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Absolute Advantage Podcast

The Absolute Advantage is about learning from some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, leaders, and achievers at the top of their game. When chasing your dreams, a lot of times there isn’t a need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, shorten your path to success by learning from the stories, strategies and concepts shared by our guests. Then shorten it even further by learning about amazing resources (books, webinars, tools, software, events, coaching, etc.) that should be on your radar. You are not alone in the challenges you face! It's my mission to help you walk away with at least one idea you can apply each episode and to offer content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and progress QUICKLY both professionally and personally.
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Now displaying: February, 2017
Feb 28, 2017

Craig Cody is a Certified Tax Coach, Certified Public Accountant, Business Owner and Former New York City Police Officer with 17 years experience on the Force. In addition to being a Certified Public Accountant for the past 15 years, he is also a Certified Tax Coach. As a Certified Tax Coach, Craig belongs to a select group of tax practitioners throughout the country who undergo extensive training and continued education on various tax planning techniques and strategies to become, as well as remain, certified. With this organization, Craig has co-authored an Amazon best seller book, Secrets of a Tax-Free Life.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Craig’s background in the NYPD and how he became a Certified Tax Coach and Certified Public Accountant
  • What Craig learned on the NYPD that influenced what he looks for when hiring employees
  • What Craig learned from his dad, one of his biggest mentors
  • Why Craig hired a coach for himself and how that had a big impact on his business
  • How Craig structures his hiring process and how it’s helped him hire great employees
  • Why a great culture has to be built on the working relationship working for all parties
  • Why you should never ever hire in a panic
  • Proactive tax planning: how Craig helps his clients save more of what they make
  • The biggest mistakes business owners make all the time
  • Why Craig doesn’t just work with his clients during “tax season”
  • Craig’s free giveaway: “10 Most Expensive Tax Mistakes That Cost Business Owners Thousands”
  • Why you need to join a mastermind group and need an accountability partner
  • How to know if you are getting the right kind of tax planning (and what to do if you aren’t)

Ways to contact Craig:

Feb 23, 2017

Michele Stuart graduated with a Masters in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) from Va. Tech. She has performed improvement projects using Lean/6 Sigma tools, advanced analytics and simulation for 40 years concentrating on Healthcare organizations over the past nine. Since 1994, as President and founder of Efficiency Engineers, she and her staff have been bringing together the expertise and experience of internal teams utilizing the Lean/6 Sigma tools for sustained meaningful change. Whether the organization is a single hospital/physician office or a network of over 20 hospitals, Lean/6 Sigma teams under Michele’s facilitation have not only made the patient experience better, but better the clinical outcomes and the organization work more effectively.

As a Project Management Professional, PMP, Michele also provides expertise in keeping her projects on time and on budget. To ensure that her expertise remains fresh, she also has and continues to teach PM, Lean/6Sigma, and IEOR courses through various universities including Lehigh, Penn State, and DeSales University. Mentorship and expansion of learning are a cornerstone to her management style as well. Customers enjoy the empowerment of expanding their staffs capabilities whenever Efficiency Engineers joins them as a partner in projects.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Michele’s background
  • How Michele learned that she had to bill more of the total project cost up front
  • Why you need to listen to what people are telling you
  • Taking enough time to review information before jumping to conclusions
  • Why Michele runs her business virtually and doesn’t pay her employees on a salary
  • Why you should let employees work when they’re most productive
  • Why it’s easier to replace employees that leave on a project-based business
  • How Michele pushes her employees to think outside the box
  • Why your employees have to be able to give and receive feedback
  • Why you always have to be ready for change in industrial engineering
  • The ongoing problem of masters level students in engineering being primarily foreign students
  • Michele’s presentation at the Society for Healthcare Systems conference in February on the Implementing Electronic Medical Record Systems

Ways to contact Michele:

Feb 21, 2017

Involved in the financial planning profession since 1979, Lynn Evans was the first person in Northeast Pennsylvania to earn the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. She is a graduate of Cedar Crest College, Allentown, PA and has over three decades of experience in financial planning. She is the founder and president of Northeastern Financial Consultants, Inc., a fee-only financial life planning firm in Clarks Summit, PA.

Named by the Governor of PA as one of the Top 50 Best Women in Business, Lynn maintains memberships in the Financial Planning Association, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, and is one of the founders of the Northeast PA Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners.

