate says 22 veterans take their own lives every day.
He points to another problem: communications.
“One of the challenges we’ve had is we on the veteran side don’t communicate very well with society about our experiences,” he says. “There’s this sort of expectation that veterans don’t talk about their experiences. And then on the society part, we don’t know how to ask veterans about their experiences.”
Watch the Bizgnus Interview here:
https://youtu.be/IVD3Oa9r-Ow
On his journey, he visited the graves of the six soldiers from his Afghanistan unit who were killed in action:
Donations made during the ride went to the Saber Six Foundation, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit that helps the 800 paratroopers from Mr. Kolenda’s Afghanistan military unit (1-91 CAV, 173rd Airborne), also known as Task Force SABER.
Over 7,000 American service members were killed in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. In the wars’ aftermath, over 30,000 post-9/11 veterans have died by suicide. Mr. Kolenda’s unit has lost more to suicide and substance abuse than were killed in combat.
“I can’t see this happening and do nothing about it,” says Mr. Kolenda. “The paratroopers from our unit are entering the most dangerous periods of their lives. In 15 years, I want to see our unit’s veterans and their families alive and thriving.”
During his military career, now-retired Army Col. Mr. Kolenda was the first American to have both fought the Taliban as a commander in combat and negotiated with them in peace talks. He and his unit also motivated a large insurgent group to switch sides, the only example of such success in the 20-year history of the war.
For more information: HonorRide.us
• Working smarter, not harder
• “Becoming a wise time manager is within our reach
• Twenty-two minutes and 19 seconds that could save you hours – or more
Is time controlling you or are you controlling it?
In her new book, “Beyond Success: Acquiring Time,” certified management consultant Mary Colak says the only option to get the most value from our time is to control how we use time.
“Controlling our time is within our power, and becoming a wise time manager is within our reach,” she says. “When you get it right, the process of time management leads to working smarter, not harder, and getting more done in less time – even when time is tight and pressures are high.”
Mary Colak offers her insights into better time management in this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the podcast:
https://youtu.be/pwXHTD6qgfg
A management consultant with over 20 years of experience, Mary Colak’s first book is ”Beyond Success: Considerations in Making Money” (Discourse Books, February 2022). “Beyond Success: Acquiring Time,” (Discourse Books, October 2022) is her second book in the series.
For more information: https://www.marycolak.com/
• Brian Boyd offers tips for beginners
• “The tax benefits of real estate investing are phenomenal”
(Total Recorded Time is 17:30)
Are housing prices just too high for you to consider investing in residential real estate? It might be time to re-think, says real estate investor and tax attorney Brian Boyd.
He says the post-pandemic white-hot real estate market that saw sellers getting multiple offers has cooled to a normalcy seen before covid, making it easier for would-be investors.
In this Bizgnus Interview podcast Brian Boyd offers some examples from his own experiences.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview: https://youtu.be/8dHbyy2wxL4
“The tax benefits of real estate investing are phenomenal,” says Mr. Boyd. “Between the depreciation, the deductions for interest … the business expense deductions (and) the bonus depreciation … will offset the income that you’re making from your property.”
Brian Boyd has put his experiences into a new book, “Replace your Income: A Lawyer’s Guide to Finding, Funding, and Managing Real Estate Investments,” (Authority Publishing; August 2022).
Mr. Boyd is a lawyer in Nashville, Tennessee,
For more information: https://briantboyd.com/
• Mark Willis says people should bank on themselves
• “When do we ever stop to think about our wants and needs are for ourselves?”
Author and certified financial planner Mark Willis says it worked for him and it works for others.
He is boosting a financial management plan termed “bank on yourself.”
He says that when he graduated college, he was saddled with a six-figure student debt. Mr. Willis says the bank on yourself method involves whole life insurance and borrowing on it.
He explains more in this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/RrJ8TcF_1Hk
“We’re told to do so much,” says Mr. Willis. “yet when do we ever stop to think about our wants and needs are for ourselves?”
Mr. Willis owner of Chicago-based Lake Growth Financial Services, co-host of the Not Your Average Financial Podcast, and an author or co-author of three books.
For more information: GrowYourWealthSafely.com.
• New techniques can be applied at home and work
• “We’d like to think we’re good listeners, but….”
(Total Recorded Time is 6:16)
If you’re trying to communicate better at work, perhaps you could take a lesson from your kids.
Harvard University instructor Rebecca Rolland teaches techniques to communicate more effectively with children in ways that let them foster relationships with less conflict.
She says the same techniques can be used in the workplace, as she explains in this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/H3ju4u8MqpA
Ms. Rolland says quality communication — something she terms "rich talk" — can help build needed communication skills.
Part of this, she says, is the other half of communication: listening.
“We’d like to think we’re good listeners, but we often have a point in our minds, we have out argument pre-formulated,” says Ms. Rolland.
She is the author of the new book, “The Art of Talking With Children,” (HarperOne, March 2022), which details “rich talk” and listening.
For more information: rebeccarolland.com
• What Hemmingway can teach beginning authors
• “If you want to be a professional, you’ve got to treat it like a job”
(Total Recorded Time is 27:24)
So you think you can write a book? If it’s fiction, it will take more than a vague idea of characters and plot and locations. And if non-fiction, you’re in for real research because once that type is set, it’s too late for a rewrite.
So how do professional writers do it? And why are some wildly successful and others never get the attention and money they crave?
Bizgnus talks with authors all the time. Usually it’s about what’s in their books. But in this Bizgnus Interview podcast we talk about how it’s done with Los Angeles-based writer Justin DiPego.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus Interview:
https://youtu.be/LPIn8A1-vk0
“If you want to be a professional, you’ve got to treat it like a job,” Mr. DiPego says. “That seemed so pedestrian to me when I was a young artist. But it turns out it’s so important.”
Mr. DiPego’s newest book is a modern-day adult illustrated fantasy novel, “Wrong Side of a Workingman ,” DiPego Now Entertainment (May 13, 2022).
For more information: https://www.dipegonow.com/
• New brain patterns can help shed limiting beliefs
• “Everything is based around energy. Everything”
(Total Recorded Time is 16:15)
We’ve heard about IQ. And EQ. Now, says veteran executive coach Hilary DeCesare, there’s “HQ.”
She says she’s using it to help women facing the issues of midlife to transform careers to higher levels using new brain patterns that shed limiting beliefs.
Hilary DeCesare explains more in this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/Ny6HH9v4eBI
“Everything is based around energy. Everything,” she says. “And when you are bringing a low level of energy … that is what you attract.”
Ms. DeCesare has expanded on her ideas in a new book, "Relaunch: Spark Your Heart to Ignite Your Life" (New Degree Press, June 2022.)
For more information: https://www.therelaunchcircle.com/
https://therelaunchco.com/
• Cult victim grows into a meditation teacher and yoga guru
• MahanKirn Khalsa talks about her life
From poverty and degradation to worldwide acclaim and riches and then to poverty and ostracism, MahanKirn Khalsa’s life might seem wildly fictional to a listener. But she says she has the scars and the spiritual awakening to prove it.
Now living in Los Angeles, she was born in Florida to hippy parents who. Ms. Khalsa says, essentially gave her to their yogi cult leader.
Now Ms. Khalsa is in the final stages of a two-year project to write her memoir, tentatively tiled “Queen: A Women’s Journey from Sexual Slavery to Radical Forgiveness.”
She joins us for this Bizgnus Interview…
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/yxpZMrHb1yE
For more information: www.mahankirn.com
• Survivor of war-torn Berlin recounts life’s lessons
• An ironic twist to Hitler’s car
For many younger people, the horrors of World War Two are something read about in a history book. But for Vivianne Knebel, the horrors can seem as real today as they were when she was trying to live in the rubble of a bombed-out Berlin.
Born in 1943 in the epicenter of Nazi power during the hail of allied bombing and Soviet shelling, the child came to know poverty and constant hunger as her strong-willed mother fought to keep her alive despite much of Berlin bombed into rubble.
Ironically, the car first sketched by Adolf Hitler – the Volkswagen -- helped change her life. Vivianne Knebel joins us for this Bizgnus Interview….
Please click here to watch the interview…
https://youtu.be/UikNXY5ghLo
Ms. Knebel, who now lives in the San Diego area in Southern California, is the subject of a documentary called “An Unimportant Girl.”
Based on her memoir, "From Rubble To Champagne,” “An Unimportant Girl” tells story.
For more information: https://anunimportantgirl.com/
• It boils down to how you learn and communicate
• “We aim to transform the way people communicate”
(Total Recorded Time is 15:08)
Like most people, you’ve probably been called a lot of things over the years. But genius? Probably not.
But, according to business leadership researcher Catherine Mattiske you might just be a genius, or, more specifically, you might have an inner genius.
Ms. Mattiske explains more in this Bizgnus Interview….
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview: https://youtu.be/JmyT0KY1cp4
“I devised 12 archetypes,” Ms. Mattiske says. She says this helps people “attach their learning preference and their communications style to a particular framework.”
In her new book “Unlock Inner Genius: Power Your Path to Extraordinary Success” (The Performance Company; September 2021) and training course, individuals learn which of 12 “Inner Genius Archetypes” they are by completing a brief online profile. She says this can improve their ability to learn and communicate in all aspects of their life.
“We have never been in a more rapidly changing world than we are now,” says Ms. Mattiske. “We all gather, process, and communicate differently. “By understanding how to interpret information we aim to transform the way people communicate and connect with the world around them.”
For more information: https://thegeniusquotient.com/
• Sales guru puts decades of experience into a new system
• “It’s time for them to stop”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:08)
Stacey Hall has coached entrepreneurs on how to attract sales, satisfaction, and success and says she has distilled her discoveries into a new form of selling, something she calls “selling from one’s comfort zone.”
How does that work? Stacey Hall is our guest for this Bizgnus Interview.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus Interview:
https://youtu.be/Tp9gxc0uaNw
A bestselling author, TEDx presenter, and developer of the groundbreaking social media marketing training program known as “Go for YES,” Ms. Hall’s new book is “Selling from Your Comfort Zone: The Power of Alignment Marketing,” (BK Publishers, July 2022).
Ms. Hall says her approach to sales success is about as opposite from old-fashioned ways as it can get.
“These pushy, spammy sales-y ways that have been taught for so long … actually don’t work,” she says. “It’s time for them to stop.”
For more information: https://www.staceyannhall.com/home/
• Joanne Intrator needed patience, expertise in psychopaths and a sense of outrage
• “It is a faceless bureaucracy”
(TRT 16:55)
This is a story about commercial real estate -- and a tenacious descendant.
It goes back to the 1930s in Germany when the Nazis forced a Berlin family to give up their business and its textile factory.
Fast-forward to the end of the 20th Century and psychiatrist Dr. Joanne Intrator, who picks up the story in this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/1W0Z1TEqB8c
“It is a faceless bureaucracy,” she says of her years threading her way through Germany’s byzantine bureaucracy
Ms. Intrator details her battle with the Berlin bureaucrats in a memoir, “Summons to Berlin.”
During her research into the history of the Nazi theft, she discovered by her family’s textile factory had been used to make Nazi flags -- and one million yellow stars – the same stars that were sewn onto her grandfather’s clothes.
She says her psychiatrist expertise in psychopaths helped her to understand and confront the German bureaucrats, and ultimately gain restitution for her family's building.
For more information: https://joanneintrator.com/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• The most serious problems compiled
• “So the average person might read it and understand what we need to deal with”
(Total Recorded Time is 15:27)
Drought. Global warming. Destruction of the ionosphere. Famine. Deforestation. Rising sea levels. We have all heard the reports, studies and more about how our planet’s very being is threatened.
Now a veteran journalist has brought them together in a new book, written for the layman.
He’s Berl Falbaum and “Code Red! Code Red!” is his 12th book -- and perhaps the most worrisome.
Berl Falbaum joins us for this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/n-zqiw9XGJs
Mr. Falbaum stresses that the book is just a digest of the threats to the Earth.
“Each of the topics I cover, and I cover only a few, could be the subject of a book itself,” he says. “I purposely kept it brief―three to five pages―and avoided complex scientific analysis so the average person might read it and understand what we need to deal with.”
Over his 60-year career in journalism, politics and PR, Mr. Falbaum has been a general assignment and political reporter for The Detroit News, administrative aide to Michigan's lieutenant governor, speech writer and media spokesman for three major corporations, and founded his own PR company in 1989. He’s also taught a variety of journalism courses as an adjunct member in Detroit's Wayne State University journalism department.
Mr. Falbaum does not have a website, but the soft cover and ebook are available at Amazon.com.
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Why automated marketing is losing its punch
• “We’re doing things that annoy people”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:58
"Knock knock!"
"Who's there?"
"Interrupting Cow."
"Interrupting Cow wh--"
"MOOOO!"
If you have children or grandchildren, you’ve probably heard the joke,
But Mark Schaefer isn’t laughing.
When it comes to marketing, few know the ins and outs better than Mr. Schaefer, a keynote speaker, educator, business consultant, and author.
And he says it’s time to stop irritating people with your cow-like marketing.
“We’re doing things that annoy people,” he says. “Marketing historically has been a combination of psychology and sociology and anthropology – not automation.
“If we’re spamming people, if we’re interrupting them, intercepting them in a way that annoys then, we need to stop.”
After more than 30 years in global sales, PR, and marketing and as executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions working with companies as diverse as Adidas, Johnson & Johnson, GE Life Sciences, the U.S. Air Force and the UK government, he says it’s increasingly difficult to do effective marketing.
He says that’s due to a raft of reasons, ranging from the sheer volume of information that’s flooding the world to the seemingly infinite number of channels delivering it.
What’s the answer or answers? Mark Schaefer joins us for this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/CVkDp7_OZMU
Mark Schaefer has spoken in 35 different countries and is the author of nine books, some of which have been used as textbooks at more than 70 universities and translated into 14 languages.
For more information: https://businessesgrow.com/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• But beware of metaverse hype
• “As it is, we are isolated enough”
(Total Recorded Time is 21:15)
The success of your business may depend not so much on your business plan but your IT plan, says entrepreneur John Farhat.
A serial entrepreneur, Mr. Farhat owns a number of companies, the most prominent of which is the privately held IT consulting firm Farhat Services Company Inc. of Columbus, Ohio.
“It’s basically a strategy company,” Mr. Farhat says of what his firm does. “You can have all the business plans in the world, but if your IT is moving south, and your business plan says you need to move north, you’re in fact moving south.”
Mr. Farhat joins us for this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/zBz1HuEdX-4
But what about the future? What about the so-called “metaverse” being pushed by the founder of a social media site?
As involved in IT as he is, it’s not for Mr. Farhat, who is unequivocal about his feelings.
“I have stayed as far away from metaverse as humanly possible,” he says. “As it is, we are isolated enough and we don’t need any more technology between us. What we need to do is shut down the technology every once in a while and go up to somebody and shake hands and say ‘good morning.’”
For more information: https://fscix.com/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Revealed: Why some relationships grind into failure
• “Work today is a team sport”
(Total Recorded Time is 22:27)
If you’re an older person, perhaps you’ve said to yourself, the kids these says: what’s wrong with them? And if you’re in Gen Z or younger, you might well have questioned the wisdom of older people.
A study from the University of California, Santa Barbara, finds younger generations are judged by older generations to be deficient in the traits in which the older happen to [believe they] excel.
Chris De Santis, an independent organizational behavior practitioner, speaker, and author, says differences of any kind—is reflected in the title of his newest book, “Why I Find you Irritating.”
“Prepare people to succeed in the work they’re doing,” Mr. De Santis says. “Leverage the strength they have in the work because work today is a team sport.”
He joins us for this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/oCetJWXi0xk
Over the past fifteen years, Mr. De Santis has spoken on generational issues in the workplace at hundreds of the major U.S. law and accounting firms, as well as many of the major insurance and pharma companies.
His new book is Why I Find You Irritating: Navigating Generational Friction at Work (Amplify Publishing, May 2022).
For more information: cpdesantis.com
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Your brain knows but may not tell you
• “It would be great to say we never fall victim to our brain’s little tricks once we know about them”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:30)
Watch it! Your brain may be about to fool you, cautions Melina Palmer, founder and CEO of The Brainy Business, which provides behavioral economics
consulting to businesses.
“It would be great to say we never fall victim to our brain’s little tricks once we know about them,” says Ms. Palmer, a behavioral economist. “Humans make, on average, 35,000 decisions every single day. That’s a lot and we can’t consciously process all of that information.”
So the subconscious handles the heavy load, she says. “It’s able to work so much faster.”
Understanding the tricks of the brain can help consumers as well as those selling to consumers, she says.
Melina Palmer joins us for this un-tricky Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/X9Gr6n5uF9A
Ms. Palmer, a member of the Global Association of Applied Behavioral Scientists, has contributed research to the Association for Consumer Research, Filene Research Institute, and writes the Behavioral Economics and Business column for Inc Magazine. She teaches applied behavioral economics through the Texas A and M Human Behavior Lab.
Her first book was, “What Your Customer Wants and Can’t Tell You,”published in May 2021. Her second book, “What Your Employees Need and Can’t Tell You, is scheduled for publication in October 2022.
For more information: https://thebrainybusiness.com/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• From stand-up to outstanding – with a lot of work
• “It is a leadership tool”
(Total Recorded Time is 23:44)
It takes a lot of practice to do improv, whether on stage as an entertainer or in front of your staff as the organization’s leader, says Peter Margaritis, a CPA who calls himself the “Accidental Accountant” and who has been doing something other than crunching numbers for years.
Not overly in love with accounting, Mr. Margaritis tried standup comedy in the late 1980s. Since he’s not seen cracking jokes on late night TV, it may be apparent the spotlight failed to find him.
But that attempt to make people laugh opened a new door for him as a leadership coach, speaker and author.
“Improv … is about the ability to take our knowledge and experiences and bring it into any situation,” says Mr. Margaritis. “It is a leadership tool.”
Peter Margaritis talks about improving your impro in this Bizgnis Interview podcast. Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/xHlxtxUZf2o
His newest book is “Off Script: Mastering the Art of Business Improvisation,” (Silver Tree Publishing, November 2021).
For more information: http://petermargaritis.com
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Solving the worker training question
• “The pull for labor will be different going forward”
(Total Recorded Time is 22:14)
More than half of U.S. adults don't feel they have a stable, well-paying job that lets them have both a comfortable quality of life and presents a career path with opportunities for growth. That’s according to a survey paid for by Goodwill.
It’s even worse among those who are employed and not in an ideal job. More than two out of three – 68 percent – say they need more training or skills to have such a position.
Maureen Metcalf – founder and CEO of the Innovative Leadership Institute – in Columbus, Ohio, says these are changes that business leaders need to address.
“The pull for labor will be different going forward,” says Ms. Metcalf. “We’re already in many cases struggling to staff our organizations. If we re-shore things that have been offshored, I imagine the labor shortage will continue and inflation will continue.”
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/7CslI5OUCiY
Ms. Metcalf notes that many of those workers who are replaced by robots are finding it difficult to regain comparable jobs because they lack training.
“This is now a public issue as they are drawing unemployment,” she says. “Our communities are picking up the costs of workforce training because to attract businesses, we need a trained workforce.”
Ms Metcalf is a Fellow of the International Leadership Association, serves on the Advisory Board at the School of Strategic Leadership at James Madison University and the Mason Leadership Center at Franklin University.
(The Goodwill polling results are based on a survey of 2,318 adults ages 18-65 who are currently working, looking for work, or would be working if they didn't face barriers to employment. The poll was administered March 17 through April 4, 2022, using YouGov's online panel and by research firm, PerryUndem The margin of sampling error for the total results is ±3 percentage points.)
For more information: https://www.innovativeleadershipinstitute.com/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Career with candymaker revealed the teamwork sweet spot
• Individual motivation is the key to collaboration effectiveness he says
(Total Recorded Time is 20:58)
Carlos Valdes-Dapena says we’re doing teamwork wrong
Companies and organizations that think they have great teamwork may be deluding themselves, says Mr. Valdes-Dapena.
Traditional team building offers a quick fix, or distraction, from a team's real issues, he says.
“I have a particular focus on what does and does not work in the realm of teams and team building,” says Mr. Valdes-Dapena.
He built a better way while working in management for the candy maker Mars Inc. After 17 years there, he formed his own company, Corporate Collaboration Resources LLC, to take his techniques to other organizations.
Carlos Valdes-Dapena joins us for this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/bYGNEoAn_-k
He says his research at the highest organizational levels points to individual motivation as the key to collaboration effectiveness. This shift empowers teams to create a culture of collaboration.
For more information: https://www.carlosvdapena.com/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• It’s one your mother may have taught you
• “Gratitude is really the foundation of business”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:54)
Gratitude, real gratitude, is more than a vigorous “thank you.” Followed carefully, gratitude can shape lives – and even help businesses, especially in these days of the so-called “great resignation.”.
“Gratitude is really the foundation of business. Gratitude is the foundation of life,” says Lisa Ryan, a former welder who for more than a decade has been showing businesses how they can keep their employees engaged in their work.
She quotes the late Mother Teresa as say, “We are more starved for appreciation than we are for bread.”
According to its research, the polling firm Gallup Inc. says employee engagement is slumping in the United States.
Fewer than one out of three people drawing a paycheck is engaged with their work, says Gallup. The 2022 measurement of 32 percent engagement is down from 36 percent in 2020, pre-pandemic.
And Gallup says one out of six of your workers – 17 percent – is “actively disengaged.”
A little gratitude – real gratitude – might solve this.
Lisa Ryan joins us for this Bizgnus Interview podcast to talk about real gratitude and its role in business.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/f18ZW_CZL0g
Lis Ryan is author of ten books, including “Manufacturing Engagement: 98 Proven Strategies to Attract and Retain Your Industry’s Top Talent” and is an international keynote speaker.
For more information: https://lisaryanspeaks.com/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Paul Powers’ company goes beyond searching by words
• “We’re at the precipice of a new era”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:39)
Be not afraid. At least of the coming “metaverses” that are being envisioned, says Paul Powers, founder and chief executive officers of the software maker PhysNa of Columbus, Ohio.
“We’re at the precipice of a new era,” says Mr. Powers. “People who can foreseee that … can act on it now.”
His company has written programs that help find objects not by words, such as a database search, but by their actual seeable characteristics, such as shape. In laymen’s terms, while very useable in a two-dimension world, it could become the Google of the three-dimensional metaverse.
Paul Powers joins us for this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/dnhOD_eCH4s
Mr. Powers’ company has also made a free version of its basic programs, which it calls “Thangs.” In the company’s words, “Thangs gives creators access to powerful search, collaboration and AI-powered predictive tools that have never been available before in the world of 3D data.”
Mr. Powers says he is passionate about the next generation of immersive technology that breaks down the barriers between the physical and digital worlds.
