Episodes

“If you don’t spend enough time having experiences with people in the context of their lives, you don’t get an opportunity to go deeper and understand their true desires, motivations, and values.” Sue Bevan Baggott Sue joins me today to explore why understanding the lives of consumers and customers is key to successful innovation. She describes her experience at Pampers and how they innovated diaper products after deeply understanding their customers’ desires. She outlines the three core dimensi...

“There is a fundamental way in which the world is connected, even if we don’t understand it intuitively.”Neil Redding Neil joins us today to discuss the deep connectedness of the world and why being aware of that connection matters. He explains the power of words to create an emotional experience and how inclusive language can help us see the connection of everything in the world. He discusses holistic integrated ecosystems and the value of seeing your business in the context in which it operate...

“You’ve got to be able to do the work, get the perspective you need, understand where your position, perspective, and purpose is.” Deborah Johnson Deborah joins me today to discuss the roundabouts of life and how to get yourself unstuck when you find yourself in one. She shares her personal experience with getting trapped in a roundabout and explains why perspective and position matter when getting yourself unstuck. She also discusses how purpose drives your life, how it tramples over procrastin...

“There’s this definition of success that we feel like we have to live up to, and we forget that we need to live according to what we want and what makes us happy and fulfilled.” Sue Guiher Sue joins us today to discuss how we can redefine what success means to us. She explains what ‘success bullying’ is and describes society’s role in how we relate to success. She discusses how your values can help you expand beyond your comfort zone. She also explains why many people don’t know what their purpo...

“In the real world, every day we start over; every breath, we start over.”Marshall Goldsmith Marshall joins us today to discuss what it means to live an earned life. He outlines his ‘Triple A’ model and what we need to live a happy, fulfilled life. He explains the Buddhist ideas and principles that inspire The Earned Life and discusses why we need to unlearn the achieve mindset in order to be happy. He also highlights the dangers of a ‘vicarious life’ and underscores the importance of aligning w...

“Inclusion in decision-making and goal-setting is one of the main things that engage people, making them feel like they’re part of something bigger—and that eliminates F.E.A.R.”Allison Aker Davis Allison joins me today to define F.E.A.R. and how it impacts teams and organizations. She describes who a culturally responsive leader is and how they help shape communities within organizations. She shares three ideas on helping people break negative patterns of behavior and building new habits. She al...

“Authenticity is the degree to which a person’s actions are consistent with their identified values and their desired outcomes.”Gina London Gina joins me today to demystify authenticity and discuss how adopting a growth mindset can help you become more authentic in your personal and professional life. We discuss the value of filtering your thoughts and actions toward others while staying true to your authentic self and the outcomes you want to achieve. Gina shares strategies you can use to retra...

“We are in more control than we think.”Darcy Eikenberg Darcy joins me today to discuss how we can change our lives at work without changing our careers or jobs. We discuss how society encourages people to try new things and change jobs when pursuing happiness in our work life and the positive and negative impact of constantly changing jobs in your search for happiness. We discuss the value of empathy in the workplace and the importance of communicating your needs before looking for a new career ...

“Here and now, you can be more intentional with your attention. Think of it as a muscle that you can strengthen.” Ana Melikian Do you live an intentional life? In today’s fast-paced, attention-hungry society, many people go through the day on autopilot – completing all the same tasks, day in and day out, with little to no intention. From getting up each morning to go to work, juggling all of our work or business-related tasks, or even household chores and shuttling kids to sporting events, most ...

The better we understand each other, the better we all are in moving forward in our lives Tamer Elnoury Tamer joins me today to discuss how his experience as an undercover FBI agent, followed by years of leadership positions, has positioned him as one of the best educators on the human connection to companies and organizations. We discuss how he helps organizations connect with their consumers and how he adapted the skills he acquired as an undercover FBI agent when transitioning into executive ...

“Business can be done profitably – for ourselves and for our clients – and it can also benefit the community, humanity, and the planet.”Carolyn Pistone Carolyn joins me today to discuss how organizations can benefit from using commercial green buildings. We discuss how people today have disassociated themselves from nature and the environment and how commerce has become more important to us than the future of our planet. We discuss the vast opportunities available for creating a positive impact ...

“Everything is a learning experience. There’s always a gift or an opportunity in any kind of outreach that we do.”Connie Kadansky Connie joins me today to discuss what Sales Call Reluctance is and how sales professionals can use curiosity as an antidote to overcome the fear of prospecting and promoting themselves, their services, and their organizations. Connie describes the connection between social self-consciousness, telephobia, and sales call reluctance and how there are 16 different types o...