Lynn is a Founder and former Board Member of the Women’s Resource Center, Inc., a domestic violence shelter, a member of the President’s Advisory Board of Keystone College, and served as a volunteer with the United Way of Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties.

Lynn is also the author of a recently published book, Power of the Purse, Fear-Free Finances for Baby Boomer Women, available on amazon.com, and is the host of Power of the Purse Podcast, on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Lynn’s background
  • Why listening more than you speak is a great tool for leadership
  • Leaving a legacy behind you
  • The story of how Lynn recovered from a cease and desist order and got the law changed to be more relevant for financial planning
  • Why you need to treat all of your employees fairly
  • The challenge (especially for women entrepreneurs) for needing to set boundaries but wanting your employees to like you
  • Why you need self-directed employees
  • Focusing on the things that are most important and doing what furthers the progress of your business
  • Why Lynn doesn’t function doing the same things in the same order every single day
  • Lynn’s podcast Power of the Purse

Ways to contact Lynn:

Feb 16, 2017

Amy Anderson is the creator of Transformative Writing for Non-Writers, founder of Anderson Content Consulting LLC, and former senior editor of SUCCESS magazine. She’s an Emmy Award-winning writer, writing coach, and speaker who has worked with clients like John Addison, Todd Duncan, John Assaraf, and Darren Hardy, as well as companies like Advisors Excel, Ryan, and Dell. Today, Amy has turned her years of experience toward helping experts, coaches, and consultants discover their authentic voice and write with confidence so they can build connection, inspire action, and change lives.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Amy’s journey
  • Why you should sit down with an experienced entrepreneur if you’re fearing going out alone
  • Why you need to be willing to sacrifice more for your business than you’re asking anyone else to sacrifice
  • Why a virtual business is the way to go
  • Why “A Players” have to be good people
  • Why your team needs to feel like they’re all in it for a cause
  • Amy’s challenge learning to slow down and do things like small talk
  • Why Amy believes being spiritual helps her be a better leader
  • Amy’s strategy for staying focused by writing out her intentions
  • What Amy learned working one-on-one with Darren Hardy
  • How to receive mentorship (and why you must invest in mentorship)
  • Amy’s Transformative Writing for Non-Writers course

Ways to contact Amy:

Feb 14, 2017

Summer Tannhauser teaches small business owners and bloggers how to build an email list, increase website traffic, and make sales through the power of Pinterest. She matches Pinterest with content creation and conversion strategies, to create a powerful marketing “machine” for any online business.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Summer’s background
  • Lady Boss League: Summer’s business built around driving leads with Pinterest
  • What you need to do Pinterest well
  • Why you need to find a way to get your team as invested in your business as you are
  • What Summer’s virtual business looks like and why that makes communication between her team so important
  • Why you need to be able to let go of your control as you scale
  • How Summer learns about potential hires before she ever gets on the phone with them
  • Why Summer made the switch from independent contractors to employees
  • How she realized teaching wasn’t for her and why she made the switch into entrepreneurship
  • Why network/mastermind groups have helped Summer push herself to new levels
  • Why Summer breaks her to-do list into the big project she wants to complete each week
  • How to figure out what you should be doing in the business

Ways to contact Summer:

Feb 9, 2017

Marketing professional, speaker, and writer Don Osmond focuses on authentic marketing to help businesses develop sound branding strategies. Widely regarded as a marketing and communications thought leader, he works with clients to develop the genuine narrative of their companies, which becomes the foundation for their branding and messaging. Son to international entertainment icon Donny Osmond, his approach to marketing incorporates lessons from the entertainment industry. After years of education and experience, he knows firsthand that good marketing requires truth-telling and invitation, not spin. Don believes that authenticity is the only true value proposition that a company can offer, so he serves his clients by developing genuine story-based marketing and authentic marketing strategies. Don lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Jessica and two tiny storytellers-in-training, Truman and Leo. He loves hiking, biking, and camping, all of which are easily accomplished in this city full of green spaces.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Don’s journey
  • Why you need to just put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward
  • Why storytelling is so important in marketing
  • Why a company’s most valuable asset is authenticity
  • Why it’s so dangerous to assume that you’re smarter than your customers
  • What Don learned from his father, entertainment icon Donny Osmond
  • Why Don’s business OzComm focuses solely on strategy and how he helps his clients do the execution
  • Why you need to reach outside of your organization for help
  • Why you don’t need to spend time on all social networks equally and the dangers of automating too much

Ways to contact Don:

Feb 7, 2017

Kate is the co-author of the award-winning book “Reinvention: Accelerating Results in the Age of Disruption” and is also co-author of the best-seller “The Leadership Code: Five Rules to Lead By.” She was named by the London Times as one of the world’s Top Emerging Management Gurus for her career work in the leadership development space. She specializes in leadership, culture, high performing teams and the inner work of developing oneself as a leader.