In 2019, he was recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the brightest young entrepreneurs in the United States in the Forbes 30 Under 30. Mr. Powers has presented on the TED Talk stage and at several tech startup conferences like StartUp Grind, ConX19, and Startup of the Year at SXSW.
For more information: https://www.physna.com/
For more information: https://thangs.com/
• We know what’s wrong. Now, here are some solutions
• “There is definitely an increase in intolerance”
(Total Recorded Time is 22:33)
And it's not just Americans. Everyone seems to be arguing more.
Ken Cloke should know. For decades he has been a mediator and arbitrator, helping settle disputes and researching causes and solutions to impasses of all kinds and sizes.
“There is definitely an increase in intolerance, a kind of lower threshold for empathy, less interest in hearing who the other person actually is and what’s important to them,” he says. “A great deal of this comes from a variety of different stresses and pressures that are creating a fear in people of illness, of loss, of change that they aren’t entirely prepared for.”
He says he’s seeing a definite increase in vexatiousness among Americans and that it’s not entirely connected to being cooped up by the COVID pandemic.
He joins us in this Bizgnus Interview podcast with ideas you can apply immediately to help solve disputes of all sizes.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/_1Am6eFlV8k
Kenneth Cloke is director of the Center for Dispute Resolution, based in Columbus, Ohio. He’s a tad busy, with his company saying he’s a mediator, arbitrator, facilitator, coach, consultant and trainer, specializing in communication, negotiation, and resolving complex multi-party disputes, including marital, divorce, family, community, grievance and workplace disputes, collective bargaining negotiations, organizational and school conflicts, sexual harassment, discrimination, and public policy disputes; and designing preventative conflict resolution systems.
For more information: www.kencloke.com
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ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Claudette Cain Coulas offers examples from her own life
• “Become the CEO of your own life”
(Total Recorded Time is 25:30)
Radio, television, newspapering and politics. Claudette Cain Coulas has had multiple careers, including being elected five times as the mayor of Gloucester, Ontario prior to its merger into the city of Ottawa.
Now, Ms. Cain Coulas has created what she describes as a roadmap that can lead passionate, driven and committed women to an exciting life filled with peace and serenity.
In this Bizgnus Interview podcast, she addresses those seemingly contradictory goals.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview: https://youtu.be/v5jljXphdJg
“I want to encourage more women to believe in themselves, to focus on what inspires them and then dare them to take a risk on themselves,” she says. “Become the CEO of your own life.”
Claudette Cain Coulas was elected to five consecutive terms on the Gloucester council, three of which were as mayor. She has hosted a live public affairs television show, anchored “Raising Cain” on CFRA, Ottawa’s major talk radio station, all while being the municipal affairs columnist with the Ottawa Sun newspaper. She recently retired as a justice of the peace with the Ontario Court of Justice.
She is the author of the new book, “Ladies Take Your Place, Leave Your Mark Politically, Professionally and Personally,” Black Card Books (April 2022).
Ms. Cain Coulas says proceeds from her book will be shared with Kingston’s Dawn House, a homeless women's shelter, and Women for Mental Health at the Royal in Ottawa.
For more information: https://claudettecaincoulas.com/about/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Going beyond Dale Carnegie
• “What I talk about is the science of influence”
(Total Recorded Time is 20:00)
Dale Carnegie called it “human engineering.” Some call it manipulation.
But Brian Ahearn says it’s learning how to ethically influence people.
He says the ability to ethically influence people is a skill anyone can learn, practice, and perfect.
“We all exert some amount of influence by merely being present,” he says. “What I talk about is the science of influence.”
Mr. Ahearn, who is the chief influence officer at the firm Influence PEOPLE, in Columbus, Ohio, specializes in applying the science of influence in everyday business situations.
He joins us for this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/BXXrG6ccNZ8
Mr. Ahearn spent more than 30 years in the insurance industry and is one of only a dozen individuals in the world who currently holds the Cialdini Method Certified Trainer designation.
His first book, “Influence PEOPLE,” was named one of the Top 100 influence books of all time by BookAuthority. His second book, “Persuasive Selling for Relationship Driven Insurance Agents,” was an Amazon new release bestseller.
His new book is “The Influencer: Secrets to Success and Happiness.”
For more information: https://www.influencepeople.biz
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Expert says better outcomes happen when workers take control of their careers
• “Intrinsic motivation replaces any external consequences”
(Total Recorded Time is 27:17)
Keep your hands to yourself! That might be one of the first commands for
“self-management” that a child hears. But self-management is much more
than that, especially when it comes to careers.
“Self-management is the ability and the will to act in the best interest of the organization in such a way that intrinsic motivation replaces any external consequences imposed to reward or punish performance,” says Michael Colburn, who has taught management courses at Ohio State and Ashland University among other universities.
He says by using five key tools, a person can take a more entrepreneurial approach to their job and career, resulting in a better, more rewarding job with high job performance and influence.
Michael Colburn joins us with more in this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview: https://youtu.be/9yZPxwJusr8
Mr. Colburn’s latest book is “Own Your Job: Five Tools for Self-Management and Accountability in the Workplace,” EFG Press (July 2019).
Mr. Colburn recently retired as an associate professor from Ashland University where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in organization development, operations management, strategic management and self-management and accountability. He received his doctorate from Ohio State University. His doctoral dissertation on the education of the engineer challenged the traditional view of teaching and grading to a more self-directed and accountable role of the student in collaboration with their professors.
For more information: https://www.michaelcolburnphd.com/
===============================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Lockdown stifles his business, so this entrepreneur reinvents himself
• “A memorable personal brand can truly amplify your business”
(Total Recorded Tie is 15:50)
Forced to shut down his events company because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lewis Schenk knew he needed to pivot and build a business that could future-proof itself. To do that, he says he drew upon many lessons learned from the golf course. Now, as the pandemic seems to be easing, his new endeavor, the public relations company Boost Media Agency, boasts of having served more than 500 clients globally.
Lewis Schenk joins us for this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/Wdp6s40LIBU
“By leveraging the power of human connection and interaction, a memorable personal brand can truly amplify your business,” Mr. Schenk says. “I truly believe there are endless possibilities for what you can do by strategically positioning yourself as an authority online.”
For more information: www.boostmediaagency.com
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Doctor Roo hops to the rescue in unusual book series
• “I’ve had her in my mind for many years”
(Total Recorded Time is 25:12)
To the ranks of “doctors” like Derek Shepherd and Meredith Gray of “Grey's Anatomy,” Henry Higgins of “My Fair Lady” and Dr. Watson of Sherlock Holmes fame, it may be time to add Doctor Roo.
Who?
Doctor Roo is perhaps the most unusual of this literary lot, being a kangaroo.
The character, also referred to as Doctoroo, has been created by a real doctor, Rachel Wellner, who has been in practice for more than 20 years and is a breast oncology surgeon.
“I’ve had her in my mind for many years. I’ve always wanted a story for children,” she says. “I felt this was a good way to connect with children.”
Ms. Wellner is out with the third book in her series about Doctor Marsha Roo. She joins us for this Bizgnus Podcast Interview to tell why she has made time in her schedule to write this series of books.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/abX8-RiyAsA
Please click here to listen to the Bizgnus interview or to download the audio file:
https://tinyurl.com/Bizgnus-Wellner
The Doctoroo children's series follows an MD kangaroo – and her animal friends -- as they go on various adventures. The third book in the series is “Doctoroo & The Case of the Red Hot Hawaiians.”
Ms. Wellner says she created the series to encourage parents to read and teach their children about health and safety.
For more information: https://drrachelwellner.com/
Or
https://www.doctoroo.health/
• Doctor Roo hops to the rescue in unusual book series
• “I’ve had her in my mind for many years”
(Total Recorded Time is 25:12)
To the ranks of “doctors” like Derek Shepherd and Meredith Gray of “Grey's Anatomy,” Henry Higgins of “My Fair Lady” and Dr. Watson of Sherlock Holmes fame, it may be time to add Doctor Roo.
Who?
Doctor Roo is perhaps the most unusual of this literary lot, being a kangaroo.
The character, also referred to as Doctoroo, has been created by a real doctor, Rachel Wellner, who has been in practice for more than 20 years and is a breast oncology surgeon.
“I’ve had her in my mind for many years. I’ve always wanted a story for children,” she says. “I felt this was a good way to connect with children.”
Ms. Wellner is out with the third book in her series about Doctor Marsha Roo. She joins us for this Bizgnus Podcast Interview to tell why she has made time in her schedule to write this series of books.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/abX8-RiyAsA
The Doctoroo children's series follows an MD kangaroo – and her animal friends -- as they go on various adventures. The third book in the series is “Doctoroo & The Case of the Red Hot Hawaiians.”
Ms. Wellner says she created the series to encourage parents to read and teach their children about health and safety.
For more information: https://drrachelwellner.com/
Or
https://www.doctoroo.health/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Research identifies leadership and culture as catalysts
• “Leadership must take the lead in aligning mindsets, structures, skills, and culture”
(Total Recorded Time is 16:51)
Organizations aren’t quick to change and most businesses are around for profit. So does the issue of “sustainability” mean anything for the future of business?
Yes, says a new study by the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and JMJ, an Austin, Texas-based cultural transformation firm.
“The Bennett Institute’s research underscores the link JMJ has identified between an organization's culture and the success of its sustainability strategy,” says Jeff Williams, CEO at JMJ. “Those that treat ESG (environmental, social and governance considerations) as a box-ticking exercise will fail to take advantage of the strategic opportunity presented by enabling sustainability across all activities.
“If an organization is going to embrace sustainability as a practice, leadership must take the lead in aligning mindsets, structures, skills, and culture,” Mr. Williams says.
Jeff Williams is our guest on this Bizgnus Interview Podcast. Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/cBbHCF951o4
“There is no doubt leaders in business will need to embed sustainability in their corporate strategies,” says Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge Diane Coyle,. “Many will already have realized the importance of sustainability metrics. They need to go beyond that discussion to think about how their strategy, culture, and day-to-day activities will have to change -- and about the role of leadership in delivering that.”
For more information: https://www.jmj.com/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Final success should include your ownership strategy
• “Most business owners don't understand the need to have an ownership strategy”
(Total Recorded Time is 17:24)
Once a new business gets to the point where financial survival is no longer an issue, another issue pops up. It’s called having an ownership strategy.
Bruce Werner learned that as he started and built businesses in finance, energy, retail, and technology, in addition to being a partner in a private equity fund.
He joins us for this Bizgnus Interview Podcast to talk about having an ownership strategy…
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus Interview:
https://youtu.be/cIldWp9E4C8
"As we age, our priorities change due to what life hands us along the way," says Mr. Werner, author of the new book, “Your Ownership Journey: 12 Secrets for Business and Personal Success (2022, Indie Books International).
"After working with business owners for many years, I've concluded that most business owners don't understand the need to have an ownership strategy that's separate from their business strategy," says Mr. Werner
For more information: www.brucewerner.com or
www.konaadvisors.com
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• The “age of Horatio Alger” is not yet over
• “Leadership is something you can learn”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:52. Recorded on March 30, 2022)
Spoiler alert: Here is the swoon-inducing ending to Horatio Alger’s most famous story, “Ragged Dick.”
"When, in short, you were 'Ragged Dick.' You must drop that name, and think of yourself now as"—
"Richard Hunter, Esq.," said our hero, smiling.
"A young gentleman on the way to fame and fortune," added Fosdick.
Fame and fortune were not guaranteed for any of Mr. Alger’s heroes nor for the very real Ted Clark.
Mr. Clark did something that is seldom seen: He rose from a shipping clerk to be the chief executive officer of a major U.S. corporation.
“Leadership is something you can learn,” says Mr. Clark. “It’s hard to find good frontline leaders. Unless you take the initiative to help develop them, lots of companies are going to be lamenting the fact that they can’t get good people to work for them.”
Is it possible to rise in business from an entry level grunt job to the corner office? Ted Clark offers his insights in this Bizgnus Interview Podcast.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/zwQna6M6vOw
With more than 40 years’ experience as a senior executive in both public and privately owned specialty chemical companies, Mr. Clark now consults with business managers on acquisitions and growth strategies using private equity capital.
His new book, “Shipping Clerk to CEO: The Power of Curiosity, Will, and Self-Directed Learning,” (Dudley Court Press, March 2022), chronicles his journey from an inexperienced high school graduate starting as an entry-level shipping clerk to his rise at 42 years old to CEO, what he and his team achieved in the five years he led PRC, and the lessons he learned along the way.
For more information: www.shippingclerktoceo.com
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Bob Schlegel gives the keys to success
• “The big thing is to never give up”
(Total Recorded Time is 17:37)
Sometimes success is the ability to see how a humble product popular in one area can fill a need in a totally different area.
Entrepreneur Bob Schlegel did that with something you’ll find in more than 2,000 Home Depot stores: paving stones.
“Keep working away. Try things. Keep on going. The big thing is to never give up,” Mr. Schlegel says. “Persistence is the Number One thing in the success of any startup. Never give up”
Beyond starting, growing, and running a business, it’s important to first build a foundation to ensure a meaningful entrepreneurial career, says the man who brought the concept of do it yourself paving from Canada to the U.S.
He says this means budding entrepreneurs must assess their capacity for persistence, educating themselves, entrepreneurial drive, and passion for pursing business opportunities. Mr. Schlegel says added to those is the quality of partnerships in business and in life.
Bob Schlegel is our guest on this Bizgnus Interview Podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/-f3ccQyBKe8
Bob Schlegel is author of “Angels and Entrepreneurs: A Lifestyle Formula for Starting Your Own Business and Riding the Rollercoaster of Entrepreneurship,” (SAVIO Republic, February 2022).
For more information: bobschlegelauthor.com
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Veteran entrepreneur says women need to be their true authentic selves
• “When you are living your life inauthentically, you will feel exhausted”
(Total Recorded Time is 13:15)
Many women entrepreneurs fall into the trap of trying to fill the cups of others — and their business — without filling their own cup first.
“There are 12 traps that we get caught up in,” says seasoned entrepreneur Deanna Herrin. “In my years as an entrepreneur … I was learning to become a great leader, learning to become better at certain skill sets, I was learning to become a person who could lead other leaders.”
But that was a trap, she found. What was needed develop as a true leader was to un-become certain aspects of life that she calls lies.
“When you are living your life inauthentically, you will feel exhausted,” Ms. Herrin writes in her new book, “Unbecoming: A Journey to Finding Her,” (independently published, February 2022).
She explains the title of her book this way: “It’s about unbecoming the lies that we have believed for so many years to really be your true authentic self.”
Deanna Herrin joins us for this Bizgnus Interview Podcast:
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/6Pc-r4lH-Pg
Ms. Herrin says unbecoming is rooted in one simple truth: “The search for true joy is not external.”
An entrepreneur, author, and podcast host of “The Deanna Herrin Show,” Ms. Herrin has spent the past 23 years working with thousands of female entrepreneurs growing small businesses and teams in the wellness space. Ms. Herrin is a speaker on leadership, limiting beliefs, and money mindset.
For more information: https://deannaherrin.net/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Leaders must change their approach, expert says
• “Traditional brainstorming sessions need a serious overhaul”
(Total Recorded Time is 25:38)
Running a brainstorming session is a great way to explore new ideas. Leaders at all levels use this strategy to promote innovation. But how do you do it when the participants are scattered into little video squares in a Zoom meeting?
Traditional brainstorming methods fail to produce valuable results in a World of Zoom and similar remote meet-ups, says leadership consultant Gleb Tsipursky.
“Extensive research shows that, when it comes to innovation, hybrid and remote teams can outcompete in-person teams by adopting best practices around digital communication and collaboration,” he says.
But too often, leaders reject new practices in favor of more familiar ones that simply do not work as well in a part-remote, part in-person world, he says.
In today’s rapidly changing world of work, “it’s time to admit that traditional brainstorming sessions need a serious overhaul,” Mr. Tsipursky says.
Gleb Tsipursky talks about the changes that leaders must make to be more effective in the post-COVID era in this Bizgnus Interview Podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/rtAIu4EdQa0
The larger the in-person group, the fewer novel ideas per person, whereas the opposite is true for virtual brainstorming, he says, noting that the same research finds that virtual environments provide a better experience for group members as a whole, balancing the preferences of introverts and extroverts, optimists and pessimists, and lower- and higher-status members.
“In summary, virtual brainstorming is better for innovation — and for people,” says Mr. Tsipursky.
Gleb Tsipursky is the author of many books and articles on leadership, including his newest book, “Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams: A Manual on Benchmarking to Best Practices for Competitive Advantage,” (August 2021, 2nd Ed.; Disaster Avoidance Experts Press.)
Mr. Tsipursky, a former professor at Ohio State University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is chief executive officer of Disaster Avoidance Experts of Columbus, Ohio, which focuses on future-proofing, decision making, and cognitive bias risk management in the future of work.
For more information: https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• What the Nez Perce War may presage
• “It’s just heartbreaking how the ambition of a few can cause such damage and destruction”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:19)
If you asked 10 Americans what they know about Chief Joseph or the Nez Perce War, eleven of them would draw a blank. But could there be a parallel to the current war in Ukraine and a war in the western United States nearly a century and a half ago?
Attorney, author, and historian Julia Sullivan says a definite “yes.”
“I’ve actually spent a fair amount of time in Ukraine. I taught at Berdyansk State Pedagogical Institute and Zaporizhzya National University in 2016, and I still have friends there,” Ms. Sullivan says in an email. “Berdyansk is now under Russian control and the university (along with most everything else) is closed. Zaporizhzya is the site of the nuclear power plant that Russian forces infamously fired upon.”
The author of the new historical novel, “Bone Necklace,” (Brandylane; June 3, 2022), Ms. Sullivan says both wars “are David & Goliath struggles – a small but determined army facing overwhelming odds,”
Julia Sullivan joins us for this Bizgnus Interview Podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/nUGMsPsNuFE
“It’s just heartbreaking how the ambition of a few can cause such damage and destruction,” Ms. Sullivan says.
She notes additional parallels between the Nez Perce War and the current situation in Ukraine. In both wars, an unlikely leader arose: Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce and President Zelensky of Ukraine and “both wars are completely senseless.”
“The Ukrainian people, like the Nez Perce, face an impossible choice: submit to autocratic rule or flee their homeland, possibly for good,” Ms. Sullivan says. “Some Ukrainians may wind up in Canada, where the Nez Perce refugees did.”
She adds that most refugees never return home. But in 2020, nearly 150 years after the war, the Nez Perce returned to Joseph, Ore.
“One day, I hope to celebrate the return of Ukraine,” Ms. Sullivan says.
For more information: https://www.juliasullivanauthor.com
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• When big money is chasing a small inventory, what’s to do?
• “Multi-family… contain all the basic fundamentals that you can carry over to any other sector”
(Total Recorded Time is 25:38)
Hypergrowth in multifamily real estate has led to white-hot competition for available properties, resulting in waiting lists of would-be buyers, all of whom seem ready and willing to take on more risk for less reward than ever before.
But Sam Liebman, a seasoned investor in commercial property who has owned substantial interests in over 70 properties during the past 30 years, cautions that instead of getting caught up in the frenzy and making a reckless purchase, it’s critical to carry out on-the-ground research.
Mr. Liebman joins us for this Bizgnus Interview Podcast to talk about mastering the core fundamentals of real estate systematically, how to decipher where to increase value, and more.
“Multi-family, especially garden apartment complexes, contain all the basic fundamentals that you can carry over to any other sector,” he says. “Once you learn the fundamentals of multi-family, then you can easily transition to office buildings, or retail, etcetera. If I just focused on retail, there would be so many fundamentals that would be lost.”
Mr. Liebman is founder and CEO of WealthWay Equity Group LLC, a New York-based private equity and real estate development company. His investments have ranged from multifamily communities, office buildings and shopping centers to the ground up construction of a luxury 21-story condominium development in Manhattan. He is also CEO of Rolling Cash Realty Inc., a real estate management company, as well as a partner in Tepper & Co., a certified public accounting firm.
His new book is “Harvard Can’t Teach What You Learn from the Streets: The Street Success Guide to Building Wealth through Multi-Family Real Estate,” (Made for Success Publishing, Jan. 11, 2022).
For more information: samliebman.com
If you found this report of use, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by sending your email to this address: editor@bizgnus.com We will not share it with anyone
• Done right, it can grab attention and cement your message in the mind
• “We connect with those businesses that take risks and laugh at themselves”
(Total Recorded Time is 25:58)
Is your marketing a joke? Seriously, adding humor to marketing may improve it, say the marketing mavens of humorous cat litter and other things, Shelby Dash and Kristina Clifford.
The owners of Take2Content in Los Angeles, are using humor to help clients find and retain customers on social media.
For the cat litter advertiser, the pair “decided to tackle the ‘cat lady’ stigma head on, by positioning our spokesperson as the complete opposite: a cat goddess.”
The product, Pretty Litter, is a silica-based litter that changes colors based on what’s in a cat’s urine. The colors can offer early signs of health problems.
“Pretty Litter gave us the flexibility to have full creative freedom (and a little too much fun) with this video,” say the commercial’s creators. “We handled every element of video production from ideation to final edit.”
Shelby Dash and Kristina Clifford joins us for this Bizgnus Interview Podcast to talk a bit about littler and a lot about marketing with humor.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus podcast, including a portion of the Pretty Litter spot:
https://youtu.be/CsY43x50-qY
“We connect with those businesses that take risks and laugh at themselves,” says Ms. Clifford. “That’s a good quality to have in a business.”
In the podcast Ms. Dash and Ms. Clifford also offer five ideas on how to create a successful social media ad campaign.
For more information: https://www.take2content.com
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ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Samuel Nkwume targets new audiences with his movies
• “It’s really wonderful to do something that you enjoy doing, something you’re passionate about”
(Total Recorded Time is 13:22)
Hollywood producer Samuel Nkwume hopes to carve his film-making career out of the splintering world of video streaming.
Already an experienced producer of thriller films, Mr. Nkwume is seeking a wider audience for his newest movie, called “Game of Fear.”
He joins us on the Bizgnus Interview podcast to talk about the opportunities he sees in the Hollywood of the 21st Century.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztwk-iZaHUQ
A native of Nigeria, Mr. Nkwume began his career as an auditor before pursuing his creative interests and studying film. He has recently branched out to become a writer and director.
“I always wanted to work in the film industry,” Mr. Nkwume says. “But in Nigeria there wasn’t a lot of opportunity.”
Thus the move to the U.S. and Hollywood.
“It’s really wonderful to do something that you enjoy doing, something you’re passionate about,” he says.
