Episodes

Can work make you healthy? It's a provocative question with an interesting answer. "I truly believe that work as a medium is the purest way, and perhaps the only way, to think about actually discovering health." - Denise Brouder, Founder of SWAYworkplace As an executive in the financial services sector, Denise Brouder discovered that work can be unhealthful. The demands of a high stress career, and the needs of her young and growing family, made Denise realize that people often suffer ill he...

Serial entrepreneur Isar Meitis' tribal lessons foster meaningful work. About this episode: "In my core, I'm a teacher. If there was a great way to make a living as a teacher, I'd be a teacher. I thrive when I teach." - Isar Meitis, Founder of the e-tribe Isar Meitis' life story and experience are truly inspiring. With a deep passion for teaching and empowering people, Isar provides tribal lessons to manage our time and priorities, be attentive to our family and friends, and still do the mea...

Discover how a radio deejay's meaningful work is rewarded with a global following for 1970's-era Disco music. About this episode: We travel across-the-pond to chat with Russell White, a London-based executive recruiter who doubles as a radio deejay or presenter playing 1970s-era Disco music. During the day, Russ places professional talent in executive jobs for United Kingdom and European Union companies. But when the sun sets, he becomes Retro Russ. It is behind the microphone where this radi...

Virtual professionalism is critical to doing meaningful work. About this episode: "Not only are we at an inflection point, what [it feels like to me] is an acceleration of catch-up, because the world is moving in this direction, anyway." - Adrienne Shoch, Workforce Engagement Expert Workforce engagement expert Adrienne Shoch of five to one takes The Tightrope Podcast's listeners through a crash course in virtual professionalism, which is important to doing meaningful work. A key driver to v...

Student leadership and meaningful work go together. About this episode: "We're all leaders in some way, shape, or form." -Courtney Owens, Assistant Director of Student Leadership; Ithaca College Office of Student Engagement Student leadership leads to meaningful work. Coincidentally, leadership programming prepares college students for success doing work that protects the planet and empowers people and community. People who develop student leadership skill in college enter the workforce as ...

About this episode: "What I do, on a day in and day out basis, is that I am there for them [and just build] relationships and become a trusted companion." -Mike Shochet, Lead Chaplain of the Fairfax County, Virginia Police We are well into June 2020, a month informed by the grotesquely shocking death of George Floyd—under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. That shockwave has led many to call for defunding police departments across the United States. Some now ask: is police work meanin...

About this episode: "One of the things that [companies] haven't done that we start to see is tell you 'Hey, take a moment and take stock of your life. Where are you? Where do you want to be? And, how do we help you get there?'" -James Sinclair, Chief Executive of EnterpriseAlumni In 2020, a major inflection point in the future of work has emerged. Forward thinking companies that furloughed large numbers of workers are using alumni communities to engage their cast-offs through skill developme...

Homes and Hops: a realtor becomes the ambassador for her city's craft brewers. About this episode: "Studies have shown that [craft] breweries have a positive impact on residential real estate sales. And over the past 5 years, we've had several breweries pop up in our area." -Lisa Resnick, Realtor, Craft Brewers Ambassador, and Host of Homes and Hops Podcast It’s the first week of June 2020 and, across the country, local businesses are reemerging to service a public that’s been homebound sinc...

Summer Camp: Where Fun and Friendship Lead to Meaningful Lives and Careers About this episode: "We see a lot of people do well in their [adult] careers who, coincidentally, did well in their careers at camp. I have no data, other than the anecdotal experiences of the time [we spent] there. But you see people who rose to leadership positions in camp and were viewed as successful staff members that have had successful careers in whatever they were doing after camp." -Stuart Katz, Founder and Pr...

Onboarding helps people achieve success in the work from home age. About this episode: “Forty percent of new leaders fail in their first 18 months, defined as getting fired, forced out, or quit. [Our work over the last 18 years] has reduced that failure rate from 40 percent to less than 10 percent.” -George Bradt, Founder & Chairman of PrimeGenesis A new hire failure can cost a company up to 20 times the person’s salary, benefits, and placement fee. Early in his career, George Bradt discove...

Water expert Will Sarni explains why water matters to work. “When I started my career, I worked for a gentleman, David Miller. The name of the company was Geraghty & Miller, and, he said ‘[If] you want a career in water, it will last forever, it will last a lifetime, because it is a public health issue.’” -Will Sarni, Founder and CEO Water Foundry, LLC Why water matters to work: our planet is covered mostly in water. And yet scarcity of clean, potable water remains the planet's biggest proble...

Read people with facial coding. You can use it on Zoom. About this episode: "Even a person born blind emotes the same way as you or I. [It is hard-wired into the brain] and the face is the only place on the body where the muscles attach right to the skin." - Dan Hill, Ph.D. It is hard enough to be face-to-face with another person, to read their facial expressions and determine what they are truly thinking and feeling. And, you have likely discovered how much harder that process becomes when...