Kate has advised, trained, coached, and consulted with leaders and organizations in 26 different countries over the past 20 years. She and her family also lived in Asia for 3 years. A former editor at Harvard Business Review, she worked closely with renowned thought leaders like Jim Collins and helped them articulate their groundbreaking theories and models into material that could lead to publication. Kate has written over fifty business cases for clients.

Kate is a visiting lecturer and coach at MIT’s Legatum Center for Entrepreneurship. She has authored and published more than 30 articles on leadership-management in respected journals, magazines, and newspapers worldwide, such as Forbes, Sloan Management, the Boston Globe, and the Asian Economic Times. She has blogged for Fast Company and Harvard Business Review.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Kate’s background
  • Why you need to be very careful about the culture that you create
  • Why you need to pause frequently to ask yourself “what am I doing and how am I doing it?”
  • What Kate has learned from her many mentors
  • The advice Jim Collins gave Kate about how to lay out her week and why it’s so effective for her
  • Why you need to be very selective of what you’re working on
  • Staying focused on what you’re trying to accomplish and the key few things that will get you there
  • How to become genuinely helpful to other people and not get distracted from what you need to be doing
  • Why resiliency is the most important thing
  • The dangerous blindfolds entrepreneurs can wear
  • Why you need to be with people who compliment you, not give you compliments

Ways to contact Kate:

Feb 2, 2017

Elise Mitchell, the CEO of Dentsu Aegis Public Relations Network, is a smart, successful, female entrepreneur and new author that is inspiring leaders with her latest book, Leading Through the Turn: How a Journey Mindset Can Help Leaders Find Success and Significance (McGraw Hill, January 6, 2017).

Elise Mitchell started her public relations firm, Mitchell, from scratch and quickly turned it into one of the Top 10 Fastest-Growing Firms included in the Holmes Report global ranking and a two-time Small Agency of the Year winner honored by both PRWeek and The Holmes Report. She attracted major brands including Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Hilton Worldwide, Kraft, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and Restaurant and Southwestern Energy.

Under Elise’s leadership, Mitchell grew more than 500% in five years and became one of the top 35 PR firms in the U.S. and made Inc. 500/5000 Fastest Growing Companies, Women Presidents Organization/ American Express OPENs 50 Fastest Growing Women-Owned/Led Companies in North America and PRWeek’s Top 50 Power Player and Global Power List.

At the end of 2012, Mitchell sold to one of the world’s largest communications networks, Dentsu Aegis Public Relations Network. Today, Mitchell is the leading PR agency brand at Dentsu. In addition to her role as CEO, Elise is working to build a global PR brand for the network.

Prior to founding Mitchell, Elise worked on both the agency and corporate sides of the business serving as the top public relations executive for Promus Hotel Corporation, vice president at Sossaman, Bateman, McCuddy and assistant director of public relations at Walker & Associates.

Elise has been awarded Agency Professional of the Year from PRWeek, Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year from the National Association for Female Executives and Enterprising Woman of the Year from Enterprising Women.

Elise is a wife, mom, runner, motorcyclist and author. She is a mentor, a passionate advocate for women entrepreneurs, and a frequent writer and keynote speaker on leadership, the public relations industry and the secret to enjoying the journey while reaching the destination.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Elise’s journey and why she founded Mitchell
  • Elise’s book “Leading Through The Turn”
  • Finding significance in life and not just being focused on the destination but the journey
  • Why you need to focus on what only you can do and give the rest away
  • Why to be a great leader you have to admit what you don’t know
  • Elise’s four point plan for handling growth
  • Why you need specialized talent more and more as you grow
  • Creating a culture that attracts the right people
  • Reclaiming time that you spend in other ways
  • Learning to look at people holistically
  • Why you need to always make the right decisions for the business

Ways to contact Elise:

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