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Stopping the death of a free press
• “We’ve seen in the last decade or so a massive, severe drop in local news”
(Total Recorded Tine is 27:41)
You might remember seeing them at various events around town such as a school board meeting -- back in the day. Or perhaps you remember smudging your fingers on the ink from the morning paper, reading what they wrote -- back in the day.
The apex of that “ancient” time was only about two decades ago, when the local newspaper sent reporters to cover the meeting of your school board or town council, a performance of the local concert band or a ribbon-cutting at a new local business.
According to the Pew Research Center, newspaper newsroom employment peaked in 2006 at about 74,000 jobs. Today that number has fallen to under 30,000.
It’s a slide expected to continue, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which says “declining advertising revenue … is expected to impact the long-term demand” for reporters and editors.
Trying to do something about it is the nonprofit organization Report for America, which places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities, paying half of their first-year wages and a third of their pay in year two.
Heading that effort is Steven Waldman, a former newspaper journalist.
“We’ve seen in the last decade or so a massive, severe drop in local news – in the capacity of local reporting particularly,” says Mr. Waldman.
He says the lack of local news coverage isn’t just about reporter jobs or empty newspaper buildings. It is, he says, a growing threat to American democracy.
“This isn’t just about journalists not having jobs. This is about communities not being well-informed,” he says. “When you have a collapse on this scale of local news … voter turnout goes down, corruption goes up, bond ratings go down, pollution goes up, people’s engagement with the community lags, people’s alienation from the community increases, polarization increases.”
Steven Waldman joins us for this Bizgnus Interview Podcast. It’s not all doom-n-gloom as Mr. Waldman can see changes taking hold that might save the industry – and the democracy.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/LtwgsjS5HdY
For more information: https://www.reportforamerica.org/
“Brands can no longer do what they want”time to re-think the relationship between an organization’s brand and society says branding expert Jane Cavalier Lucas.
“It is time to re-think the relationship between brands and society," says Ms. Cavalier (Lucas), author of the new book, “The Enchanted Brand: Strengthening the Human Side of Business in the Age of New Essentialism” (2022, Indie Books International).
Ms. Cavalier says traditional brands have sold without any accountability for their cultural impact, something that is now being challenged by the “cancel culture.”
“Brands can no longer do what they want without considering the negative and positive effects on people and society,” she says.
Jane Cavalier offers examples and tips for branding in the 21st Century in this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch:
https://youtu.be/ESYx6vTv-rU
Ms. Cavalier is founder and CEO of BrightMark Consulting in Westport, Conn. Her experience includes working strategic planning for clients of McCann-Erickson worldwide, where she led the rebranding of global companies including ExxonMobil, Motorola and AT&T Solutions.
She says the cancel culture challenge is a variant of the boycott typically involving a celebrity who is deemed to have acted or spoken in a questionable or controversial manner.
“Think about what has happened to famous authors, talk show hosts, and entertainers in the last two years,” she says. “That can happen to brands, too.”
For more information: www.theenchantedbrand.com
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Becoming an inclusionary leader in 7 steps
• “Some of these companies have corporate ‘sludge’”
Total Recorded Time is 24:38
Did you know you had it? It’s called “male privilege” and in the 21stCentury it could be holding men back from becoming needed allies and inclusionary leaders, says Ray Arata, an award-winning diversity, equity, and inclusion leader and speaker, consultant, and trainer.
“I had this idea to advance healthy masculinity as a cornerstone of the leadership conversation” says Mr. Arata. “Unbeknownst to me, I was basically stepping into the world of diversity, equity and inclusion.”
He says “male privilege” isn’t something men leaders tend to talk about. But there are simple actions to take to identify it, acknowledge it, and use it to become a better leader, he says.
Please click here to watch our Bizgnus Interview Podcast with Mr. Arata: https://youtu.be/R20iK64kINo
Mr. Arata says men are waking up to the need to be accountable for their behavior and actions but the challenge is learning how to identify and face them in order to grow.
“Some of these companies have corporate ‘sludge,’” Mr. Arata says. “This is a behavior change endeavor. Companies want to win the war on talent. If they want to win thr war on talent and get really good people, they have to have a culture that is inclusive.”
Mr. Arata is the author of the new book, “Showing Up: How Men Can Become Effective Allies in the Workplace,” Diversion Books, January 2022.)
For more information: rayarata.com and bettermanconference.com
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Author’s Bakersfield is much more than country music and oil fields
• “You really can get away with murder here”
(Total Recorded Time is 23:35)
The sunbaked streets of Bakersfield. Bodies in the nearby desert. A larger-than-life attorney pulling the invisible strings that shape life in a growing town.
These are some of the locations, characters and events that Sarah Burns has woven into her first novel, one that might do for California’s Central Valley what the late Raymond Chandler did for Los Angeles with his novels of the 1940s and 50s.
This is not the first book for Ms. Burns, but it’s sharply different from her nonfiction works, written as a real-life college professor and researcher in the field of gender and race relations in Bakersfield.
She joins us for this Bizgnus Interview Podcast to talk about her new book, writing and a thinly disguised Bakersfield….
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/zfSXCYfvLZc
“The central theme is … how the West was won,” Ms. Burns says of her book, “and the fact that it was on vigilante justice and that it’s never really gone away.”
Ms. Burns says the Bakersfield area is rife with human conflict that can be a gold mine for an author. “It’s like a ‘Peyton Place,’” she says, referring to the 1960s television prime time soap opera. “You really can get away with murder here,” she says.
For more information: https://scburns.work/
• Even 42 percent of those earning more than $100,000 annually now live paycheck to paycheck
• “Unfortunately, this is not a good news podcast”
(Total Recorded Time is 20:55)
Living paycheck to paycheck is no longer just a problem for low-income Americans. Nor is it a problem that just pops up during recessions.
Living on the edge of the financial cliff is a daily experience for six out of ten Americans. And it’s a problem that crosses all income levels.
These grim statistics are found in an ongoing study by the San Francisco-based online bank LendingClub.
To find out more, we talk in this Bizgnus Podcast with LendingClub Financial Health Officer NIGH YAR Anuj Nayar.
“Unfortunately, this is not a good news podcast,” Mr. Nayar cautions.
To watch the Bizgnus interview, please click here:
https://youtu.be/ZUWzxMERy5g
The problem is so widespread, even 42 percent of U.S. consumers earning more than $100,000 annually now live paycheck to paycheck.
The only comparative good news is that the share of consumers living paycheck to paycheck remains below a high of 65 percent seen in December 2020. That figure was 54 percent in May 2021 and has been rising since then, hitting 61 percent in December 2021.
Seventy-seven percent of consumers who reported earning less than $50,000 per year lived paycheck to paycheck last December, up from 72 percent in May 2021. Meanwhile, 66 percent of those who reported earning between $50,000 and $100,000 now live paycheck to paycheck — a 13 percentage point increase from May 2021.
“With more than three in five Americans now living paycheck to paycheck, this reality is impacting every income bracket across every generation – a trend which we've only seen increase since May 2021,” says Mr. Nayar.
Methodology
The report is based on a census-balanced survey of 3,070 U.S. consumers conducted from Dec. 2, 2021, to Dec. 14, 2021, as well as an analysis of other economic data, according to LendingClub Corporation (NYSE: LC), the parent company of LendingClub Bank.
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• We are entering a new era where people count as much as numbers
• “Women’s true stories … define power as the ability to nurture and protect, as well as the ability to control or dominate”
(Total Recorded Time is 27:00)
Leaders, whether in business or politics, should trust their instincts, tell their stories, and benefit the common good says Annette Simmons, a leadership consultant and author.
But the current climate of divisiveness is working against collaborative approaches to problem solving she says.
“In a highly competitive political environment, listening to someone looks like you’re willing to be a loser – you’re betraying your tribe,” Ms. Simmons says. “In the 20th Century, that worked fine because we didn’t have all these algorithms more narrowly defining win-lose.”
That “win-lose” equation tends to be nurtured by men, not women, Ms. Simmons says.g
Women often see things in a moral context —a vital balance to the competitive systems that tend to drive too many decisions, she says.
Annette Simmons talks about her research and the solutions it offers to divisiveness in this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the podcast:
https://youtu.be/uGNi28htig4
“Instead of trying to convince somebody you’re right, what better way than to go and ask people what their story is and learn some more and find our you’re all right,” she says.
Ms. Simmons is author of four books, including The Story Factor, listed in The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. She got her business degree from Louisiana State University, spent ten years in Australia in international business, got an M.Ed. from North Carolina State University (1994), and founded Group Process Consulting in 1996.
For more information: www.differentwell.com
For more information: www.annettesimmons.com
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have published unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your financial support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• It’s the internet, of course, but with critical nuances
• “It’s one of the greatest evolutions on the planet that’s ever happened”
(Total Recorded Time is 16:43)
One might call this the age of the “influencer” as platforms like YouTube seemingly create influencers overnight.
But our guest on this Bizgnus Interview podcast, Teresa de Grosbois, is the influencers influencer: She’s been studying the ins and outs of influential people for years, putting her research into best-selling books and in front of audiences around the world.
She says “influencers” have evolved into a very positive thing for society.
“I actually think it’s one of the greatest evolutions on the planet that’s ever happened,” she says. “It used to be you had to be a television anchor or a newspaper reporter or … someone who was heard by a lot of people to have any level of sway or influence.”
Thanks to the internet, now anyone with a passion can find themselves an influencer, she says.
But there are nuances that can make the difference between success and failure, as she explains in this Bizgnus Interview podcast.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/_iamf_U6Xfg
Ms. de Grosbois is founder of the Evolutionary Business Council, an international, invitation-only council of speakers and influencers who are focused on teaching principles of success. She is author of the best-selling book, “Mass Influence…The habits of the highly influential.”
Now based in Costa Rica, this Canadian entrepreneur says it is possible to eradicate poverty by changing the way people think and to that end, pre-COVID, arranged speaking tours into developing countries to teach business and empowerment skills to students and small business owners.
For more information: https://ebcouncil.com/
For more information: www.VistaMundo.info
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus (pronounced biz-news) reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We take pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
Thanks for watching or listening!
• Bakersfield man wants to call attention to child abuse
• “3,030 of that was walked”
(Total Recorded Time is 23:34)
Here’s a factoid you might need: A pair of tennis shoes is good for about 600 miles of walking.
That’s according to Robert Schrader of Bakersfield, who wore out three pairs of tennis shoes, a pair of hiking boots and some snow boots in walking from San Francisco to New York City in the last half of 2021.
Mr. Schrader joins us on this Bizgnus Interview Podcast to tell us why he walked across the nation….
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/YlMWcArSdUU
Averaging more than 20 miles a day at the beginning, Mr. Schrader’s pace was down to an average of 11 to 24 miles per day at the end of his trek.
“I traveled 3,187 miles,” he says, “3,030 of that was walked.”
Mr. Schrader is chief branding officer of Y-Empowerment Inc., a Bakersfield non-profit organization that helps youth who have experienced domestic violence.
For more information: http://yempowerment.org/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We take pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
It is not required. We're happy to have you watch and listen even if you cannot support us as a patron.
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Simon Severino says a modest goal is to double sales within 90 days
• “I help executives with ‘go to market’”
(Total Recorded Time is 14:40)
Succeeding in business is often compared to running a marathon. But Simon Severino says before winning marathons, runners need to master running sprints.
He puts that philosophy into business strategies that he and his company teach to entrepreneurs.
Ask Simon Severino what he does for a living and he’ll tell you, “I help executives with ‘go to market.’”
He says small business owners can see their revenue “double in 90 days” by following his system os making regular small improvements in products and services.
To do that, companies need to better align operations and sales, he says, as well as optimizing marketing. Too often, Mr. Severino says, businesses put marketing first, leading to disappointed customers.
He joins us for this Bizgnus Podcast via Zoom from his offices in Vienna, Austria.
To watch the interview, please click here:
https://youtu.be/BF65gIuSIkk
To listen to the interview or to download the audio file, please click here:
Mr. Severino has put his system into book form, “Strategy Sprints: 12 Ways to Accelerate Growth for an Agile Business,” (Kogan Page, February 22, 2022).
For more information: https://www.strategysprints.com/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We take pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
It is not required. We're happy to have you watch and listen even if you cannot support us as a patron.
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Elisha Shapiro came up age a the entertainment industry changed
• “Most of it’s dumb luck”
(Total Recorded Time is 22:22)
For four decades, Elisha Shapiro has been part of the artistic scene in Los Angeles, creating what he calls conceptual art that explores modern mass media, beliefs, and the very nature of art.
And for the past 20 years he’s spearheaded the annual Nihilist Film Festival.
Mr. Shapiro joins us on this Bizgnus podcast to talk about the entertainment business from a decidedly different perspective.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/wfM7NjIaUrU
“There is another LA, where there are really creative people doing wonderful stuff,” he says.
Mr. Shapiro has put his experiences and observations into a new book, “LA Freak,” which he describes as the true story of a quirky kid who grew up in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s thinking the Hollywood dream was a joke only to become an artist who thinks everything os a joke.
And of those who have managed to become successful entertainers, “Most of it’s dumb luck,” he says.
For more information: http://www.nihilists.net
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We take pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
It is not required. We're happy to have you watch and listen even if you cannot support us as a patron.
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Could inflation become far worse than the Federal Reserve expects?
• Economist blasts Fed
(Total Recorded Time is 24:44)
Inflation is prominent in the news these days but the Federal Reserve sees it cooling quickly, at least that’s the median projection by the Fed’s Board of Governors at their meeting in mid-December.
So is too much emphasis being put on inflation? We have as our guest one of the nation’s top economists, Murray Sabrin, emeritus professor of finance at Ramapo College of New Jersey.
As you will see, he has some very strong opinions about the Fed and its role in the economy.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview
https://youtu.be/eOkBnFz-uQY
Mr. Sabrin has worked in commercial real estate sales and marketing, personal portfolio management, and economic research. He is also co-founder and president of Inversquare LLC. Outside of teaching and business, he was the New Jersey Libertarian Party nominee for governor in 1997 and twice sought the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
Mr. Sabrin’s newest book is “Navigating the Boom/Bust Cycle: An Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide,” (Business Expert Press, October 2021).
For more information: murraysabrin.com
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We take pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
It is not required. We're happy to have you watch and listen even if you cannot support us as a patron.
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Demographer says the real problem lies overseas
• The Baby Boomers are leaving big shoes to fill
(Total Recorded Time is 21:19)
The national unemployment rate is under 5 percent and in some states, such as Nebraska, it’s hovering around 2 percent. These days it seems you can’t go anyplace without seeing stores, offices, bars, restaurants – you name it – plastered with help wanted signs.
So where have all the workers gone? Our guest on this Bizgnus Podcast is Ken Gronbach, a demographer and a futurist, who says he may know where the vanished American worker is really hiding.
Please click here to watch the podcast:
https://youtu.be/J-EXNew6k_Y
“Our demography is not favoring us in the labor market just yet,” says Mr. Gronbach. “But we will have the best labor market in our history very soon.”
Mr. Gronbach is president of KGC Direct LLC, based in Bonita Springs, Florida, and is the author of the current book, “Upside: Profiting from the Profound Demographic Shifts Ahead,“ (Amacom, April 2017). He is also the author of the bestselling book, “The Age Curve: How To Profit from the Coming Demographic Storm.”
For more information: https://kgcdirect.com/
=======================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We take pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
It is not required. We're happy to have you watch and listen even if you cannot support us as a patron.
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• It’s the new strategy of “flexing”
• Michigan business professor Sue Ashford explains how to do it
(Total Recorded Time is 22:32)
By making small, daily, changes, a person or even an organization can achieve new levels of personal and professional growth, says Sue Ashford, a professor of management and organizations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
She’s developed a technique that she says individuals, teams, even entire organizations can use to learn, grow, and develop skills and knowledge for every new project, work assignment, and problem.
Ms. Ashford calls the technique “flexing.” She joins us on this Bizgnus Podcast to explain the concept and how it has worked.
Ms. Ashford has put her techniques into a new book, “The Power Of Flexing,” (Harper Business; September 2021).
She holds the Michael and Susan Jandernoa Professorship and is chair of the Management and Organizations group at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. She has been recognized with two lifetime achievement awards for her scholarship from the Academy of Management and her academic work has been published in the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal, and the Journal of Applied Psychology.
For more information: www.susanashford.com
• Negotiations guru Cash Nickerson says it helps to know martial arts
• “I’m talking about internal martial arts”
(Total Recorded Time is 12:25)
Cash Nickerson has learned a thing or two in 36 years of handling all types of negotiations.
Especially why getting to an agreement can be helped by applying principals of martial arts.
“When I talk about martial arts, I’m talking about internal martial arts,” says Mr. Nickerson. “What the martial arts can bring us – especially internal martial arts – is lessons from more intense negotiations.”
Cash Nickerson offers insights into why negotiation success may depend on backstories, martial arts and the magic word “why” in this Bizgnus podcast.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/ebDgP9mhccg
Cash Nickerson is chairman of AKKA North America’s Business Unit. Earlier, he was president, CFO, general counsel, and the second largest shareholder of PDS Tech prior to its purchase by AKKA Technologies. Previous roles include attorney and marketing executive for Union Pacific Railroad, associate and then partner at Jenner & Block in Chicago, and chairman and CEO of an internet company.
A professor of negotiations with the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, he has also authored several books, with his latest being “Negotiation as a Martial Art: Techniques to Master the Art of Human Exchange” (Made for Success, July 2021).
For more information: cashnickerson.com
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We take pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
• Expert says successful companies will be the resilient ones
• “Manufacturers are slowly ramping up operations to bring them closer to home”
(Total Recorded Time is 27:25)
A top expert on manufacturing logistics sees good times ahead for U.S. companies and their workers as more firms bring jobs back from Asia.
She’s Lisa Anderson, a Claremont, California-based consultant.
“The big secret in manufacturing these days is that manufacturers are slowly ramping up operations to bring them closer to home,” Ms. Anderson says.
She says “near-shoring” – getting operations set up in places close to the U.S. like Mexico – and re-shoring, bring the jobs back into this country, are a new reality.
Lisa Anderson talks about what could become a major shift in the economy in this Bizgnus Podcast.
Lisa Anderson is president of LMA Consulting Group, Inc., which works with manufacturers and distributors on strategy and end-to-end supply chain transformation.
For mor information: https://www.lma-consultinggroup.com/
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We take pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
That's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
It is not required. We're happy to have you watch and listen even if you cannot support us as a patron.
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Mike Wolf says U.S. offers overlooked opportunities
• “We get into real estate to create freedom for ourselves”
(Total Recorded Time is 27:10)
With home prices rising daily like rockets, is it still possible to make money buying and selling homes? Mike Wolf, a Canadian who says he’s keen on investing in homes in the U.S., says “yes.”
Mr. Wolf says he has done over 3,000 transactions over 32 years, using teams scattered around the country. He says he’s made every mistake there is to make, but his successes have outweighed his failures.
“We get into real estate to create freedom for ourselves,” Mr. Wolf says.
We caught up with him while he was in Orlando, Florida, checking out possible acquisitions in the Sunshine State.
Please click here to watch this Bizgnus Interview:
https://youtu.be/tRRu5Td0FEE
For more information: https://mikewolfmastery.com/
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We take pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
Opinions are those of our guests. Bizgnus never endorses the viewpoints, products or services of its guests, who are selected based on their knowledge and experience.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
It is not required. We're happy to have you watch and listen even if you cannot support us as a patron.
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• The four essential elements
• “Much more important than that was the culture we developed”
(Total Recorded Time is 11:52)
At a time when worker’s tenure with a single company can almost be timed with a wind-up stopwatch, Robert Kohlhepp is an exception. He spent his entire career – more than half a century – with Cintas Corporation, retiring in 2016 after a career that saw him as general manager, vice president and treasurer, executive vice president, president, chief executive officer and finally as chairman of the board.
What kept him there? And what magic lesson does Cintas offer to other companies trying to retain key staff?
“The thing that made it so good was it was a good business,” he says. “But the thing much more important than that was the culture we developed.”
He says there are four main parts to a good company culture:
• Determining your principal objective
• Establishing your corporate character
• Developing consistent management systems, and,
• Conducting business ethically.
Robert Kohlhepp talks about his career and the development of an ethical corporate culture in a fast-growing business in this Bizgnus Viddo Interview podcast:
https://youtu.be/WeRy9bHH3I4
Mr. Kohlhelpp is the author of the new book,
“Building a Better Organization,” (Aamass Publishing, LLC, September 2021). In the book, he explains that building a great organization where people want to work comes down to instilling the elements of an effective corporate culture across the entire organization — from the front-line worker to the department manager to the CEO.
For more information: robertkohlhepp.com
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We take pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
It is not required. We're happy to have you watch and listen even if you cannot support us as a patron.
Our physical address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email add
How Steve Marks helped build his small muffin shop into a big business
• “My dream and passion has always been to own my own business”
(Total Recorded Time is 20:52)
In the next minute or so, someone will have started a small business somewhere in the United States, adding to the well over 600-thousand new businesses opening up this year. But how many fail?
One out of five. And by the end of the second year, it’s roughly one out of three.
But for the Muffin Man of Akron, Ohio, failure wasn’t in the recipe.
Steve Marks and his childhood and college buddy started a muffin shop in what was then a decaying part of downtown Akron.
“My dream and passion has always been to own my own business,” he says. “As a kid I mowed lawns, had a lemonade stand, washed cars.”
The muffin shop grew out of putting in the winning bid on a derelict building in downtown Akron.
Very quickly they saw how to move that small business off Main Street, onto the road to big-time success. And not as a muffin shop.
He details his path to success in this Bizgnus video interview: https://youtu.be/gsgToK58IIA
Mr. Marks, who is a two-time winner of the Small Business Person of the Year award from the United Small Business Administration, has written a recipe for success in his new book on entrepreneurship, “The Muffin Man Chronicles.”
For more information: https://www.muffinmanchronicles.com/
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We take pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
It is not required. We're happy to have you watch and listen even if you cannot support us as a patron.
Our physical address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• Now Jeff Martinovich is rebuilding his life and business
• “I believe we need to make ourselves stronger inch by inch”
(Total Recorded Time is 23:35)
Jeffrey Martinovich is a builder, of sorts. Not the kind that uses hammer and saw, but a builder of his life and reputation.
An Air Force veteran of the First Gulf War and founder of a billion-dollar wealth management firm, Mr. Martinovich’s career had a bit of a detour into federal prison.
He joins us for this Bizgnus Podcast interview….
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/LnsscL9TmS8
Please click here to listen to the audio and download the audio file: https://tinyurl.com/Bizgnus-Martinovich
Because the COVID epidemic, many low-risk federal inmates have been released from prison. He was released to home confinement in May 2020 to begin rebuilding his life.