"Happiness is not just a state of mind. It’s a state of body.”JoAnna Brandi JoAnna joins me today to discuss how the positive spillover effect helps organizations build company cultures that employees and customers love being part of and how it’s built on strengths, values, and fun working environments. We discuss how stimulating and enriching company cultures help expand positivity beyond the office. We discuss the impact of positive company cultures on an organization’s revenue and how organiz...

“Sometimes we fall into the trap of becoming the things that we criticize. The things that we didn’t like we are doing to ourselves. That is when we become our own worst bosses.”Ana Melikian In this episode, Jordan Goldrich, the host of the Workplace Warrior Podcast, interviewed me about why entrepreneurs and corporate executives are often their own worst bosses. We discuss why I believe the pursuit of happiness often causes us to develop a ‘blind spot’ in our personal and professional lives, wh...

“We all have moments during the course of the day that we can address that very important topic of personal health.”Stacy Fritz Stacy joins me today to discuss how organizations can cultivate a culture of well-being in order to save lives and money. She shares her philosophy on how busy individuals can find the time to focus on their health and why a one-hour daily workout is not enough to reverse the effects of occupational or chronic sitting. We discuss the value of infusing fitness-focused mi...

“It’s never too late to learn.”Jen Mott, Ed.D. Today, Jen joins me to talk about how she juggles her teaching job and her life as a circus performer. She explains how she got into the circus in the first place, noting the power of saying yes. She talks about the impact of the realization that you can be paid to do what you love. Jen discusses how being a circus performer has helped her communication skills, as well as how traveling has affected her life and journey. She explains how each of her ...

“If you open your mind, there are lessons EVERYWHERE”Paul Daniels Jr. Paul joins me to share how he developed the concept of peripheral thinking, what it is, and the lessons we can learn from considering the periphery. We discuss how dyslexia has impacted his life, both personally and professionally, the unique set of ‘super skills’ that come naturally to people with dyslexia, and how non-dyslexic individuals can learn them. We discuss the difference between conventional thinking and peripheral ...

“Often, people don’t take the time for self-care because they feel selfish, so they are always in the last bit of patience and the last piece of energy. When they start to recognize that by taking care of themselves, they have much more to give others, that is when the magic really starts to happen.”Ana Melikian In this episode, Melinda and I talk about how happiness and self-care go hand in hand. I point out that if we do not prioritize ourselves, we will never be our best selves, nor will we h...

“A community sits at the center of how we do this: how we go through life together and how we learn from other people’s stories, experiences, and ideas; how we tackle things that we didn’t think were possible; how we find meaning and purpose from being a part of something bigger than ourselves.”Gina Bianchini Today, Gina Bianchini joins me to talk about how to create thriving and successful communities. She explains why social media isn’t a community and offers her insight on how to identify a r...

“Every company is in the wellness business, whether they know it or not.” Jennifer Norman Today, Jennifer joins me to talk about beauty. She defines what it means to be beautiful and explains why she started The Human Beauty Movement. Jennifer notes the importance of creating good role models and safe spaces, and she emphasizes the power of self-care. She offers her thoughts on B Corp and shares the triple bottom line of running a business well. She also shares the story behind her SuperCaptainB...

“It’s not the fear that matters; it’s what you do when you are scared that matters.”Kim Campbell Today, Kim joins me to share her story and what she’s learned from it. She shares why she decided to become a fighter pilot and talks about her experience as one of the few female fighter pilots at the time. Kim talks about when her airplane was hit by a missile over Baghdad, sharing what it was like in the moment and what she took from the experience afterward. She talks about the importance of a wi...

“Mindfulness is not about stopping anything. There’s no stopping. It’s just noticing our thoughts—with compassion, with non-judgment.” Harriet Stein Today, Harriet joins me to share her story and talk about what she does. She explains why mindfulness is for you—even if you don’t think so. We talk about the concept of monkey mind, and she urges you to take control of your mind. She emphasizes the importance of avoiding multitasking, and she discusses why your relationship with the past is probabl...

“[Information] is a great way of expanding your horizons of what’s possible…but it’s not very good for developing competence.” –Danny Iny Today, Danny joins me to talk about the different ways to learn. He discusses his love-hate relationship with formal education and talks about the different powers and limitations of information. He notes that formal education is a misfit for more people than we generally suppose, and he shares his definition of learning. He lists the three steps of a learning...

“Our outer world is a reflection of our inner world.”Vered Kogan Today, Vered joins me to talk about resilience. She shares practical tips for resilience and explains why we resemble batteries. She notes that, when your battery is depleted, you can’t be at your best. She shares her practical tips for keeping your battery full and stopping leaks. She notes that any change involves grief, emphasizes the power of labeling how you feel, talks about the four domains of resilience, explains the meanin...