New financial realities: A financial consultant offers insight on money and the future of work About this episode: "Your question about how do you deal with all this stuff? The answer is just like anything else: with a good counselor, the most important thing that they can do is shut up and listen." -Steven M. Oriol, Chartered Financial Consultant It is Week 7 of sheltering in place. It’s also the last week of April 2020. Those of us who got a paycheck this week are doing the best we can to ...

Pandemic affected Aruba seeks aid for its impacted workforce. About the episode: "You cannot create a diverse economy and just put it on every island. What you need to make sure is that you understand the USPs—the Unique Selling Points—of an island, not only for tourism, but also for what is going on in nature, the availability of technology, and the self sustaining options on the island." - Bianca Peters, Island Impact People who work in American tourism and hospitality jobs are truly suffe...

As America makes the future of work. About this episode: "Never before, in the history of manufacturing, can you impact a supply chain with a piece of equipment in your garage or your home office. ... You have the opportunity to build something special and make that a career." -Andrew Resnick, America Makes In the fight against the COVID-19 Coronavirus, some people are sewing face masks and brewing hand-sanitizer. Others are tinkering with additive technology like 3D printers, to make protec...

Tribal lessons for work from the e-tribe's founder: working from home can be successful and rewarding. About this episode: "In my core, I'm a teacher. If there was a great way to make a living as a teacher, I'd be a teacher. I thrive when I teach." - Isar Meitis, Founder of the e-tribe As of this episode, we are in Week 4 of sharing time, broadband, and square footage with loved ones and other household members. Work before the COVID-19 Coronavirus Crisis was tough enough; now, all of us str...

Virtual Professionalism: The Future of Work's Key Learning Component About this episode: "Not only are we at an inflection point, what [it feels like to me] is an acceleration of catch-up, because the world is moving in this direction, anyway." - Adrienne Shoch, Workforce Engagement Expert In this episode, we build on the key learning provided by Carla Fleming of Pivoting Strategies, LLC. Carla uses time-management hacks to make remote-office work productive and successful. Workforce engage...

Working remotely and future work: How the COVID-19 Coronavirus is pivoting people and careers. About this episode: "An inflection point is something that can have a seismic effect on what we call a 10x impact on the business model as you know it today. When we sit back and look at what we are doing with COVID-19, I would say we are at an inflection point right now." - Carla A. Fleming, CEO and Founder of Pivoting Strategies Carla Fleming has teleworked for half of her business career. And ov...

The Pizza Man Delivers: Providing Chicagoans Food and Comfort During the Pandemic About this episode: "You have to do your best to be optimistic, because we are going to get through this. And, we have to find fun, we have to do our best to make each other feel good at this very difficult and unprecedented time." - Billy Jacobs, Owner of Piece Pizzeria and Brewery in Chicago The pizza man delivers: Chicago food scene disruptor Billy Jacobs has an amazing story to tell. In the early 1980s, he...

It is a monumental task to feed needy kids during pandemic lockdowns and disruptions. About this episode: Adelle Settle is the founder of Settle the Debt, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Through Settle the Debt, Adelle does meaningful work in ensuring that kids in-need get healthy meals at their public schools. She updates us on the success her organization has enjoyed in paying off thousands of dollars in accumulated student lunch debt at public schools in her Northern Virginia community....

A career coach guides sidelined people to meaningful work. "In 2009, I really believe that's when work changed. I remember I had to find the self-motivation to be productive and to move myself forward and find some type of purpose." - Natalie Pryce, Career Coach About this episode: A self-described introvert and computer geek, Natalie Pryce struggled in grade school and knows first-hand what it is like to have a major career disruption. Yet, Natalie, who is wickedly smart, has never defined ...

Will there be clean energy jobs in 2020? About this episode: It may come as quite a surprise to some that, in 2020, one of the fastest growing sectors in the American workforce happens to be the clean energy space: think solar, wind, geothermal, energy storage (batteries), hybrid and electric vehicles, and, energy efficiency as some of the big drivers in the scale-up. Currently, 3.3 million American workers are actively employed in meaningful work doing clean energy jobs. To learn more about...

Does smart transportation of the future include autonomous vehicles in urban areas? About this Episode: Dr. Richard Ezike is leading the charge for American Transportation Equity, to make the full range of mobility options—and, in particular, Autonomous Vehicles or AVs—as readily available for inner-city residents as they are for people in our more affluent suburbs. He believes that AVs will provide safer and more accessible mobility, and may greatly improve the lives of inner-city residents w...

The future of work doing meaningful work includes pursuing truly epic experiences. About this episode: Pew Research finds that the American Dream many in the workforce experienced as upward mobility is long gone; it was replaced by a soberer pursuit of economic stability. As a result, we now fill our homes and storage bins with less stuff. More of us, and especially Millennials, instead pursue less stuff and more profound meaning and experience. There are few industries where that shift to ex...