Part of that has involved writing. Mr. Martinovich is the author of a new book, “Just One More: The Wisdom of Bob Vukovich,” independently published, March 2021.
“I believe we need to make ourselves stronger inch by inch in the little daily things we do,” Mr. Martinovich says.
For more information: jeffmartinovich.com
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We take pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
It is not required. We're happy to have you watch and listen even if you cannot support us as a patron.
Our physical address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400. Our email address is editor@bizgnus.com
• The Bizgnus time machine gears up for a remarkable podcast
• “Business and politics were more overtly intertwined”
(Total Recorded Time is 17:06)
Longtime members of the Bizgnus audiences will be delighted to note that we have finally recharged the batteries on the company’s Wayback machine and it has taken us back in time by two centuries to the 1820s in the United States.
Actually, it is not the dusty Wayback machine which has never worked for us but a remarkable new book, “An Illustrated Business History of the United States,” (University of Pennsylvania Press, May 2021) by the Secretary of Banking and Securities for the state of Pennsylvania, Richard Vague.
One of the continuous threads of the American economy, from founding to present day, is real estate, he says.
“Real estate continues to be a huge part of the U.S. story because the uses of real estate are always being transformed,” says Mr. Vague. “We’ve seen that happen right before our eyes during the pandemic when the use of commercial office space has diminished but at the same time, we’re seeing a boom in the use of real estate for internet companies as storage and distribution facilities.”
The book covers U.S. history from the founding to about 2015. In it, the reader will find not just data, but example upon example of life in various epochs.
“Warren Delano, Jr., grandfather of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, made a fortune selling opium in China, and this wealth made up a substantial part of the inheritance that he passed down to Franklin,” Mr. Vague writes. might also hear of the opening of a canl connecting the Great Lakes to the Hudson River and thus New York City. “The Erie Canal was the most important and transformational business achievement in early American history,” Mr. Vague says in his book
Please click here to watch our Bizgnus interview: https://youtu.be/CjkMNhOlDQU
And something often “overlooked” in today’s political arguments was central to the growth of the nation. “Business and politics were more overtly intertwined in this era. Everyone admired U.S. senator and attorney Daniel Webster for his intelligence, rhetorical power, and knowledge of constitutional law. But as senator, Webster sent a private law client a bill because he had inserted an amendment favorable to that client’s interests into a piece of legislation. No one at that time viewed this as a conflict or an ethical transgression,” writes Mr. Vague.
Richard Vague’s day job is Pennsylvania Banking and Securities Secretary. Prior to his 2020 appointment, he was managing partner of Gabriel Investments and chairman of the Governor’s Woods Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic organization. Previously, he was co-founder, chairman and CEO of Energy Plus, an electricity and natural gas company. Vague was also co-founder and CEO of two banks and founder of the economic data service Tychos.
His new book is “An Illustrated Business History of the United States” (University of Pennsylvania Press, May 2021).
For more information: richardvague.com
• The Bizgnus time machine gears up for a remarkable podcast
• “Business and politics were more overtly intertwined”
(Total Recorded Time is 17:06)
Longtime members of the Bizgnus audiences will be delighted to note that we have finally recharged the batteries on the company’s Wayback machine and it has taken us back in time by two centuries to the 1820s in the United States.
Actually, it is not the dusty Wayback machine which has never worked for us but a remarkable new book, “An Illustrated Business History of the United States,” (University of Pennsylvania Press, May 2021) by the Secretary of Banking and Securities for the state of Pennsylvania, Richard Vague.
One of the continuous threads of the American economy, from founding to present day, is real estate, he says.
“Real estate continues to be a huge part of the U.S. story because the uses of real estate are always being transformed,” says Mr. Vague. “We’ve seen that happen right before our eyes during the pandemic when the use of commercial office space has diminished but at the same time, we’re seeing a boom in the use of real estate for internet companies as storage and distribution facilities.”
The book covers U.S. history from the founding to about 2015. In it, the reader will find not just data, but example upon example of life in various epochs.
“Warren Delano, Jr., grandfather of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, made a fortune selling opium in China, and this wealth made up a substantial part of the inheritance that he passed down to Franklin,” Mr. Vague writes. might also hear of the opening of a canl connecting the Great Lakes to the Hudson River and thus New York City. “The Erie Canal was the most important and transformational business achievement in early American history,” Mr. Vague says in his book
Please click here to watch our Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/CjkMNhOlDQU
Please click here to listen to the audio and download the audio file:
And something often “overlooked” in today’s political arguments was central to the growth of the nation. “Business and politics were more overtly intertwined in this era. Everyone admired U.S. senator and attorney Daniel Webster for his intelligence, rhetorical power, and knowledge of constitutional law. But as senator, Webster sent a private law client a bill because he had inserted an amendment favorable to that client’s interests into a piece of legislation. No one at that time viewed this as a conflict or an ethical transgression,” writes Mr. Vague.
Richard Vague’s day job is Pennsylvania Banking and Securities Secretary. Prior to his 2020 appointment, he was managing partner of Gabriel Investments and chairman of the Governor’s Woods Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic organization. Previously, he was co-founder, chairman and CEO of Energy Plus, an electricity and natural gas company. Vague was also co-founder and CEO of two banks and founder of the economic data service Tychos.
His new book is “An Illustrated Business History of the United States” (University of Pennsylvania Press, May 2021).
• Vito Altavilla tells how he did it
• “It’s more like you’re a chronicler of an age
(Total Recorded Time is 13:12)
Lots of people think they’ve got a book inside of them but few do anything about it.
Vito Altavilla of Cincinnati had a book inside, too, but he has done something about it. He has used a self-publisher to get his book, “It Began in Brooklyn,” edited and published.
“If it’s nonfiction, just tell the truth,” he says. “When you start writing … you’re writing your life’s experience. It’s more like you’re a chronicler of an age.”
Mr. Altavilla offers some tips from his experience for those thinking about writing their first book in this Bizgnus audio and video podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/o1XcZShwigg
Mr. Altavilla says he was a street-wise kid growing up in 1940s Brooklyn, New York. He went on to a career that saw him working as a chemical research engineer for 22 years in Montreal, finally returning to the U.S. as his children entered college. Now retired, he lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, finishing a screenplay based on his book.
For more information: http://itbeganinbrooklyn.com/
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have taken pride in offering hundreds of unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
It is not required. We're happy to have you watch and listen even if you cannot support us as a patron.
Thank you for your support!
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400.
• Only pay and advancement tops clear communications
• “It’s all important that you know which words matter”
(Total Recorded Time is 22:39)
Abraham Lincoln spoke briefly – perhaps for no more than three minutes -- at a ceremony in 1863 on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. At the same ceremony, another speaker droned on for two hours.
But for well over a century, Lincoln’s 272-word address is remembered, recited, and even enshrined while no one remembers anything of Edward Everett’s 13,607-word oration.
Definitely, words count -- if you use them correctly. And that’s the point being driven by Joel Schwartzberg, a leadership communications coach whose clients have ranged from American Express to Comedy Central.
But Mr. Schwartzberg adds a layer of nuance to the concept that “words count.”
“In some cases, words count. And in some cases, they don’t,” he says. “That’s why it’s all important that you know which words matter.”
With tips and examples, he joins us for this Bizgnus podcast:
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/5pSruKnZG4s
Mr. Schwartzberg’s latest book is “The Language of Leadership: How to Engage and Inspire Your Team,” (Berrett-Koehler Publishers; July 2021).
According to Gallup research only 13 percent of U.S. employees say their leaders communicate well. That is a potentially huge problem since, according to workers surveyed by the Brunswick Group, 93 percent say “leadership that communicates directly and transparently” is what keeps them on the job, topped only by pay and the ability to move up.
For more information: www.joelschwartzberg.net
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
We have taken pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon. If you’d like to help, please click here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
It is not required. We're happy to have you watch and listen even if you cannot support us as a patron.
Thank you for your support!
Our address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232. Call us anytime at 209.470.3400.
• Expert tells why customer onboarding is as important as the sale
• “Find out what your customers want and need”
(Total Recorded Time is 16:51)
For more than two decades, Donna Weber has helped high-growth startups and established companies create customers for life with successful customer onboarding strategies.
And those, she says, are better than “hope as a strategy.”
“What I find most interesting as when companies listen to their customers,” Ms. Weber says. “Find out what your customers want and need. And that might be just picking up the phone and asking them a few questions.”
But “customer onboarding?” If the term seems new, Ms. Weber explains what it is and why it’s so important in this Bizgnus Podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/tBZXAgFmwQw
Ms. Weber says recent neuroscience research reveals that early, orchestrated onboarding — those first few days, weeks, and months of a customer’s journey — is what stops the churn and transforms customers into loyal champions.
Prior to founding her Palo Alto-based consulting firm, Springboard Solutions, Ms. Weber worked at several startups where she built customer success and education programs from scratch.
She is the author of the new book, “Onboarding Matters: How Successful Companies Transform New Customers Into Loyal Champions (Springboard Press, April 2021).
For more information: www.donnaweber.com
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
Hidden agendas? We don't have them. Pay-to-play? That's a firing offense around here.
We have taken pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon.
It is not required. And we're happy to have you watch even if you cannot support us as a patron.
If you’d like to help as a patron, please click here:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Thank you for your support!
President and publisher: Doug Caldwell
Our physical address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232
Phone 209.477.0330
For business matters, please contact: publisher@bizgnus.com
For editorial matters, including story queries, corrections or amplifications and letters, please contact: editor@bizgnus.com
You can reach me at 209.470.3400 or by email at editor (at) bizgnus.com.
• A quiet Charlotte family is thrust into Hollywood
• “Writing for me was something that I didn’t share with anybody”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:21)
When it comes to the alure of show business, the same bug that bit stars like Ronald Reagan, Hilary Swank and Leonard DiCaprio bit a family living quietly in sedate Charlotte, North Carolina.
And while the DeBoer family’s star is still rising, it has spun off its first book, “Until Tomorrow, Little People.”
Family patriarch Matt DeBoer wrote the book based on a blog he wrote during the family’s first beachhead in Hollywood, holed up in a 2-bedroom apartment for three months, to give their kids a chance to break into stardom.
Son Chandler is in a Warner Bros. movie called, "8-Bit Christmas" starring Neal Patrick Harris and daughter Olivia played Young Love in the Netflix movie “You.”
Matt DeBoer talks about the unusual series of events that launched the children’s careers and formed his book in this Bizgnus Podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/1_05Eqg18HQ
“Writing for me was something that I didn’t share with anybody because I was afraid that it would be rejected,” Mr. DeBoer says. “I was afraid it would be rejected.”
Then he realized that his hesitation was at odds with the “go for it” approach he was encouraging for his son and daughter.
Mr. DeBoer worked with an editor at his publisher for months to refine the text before it was published.
For more information: Untiltomorrowlp.com
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
Hidden agendas? We don't have them. Pay-to-play? That's a firing offense around here.
We have taken pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon.
It is not required. And we're happy to have you watch even if you cannot support us as a patron.
If you’d like to help as a patron, please click here:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Thank you for your support!
President and publisher: Doug Caldwell
Our physical address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232
Phone 209.477.0330
For business matters, please contact: publisher@bizgnus.com
For editorial matters, including story queries, corrections or amplifications and letters, please contact: editor@bizgnus.com
You can reach me at 209.470.3400 or by email at editor (at) bizgnus.com.
• Transformation coach points to his own unusual experience
• “I have a mission on this Earth”
(Total Recorded Time is 25:04)
What he describes as a mystical experience has shaped the life and career of Harrison Klein, a professional speaker on the topic of transformation. He is an executive coach, among other interests.
“I have a mission on this Earth,” Mr. Klein says. “And the reason we’re all here is two-fold -- one is to experience joy and the other one is to expand the universe.”
That’s something he leaves up to each person, noting that many people head down a path seeking wealth only to be disappointed in the end.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview:
https://youtu.be/xKIUCbgr_yk
Mr. Klein is also an original founder and board member for the Evolutionary Business Council.
Harrison Klain is offering a discount for Bizgnus viewers and listeners: A class normally costing $247 is free. The details are at 20 minutes into the interview.
For more information: http://www.iamharrisonklein.com/
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
Hidden agendas? We don't have them. Pay-to-play? That's a firing offense around here.
We have taken pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon.
It is not required. And we're happy to have you watch even if you cannot support us as a patron.
If you’d like to help as a patron, please click here:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Thank you for your support!
President and publisher: Doug Caldwell
Our physical address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232
Phone 209.477.0330
For business matters, please contact: publisher@bizgnus.com
For editorial matters, including story queries, corrections or amplifications and letters, please contact: editor@bizgnus.com
You can reach me at 209.470.3400 or by email at editor (at) bizgnus.com.
• It’s the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S.
• “When you bring up the word ‘suicide,’ people shut down”
(Total Recorded Time is 26:05)
Tom Fargnoli, a retired software and systems engineer and former Catholic Church deacon, wants to see business leaders talking about suicide.
“When you bring up the word ‘suicide,’ people shut down,” says Mr. Fargnoli. “In most cases, people are in so much emotional pain. ”
He married his high school sweetheart and had two children and five grandchildren. Then his life took a dramatic and unexpected turn: His wife took her own life.
“No one imagined my wife going that route,” he says.
Tom Fargnoli tells how that suicide changed the direction of his life – and what business leaders should be doing to help their workers cope with similar circumstances in this Bizgnus Podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/Q6f-0Cd_N-w
Mr. Fargnoli goes into greater detail in his new book, “The Deacon: An Unexpected Life” (Yorkshire Publishing, September 2020).
He says all the proceeds from his book will be going to suicide awareness.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says there were 47,511 people who took their own lives in 2019, making it the 10thleading cause of death in the U.S. In 2019, there were a total of 1.38 million attempted suicides.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 800-273-8255
For more information: www.thomasfargnoli.com
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
Hidden agendas? We don't have them. Pay-to-play? That's a firing offense around here.
We have taken pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon.
It is not required. And we're happy to have you watch even if you cannot support us as a patron.
If you’d like to help as a patron, please click here:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Thank you for your support!
President and publisher: Doug Caldwell
Our physical address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232
Phone 209.477.0330
For business matters, please contact: publisher@bizgnus.com
For editorial matters, including story queries, corrections or amplifications and letters, please contact: editor@bizgnus.com
You can reach me at 209.470.3400 or by email at editor (at) bizgnus.com.
• Your best leaders might not be called manager
• “We like to call those people the ‘sparks’”
(Total Recorded Time is 14:30)
Executive coach Courtney Lynch, who has worked for years with high-performing leaders to help them achieve next-level results, says applying some of the leadership training used by the Marine Corps can bring out untapped talent in any organization.
And she doesn’t mean the stereotypical Marine drill sergeant approach.
“There are sometimes certain people on the teams that we’re involved with that just seem to have a lot of influence, and a lot of credibility,” she says. “We like to call those people the ‘sparks.’”
Sparks are not born, but made, she says, noting that it begins with re-thinking how to respond to pressing challenges -- and deal with fear.
Courtney Lynch joins us for this Bizgnus Podcast.
Please click here to watch: https://youtu.be/bH3TXp40um4
In their book “Spark: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success,” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 2020), Courtney Lynch and co-author Angie Morgan shed light on what defines a “spark” to help managers recognize and kindle the “sparks” within their organization.
For more information: www.leadstar.us
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
Hidden agendas? We don't have them. Pay-to-play? That's a firing offense around here.
We have taken pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon.
It is not required. And we're happy to have you watch even if you cannot support us as a patron.
If you’d like to help as a patron, please click here:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Thank you for your support!
President and publisher: Doug Caldwell
Our physical address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232
Phone 209.477.0330
For business matters, please contact: publisher@bizgnus.com
For editorial matters, including story queries, corrections or amplifications and letters, please contact: editor@bizgnus.com
You can reach me at 209.470.3400 or by email at editor (at) bizgnus.com.
• Why you have to get out of your own head
• “I’ve got some good lessons about what I bring from swimming”
(Total Recorded Time is 23:13)
Successful negotiation – where there’s a balancing of needs – can be reached easier if those involved bring mindfulness to the negotiation table, says Matthew Moseley, a communication strategist, author and speaker.
He says that while active listening is a key skill for successful negotiation, doing it effectively requires getting out of your own head and developing empathy.
This is something he honed while setting three world records for long-distance swimming. “I’ve got some good lessons about what I bring from swimming and adventure swimming to the meeting table,” Mr. Moseley says.
He joins us for this Bizgnus podcast.
To watch the interview, please click here:
https://youtu.be/AIRraz7cuR0
Mr. Moseley is principal and CEO of Ignition Strategy Group, which specializes in high-stakes communications and issue management for organizations that have included American Rivers, Xcel Energy, the AFL-CIO, and the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar. He served as communications director for the Colorado Senate and press officer for the United States Olympic Committee at the 2004 games.
His books include “Dear Mr. Thompson: Felony Murder, Hunter Thompson, and the Last Gonzo Campaign,” which is about his successful effort, with the late journalist Hunter Thompson, to free Lisl Auman from a life sentence for felony murder.
His newest book is “Ignition: Superior Communication Strategies for Making Stronger Connections,” (Routledge/Taylor & Francis; May 2021.)
For more information: https://www.matthewlmoseley.net/
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
Hidden agendas? We don't have them. Pay-to-play? That's a firing offense around here.
We have taken pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon.
It is not required. And we're happy to have you watch even if you cannot support us as a patron.
If you’d like to help as a patron, please click here:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Thank you for your support!
President and publisher: Doug Caldwell
Our physical address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232
Phone 209.477.0330
For business matters, please contact: publisher@bizgnus.com
For editorial matters, including story queries, corrections or amplifications and letters, please contact: editor@bizgnus.com
You can reach me at 209.470.3400 or by email at editor (at) bizgnus.com.
• Online professors offers ideas
• Could these ideas boost employee engagement?
(Total Recorded Time is 16:02)
For leaders trying to get their workers to be more engaged, there are lessons to be learned from the classroom, specifically from author and educator Marilyn Carroll.
In this Bizgnus Interview, Ms. Carroll offers tips that can be used by teachers and business leaders.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/dmE-kQDm4-Q
Ms. Carroll says her online classes have a stunning engagement level of 80 percent, and her pass rate is 99 percent.
She is the author of the new book, “Diary of an Online Professor.”
For more information: http://www.drmarilyncarroll.com/
===========================================
ABOUT US
Bizgnus reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.
Hidden agendas? We don't have them. Pay-to-play? That's a firing offense around here.
We have taken pride in offering unbiased, unfiltered and in-depth interviews with business and other thought leaders since 2005.
No one pays to get on our podcasts. And we don't accept advertising (although Google/YouTube sells ads on our videos.)
And, frankly, that's where you come in. We'd appreciate your support through Patreon.
It is not required. And we're happy to have you watch even if you cannot support us as a patron.
If you’d like to help as a patron, please click here:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56957587
Thank you for your support!
President and publisher: Doug Caldwell
Our physical address is 150 Herons Run, #104, Sarasota, Florida 34232
Phone 209.477.0330
For business matters, please contact: publisher@bizgnus.com
For editorial matters, including story queries, corrections or amplifications and letters, please contact: editor@bizgnus.com
You can reach me at 209.470.3400 or by email at editor (at) bizgnus.com.
• Job references need to be treated with kid gloves, says expert
• “Do not leave your professional references to chance”
Total Recorded Time is 15:47
Even in these days when it seems there are more job openings than people to fill them, job seekers should treat their references as a treasured asset, says Jeff Shane, president of a company that checks references – for job seekers.
It makes good business sense – and is simply respectful professional etiquette – to stay in touch with former bosses, he says, because this will pay dividends many times over when they provide favorable professional references.
But Mr. Shane says sometimes job seekers are quietly and effectively blackballed by what they thought were solid references.
Jeff Shane outlines the problem and offers solutions in this Bizgnus Podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/PjlzI372h2U
• Pool toys taken to the beach are blamed
• “It was like a microplastics bomb exploded on the beach”
(TRT 12:51)
There are bombs bursting across the U.S. and around the world, day in and day out. And children are often to blame.
Even if you haven’t heard anything about these bombs, you might have eaten some of their results.
These are pool toys containing glitter and microbeads that burst apart through playing or accidents – with the glittery, beady contents polluting aquatic and human environments and complicating the already pervasive environmental problem of microplastic pollution.
Katie Senft, a field researcher with the University of California, Davis, Tahoe Environmental Research Center, is one of the scientists studying the problem. She joins us for this Bizgnus Interview.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview with Ms. Senft: https://youtu.be/zNHZVodE5Vo
• What? You didn’t know? Why this is “The Era of Workplace Fun”
• Fun is serious business in recruiting – and retaining – the best
(Total Recorded Time is 42:43)
Repeat after me: “Work made fun gets done.” Now that we have planted that ear worm, we need to tell you it’s the title of the latest book by employee motivation expert Bob Nelson.
He notes that more than eight out of ten employees at Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work for in America” say the best companies are all fun places to work. And the consulting firm Deloitte adds that the 2020s will be known as “The Era of Workplace Fun.”
Mr. Nelson, president of Nelson Motivation Inc., which specializes in helping organizations with employee recognition and engagement, says it’s much more than putting a foose-ball table in the break room, because that’s been done.
Please click here to watch our Bizgnus Interview with Mr. Nelson: https://youtu.be/pTMtwGeX1HM
Bob Nelson, PhD, has authored over 30 books on employee motivation and engagement, which have collectively sold over 5 million copies, in more than 30 languages.
His latest book is “Work Made Fun Gets Done! Easy Ways to Boost Energy, Morale, and Results,” (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, May 2021.)
For more information: drbobnelson.com
• Sales expert finds the 100 most critical sales skills
• “Six key themes emerged”
(Total Recorded Time is 16:48)
You might call him the “Readers Digest” for that aisle of books about being a better salesperson.
Alex Dripchak, who began his sales career at Oracle, where he was the first person ever to be a sales manager and outside producer by the age of 25, has poured through dozens of the best-selling books about sales and digested the 100 most critical skills to succeed into his own book.
“Six key themes emerged,” says Mr. Dripchak. “Those were mind set and strategy, presentation, meeting effectiveness, your internal development, your ability to help your team by keeping them informed and included in the process and then negotiation and persuasion.”
Alex Dripchak talks about some of his best discoveries as well as what has made him a top salesman in this Bizgnus Interview.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/MlTPZ9ZTMAA
Today, Mr. Dripchak is a senior adviser at Mercer, a global HR consulting firm and is also co-founder of Commence, a careers academy for college students.
His new book is “100 Skills of the Successful Sales Professional, (Business Expert Press, June 2021).
For more information: 100salesskills.com and at commenceyourcareer.com
• If you can’t or won’t sell, is business ownership for you?
• “One of the things I hope the book does is that it prevents people from making the big mistakes”
(Total Recorded Time is 25:05)
Patrick Burke, who has advised more than 200 successful start-ups as well as mergers, acquisitions, and other business deals, has s seen a lot -- including a lot of mistakes.
He’s the managing partner of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Burke & Schindler PLL and Concentric Wealth Management and joins us to talk about some of the biggest mistakes would-be business owners make.
Please click here to watch our interview:
https://youtu.be/H0-PfK5MAZM
• Expert says it’s time to ditch the old way of selling – pitching, persuading and pressuring
• “Too often social entrepreneurs underestimate the important role that sales and sales management plays”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:45
It is legend that the founders of Capital Cities Broadcasting would tell their television and radio station managers that before they did well financially, the stations must do good for their communities.
That philosophy is similar to the theme that authors Scott Roy and Roy Whitten have detailed in their newest book, “Sell Well, Do Good,” Niche Pressworks, Indianapolis (May 2021).
Mr. Roy says the book applies the authors’ human-centric selling framework to social enterprises in their work to do good for society’s poor.
“What we’ve been finding in our work across the world is that too often social entrepreneurs underestimate the important role that sales and sales management plays in the achievement of their mission,” Mr. Roy says. “However, selling is just such a vital part of social enterprises’ efforts to create positive social or environmental impact.”
Scott Roy spent the first part of his career building and running large direct-sales organizations and co-founded an insurance company in the United States that has grown to over $2 billion in assets.
For more information: https://wrpartnership.com/sell-well-do-good
• As nation emerges from COVID, leaders face new challenges to keep employees motivated
• “You’ve got to get in the game”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:05)
In addition to its tragic death toll, the COVID pandemic has prompted unprecedented business change from reinvented business models to reliance on a virtual business environment.
What’s next? It will be the urgent need to reengage with employees, says Pamela Hackett, global CEO of the international consultancy Proudfoot.
“At the end of the day, we’re social creatures and we really need to connect,” she says.
Whether a for-profit business or a nonprofit organization, this need for reconnection in the workplace is here, she says.
“You’ve got to get in the game. You’ve got to connect with your people. And the way to do it best is to put that routine, that rhythm, into your day,” she says.
Ms. Hackett says connecting with staff must be more than pro forma. “In the old days, you really weren’t meant to get into the ‘touchy-feely’ stuff, but today you really do have to ask how people are actually doing.”
Please click here to watch our Bizgnus interview with Pamela Hackett: https://youtu.be/NBOAR3AKLsY
Ms. Hackett has advised, led, and supported people through major change within some of the world's most prominent companies and brands throughout her 35 years in management consulting. She is the, a pioneer of “boots on the ground” consulting that’s been in the game for eight decades.
She is the author of the new book, “Manage to Engage: How Great Managers Create Remarkable Results,” Wiley; 1st edition (April 6, 2021).
For more information: pamelahackett.com
• What leaders should prepare for
• “People are managing it very differently”
(Total Recorded Time is 15:41)
As the U.S. emerges from its worst pandemic in a century, leaders will need to tap their inner resilience to shape their futures and that of the organizations they lead says Lisa Koss, co-founder and a partner at the leadership consulting firm Ontos Global.
But leaders should expect a post-COVID workforce that is changed in many respects, she says.
“People are managing it very differently,” says Ms. Koss. “Some are feeling relatively traumatized, some of them are feeling happy … that they’ve learned to love working at home. People have been doing quite a lot of change.”
So how should leaders prepare? Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview with Lisa Koss:
https://youtu.be/qhVzgYUD9vw
• How fables can bolster a business
• “I’d like to tell you that I had a master plan to be a best selling author”
(Total Recorded Time is 19:15)
Once upon a time there was a business. And after that sentence, the fable about your business can grow to have a happy ending or a tragic one.
When it comes to business fables, Michael Levin has written a lot of them. He stresses that these are stories, not fabrications.
He joins us for this Bizgnus Podcast to talk about the power of the business fable… and he’s not talking about dragons or giants at the other end of the beanstalk.
Please click here to watch our interview:
https://youtu.be/2dRPzUT2OVM
Please click here to listen to our interview and download the audio file:
Mr. Levin says that in his 34-year career he has written or ghostwritten more than 700 books, 19 of which were best sellers.
That tsunami of writing came after Mr. Levin tried, and quickly disliked, a career in law. But success as a writer was not guaranteed.
“I’d like to tell you that I had a master plan to be a best-selling author,” he says in his brief bio on his website.
He says it doesn’t matter if your book is a best seller or sells just a single copy, as long as that sale is to the right person and the book tells the right fables.
For more information:
https://michaellevinwrites.com/
• Now is not the time to fight change says expert
• “Over time, with practice, we accrue what I call resilience wisdom”
(Total Recorded Time is 21:42)
Few single events have impacted life as much as the COVID-19 pandemic. And while the amount of permanent change it has created is yet to be seen, one thing seems certain: Change is upon us and woe to those who fight it.
Sarah Stebbins, an adjunct faculty member of Portland State University’s Center for Executive and Professional Education and who has worked with companies and organizations as a change management consultant for more than 25 years, says that instead of fighting change individuals will find that the answers lie within.
“Over time, with practice, we accrue what I call resilience wisdom, and it's that wisdom that we tap into as life throws new challenges our way,” she says.
Ms. Stebbins explains her thoughts in depth in this Bizgnus Podcast.
Please click here to watch: https://youtu.be/8Vk2BQEaC9U
Ms. Stebbins has also put her thoughts into a new book, “From Fire to Water: Moving Through Change: Six Elements for Personal Resiliency,” (Raging River Press, March 2021).
For more information: https://thebetterchange.com/
• Leaders can learn from the fish that would fly
• “That will make the world a much better place”
Total Recorded Time is 17:40
The humble Exocoetidae – the biological name for the family of fish that seemingly fly out of the water for short distances -- has a lesson for business leaders, says relationship specialist Paul Cowan, who works internationally to facilitate change between advertising agencies and their clients.
As they “fly,” the fish are observing what’s hidden in the waters below them, he says. It’s those hidden threats when not discovered that derail business efforts – and can turn the flying fish into dinner.
“All of us, whether we’re in a personal relationship or a professional relationship, are becoming more expert, more dexterous, more knowledgeable” at seeing underlying issues, he says. And as that develops, “that will make the world a much better place.”
Mr. Cowan talks about tackling hidden issues in this Bizgnus Podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/0zoU86ULSwM
• It often boils down to how you look at your staff
• Curiosity about staff can be transformative for a business
(Total recorded time is 19:17)
The ratio of work on business problems to the development of staff can be out of whack, says leadership and executive coach Lisa Koss, co-founder and a partner at the consulting firm Ontos Global of Berkeley.
“We need to be doing more than just solving problem … and instead transform a business issue into development of people,” says Ms. Koss.
“When you look at for-profit business, it tends to be all about … the business results, and not as much focused on how being curious about what people are bringing,” she says.
That curiosity can be transformative, both for a business and its employees, she says.
As the business world emerges slowly from the COVID-19 pandemic, recognizing psychological realities and dynamics is critical to bringing teams together, she says.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus interview with Ms. Koss: https://youtu.be/DiXZbFUTBgY
• Surgeon creates Hollywood-level recording studio
• Including a Johnny Cash back story
Total Recorded Time is 18:40
Comparing audio recorded on a smartphone to audio recorded in a studio is like comparing a doodle to a Rembrandt.
And it used to be that getting a Rembrandt-level recording, with the right equipment and the highly trained sound engineers, meant traveling to Hollywood or Nashville or some other media center.
But how about Stockton?
Known to the pros but not necessarily to the public, a Hollywood-level recoding studio is tucked away in an upscale neighborhood of the California Central Valley city.
Sam York is co-owner of Studio C and he joins us on this Bizgnus Podcast.
Please click here to watch the Bizgnus Podcast:
https://youtu.be/DYoblE2cQCo
• And they are getting other firms to do it too
• Updating an old saying
Total Recorded Time is 20:07
There’s a saying used by many business leaders: Before you do well, you must do good.
Los Angeles entrepreneurs John David Snyder and Niki Shadrow Snyder are taking the saying to a new level – and then some.
The couple started with Project Pop Drop, which involves monthly giving by their office supply company, which sells private label ink and toner cartridges. Over several years, they have partnered with their customers, local schools, as well as other businesses to spread Project Pop Drop across Southern California, into the Tampa area of Florida and other states.
If you'd rather watch please click here to watch the conversation on the Bizgnus Channel:
https://youtu.be/Df5UYdFOySU
• Ken Honda explains how angry money is holding you back
• “You can free yourself financially and also emotionally”
Total Recorded Time is 15:30
Is money money? Not to Ken Honda, a best-selling author in Japan who is taking his ideas worldwide.
He says there’s such a thing as angry money and happy money. Even though you can’t see the smile of the money physically, Mr. Honda says you can pretty much guess if it is smiling or not.
“You can free yourself financially and also emotionally by finding and creating that flow of happy money,” he says. “It doesn’t matter how much you make and how much you have – it’s about your attitude.”
The guru of “happy money,” Ken Honda, joins us for this Bizgnus podcast.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/qlIA9s4RZ2c
• Jo Deaton offers 5 ways to stay resilient during the pandemic
• She says none of this is normal
Total Recorded Time is 9:05
It's been more than a year since COVID-19 took hold in the United States. But finally massive inoculations seem to be cutting into the deadly toll. So much so that states and localities are “opening up” although often with mask and distancing restrictions.
That’s in response to what some are calling “COVID fatigue.”
What can be done to offset it? Our expert guest on this Bizgnus Podcast has some ideas.
She’s Jo Deaton, who is senior director of nursing for Behavioral Health Services at Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Maryland.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/1P0n2cSwLew
• UC Merced researchers say covering the state’s canal matrix with solar panels generates savings, helps clear the air
• “Without taking a bit of farmland or a bit of natural land”
Total Recorded Time is 11:34
You can’t miss them. They are the canals that criss-cross California, moving water from one place to another. And almost all of them are uncovered, letting some 63 billion gallons of water evaporate under the hot California sun every year.
That’s enough water for a city of two million.
Why aren’t the canals covered? And if you’re going to cover them, why not do it with solar panels to generate power?
The intriguing answers are coming from new research at the University of California, Merced. The lead scientist on the project is Distinguished Professor of Engineering Roger Bales, who is our guest for this Bizgnus Podcast.
Please click here to watch the report:
https://youtu.be/4IC4W4e3J0U
• Action plan is adopted with two-year deadline
• “We know the challenges are daunting”
Total recorded time is 13:40
With more than one out of every four homeless people in the nation calling the streets and underpasses in California “home,” the state may at last be onto a multi-pronged solution.
The California Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council has adopted an “action plan” that it believes will prevent and even end homelessness in the state.
Over the next two years the action plan is to coordinate state, local and private efforts to solve the seemingly unsolvable problem.
“In approving this action plan, the council has explicitly committed to the work it will accomplish and expressed its clear intention to deliver on the opportunities we have, right now, to build toward an equitable future,” says Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Deputy Secretary for Homelessness Ali Sutton. “We know the challenges are daunting, but we will be better prepared to face them in partnership with our state and local colleagues, private collaborators and people who have expertise because of their own experiences of homelessness.”
Ali Sutton explains the scope of the problem of homelessness in California and how the action plan will address it in this exclusive Bizgnus Podcast:
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/jS_H9V7DT14
• How a Central Valley firefighter is trying to stop the wildfire of suicides in the ranks
• Firefighter suicides surpass on-duty death
Total Recorded Time is 14:49
And if that sounds new, it’s not. It’s a trend that dates back nearly a decade now.
But a Kern County firefighter is helping slow that trend. This podcast helps tell his story.
The Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance says 119 firefighters and 20 EMTs and paramedics died by suicide in 2019, the latest year for which data are available. That compares to 63 firefighters who died on duty the same year, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.
But there is a shift in how the problem is being addressed, led in part by Derek Robinson, who joins us for this Bizgnus Podcast….
Please click here to watch: https://youtu.be/fMh5ur_3KXo
A study funded by the Ruderman Family Foundation of Boston found that rates of depression and post-traumatic stress disorders among firefighters are as much as five-times higher than that of the general population.
For more information:
For the book:
https://www.amazon.com/continue-Surviving-darkness-choosing-live/dp/0578842130/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=derek+robinson&qid=1616361194&sr=8-1
Other resources
• Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance: https://www.ffbha.org/
• Stamp Out the Stigma
https://www.stampoutstigma.com/
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
or call
1-800-273-8355
• Former NFL player Dave Des Rochers offers some practical advice
• “A contracting career … may be replaced by artificial intelligence”
Total recorded time is 28:40
For those at mid-career, making a transition to a new job, perhaps even a new field, comes with a tubload of troubling thoughts. But perhaps one not immediately considered is whether the new job will even exist ten years from now.
“if it's a growing career or a growing field, you're going to have much more opportunity to grow with it and give yourself other opportunities — versus a contracting career, which may be replaced by artificial intelligence, or it may give you very little opportunity for growth,” says former Seattle Seahawks player Dave Des Rochers, whose career of many roads tried has taken him to the vice presidency of Path2, a firm that markets proprietary career advice.
Mr. Des Rochers has spent his adult life checking the boxes as he built a lengthy resume. Now he’s trying to use his experience with a company selling a new form of career guideance.
The former pro football player for the Seattle Seahawks and the former Montreal Machine of the World League of American Football offers his insights in this Bizgnus Podcast.
• Everyone does it, but very few do it well
• “Great productivity comes from concentration”
(Total Recorded Time is 25:10)
To get to the top in your career, be quiet. And listen.
That’s the advice of Cash Nickerson, entrepreneur and author. But while it sounds simple, listening – really listening -- like any skill takes concentration. And few reach the top tier.
Mr. Nickerson, who holds black belts in several martial arts, says the same skills used by the Samurai – minus the swords, of course -- will make leaders more effective.
He offers examples and tips in this exclusive Bizgnus Podcast.
Please click here to watch: https://youtu.be/nj5E2judcmg
• What is your former boss telling a potential employer about you?
• Allison & Taylor President Jeff Shane warns job hunters not to assume all is well with their references
(TRT is 25:49)
On paper, you may think you are a strong candidate for that job. But even though the interviews seemed to go well, the phone remains silent. Why?
It could be that a former boss – someone you may have put down as a reference – is saying things about you that are stalling your career.
Jeff Shane, president of Allison & Taylor Inc., says the so-called “neutral interview” can be anything but neutral.
While legal or corporate guidelines may say that a “no reference” policy only allows that your employment dates and titles can be confirmed, it is generally not illegal for a reference to offer negative commentary about you.
Even tone-of-voice can scuttle a job offer, Mr. Shane says.
Jeff Shane details the problem and offers ideas for job hunters in this Bizgnus podcast.
• But watchdog says it may be too little and too late
• “I wonder how much money is going to be in this pool”
The Biden administration says the smallest employers will get two weeks of exclusive access to emergency payroll protection loans starting Wednesday,
President Joseph Biden says it’s an effort to target minority-owned businesses and other companies that have struggled the most to get government-backed loans during the COVID pandemic.
But Lloyd Chapman, president of the Petaluma-based American Small Business League, says he would be surprised if the effort have any widespread impact.
“I wonder how much money is going to be in this poo,” Mr. Chapman says.
• Unequal burden also for Hispanic communities
• Two scientists who revealed the problem are the guests on this Bizgnus Podcast
Acres of asphalt parking lots, unshaded roads, dense apartment complexes and neighborhoods with few parks are taking a toll on the poor.
As climate change accelerates, low-income areas in the Southwestern United States are 4 to 7 degrees hotter on average than wealthy neighborhoods in the same metro regions.
Those are some of the findings from a new study by University of California, Davis, researchers.
The study’s lead author, doctoral student John Dialesandro and his professor, Stephen Wheeler, both with the UC Davis Department of Human Ecology, are the guests on this Bizgnus Podcast.
• Laura Brandao says it’s possible to keep saying “yes” despite adversity
• “It’s for the whole world to say ‘yes’ every day
(Total Recorded Time is 13:36)
Financial executive Laura Brandao is saying “yes” to showing others how to develop – and maintain – a positive mindset despite adversity.
“We all transform. We’re all going through a transformation and ‘Say Yes Everyday’ has taught me that,” says Ms. Brandao. “It’s a lesson for all of us. It’s for the whole world to say ‘yes’ every day.”
She says she built her mortgage company as a “servant leader,” inspiring others with her positive attitude. But since an unexpected moment as a speaker before a large audience, Ms. Brandao is developing a new, parallel, career as a speaker, panelist, and leadership coach based around her philosophy of positive attitudes.
Please click here to watch our Bizgnus interview with Ms. Brandao: https://youtu.be/w4OWMpcrnIw
• Corporate real estate expert outlines a new trend powered by technology and the pandemic
• “We’ve really got to start a proper debate”
(Total Recorded Time is 21:17)
Here are the ingredients for major change that have never been seen before: ubiquitous digital access, the gig economy and the demands of a multigenerational workforce mixed with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Baked together they make for dramatic changes about where and how people work, morphing the typical “cube farm” office into something very different, says corporate real estate expert Chris Kane.
“People being forced to work from home has also led to one of those unexpected consequences of things like this,” says Mr. Kane, whose career has included tenure as Vice President of International Corporate Real Estate for the Walt Disney Company, before acting as Head of Corporate Real Estate at the BBC. He is now Director of Six Ideas, a global consultancy that focuses on workplace development innovation.
He says that includes office workers realizing they do not need to commute hours every day just to sit in an office when they can do the same work remotely.
“We’ve really got to start a proper debate about making smarter use of the built environment,” Mr. Kane says.
Please click here to watch on the Bizgnus YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/vs8Dlf6dFq8
• Mindfulness trainer Julie Potiker says it’s an age-old practice that applies to the 21st Century
• “It’s not weird; it’s not woo-woo”
(Total Recorded Time is 19:10)
After getting through 2020, one might be given some slack if they still feel things are spinning out of control. But there is a very old way to come to grips with such new feelings.
Author Julie Potiker says it’s mindfulness, because “what you think changes your brain. And it doesn’t stop until you’re dead.”
She joins us in this Bizgnus podcast…..
Please click here to watch….
https://youtu.be/I17L3ZshfdA
• The epiphany for a veteran salesman
• “Ethical behavior creates dedicated employees and loyal customers”
After years of selling – used cars, lighting supplies, whatever—Joel Malkoff says he had an epiphany that changed his life.
It brought him to the conclusion that ethical business decision-making is the way to sustained profitability, he says.
He’s taken his thoughts a step further, writing a new book that he calls a parable, “Selling Ethically: A Business Parable Connecting Integrity with Profits,” (GDL Press; October 2020).
“Ethical marketing and selling will allow you and your company to build sales revenue and sustainable profits over the long-term,” he says. “Ethical behavior creates dedicated employees and loyal customers.”
• Visual marketing expert Amy Balliett on how to market to the Incredible Shrinking Attention Span
• What’s 60,000 times faster than the printed word?
(Total recorded time is 31:31)
The success of your marketing message might depend on its ability to attract and hold the attention of an audience that will buy in or reject it within seconds.
So says marketing expert Amy Balliett, founder of Killer Visual Strategies of Seattle, our guest on this expanded Bizgnus podcast.
• Why traditional authoritarian approaches no longer fit today’s leadership needs
• Revealed: The five “Cs” to success
Do nice guys really finish last? Not according to Ed Frauenheim in the new book Reinventing Masculinity.
He says traditional aspects of masculinity actually inhibit progress in an organization, especially with Millennials filling more and more positions.
“While a debate has raged in our popular culture about whether men are getting too soft, a quiet consensus has developed in the organizational world: today, soft skills are success skills,” Mr. Frauenheim writes in the book, co-authored with Edward Adams. “Compassion and connection—along with their cousins cooperation, communication, empathy, and generosity itself— have become critical to individual and team effectiveness.”
He says Millennials just don’t respond to authoritarian, my way or the highway leadership. And Millennials are not necessarily workaholics – many prioritize a fulfilling life outside of work.
Ed Frauneheim is our guest on this Bizgnus Podcast.
• Today’s marketers were already facing exponential challenges. Then came COVID
• The authority on being agile in marketing offers tips, examples and ideas
(Total Recorded Time is 23:48)
It’s COVID, COVID, COVID. The pandemic is so serious, so widespread and an end to it seems so distant that it could make one wonder if marketing means anything today.
But our Bizgnus Podcast guest says savvy marketers can still make impactful campaigns, even in the midst of the pandemic.
He’s Jim Ewel, who pioneered the concept of agile marketing.
Today’s marketers were already facing exponential challenges. then came COVID. Now what? Mr. Ewell offers tips and examples in this exclusive Bizgnus Podcast.
• He wrote 60 books while working fulltime as a newspaper editor
• Wes Boyd gave away his novels
• “I’d rather keep working and keep writing rather than sit in a chair and rock”
Wes Boyd knew how to work. While working as the editor and publisher of the Hudson, Michigan, Post-Gazette, a weekly newspaper, he turned out 60 novels.
Mr. Boyd has since died, but three years ago he carved out enough time for an audio interview with our previous publication, the Central Valley Business Times.
Because his experiences could be valuable to other writers, we are rerunning the audio interview here. In it, he also explains why he gave away his novels. Have a listen.,
• Why your organization’s culture may need to be changed – now
• Expert shows why some companies are dragged down by their corporate culture
(TRT 22:49)
When business finally emerges from the COVID pandemic, it will need leaders who recognize the corporate cultures entangling their organizations.
David White, a cognitive anthropologist, is focusing on ways to change corporate cultures based on the emerging “science of the cultural mind.”
In his new book “Disrupting Corporate Culture,” Mr. White says misunderstanding the culture of an organization can block effective leadership, especially when it’s needed to change the organization.
Mr. White talks about cognitive science and how it can be used to build a far deeper understanding of the nature of culture in any organization in this exclusive Bizgnus podcast.
• Veteran leadership consu,tant boils success down to seven key gears
• “Seventy-five to ninety per-cent of organizations fall short of achieving the results they expect from their strategies”
(Total Recorded Time is 21:00)
The world may finally be seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the very long COVID tunnel. But before emerging from that tunnel, many businesses might want to re-think their strategies.
Author and veteran business consultant Sean Ryan says it might be a good idea to burn those tedious strategies because not enough attention is being devoted to helping staff at every level to understand and implement the strategy.
“The core purpose of ‘strategy’ is to energize and align people in an organization to propel it forward and help it succeed.,” Mr. Ryan writes in his new book, “Get in Gear: The Seven Gears that Drive Strategy to Results,” (Routledge/Productivity Press, August 2020).
“A successful strategy should both guide and enable people to execute effectively at every level,” he continues. “Unfortunately, organizations far too often do a poor job of translating that energy into the results they want or expect. Seventy-five to ninety per-cent of organizations fall short of achieving the results they expect from their strategies.”
Sean Ryan talks about getting better outcomes and ways to improve leadership in this Bizgnus podcast.
• What happens post-COVID? Our podcast guest talks with 140 top executives
• “What we heard was a kind of shift to humility”
(Total Recorded Time is 10:30)
The COVID-18 pandemic has brough deep changes to many businesses and not just the obvious, such as curbside meal pickups instead of inside dining.
That’s according to a researcher who interviewed 140 chief executive officers from some of the biggest – and smallest – companies about how the pandemic has changed their leadership.
“What we heard was a kind of shift to humility,” says Joseph Michelli of his research “A shift to vulnerability, a shift to increased focus on safety.”
Will such changes help companies and organizations survive? Mr. Michelli notes that it has not meant no furloughs or other cuts. Instead, he has found something not seen in the headlines.
“I saw more people focused on their immediate team members,” he says. “Generally, a focus on the kind of people ‘who brought you to the dance.’”
Joseph Michelli talks about his reach in this Bizgnus Podcast.
• Expert shows why workplace diversity efforts fall short
• “If you want to hire diverse people, let them be diverse”
(Total Recorded Time is 20:20)
Despite decades of effort, workplace diversity still seems almost ephemeral. Michelle Silverthorn, an organizational diversity expert, is on a mission to change that.
She says that no matter how much organizations say inclusion matters or diversity counts, leadership in America looks the same as it did a century ago. In the Fortune 500 companies that compile diversity numbers, less than 4 percent of their workforces are racially and ethnically diverse. Additionally, the 2020 Women in the Workplace study of 279 companies found thar white workers occupied 86 percent of C-suite positions.
But hiring a diverse workforce is not the ultimate goal.
“If you want to hire diverse people, let them be diverse,” says Ms. Silverthorn. “Let them use those differences to succeed because that’s why you hired them in the first place.”
Ms. Silverthorn offers ideas to make organizations truly diverse in this Bizgnus Podcast.
• Trying to publish that book? This podcast has insider info that you need to know
• “There are ways of making money. I don’t want to discourage anyone”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:20)
These days it seems like everyone with a keyboard is publishing a book. But book sellers will tell you that a huge percentage of those books is, well, to use a technical term from the publishing world, junk.
However, if you think you have a book in your brain that just needs to be published, take a few minutes to listen to veteran writer Don Laskin in this Bizgnus podcast on the hurdles you could face in getting that book into the hands of the world beyond your immediate family.
• Lost for decades, music recorded as WW 2 ended is found by a Central Valley teacher
• “This is the only recording of a frontline band unit made in the middle of WWII”
(Total Recorded Time is 13:28)
Few people have ever heard it. Perhaps even the musicians who played the tunes never expected they would be heard 75 years later.
Music recorded by a long-forgotten Army Air Force band while the wounds of the just-ended war in the Pacific were still fresh, has been found in an attic in the Central Valley and is being re-issued in time for Veterans Day.
The story of this unique music begins with a single microphone sending the audio to a device that recorded it originally onto a spool of thin wire.
Clarksburg Middle School history teacher Jason Burt found the recordings in the dusty attic of his grandparent’s home.
Mr. Burt talks about his discovery and how it is being used to help today’s veterans’ organizations in this Bizgnus podcast:
• Survivors of trauma offer paths forward through the COVID pandemic
• “It is truly, ultimately, up to us to heal ourselves”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:10)
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people and businesses in many tragic ways. Some firms have failed or are on the verge of shutting their doors permanently the human suffering is numbing.
But some seem to be doing okay. What accounts for that?
Anne Boudreau interviewed 40 survivors of trauma to understand how self-worth helps people survive and thrive.
“It is truly, ultimately, up to us to heal ourselves and develop self-belief, self-value in ourselves,” Ms. Boudreau says. “No one can do it for us.”
She says a major reason is the brain’s ability to develop new pathways, “neuroplasticity” as she explains it.
“You are capable of transcending trauma because you have a brain that wants to grow beyond that trauma,” she says.
Anne Boudreau talks about moving beyond trauma and find new ways to improve attitude, energy, focus, resilience, and ability to heal in this Bizgnus podcast interview.
• Strengthening your organization for the post-COVID world
• This solution is so simple it will need brave leaders
(Total Recorded Time is 38:06)
When the COVID pandemic finally ends, will the business world return to its customary form? Our Bizgnus podcast guest hopes there will be a fundamental change… one that could save capitalism.
Darren Dahl, a business journalist who has ghostwritten multiple books, is an advocate of a far more open form of management that he details in a series of books with entrepreneur Jack Stack, president and CEO of SRC Holdings Corporation.
Their newest book is called Change the Game: Saving the American Dream by Closing the Gap between the Haves and the Have-Nots. Impossible you say? Let’s see.
• How a “mompreneuer” took an idea from her kitchen to a nationwide business
• “Don’t put walls up in front of yourselves that prevent you from ultimately getting out there and doing it”
(Total Recorded Time is 31:47)
What was coming out of her tap in her home kitchen didn’t exactly thrill Kara Goldin. Nor did diet soda because the weight never seemed to leave.
Then the idea: unsweetened water with just a hint of fruit taste.
What started as something she made in her kitchen for family and a few friends has turned into a business that now spans 50 states and beyond.
To do it, Ms. Goldin had to invent a new product, find customers who didn’t know they needed it, and overcome other challenges including doubters inside the beverage industry as well as the typical doubts that bounce in the heads of every entrepreneur.
Kara Goldin, inventor of the “Hint” favored water brand joins us on this Bizgnus podcast.
• What leaders should do when an employee grieves
• “This is a very unspoken, unaddressed area of leadership”
(Total recorded time is 22:45)
By just about any definition, these are not good times. We’re trying to cope with a pandemic that could be the worst in a century… the economy has tanked for many companies and workers… politics seems like unending trench warfare and then you add in typical workplace issues many of which, because of those outside pressures, are anything but typical these days.
Include in that grief counseling when one of your staff suffers the loss of a loved one.
“This is a very unspoken, unaddressed area of leadership,” says Anthony Casablanca, co-author of a new book exploring the sensitive area.
• A sea change is underway in how companies operate that could lead to prosperity for some and failure for others
• “A movement that’s been happening under the surface”
(Total recorded time is 37:30)
It’s been flying under the radar for years but now it’s emerging as a different, perhaps more sustainable way of doing business.
Roy Whitten, an expert in attitude and its role in human performance, says it may result in one of the most transformative times in business history.
The “it” is social entrepreneurship, which includes the impact on society of the policies and actions of a business or organization.
“We’re just getting going,” Mr. Whitten says of the movement. He points to the decision in 2019 of the Business Roundtable’s CEO members to de-emphasize short term profits as goals for their companies, which are among the largest in the U.S.
“What they were struck down with and raised up by was a movement that’s been happening under the surface … called social entrepreneurship,” Mr. Whitten says.
In brief, he says, it’s “this whole notion of running business in a way that it can actually do good in the world.”
What about profits? What about the business owners? Is this just a new twist to do-goodism? Not so, says Mr. Whitten, who explains in this exclusive Bizgnus Podcast how businesses can profit and grow through social entrepreneurism.
• There finally is a better way to sell
• “Our mission is to prove that ‘selling’ isn’t a word to be ashamed of”
(Total recorded time is 32:15)
Challenges to the success of businesses do not begin and end with the COVID-19 pandemic. Before COVID – and likely after it – is the challenge of selling a business’s goods or services.
That’s where Roy Whitten and Scott Roy come in for many companies in more than 40 countries.
They are the authors of the best-selling book “Decision Intelligence Selling: Transform the Way Your People Sell.”
“Our mission is to prove that ‘selling’ isn’t a word to be ashamed of,” says Mr. Roy, who is based in London.
Mr. Whitten, based in Sacramento, adds, “We’re offering a fundamental change of direction on how to sell in a way that increases profitability while upholding the wellbeing of everyone impacted.”
• Former restauranteur knows the real recipe for business success
• “A lesson that’s not just for business, but is actually a lesson for life”
Total Recorded Time is 23:55
Dan Sachs knows a thing or three about business success.
Now the executive director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago, Mr. Sachs was president of Meerkat Advisory, a hospitality and leadership development advisory group, a professor of management and entrepreneurship at DePaul University, founder and owner of BIN 36 Restaurant Group and holder of a grand diplôme from École de Cuisine La Varenne.
He’s also an author of a book targeting business owners who are looking for greater success.
Mr. Sachs interviewed the top management at nine companies like Zappos and Brooklyn Brewery to show how employers create employee-friendly workplaces to maximize their success.
That recipe of research and personal experience resulted in the book, “The Million Dollar Greeting.”
• Too many in business are letting their creativity languish, expert says
• “Everything about creativity can be learned”
Despite all the talk about innovation, people in business are not taught how to think creatively. As a result, many careers stall and companies are grappling to compete and survive.
“Everything about creativity can be learned,” says creativity expert and business consultant Nir Bashan, author of the new book, “The Creator Mindset: 92 Tools to Unlock the Secrets to Innovation, Growth, and Sustainability (McGraw-Hill; August 2020).
Mr. Bashan has a new way of thinking that he says bridges the gap between the brain’s two hemispheres—the logic-driven left and the creative-inclined right to find innovative solutions to problems and achieve what he calls magnificent harmonious success.
“Analytical skills are important. But in isolation they are damaging,” he says. “As we begin to unite the analytical and the creative, we learn how to be a more effective leader and create an environment that is ripe for opportunity and growth.”
Nir Bashan talks about his research and some of his 92 ideas in this exclusive Bigngus podcast:
You can also watch the interview on the Bizgnus YouTube channel here: https://tinyurl.com/y2hg6vhf
Mr. Bashan is founder and CEO of The Creator Mindset LLC, based in Orlando, Florida. Through his workshops and consulting, he teaches business leaders how to harness the power of creativity to improve profitability, increase sales, and make work more meaningful. His clients include AT&T, Microsoft, Ace Hardware, NFL Network, EA Sports, and JetBlue.
For more information: https://www.nirbashan.com/the-creator-mindset
• Public pension plans are just murder for insider Josiah Vencel
• “It’s nonfiction wrapped in fiction”
There are only a few ways to keep a public pension fund financially viable: employee contributions, taxpayer funds and returns on investments. Those are the legal ways.
But Bakersfield author Josiah Vencel has a retirement plan that’s just plain murder.
“As I was writing, I realized people don’t understand pensions,” says Mr. Vencel, author of the who-dun-it thriller, “The Pension Plan.”
“Retirees are dying at exactly 80 years old,” he says. “Their deaths appear natural so nobody realizes they’re being murdered except for one peron.”
He says he tries to entertain readers with characters and plot while teaching the basics of what otherwise is an often misunderstood – and dry – subject. “It’s nonfiction wrapped in fiction,” he says.
• No, you’re not immune to bias
• “Work that really does have an impact is when you help people understand the way they’re making decisions”
Howard Ross, a lifelong social justice advocate, and author of the book, “Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives,” says the more we think we are immune to biases, the greater likelihood that our own are invisible to us.
“We tend to think that human beings are rational in our decision making,” Mr. Ross says. “But in fact we know now … that virtually every human decision starts with our emotion.”
He says unconscious bias is an area of study that is still developing. “What we’re finding is the kind of work that really does have an impact is when you help people understand the way they’re making decisions,” Mr. Ross says.
Howard Ross talks about unconscious bias in this exclusive Bizgnus Audio Interview Podcast… including why Subaru makes such effective TV commercials.
• Expert Jennifer Kahnweiler says it’s time organizations were introvert-friendly
• “You’ll get so much more out of your team if you play to their preferences”
(Total recorded time is 17:22)
Chances are, whether yours is a for-profit company or a non-profit, you are overlooking a lot of existing talent.
They are the introverts. And they are rising, albeit slowly.
It’s estimated that introverts represent nearly half of the U.S. workforce. Yet extroverts get the rewards.
Leaders need to recognize that when the needs of introverts are ignored, they become disengaged or jump ship to new organizations, taking their talent and contributions with them, says Jennifer Kahnweiler, who received her doctorate from Florida State University and who has spent more than a decade studying and writing about introverts, including four books on the subject.
“Particularly now, it’s really important to spend that extra time to get to know our people, not just in terms of the skills they bring to the table and their experience, but just as important … how do they communicate best,” says Ms. Kahnweiler.
“You’ll get so much more out of your team if you play to their preferences,” she says.
Jennifer Kahnweiler outlines the problem of overlooking the talents of introverts and what leaders can do about it in this exclusive Bizgnus Podcast.
• How to spot the hidden technology reefs that could shipwreck your small business
• “You can be leveraging technology in the same way that a Fortune 500 company”
(Total Recorded Time is 13:35)
Let’s just add another major worry when it comes to keeping your small business afloat in these troubled times of recession and COVID pandemic. It’s trying to steer a company through the hidden reefs of using outdated software or hardware, says Michael Fillios, founder and CEO of the IT Ally Institute, a Mason, Ohio-based nonprofit organization helping small and medium-sized businesses.
“There’s a balance that you need to strike between keeping the lights on with technology investments as well as thinking about these investments mores strategically,” says Mr. Fillios. “As we’ve learned in the most recent days with COVID, technology can really be utilized in more ways than we can ever imagine.
“You can be leveraging technology in the same way that a Fortune 500 company,” Mt. Fillios says.
He warns that failure to pay attention to what he calls technology debt can run a company aground. “This now goes beyond just the traditional software defects into many other areas of a business including hardware and purchase application and talent and data and process,” he says.
Michael Fillios goes into detail about often overlooked problem and what business leaders should do about it in this exclusive CVBT Audio Interview Podcast via Skype:
Mr. Fillios is author of the new book, “Tech Debt 2.0: How to Future Proof Your Small Business and Improve Your Tech Bottom Line,” (IT Ally Institute; 2020).
For more information: www.itallyinstitute.org
• Why putting competition and profits hurts your entire organization
• “It’s not just about meeting specific metrics or goals”
(Total Recorded Time is 15:27)
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing businesses to rethink how they operate, now is the time to find a better way to a stronger bottom line says author and business leadership consultant Dan Bruder.
“What type of impact could your company have on its customers, employees, and community if everyone was collectively focused on pursuing a common cause?” Mr. Bruder asks.
He says an organization’s potential “is exponentially greater than the level at which most are operating today.”
Mr. Bruder’s solution is something he calls “blendification,” which he says is a new process that systematically builds and blends a company’s culture, strategy, and execution, while inspiring leaders to maximize their human potential and lead others to do the same.
“What can we do at work to blend our company together so that our company can realize or pursue its potential,” he says “And when I look at potential of an organization, it’s not just about meeting specific metrics or goals.”
Dan Bruder explains his new system in this exclusive CVBT Audio Interview Podcast.
Mr. Bruder, CEO of Fusion Dynamics Group, an international strategy and leadership consulting firm based in Denver, Colorado, has put his plan into a new book, “The Blendification System: Activating Potential by Connecting Culture, Strategy, and Execution (Productivity Press; June 2020).
For more information: www.BlendificationSystem.com
• Why are COVID rates so high in the Central Valley?
• UC Merced professor has an unsettling answer
A new study from the University of California, Merced, finds a link between low-wage work and the spread of COVID-19 in the Central Valley.
The Central Valley is now a focus of efforts to control spread of the often-deadly virus that causes COVID-19. The emergence of the region as a hot spot in the pandemic is explored in a new study from UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center.
Researchers found that California counties with high numbers of low-wage workers are seeing higher incidence of COVID-19, suggesting a link between so-called “worker distress” and spread of the virus.
• Renowned psychology professor reveals research that could boost your team’s productivity and reduce stress
• “Just looking at the blue color for a few minutes will increase your creativity”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:03)
Sometimes it’s the trees. Or the beach. Or just gazing out the window at a garden.
These actions seem to help humans be more creative while reducing stress, says psychology professor and author Thalma Lobel.
“Just looking at the blue color for a few minutes – even less—will increase your creativity,” says Ms. Lobel. “It is true even in green.”
In this CVBT interview, she offers the research support for that and also tells about the experiment dealing with thinking outside the box, when that is meant literally.
Ms. Lobel is the author of the new book, “Whatever Works: The Small Cues That Make a Surprising Difference in Our Success at Work—and How to Create a Happier Office,” (BenBella Books; July 2020).
She says it takes more than salary and title for optimal teamwork. What is missing too often, she says, are the hidden factors that have profound effects on how well humans do their jobs and how happy they are at work.
Thalma Lobel details many of these hidden factors that can be quickly addressed by managers in this exclusive CVBT Audio Interview Podcast.
• Are “microagressions” poisoning your relationships?
• “Microaggressions, typically, are neither micro nor aggressive”
Total recorded time is 15:55
Every day, people exclude and alienate others – and often quite unintentionally.
This can be as simple as frequently mispronouncing a co-worker’s name. Or it can be more overt, such as avoiding someone who looks different.
Social scientist Michael Baran, senior partner and digital solutions lead at inQUEST Consulting, has been researching the problem.
“Microaggressions, typically, are neither micro nor aggressive,” says Mr. Baran. “What people mean by that is those times when people aren’t necessarily trying to be mean or to exclude people or cause harm, but that’s what the impact is.”
He says that just pointing out the offense to a coworker, an acquaintance, or a stranger can raise hackles. But Mr. Baran says that when the subject -- or an observer -- speaks up, it can be effective.
Michael Baran talks about the problem and solutions business leaders can implement immediately in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcasts.
• Using quantum mechanics in everyday life
• “You create the outcome of your life from within you and your own power”
Total recorded time is 24:57
The writer Agatha Christie had her famous fictional detective Hercule Poirot solve crimes using the “little gray cells” of his brain. Our CVBT interview guest today says we can solve many of our own problems using something much smaller than little gray cells
Janey McKee says we need to use an aspect of quantum mechanics to achieve real success in business and life.
Quantum mechanics holds that nothing is solid, but rather, everything is in fact energy. And, contends Ms McKee, the energy that we give off from the feelings that our thoughts generate may affect our reality more than we ever knew.
“You create the outcome of your life from within you and your own power,” says Ms. McKee.
Although armed with an MBA from the prestigious University of Pittsburgh, Ms. McKee says her outlook on life was shaped by horrendous, personal experiences.
Janet McKee reveals what events shaped her new path and how she is now helping other business leaders redirect their energies for success in this CVBT Audio and Video Interview.
• Why the jobless numbers are not going down
• “Despite a couple positive signals that we’ve seen, there’s some real worry”
Total Recorded Time is 7:49
The Department of Labor said last week that it counted 1.3 million newly unemployed people across the nation. Outplacement expert Andrew Challenger says while some of those suddenly on the unemployment rolls can directly blame the COVID-19 pandemic, more worrisome is that a large number lost their jobs because of the deepening recession.
“As the economy has slipped into an official recession, there are many more sectors of the economy that are starting to see job cuts announced and pile up,” says Mr. Challenger, senior vice president of the outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
On Friday, the California Economic Development Department said the June state unemployment rate had receded to 14.9 percent. That is not encouraging from Mr. Challenger’s viewpoint.
“Despite a couple positive signals that we’ve seen, there’s some real worry,” he says. “Many more cuts are coming from white collar jobs – jobs that had been safe from the brunt of the crisis because they were about to be done from home – are now on the chopping block because companies are facing a real decrease in demand across the board.”
Mr. Challenger talks about the unemployment picture as he sees it in this exclusive CVBT Audio & Video Interview.
• New president of University of the Pacific offers vision for the future of the university
• “I’m so inspired by our young people today”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:27)
The tri-campus University of the Pacific, with its main campus in Stockton, a college of law in Sacramento and a school of dentistry in San Francisco, should continue to develop its dual personality in the years ahead, says Pacific’s new president, Christopher Callahan.
Mr. Callahan sees the two halves of the university as one offering smaller classes, with strong faculty-student relationships, similar to a small college, with the other half being Pacific’s wide offering of classes and activities, similar to a large university.
He comes to Stockton after 15 years at Arizona State University, where he was founding dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, vice provost of their downtown Phoenix campus and CEO of Arizona PBS.
Before Arizona, he spent 15 years as associate dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland and senior editor of the American Journalism Review.
Three decades with two of the nation’s major universities have helped shape his view of today’s college student.
“I hear – often – people being critical of today’s college student. ‘They’re this, they’re that, they’re entitled.’” Mr. Callahan says. “I couldn’t disagree with that more. I’ve had the pleasure of working with young people for most of my professional career. And I can tell you that as time has gone on, what I have found is generationally increases in maturity, in empathy, in focus, in seriousness of what they’re trying to achieve, a deep understanding of their own personal goals and aspirations. I’m so inspired by our young people today.”
Christopher Callahan, a former reporter for The Associated Press, talks about his new job, what he sees for Pacific’s future and what he sees for journalism and the news business in the years ahead in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast:
• Demotivated employees were a problem before COVID; now what?
• “One of the sources of demotivation … is stress”
Total Recorded Time is 16:39
Demotivated employees were a $500 billion business crisis. Then Came COVID-19.
Before the COVID-19 outbreak, by several measures between 60 percent and 70 percent of U.S. workers were less than enthusiastic their work, costing businesses between $450 and $550 billion each year.
Add in one worldwide pandemic, newly remote and anxious employees, and news of daily layoffs, and leaders are left to plead, “Now what?” as employees mentally check out.
Actually, this COVID pandemic might not be entirely a bad thing, if only worker productivity is considered – if business managers and leaders recognize the problem and take simple, cost-effective steps to bolster morale and perhaps even ignite a flame or two of enthusiasm, say Tara Peters and Cathy Bush, authors of the new book, “The Demotivated Employee: Helping Leaders Solve the Motivation Crisis That Is Plaguing Business” (Advantage Media Group; March 17, 2020).
“Demotivation is not the opposite of motivation,” says Ms. Peters, an international consultant with a client list that includes Coca-Cola, Allstate, Walmart, and Ocwen and who currently serves as a professor at Northwood University’s DeVos Graduate School of Management and as academic dean for its Texas campus.
“We believe that leaders unintentionally demotivating their employees with their behaviors,” says Ms. Peters.
Tara Peters goes into practical detail about fixing problems of demotivation in these CVBT podcasts.
• Why managers need to recognize brain sex
• The “4 C’s” a manager can implement today
• “You can’t ignore gender”
(Total recorded time is 14:41)
In these days of pandemic, every business needs to get the most out of its greatest asset: it’s employees.
But in many businesses, half or more of that potential is going unused or is mis-used.
That’s because women are being asked to think like certain types of men, to compete like men, solve problems like men, and communicate like men -- even though their brains are fundamentally and structurally different, says neuropsychologist and corporate coach Kate Lanz, founder and CEO of Mindbridge, a UK-based global leadership company.
“You can’t ignore gender,” says Ms. Lanz. “There are differences between men’s and women’s brains that play out in the workplace. Understanding brain sex difference is actually a ‘secret sauce’ of performance.”
Kate Lanz delves into the differences and what managers should do to tap this often-unrecognized asset in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast (via Skype). Please click here to listen or to download the audio file:
• Music from the heart and heat of World War Two is is being remastered for a 21st Century audience
• “I discovered them while going through his attic”
(Total recorded time is 11:32)
Jason Burt is bringing to today’s audiences music recorded in the fire of the Pacific war of World War Two.
Mr. Burt, who spent much of his youth in the California Delta, is the history teacher at Clarksburg Middle School.
And he is the person who discovered long-forgotten recordings of an Army Air Force HQ band stationed in the Philippines in which his grandfather, a Julliard trained trumpet player and music teacher, was the lead trumpet player.
“Before the war ended, this 20-piece orchestra recorded themselves playing 10 chart topping big band songs of the time period,” Mr. Burt says.
But those recordings were forgotten as the war ended and the band members – all amateurs – went their separate ways.
Now Mr. Burt is bringing them back together, musically.
He talks about his unusual project in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast via Zoom.
• What leaders can learn from top adventurers
• “The end result if you can work through that conflict and communicate effectively is you get better product”T
Total recorded time is 24:20
You don’t have to scale the face of Half Dome with only your bare hands and toes to be a successful business leader, but it might help as not plunging 4,800 feet to the valley floor might gain you admission to the smallish club of true extreme adventurers.
Extreme adventurers have the ability to see obstacles -- and setbacks -- and think differently than others to overcome the challenges, say Amy Posey and Kevin Vallely in their new book, “Wild Success: 7 Key Lessons Business Leaders Can Learn from Extreme Adventures,” (McGraw Hill, March 10, 2020).
Ms. Posey says that as managers take off a sort of “managerial veneer” and become more open to their staffs, it makes the organization “a more welcoming place to work, it reduces the fear that people sometimes have when they want to contribute to a conversation but aren’t sure, it reduces imposter syndrome.”
She says while teamwork is still the norm, leaders should not fear encouraging diversity of thought.
“What happens when you get people with diverse interests and backgrounds and variety, you may have more conflict because these different perspectives coming to the table, but the end result if you can work through that conflict and communicate effectively is you get better product,” Ms. Posey says.
Amy Posey talks about leading like an extreme adventurer in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast via Skype.
For more information: www.morewildsuccess.com
Or
https://supermegaboss.com/
• Management consultant say now is the time for companies to be intensely training the next generation of leaders
• “How do I quickly and effectively move my emerging leaders … into leadership positions”
Total Recorded Time is 16:40
There could well be another aspect of the current COVID-19 recession that is about to surface: a tsunami of retirements by senior members of many businesses who look at the death rate from the pandemic and re-order their priorities, says management consultant Lisa Ryan, chief appreciation strategist with the consulting firm Grategy of Cleveland.
Before a company sees that corporate wisdom walk out the door for the last time, it’s prudent to train the next generation of leaders, she says.
“How do I quickly and effectively move my emerging leaders – move my Gen X, move my Millennials – into leadership positions, giving them the skills that they need to carry on,” she says.
Ms. Ryan says too often those suddenly promoted may know the mechanics of the job but do not have the “soft skills” needed to be effective leaders.
Lisa Ryan talks about what company leaders should be considering now to prepare for a post-COVID future in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast.
• Even when working from home, you can strive for a balance between work and life, Fresno State expert says
• “We do better when we’re rested and when we have time away from work”
Total Recorded Time is 13:13
Remember when going to your place of business meant getting dressed and then driving somewhere? But for months now going to work for millions has meant ambling down the hallway in your pjs to sit with your laptop at the kitchen table to work remotely amid the debris left from breakfast.
Talk about being on call 24-7.
And that brings us to our CVBT Interview guest… an expert on dealing with being on-call 24-7…. Julie Olson-Buchanan, who is the interim dean of Fresno State’s Craig School of Business.
• Commercial real estate disruptor calls for nore “conscious capitalism”
• “You can create extraordinary success by helping others succeed”
Jonathan Keyser, founder and CEO of the Phoenix, Arizona-area commercial real estate company Keyser LLC, says he’s a reformed ruthless jerk.
“My journey reinventing myself from a ruthless jerk to someone who’s committed to serving other people was not an easy one,” he says.
Key to the transformation, he says, is following the ideas of the conscious capitalism movement.
“Conscious capitalism is a movement started by John Mackey,” Mr. Keyser says. “The basic premise … is to elevate humanity through business, to do good through business. It’s focusing on a stakeholder model.”
Mr. Keyser says this sort of “win-win-win” strategy is more important now than in the recent days of seemingly unbridled prosperity.
Jonathan Keyser talks about his personal transformation and how that helped form his success in the dog-eat-dog world of commercial real estate in the CVBT Audio Interview Podcast.
Please click here to listen now:
• Chaotic times require adaptive leadership, he says
• “It’s very easy to get into a conversation about history”
(Total Recorded Time is 17:30)
In these chaotic and incredibly uncertain times, effective leadership can fall back on a proven, specific way of leading and managing teams, says Ed Muzio, chief executive officer of Group Harmonics of Austin, Texas, and a three-time author of books on leadership.
“Every management team has in it some level of a fictitious belief that they can see the future,” Mr. Muzio says. “One thing that happens an awful lot in management teams – and I mean at all levels – is that it’s very easy to get into a conversation about history.”
Mr. Muzio says leaders need to move such conversations away from what happened to better plan for a rapidly evolving future.
With the future so uncertain in 2020, he says leaders should rake their best steps today – but be ready to change everything tomorrow.
Ed Muzio expands on these ideas and more in this CVBT Audio/Video Interview Podcast.
• In recovering from the COVID Recession, expert says genuine compassion should be part of the recovery
• “The kind of situation we’re in now creates enormous stress”
(Total Recorded Time is 21:46)
The current work-from-home requirements brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to radically different ways of operating for most organizations. And that calls for leaders who can address the emotional toll that the isolation is taking on their employees’ physical, mental and financial well-being, says Howard Ross, a lifelong social justice advocate and a principle in Bethesda, Maryland-based Udarta Consulting. Mr. Ross is considered one of the world’s thought leaders on identifying and addressing unconscious bias.
“People see diversity as this sort of ancillary thing that we do when we have the time for it, but if you look that impact of COVID on especially the African-American community and Native American community, we that this COVID experience is bringing to light some of the issues of systemic racism in our culture,” Mr. Ross says.
“If anything, more than ever we need to incorporate these conversations into the things we are doing as we try to create a sense of belonging at a time of separation,” he says.
Even as economic pressures may be forcing leaders to consider cutting payroll, Mr. Ross says companies need leaders who show genuine compassion to create a sort of “we’re in this together” sense.
“The kind of situation we’re in now creates enormous stress,” he says. “Any sense of difference we have gets multiplied.”
Howard Ross, who has spent more than 30 years helping managers become leaders in their organizations offers specific ideas on how companies can create a better sense of teamwork in the times of CVID in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast. Please click here to listen or to download the audio file:
• Lathrop CPA explains why it’s not too late to apply for federal help for a small business
• “There’s still some money out there”
It’s not too late for small business owners to apply for federal help, says veteran Central Valley CPA Peter Holtz, whose practice is based in Lathrop.
He says there’s still about one-third of the second round of the “Paycheck Protection Program” (PPP) still unallocated. “There’s still some money out there in PPPs,” he says.
He says his firm alone has helped Valley-based small businesses get about $11 million in the PPP loans.
“We’re working with them now to work through the forgiveness process … so that hopefully this will be capital they can retain in their business and help them stay open or re-open, in some cases,” Mr. Holtz says.
Please click here to list to this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast with Peter Holtz…
• Why Ken Wentworth calls himself a “fractional CEO”
• “It’s hard to have that strategic vision when you’re always ‘putting out fires’”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:20)
Recorded March 10, 2020
Somewhat like Superman, mild-mannered Ken Wentworth has an alter ego: Mr. Biz.
It’s his trade name for his real-life vocation of consulting business leaders to help them make their companies more successful.
“It’s hard to have that strategic vision when you’re always ‘putting out fires’ and running your business,” Mr. Wentworth says.
That’s where he and his team step in, he says. Mr. Wentworth, who spent 20 years in the corporate world, is now a “fractional CEO,” in which he works as a consultant to build specific skills a company’s CEO needs to build his company
Mr. Wentworth talks about some of the problems he’s helped CEOs deal with in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast, via Skype.
“Two common problems that I see,” he says are “cash flow Number One … [and] hiring good people.”
In the podcast, Mr. Wentworth offers a surprising trick to helping sort out the good from the bad when it comes to hiring. The listener should note that the interview was recorded prior to the COVID-19 lockdown orders.
Please click below to listen now or to download the audio file for later use.
• Why leaders need to rethink their business models
• “You’ve got to ask your stakeholders what’s important to them”
Before the coronavirus took the world by surprise, most companies and even nonprofits blissfully carried on, blinded by record profits, donations and industry kudos.
But in too many cases, the money and praise masked business models that were mediocre, at best.
Now, the overnight recession is closing or downsizing organizations faster than any even since the early 1930s, throwing tens of millions out of work and eroding or eliminating investments.
Before it’s too late, what should a business do?
Business consultant Mark DeLuzio, who witnessed the profound changes in the U.S. auto industry at the hands of Toyota in the 1970s, has some ideas.
“You’ve got to ask your stakeholders what’s important to them. Shareholders; pretty easy. They want earnings. But they also want you to be good corporate citizens,” says Mr. DeLuzio.
He says there are more than just shareholders who should be considered. There are two others that make up his trilogy of top-tier groups: customers and employees.
He joins us in, what for CVBT is a first, a video and audio podcast.
He joins us in, what for CVBT is a first, a video and audio podcast.
Watch our interview here:
https://tinyurl.com/y9dhy7f2
Listen to our interview here:
https://tinyurl.com/y92snx5t
• How businesses are pivoting to get ready for a post-COVID world
• “What do you manage to? That’s the hardest determination at this point”
(Total Recorded Time 11:38)
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With some states “re-opening” after weeks of COVID-19 lockdowns, business is trying to see how much they will have to pivot to meet new opportunities, says Mark McKee, president and chief operating officer of the online payroll and back office services company OnPay.
“As people have started to understand more of what we’re up against and maybe how long it will take, they talk about how do we now pivot our businesses to be online … or having a physical presence in a safe way,” Mr. McKee says.
Mark McKee talks about what he’s hearing about business post-COVID in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast.
Mr. McKee says the new federal stimulus programs, while initially confusing to many, offer some lifelines to stay liquid.
“I think the best tool for most businesses is to utilize the PPP (paycheck protection program) although they’ve just run out of the second round of funding for that,” Mr. McKee says. “That seems to be the cleanest and easiest way for most to get short-term liquidity on the book and potentially some of that forgiven.”
In the podcast, he offers other ways to tap the federal funds along with what he’s hearing from businesses across the nation about the future.
“What do you manage to? That’s the hardest determination at this point,” he says. “What is the end point we’re all managing for?”
For more information: https://onpay.com/covid-19
• The doctor is in and ready to cure meeting malaise
• “It’s such a universal issue, meetings”
Total Recorded Time (TRT) is 25:44
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Oh, no. Another meeting. Meetings in organizations, whether in person (remember those?) or virtual can make everyone shudder.
So we’ve called the doctor.
Doctor Rick Brinkman, perhaps better known as a motivational speaker, trainer and author, says there is no reason to dread meetings – if. If they are managed properly and if attendees know how to get the most out of them, he says.
“It’s such a universal issue, meetings,” he says. “There are too many meetings, first of all. A lot of them don’t make sense to people. They might be meeting just because we’ve always been meeting.”
• A better way to fix career burnout for the manager -- and the managed
• “Unless you really pay attention to yourself and are conscious of yourself … you can’t really make any decisions or choices to change it”
Total Recorded Time (TRT): 21:50
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Career burnout. Many managers and other professionals face it. When it’s recognized it can lead to an encore career following a particular passion. For Natasha Wallace, it prompted her to start her own company with an eye to helping others who were facing “the road not taken,” as the poet Robert Frost described it.
But to change an organization requires self-knowledge by the leaders, Ms. Wallace says.
“Unless you really pay attention to yourself and are conscious of yourself -- and how happy, satisfied, fulfilled and well you feel – you can’t really make any decisions or choices to change it,” she says.
The veteran HR director says to get an organization consistently delivering high performance takes much more than merely demanding “work” from employees.
“The workplace is evolving and we need to learn new skills to keep up,” she says.
Ms. Wallace calls her company Conscious Works to stress the need to consciously invest time in people as individuals, and encourage collaboration and togetherness.
Natasha Wallace talks about what she sees as needed and fundamental changes in workplace relationships, leadership burnout, and how to cope in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast via Skype.
• Fourth-generation entrepreneur offers marketing tips for small business and insight on how COVID-19 will change marketing
• “If you’re going to own a business, especially today, you’ve got to be a marketing superhero”
TRT (Total Recorded Time) is 18:42
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After a quarter century of running her own business, fourth-generation entrepreneur Karen Sullivan has seen marketing evolve through one phase after another. From that, she says, it’s the tried and true that still works in the 21st Century.
Times have changed. Techniques have changed. Media have waxed and waned. But one thing remains true about marketing: It has to help sell something.
“You’ve got to make somebody want it and you’ve got to get them in the door,” she says. “Once you get them in the door, it becomes sales.”
Ms. Sullivan says she has developed a concept of marketing superhero personas that explore the pros and the cons of owners who try to do it all. “We feel that if you’re going to own a business, especially today, you’ve got to be a marketing superhero,” she says.
Karen Sullivan talks about marketing, the superheroes she sees and the “kryptonite” that weakens so many in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast. Please click here to listen:
“I have always done marketing,” says Ms. Sullivan, who grew up in a family-owned business. “Literally started out in grade school.”
Sullivan Solutions works exclusively with privately held small and medium businesses. “The same principles apply regardless of the audience you’re going for. You’ve got to know who you’re selling to, know what the benefits are to them so that you could speak directly into that,” she says.
For more information:
Https://www.sullivansolutions.com
http://youtube.com/c/Sullivansolutions
• University of the Pacific economist says COVID-caused contraction could be worse than 1929 crash
• “The impact on small businesses is just phenomenal”
Total Recorded Time (TRT) 11:08
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An economist who has spent much of his career researching the financial aspects of the health sector says the economic contraction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may very well be leading to a full-blown recession.
Peter Hilsenrath, who holds the Joseph M. Long Chair of Healthcare Management and is professor of economics at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, says “it has impacted much more than I had anticipated.”
He says the classic definition of a recession – two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product growth – could likely be confirmed following the third quarter, if not sooner, after the second quarter.
Mr. Hilsenrath says the current contraction is certainly far more than numbers on a chart: it is also about the lives, fortunes and futures of people, many who own or work for small businesses.
“Initially people are going to start to have liquidity problems; there’s just no cash flow,” he says. “but that can quickly turn to solvency problems.”
Mr. Hilsenrath says owners of businesses – small or large – need to move quickly to tap into the loans and other funds the federal government and Federal Reserve ares trying to offer. “I realize it may be difficult to access that but I would certainly try because that could be a real lifeline until such time as things normalize,” he says.
Trillions of dollars have already been dumped into the nation’s economy by both the Federal Reserve and the federal government. But will that be enough to restart the economy and get most if not all of the nearly 17 million suddenly jobless back to work? The University of the Pacific economist has some doubts – and grim humor.
“It’s like a trillion dollars here and another trillion there and we’re talking real money, but I do think more will be necessary,” he says. “The impact on small businesses is just phenomenal.”
But are the current times just like those that led to the Great Depression? Perhaps not. Listen to Peter Hilsenrath in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast here:
• Entrepreneur says for success, businesses should integrate their information technology strategy with their business strategy
• “Your IT strategy is your business strategy”
Total recorded time (TRT) 16:51
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Most business owners know their business strategy. And they may suspect that those “IT guys” know the information technology strategy.
But long-time IT expert John Farhat says a company’s IT strategy ought not be separate.
“Your IT strategy is your business strategy,” says Mr, Farhat, founder of Farhat Services Company Inc., of Columbus, Ohio.
With decades of experience behind him, Mr. Farhat advises clients on how to integrate IT into the fabric of a company, including being prepared for cyber criminals.
“Anything online could potentially be compromised,” he warns. “What I see quite a bit is security companies coming in and doing threat penetration testing. That’s great. Absolutely necessary. But that does not protect from all vulnerabilities.”
Aand this is where integration of IT into the fabric of a company’s business strategy is important, he says. In the case of a data breach, recovery will require more than just plugging the data leak. It will often require the work of marketing, legal, public relations and more,” Mr. Farhat says.
“It’s not like we’re running two steps ahead of the bad guys. On a good day we’re running half a step behind them” he says.
John Farhat expands on his ideas in today’s CVBT Audio Interview Podcast.
• Northeastern University executive professor says she has a better way to get a new job
• She calls it “boutique employability”
Suddenly, finding a new job is much harder, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy’s overnight plunge into recession.
But Northeastern University executive professor Julia Ivy says she has an original approach for impressing a potential employer.
By defining their space in a company that fits their multidimensional profiles and showing a targeted employer their “boutique employability,” job candidates position themselves as more than just another applicant, Ms. Ivy says.
She defines her term of “boutique employability” as the idea of taking initiative over shaping one’s space in an industry, identifying companies that fit this space, and then using consulting cases as a vehicle that allows the candidate to connect with a company at a personal and professional level.
“It works every single time,” Ms. Ivy says.
Julia Ivy talks about the technique in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast:
• With a dash of magic, he has motivated thousands
• “I was a very shy kid”
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In talking with Jon Petz, you would not imagine him as an introverted person. After all, he is a frequent guest on podcasts, radio and television and stands in front of thousands as a motivational and keynote speaker.
But it didn’t start that way.
“I was a very shy kid … and I started learning to do magic. I think that’s what a lot of shy kids do – we don’t know how to talk to people,” Mr. Petz says.
He says the hobby helped him break his shyness even to the point where he traveled the world for years as a combination comedian and magician.
There’s nothing like comedy to help survive in the corporate world. “I started using those tricks and those elements as icebreakers and ways to open doors in the sales world,” he says, explaining how he moved into C-suite sales for a lengthy career.
Now, after 16 years as motivational keynote speaker on performance and the power of human connections, the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing him to rethink his business.
• Outplacement export says immediate, and big, government action needed to avert massive layoffs
• “This is truly unprecedented in the way it’s affecting American small businesses so quickly”
If Congress and the President do not take immediate and massive action to pump up the economy, layoffs of unprecedented size will wash across the nation, warns outplacement expert Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
“This is truly unprecedented in the way it’s affecting American small businesses so quickly,” says Mr. Challenger in this same-day CVBT Podcast Interview. “It’s impacted millions of workers in unprecedented speed as their wages are instantly cut off.”
• Disruptive times demands innovative leaders – but where are they?
• “Adaptive leadership is required”
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In disruptive times such as these, it takes a new type of leader to guide businesses – leaders for whom innovation seems to be part of their DNA.
Maureen Metcalf, founder of the Innovative Leadership Institute in Columbus, Ohio, says these new leaders can mean increased profitability and increased employee effectiveness.
Such leaders don’t just walk in the door. But Ms. Metcalf says they may already be on staff, just needing the right guidance.
“Adaptive leadership is required. We as leaders are part of the systems we lead and we need to change ourselves so that we can sustain the changes our systems are making,” she says.
Maureen Metcalf joins us via Zoom on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast to tell us more, including the story about why a restaurant chain re-thought its policy about employees getting free food….
• Global supply chains are unprepared
• “We’re in for a global recession”
https://tinyurl.com/syqft9z
The COVID-19 coronavirus may well trigger a massive worldwide economic downturn. That’s the warning from global supply chain expert Nada Sanders, who is a distinguished professor at Northeastern University in Boston.
She says the COVID-19 outbreak is not just a rapidly spreading disease, it’s having a multidimensional domino effect on the world’s businesses. Ms. Sanders says Wall Street and many economists underestimate the dynamics of the global supply chain.
She joins us for this special CVBT Audio Interview Podcast….
• He says artificial intelligence will be the biggest change since the internet
• “AI, and automation in general, will create a lot more jobs”
(TRT* 23:45)
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Artificial intelligence – is it the stuff of fearsome fiction – or a radiant future for humanity?
Alexander Fleiss, chief executive officer of Rebellion Research, comes down on the side of the latter argument, and decidedly so.
He says his entire company is based on using artificial intelligence as an everyday tool to help investors make better decisions. And that’s just the tip of a very large and often misunderstood iceberg, he says.
“AI, and automation in general, will create a lot more jobs. I think the unemployment rate will go down further and I think the availability and access of better-paying, easier, jobs will be more and more and more,” says Mr. Fleiss.
“Hopefully my predictions will turn out to be conservative,” he says.
______
*Total Recorded Time. We include this so listeners can budget their time accordingly.
• Software startup entrepreneur is taking machine learning to new levels
• “We realized there was a lot more opportunity than we’d initially thought of”
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Fulton had this problem with his first steamboats. The Wright brothers probably faced many of the same issues. All, and others before and since, invesnted something that seemed to solve a major problem but how to build a business out of such an idea.
Paul Powers, chief executive officer of software company Physna LLC of Cincinnati, Ohio, is following in those footsteps by taking machine learning to new levels.
Mr. Powers’ company makes software that, simply put, converts 3D images into smaller geometric units that then can be readily compared to similar objects. In one example of what that means, a parts designer could use the Physna software to see if the piece being designed can actually fit into a larger part.
And don’t call it CAD – computer aided design. Mr. Powers says the CAD industry remains stuck where it was 30 years ago. “CAD technology never left that 1980s state,” he says. This is 21st Century machine learning that he says could bring a revolution to the world’s economy on the scale of the internet.
“We realized there was a lot more opportunity than we’d initially thought of,” he says. “We did think of the solution but we didn’t realize that we were solving more problems than we knew.”
But while that sounds like tapping a gold mine, he says it can cause problems for a startup, as he explains in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast:
Please click here to listen now:
• A traumatic event reshaped her life
• “It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon”
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For most people, lives are changed by small events -- a tweak here, a nudge there. But for the guest on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast, life changed suddenly and dramatically one day in June 1998.
Rosemarie Rossetti is now a keynote speaker, trainer, author, consultant, and president of Rossetti Enterprises Inc. in Columbus, Ohio.
But in 1998, things were different. She was recently married and hobbies like a bike ride were routine.
“It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. My husband Mark and I were celebrating our third wedding anniversary,” Ms. Rossetti recalls.
They decided to go for a bike ride on a rails-to-trails path in Granville, a college town east of Columbus. That’s when life changed.
Listen to our CVBT podcast where Ms. Rossetti continues the story of that afternoon and how it changed her life in ways never expected….
• Just how possible is it to have employees who self-manage?
• Leadership guru Michael Colburn offers tips on how to reach that nirvana
• But Wait! There's more! See below....
For managers who are mired in the nit-picking style of oversight, there is an option they (and their employees) might only dream about: the self-managing worker.
But such dreams are reality with many companies says long-time leadership coach Michael Colburn.
Put formally, “self-management is the ability and the will to act in the best interest of the organization in such a way that intrinsic motivation replaces any external consequences imposed to reward or punish performance.”
But Mr. Colburn can also put it less formally.
“It’s not that I’m against rewards, but if you need a reward – or punishment – to drive performance, then there’s a problem,” he says.
Those who self-manage best are often “people who … really get their jollies out of the work they do,” he says. “If you just see your job as something that you have to do to make a living, [you’re] probably not quite a candidate for self-management.”
Mr. Colburn says his research has led him to five principles that lay the foundation for self-management in the workplace.
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• Yes, Americans are getting much grumpier
• “This isn’t just in the political arena. It also rolls over into families and relationships”
• And tips for dealing with it at work
Grumpy. Cross. Argumentative. Belligerent. Those words and others like them seem to describe life in America today.
“There are several elements in this. One is the political environment as we head into an election year,” says Kenneth Cloke, director of the Center for Dispute Resolution in Santa Monica, who has been resolving disputes for years.
“And this isn’t just in the political arena. It also rolls over into families and relationships,” Mr. Cloke says. “There’s also a lot of uncertainty about the world these days. People are a little more anxious and scared about what’s going to happen.”
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• Success as an author often starts after the book is written
• “You have the ability to control and adjust and tweak”
When Shakespeare put down his quill after writing his first play, his work was only starting: He had to market “Henry VI.”
It’s no different for authors 500 years later. The writing of the book or the play is just the start. Then the author has to market his or her work.
Publishers do that for their big name authors. And writers who also would rather write a check can hire excellent publicists.
But for the new writer trying to get readers – and sell some of the books -- the real DIY work comes after the book is published.
Central Valley rancher and former broadcaster Brent Gill has added book author to his resume, having written two books aimed at the pre-teen market, “Fire on Black Mountain” and its sequel, “Snow on Black Mountain.”
He joins us today in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast to talk about his “itch” to start writing and, just as importantly, the marketing of that writing.
• Before you recruit from a competitor – or jump to one -- listen to this podcast
• “Nobody should resign on the spur of the moment any more”
Recruiting top talent from a competitor can help a businessm or drown it in ynending legal problems. And an employee jumping from one company to another can sometimes be jumping into a legal bonfire, costimg them and their new bosses times and money.
An attorney, Steven Manchel has dealt with many of these problems and has headed others off for hundreds of clients.
“Nobody should resign on the spur of the moment any more,” Mr. Manchel says. “There’s the question of how do you leave. There’s a whole body of laws rules and that govern the way a person leaves generally, let along to go to a competitor.”
• Get rid of that decision-making gut
• “You can certainly go with your gut if you want to end up like Boeing”
Worried that a decision you’re about to make could spell disaster for your business? Cognitive neuroscientist Gleb Tsipursky says whatever you do, don’t go with your gut.
Despite what some management gurus claim and despite the example set by the current administration in Washington, to run a truly successful business now, leaders must take a rational approach to making significant decisions says Mr. Tsipursky.
He joins us for this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast.
• Author Paul Napper says there’s a common reason so many are anxious in the U.S.
• “We actually have a silent epidemic … of anxiety”
The United States is chock full of people who are anxious. Anxious about their businesses. Their lives. You name it.
One of the reasons, says researcher and author Paul Napper, is that people have lost their “agency.”
“This is primarily an American problem. We have gotten to a state of near-overwhelm as a society,” he says. “We are very over-stimulated. We have robust data that suggest there is a tremendous amount of anxiety. We actually have a silent epidemic … of anxiety.”
He joins us on today’s CVBT Audio Interview Podcast to tell us just what it means to lose one’s agency – and what to do about it.
Please click here to listen to the CVBT Podcast:
• Looking for expert advice? Jer Jessi offers the world
• “And we are looking to grow”
Sometimes you have a problem for which not even YouTube videos are specific enough. So how do you get the expert help quickly and without causing the bottom line to convulse?
Enter Jer Jessi, formerly of Switzerland and now living in Florida who has put together an online service that matches experts with those who need specific advice.
It’s called “CoachTheWorld” and offers a spectrum of coaching, live and one-on-one.
Please click here to listen to our CVBT Audio Interview Podcast (via Zoom) with Jer Jessi, the name she goes by on the Internet:
• Want to improve your leadership skills? Row across the Atlantic Ocean*
• “I do crazy adventures basically, seemingly impossible things”
• Or you could listen to this podcast*
Jason Caldwell has done something it is safe to say very few other humans have ever done in the history of humankind: He’s has rowed a small boat some 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. Not once, but twice.
He admits to making mistakes on that first row, but he corrected course for the second time and after rowing for 35 days, 14 hours, and 3 minutes he and his crew won the perilous 2016 Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge—or, as it’s known to those who attempt it, “The World's Toughest Row.”
They not only succeeded but set a world record.
But for Mr. Caldwell, the rowing had a larger purpose and he has taken what he learned from both rows and folded the knowledge into his Bay Area business, Latitude 35.
He explains how it all fits together in this CVBT Audio Interview podcast.
• The overlooked authenticity factor to success
• “The most effective thing you can do is be yourself”
A lot of people want to be effective public speakers, whether to advance a business or profession or to actually make it a career. But a veteran speakers coach says too many overlook a key to success – being authentic.
“My passion is authenticity,” Norma Hollis says. “I spent 30 years studying what it meant to be authentic.”
The Los Angeles based coach says being authentic – not trying to copy another person – is a key to success as a public speaker. “The speakers who are the most powerful were the ones who were themselves on stage,” she says.
The “don’ts” and “can’ts” pounded into people from their earliest years are one reason too many people are inauthentic, she says. “We get in that structure and we lose sight of those gifts and talents that came naturally to us,” she says.
Norma Hollis talks about authenticity and why it’s needed in leadership as well as public speaking in CVBT Audio Interview Podcast redux.
• Four steps to overcoming stress
• “You have to really confront those negative thoughts”
Stressed-out by the job? Or just life in general? There’s a four-step method to calm down and be productive again.
And it starts with a simple question: “Says who?” says meditation and life coach Ora Nadrich.
“You have to really confront those negative thoughts that want to bring you down, that want to sabotage you,” says Ms. Nadrich. “Saying something like ‘says who?’ keeps you pretty well-armored to be able to face those kinds of thoughts.”
She says that by facing a negative thought with a question, one can find out if it’s true — or if it can be simply let go.
Ora Nadrich talks about stress and her methods of coping with it in this redux edition of the CVBT Audio Interview via Skype.
• Jatco Incorporated finds warm welcome in Modesto
• Uses robots and human workers for precision molding
For anyone who might have thought high-tech manufacturing cannot be found in the Central Valley, there’s a now-former San Francisco Bay Area company that might change one’s mind.
It’s Jatco Incorporated, a plastic injection molding company that has packed up and moved its headquarters and main manufacturing plant to Modesto after some 40 years in the Bay Area.
Steven Jones is president of Jatco and joins us on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast to tell why his growing company picked Modesto.
• Mr. Gold advocates rewriting your internal code
• "It’s about 10 beliefs that you hold"
Are your beliefs hijacking your life? Can we erase and replace our internal programming—and thus master our own code?
Our guest on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast is Darren Gold, author of the new book, “Master Your Code: The Art, Wisdom, and Science of Leading an Extraordinary Life.”
Darren, thanks for joining us and we’re pretty sure you’re not talking about mastering Morse code….
• Tips for real-time conflict resolutions
• Plus something for free
If you’re not King Louie , then it’s likely that when you want to chop someone’s head off, few will help.
So how can you and other managers resolve disputes quickly and for the better?
Management and personal development coach Loretta Love Huff says she has some answers, including those she put into a recent book, “6 Keys for Dissolving Disputes: When ‘Off with Their Heads!’ Won’t Work.”
She joins us as the guest on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast via Zoom.
• Joseph Michelli explains the success of Airbnb
• “How does a company … grow that meteorically in ten years?”
What started with renting out a spare bedroom furnished with a couple of air mattresses has exploded seemingly overnight into the multi-billion dollar company known as Airbnb.
Your company may not have any air mattresses to rent or even give away, but Airbnb’s growth offers lessons on how many companies can grow in the hyper-competitive works of the 21st Century.
Joseph Michelli has examined the Airbnb history and methods for a new book and he’s our guest on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast.The CVBT Podcast: What every entrepreneur can learn from an air mattress
• Joseph Michelli explains the success of Airbnb
• “How does a company … grow that meteorically in ten years?”
What started with renting out a spare bedroom furnished with a couple of air mattresses has exploded seemingly overnight into the multi-billion dollar company known as Airbnb.
Your company may not have any air mattresses to rent or even give away, but Airbnb’s growth offers lessons on how many companies can grow in the hyper-competitive works of the 21st Century.
Joseph Michelli has examined the Airbnb history and methods for a new book and he’s our guest on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast.
• Why relying on digital connections with customers is not enough
• Consistently raising the bar on customer service
In politics, it’s the economy, stupid. But in business in the 21st Century, it’s the relationship. So says our guest in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast, John DiJulius, chief executive officer of the DiJulius Group of Cleveland.
He’s written many books and spoken to thousands in his years as a management consultant. Now he’s almost evangelical for a much higher level of customer service.
Mr. DiJulius cautions that while digital connections may be cheaper, it’s still the human relationship that pulls the sales trigger.
It’s fastest 20 minutes you’ve ever spent listening to a podcast. Please click here:
• Tapping “intuitive intelligence” to make the big decisions
• “Intuitive knowing is generally that first gut feeling”
If you make important business decisions based on a flash of intuition, is that a bad thing?
Probably not says our guest for this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast.
Judi Glova teaches how to tap intuition for better decisions. She calls it “intuitive intelligence.”
Click here to listen to our CVBT Podcast with Ms. Glova:
• Author of the new book “Start Finishing” tells how to control distractions and interruptions
• We spend about half of our time thinking about something other than what we’re supposed to be doing
So when were you going to finish that project? Yesterday? Well, surely today. That is if you’re not interrupted or distracted.
And that’s the problem says our guest on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast… interruptions and distractions.
Charlie Gilkey says we spend about half of our time thinking about something other than what we’re supposed to be doing. At work, such diversions may poison our projects and, along with them, job satisfaction and even career success/
Mr. Gilkey is the head of a Portland, Oregon, company he named Productive Flourishing.
• Veteran coach identifies the major problems -- and offers solutions
• Don’t show up to throw up
There are the seven deadly sins talked about in religion. And then there are the seven deadly sins that will sabotage your career, says speaker, career coach and author Aimee Cohen.
By not correcting these “sins,” women can find their careers hitting a dead end, she says.
Too nice, trying to do too much, trying to do it to perfection – all can be career killers, says Ms. Cohen. And that can also include what she calls the “show up and throw up” problem of women simply sharing too, too much.
“There are so many things in the workforce that we cannot control, so it’s time for women to put on their big girl panties and take control of themselves!” says Cohen.
For the tens of thousands who crawl along I-205 through Tracy just to get to I-580 to continue the bumper-to-bumper crawl to Silicon Valley, dreams of starting their own business might founder on where to do it.
While many sit on a couch at home or grab a table at a Starbucks, there’s an oasis in Tracy, just off the freeway, for entrepreneurs and even established businesses.
It’s a co-working space called WorkVine209, started by retired police officer Eric Hawkins and his wife Lynda.
• Clearing up the mysteries of marketing
• “Marketing and technology overwhelm a lot of people”
Small business startups often have great expertise in a product or service, but that pool of talent drains swiftly as more tasks are demanded of the entrepreneur.
One of those is marketing. While some who know little about marketing think they wrote the book, the smart business owner either gets training or hires experts.
One place to get that training is a strictly online school called the Success Road Academy, which offers more than 50 courses.
“Marketing and technology overwhelm a lot of people,” says Brady Patterson, chief operating officer of Success Road Academy. “It is kind of like learning a new language.”
Mr. Patterson is our guest, via Zoom, on this exclusive CVBT Audio Interview Podcast:
Ask a manager what’s the hardest part of the job and many these days are likely to say it’s dealing with fearful employees who play it safe at all costs.
Fear of being labeled, fear of their managers, fear of retaliation, and fear of losing their jobs all topped a recent study as to why workers don’t speak up.
But for businesses looking to grow and stay ahead of competition, this silence can come at a financial cost.
“I think it’s more often the case that leaders stoke people’s fears,” Mr. Treasurer says. “They think that ‘if I can just make people afraid enough then they are going to be conscientious enough to do a good job.’
“But in the long run, fear has a detrimental impact on safety, on performance, on morale. If all you’re doing is stoking people’s fears, you’re going to get exactly the opposite impact on what you’re wanting in terms of productivity.”
Our guest on this CVBT Audio Interview podcast is workplace expert Bill Treasurer, author of the bestseller “Courage Goes to Work,” which was re-published in May. In the interview, you’ll hear a definition of courage that may surprise you.
• Why managers need to remember what Einstein said
• “There is absolutely no, zero, nada, zilch, reason why we … subscribe to Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity”
Fifteen years in management with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company helped shape how management consultant Douglas Brooks looks at problems – and solutions.
He has developed a 52-week plan for managers to develop greater customer-focused teamwork, to motivate and to retain top employees.
Mr. Brooks has put his ideas into a new book with the blunt title, “If This Book Doesn’t Help, It Might Be You.”
“I tried to encapsulate questions and answers and opportunities for young leaders, new leaders, old leaders, C-suite leaders, to be able to stimulate conversations in their work group, whether it’s at the board level or the line lever,” he says.
• Sherre' DeMao says it’s the secret sauce of success
• “That can add to the bottom line when a company is sold”
Business owners looking to move their businesses to a second generation often realize it will take more than a good balance sheet to ensure success when others are at the helm.
For many this means building a business of sustainable value, says Sherre' DeMao, an author, speaker and business coach as well as being the CEO of her own company, BizGrowth Inc., in North Carolina.
But just what is a company of sustainable value? Ms. DeMao talks with us about that -- and more -- in this CVBT Audio Interview podcast:
• How techniques used by improv actors can be applied to business
• “That audience is often drunk and yelling at them”
The laughter of an audience at a comedy improv keeps comedians going. But those warriors of the standup wars are also using techniques that can help business leaders be more effective.
So says Norm Laviolette, who has been performing, directing or producing live comedy for more than 20 years. His new book, “The Art of Making Sh!t Up: How to Work Together to Become an Unstoppable Powerhouse,” describes how the techniques of improv can transform teams into more powerful, creative and healthy organizations.
Listen to Norm Laviolette in this week’s exclusive CVBT Audio Interview Podcast:
Despite millions of young people headed to college, there’s one educator and entrepreneur who thinks that could be the wrong path for a lot of young people.
He’s our guest on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast… Mark Perna… who says it’s critical to prioritize career exploration as part of the K-12 system and not wait until one is packing for college.
• The real threat may lie in its use by governments
• “I’m very worried that the same kinds of abuses that are occurring in China could trickle into our system”
Back in 1957, the journalist Vance Packard published his book called “The Hidden Persuaders,” revealing how advertisers used consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including subliminal tactics, to manipulate expectations and persuade Americans to buy certain products.
Now fast forward 62 years and we’re in the age of artificial intelligence, called A-I for short.
Artificial intelligence is hard at work, changing us. Sophisticated AI algorithms can scrape, log, and cross-reference who you are and how to best exploit your emotional hot buttons in fractions of a second.
Have we not learned anything since Vance Packard’s book? Or are we blowing things out of proportion, as some accused Mr. Packard of doing?
To answer that question is our CVBT Audio Interview Podcast guest, William Ammerman, author of the new book, “The Invisible Brand: Marketing in the Age of Automation, Big Data, and Machine Learning.”
• Former musician Michael Maher is now helping small business increase sales using Amazon
• “They’re very, very intent on customer satisfaction”
Michael Maher has gone from musician to corporate ladder-climber to selling used guitars on eBay to starting his own e-commerce business to what he’s currently doing, advising small businesses on how to sell their products through the nation’s largest online retailer, Amazon.
“I used my knowledge of selling music gear on eBay and the guide of a mentor to launch my own ecommerce business,” Mr. Maher says.
That $2,000 investment grew to the point that he could quit his job and market and find adequate income as an eBay seller.
But Amazon has provided him with prosperity, he says.
After double digit growth for six straight years and a peak of almost $400,000 in sales, he went from selling to helping other businesses sell on Amazon.
How easy is it to build your business using Amazon as your marketplace? Mr. Maher stresses that you first must have a solid product and solid support.
“They’re very, very intent on customer satisfaction,” says Mr. Maher. “And that need to not just satisfy a customer but to really delight them and surprise them. To keep that customer experience high, they have very, very strict standards on what is allowed to be sold and who is allowed to sell. ”
Michael Maher offers tips and examples from his own experiences in online selling in today’s CVBT Audio Interview Podcast.
The CVBT PODCAST: Coping with burned-out bosses
• Expert says this can be a unique opportunity for those who work for such a boss
• “Burnout is very pervasive now. It’s out there. It’s everywhere”
Burnout at work is so prevalent that the World Health Organization recently classified “workplace burnout” as a disease.
But career guru Vicky Oliver says when the boss is burned out, it can for an opportunity for those who work for her.
“If your boss is burned out and you can somehow ‘step up’ into the void that he or she is leaving I think that can be a great opportunity,” Ms. Oliver says. “I would try to think about how you could turn it to your advantage. You should be subtle.”
Burnout can become contagious as stress becomes palpable and duties are dropped. The World Health Organization says burn out is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:
• Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
• Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and
• Reduced professional efficacy.
Ms. Oliver, a veteran of writing about workplace issues, says burnout was not as common just a few years ago.
“Today, people are saying that 28 percent of workers feel like they’re burned out. That is a huge percentage,” she says. “Burnout is very pervasive now. It’s out there. It’s everywhere.”
Vicky Oliver talks about the problem of burnout and how to cope with it in your workplace in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast via Skype:
•What companies should be doing now for a digital future
•“We should certainly be prepared in terms of essentially having a plan on how to retrain ourselves”
Remember the industrial revolution? No, not the one with steam locomotives and such. The fourth one, that’s happening right now.
The fourth industrial revolution is one of digital transformation. Just like companies that continued to make buggy whips when gasoline-powered cars were catching on a hundred or so years ago, companies that fail to fully integrate digital functions and innovation into their entire organization risk being left behind.
Our guest on this CVBT Audio Interview podcast is Tony Saldanha, president of Transformant, a consulting firm that helps organizations through digital transformations.
He says there’s a key reason companies fail at digital transformation. So what should companies be doing to prepare for this fourth industrial revolution?
Listen to the CVBT Podcast (via Skype) here:
• Beth McRae offers tips from experience
• ““We’ve kept our company very diversified over the years”
As entrepreneurs will say, owning a business provides harsh lessons.
Beth McRae, who oversees the McRae Agency in the Phoenix area, has had a few of those tough lessons but has survived and prospered.
Her company has more than 20 years in the public relations, social media and marketing industries, weathering downturns from the dot-com bust to the Great recession.
What’s the secret?
We asked Ms. McRae to set the stage by telling a bit about herself and her company, which has grown to be one of the best-known boutique public relations agencies in the West….
What’s stopping women from getting to the top jobs in corporations? Backstabbing sabotage might not even make a list a manager might make.
But two veteran educators who are studying the problem say women are often undermining other women in the workplace.
In this CVBT Audio Interview podcast, we talk with the researchers… Joy Wiggins, who is founder and executive director of Joy Wiggins LLC, a consulting company focusing on equity, inclusion, and social justice… and Kami Anderson, who is founder and executive director of Bilingual Brown Babies, a company focusing on fostering bilingualism in black families. In their new book, “From Sabotage to Support: A New Vision for Feminist Solidarity in the Workplace,” they detail not just the problem but steps to solve it.
In the workplace, women often sabotage other women, undermining each other in a battle for opportunities.
Ms. Wiggins says this is supported by research but she is seeing a bit of a change.
“I think it has improved,” she says. “But I think at the same time just knowing from a qualitative standpoint just the stories that we have gotten from women and the ‘Oh, yeah!’ those reactions that we’ve gotten, that it’s still quite prevalent.”
Ms. Wiggins and Ms. Anderson say the problems are rooted in a patriarchal system that maintains the status quo.
“It’s really not so much about individuals trying to take each other down, but that it’s societal competition and pressure,” Ms. Wiggins says. “It starts early on in elementary and middle school.”
This adds multiple dimensions to the tasks that managers must do to solve conflicts, avert them in the first place, and bring out the best in their staffs.
“I think from a manager’s perspective it’s really important, especially if you see yourself in a leadership position, being able to really understand the full history of the folks that are working with you, not just what they bring in terms of roles and responsibilities but looking at them as a person,” says Ms. Anderson.
Listen to the CVBT Audio Interview Podcast here:
Podcast: Adapting yourself and your company to change
• Sharon Bowes shares secrets of mastering the swiftly changing landscape
• “Survival, even of a large well-established business, is not mandatory”
• How to embrace social media without going nuts
• “You have to do your research so that you know where your customers are"
Small business owners can often feel like one-person fire departments, racing from one problem or opportunity to another. And then comes marketing… and especially marketing using social media.
If it all seems too much, our guest in this CVBT Podcast can ease some of your concerns.
From Ottawa, via Zoom software, we’re talking with Elaine Lindsay.
Please click here to listen to our audio interview with Ms. Lindsay:
Too many business people have, essentially, canned themselves like summer berries, putting a lid on their success, says business coach Tasha Chen.
“Your thoughts create,” says Ms. Chen, a native of Jamaica and who tries to spend as much time as possible there. “We have the ability to create our lives. Being grateful and thankful for what we have as well as what we would like to have is an absolute must.”
She says self-imposed “lids” -- negative thoughts that destroy from within -- hold people back from reaching real success.
In today’s exclusive CVBT Audio Interview Podcast via Zoom, Tasha Chen tells how she identified her own “lids” and overcame them and how others are now doing the same thing.