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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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Absolute Advantage Podcast
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Now displaying: July, 2017
Jul 27, 2017

PJ Jonas is a business owner, goat-wrangler, entrepreneur, and mother. After getting goats to provide healthy milk for her eight children, she decided to put some excess milk into a batch of handmade soap. That decision was the beginning of Goat Milk Stuff, a growing goat milk products business that has been featured on The Today Show, The Doctors, The Huckabee Show, and in O, the Oprah Magazine. This is a great story of how a business was started in her kitchen and grew into a million dollar business that now employs her entire family as well as other employees.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • How ingenuity can arise from simply wanting to help others
  • Solving problems as a mother that turned into a million dollar business
  • Insider knowledge of entrepreneurship from a successful owner
  • Thinking about employees carefully before hiring to promote success
  • Understanding your missteps and not letting yourself be defined as a failure
  • Why you can’t get it all done and how to seize on the right opportunities
  • Maximizing efficiencies and processes through carefully designed systems
  • Growing your business at the right pace
  • What you need to know about your competition when diversifying your business
  • How to be humble and a good listener and why all leaders must be able to do both
  • Where you can have a chance get a free bar of soap from Goat Milk Stuff

Ways to contact PJ:

Jul 25, 2017

Bix and Joe Bickson are Future Hackers…they have reimagined management for today’s and more importantly, tomorrow’s world.

Bix Bickson lived in Berkeley in the 60s, built a community in the Canadian woods for 10 years in the 70s, was an est trainer in the 80s, became an organizational consultant in the 90s. He has consulted major corporations, institutions, non-profit organizations, and individuals throughout the world. His clients include executives and their teams at Starbucks, Escada, Microsoft, Guinness, Ford Motors, and much, much more.  He was joined by his son, Joe, two years ago with the energy, passion, and commitment of a millennial bringing his Dad and their clients into the digital economy. They are regarded as authorities on the ability to tap the collective creativity of groups, how to inspire others toward action, how to accelerate significant measurable change across large, complex projects.

Future hacking is the management discipline that provides leaders with the essential tools required to push past what is in the way of creating and fulfilling the future. Bix and Joe have led many turnarounds of organizations ranging in size from 100 to over 10,000, with revenues of a few million dollars to over a billion.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Transformational conversations that rewrite your corporate DNA
  • Infusing purpose and meaning into your company’s work
  • Motivating young people and crafting companies that look forward
  • How to see the DNA of a company in its conversations
  • Future Hacking and unlocking the power of your company
  • Being a partner and not a savior in your relationships
  • Why the source of results is not skill, talent, or experience but it is to be present

Ways to contact Bix & Joe:

Jul 20, 2017

Kevin Harrington has been a successful entrepreneur for over 40 years. He is an original member of the cast of ABC’s hit, Emmy Award-winning TV show, “Shark Tank.” Also known as the “Inventor of the Infomercial” and pioneer of the “As Seen On TV” label, he co-founded the Electronic Retailers Association (ERA) and the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO). Kevin has launched over 20 businesses now worth over $100 million in sales, been involved in more than a dozen public companies, and launched over 500 products generating more than $5 billion in sales worldwide with iconic brands and celebrities such as Jack Lalanne, Tony Little, George Foreman, and the new I-Grow hair restoration product on QVC.

Kevin got his start as a young entrepreneur in the early 80’s when he launched Quantum International with $25,000. Entrepreneur Magazine has called him, “one of the top entrepreneurs of our time.” As a business thought leader he is often featured and quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, CNBC, Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, Fortune, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS Morning News, The View, Squawk Box, Fox Business, and more. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and Inc.com and has published acclaimed books like, “Act Now! How I Turn Ideas Into Million Dollar Products,” the best-seller, “Key Person of Influence,” and “Put a Shark in Your Tank.”

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • How Kevin became the inventor of the infomercial through smart media buying
  • Strategies you can use to build a winning team
  • What Kevin did to build many of the best-known brands in consumer products
  • Raising your own profile to leverage your expertise into marketing opportunities
  • Why a balanced approach to marketing covers many channels
  • How to raise capital by making the right impression on potential investors
  • One simple habit of the most effective managers and leaders
  • Long-term planning strategies to grow your business the smart way
  • What you can do every day to maximize your potential

Ways to contact Kevin:

Jul 18, 2017

Drew McLellan is a 25-year marketing veteran who helps clients create authentic love affairs with their customers. In 1995, Drew started his own agency — McLellan Marketing Group that he still actively runs today. He also helps other agency owners learn how to take their business to the next level through the consultancy — Agency Management Institute.

Drew is also one of the world’s top marketing and branding bloggers, according to AdAge’s Top 150 index. He’s written the book 99.3 Random Acts of Marketing and co-edited the Age of Conversation series of books.

Drew often appears in publications like Entrepreneur Magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Agency Post, AdAge, CNN, BusinessWeek, and many others. The Wall Street Journal calls him “one of 10 bloggers every entrepreneur should read.”

Drew also hosts the brilliant Build a Better Agency Podcast.

He also speaks at leading agency conferences and is often cited in agency centric content for his expertise in the industry.

When he’s not hanging out with clients or agency owners and their staff, Drew spends time with his daughter and cheering for the Dodgers.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • The best practices you need to take your business to the next level
  • Failing forward by learning from past mistakes with business partners
  • What Drew means when he says he’s an “accidental entrepreneur”
  • Why you need to help your people grow even if it is away from you
  • The simple truth behind thinking like a child to foster creativity
  • How scaling your business also means scaling your recruitment
  • Having a relationship-focused approach to business and management
  • Why one-on-one meetings are vital to retaining and developing your people

Ways to contact Drew:

Jul 13, 2017

Amy Norman knew in the 4th grade that she would become a dentist. She began dental assisting at the age of 16 and worked her way through college as an assistant in various dental specialties. Dr. Norman has worked in the dentistry field for 31 years. Amy received early acceptance to dental school at the University of Washington and was dubbed Doogie Howser by her team. Later, she studied and taught at the prestigious Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies with an emphasis on Cosmetic and Neuromuscular Dentistry.

Over the last 18 years, Dr. Norman’s office has come to be known for excellence in complex cases including worn-down teeth, headache and migraine patients, multiple missing teeth, and bite problems. She also provides cutting-edge services such as non-extraction orthodontics and Fountain of Youth Dentures. Her office is also known for its amazing, highly-skilled and healthy team with virtually no turnover.

Dr. Norman is attracted to Dentistry because of its unique nature combining art and science while routinely changing lives. The rush of giving someone a new smile or relieving a lifetime of pain from TMJ, headaches or migraines, is magical and addicting. She is one of the lucky ones because her hobby is her job.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • How to set up the environment in your workplace to maximize productivity
  • Why customer experience is the number 1 differentiator in business today
  • The importance of being proactive and not reactive in every aspect of your business
  • What you can do to be more flexible and retain more employees
  • How to balance the personality types in your business to ensure synergy
  • The simple trick for keeping employees longer and pushing them to be better
  • What airline pilots have to teach us about running our businesses
  • Why being an early riser gives you more time for yourself

Ways to contact Amy:

Jul 11, 2017

Robert (Bob) Glazer is the founder and Managing Director of Acceleration Partners and the founder and Chairman of BrandCycle. He is a serial entrepreneur with an exceptional track record and passion for growing revenue and profits for B2C-based companies. In demand by top brands and investment firms, he has extensive experience in the consumer, e-commerce, retail, online marketing, and ad-tech industries partnering with brands such as Adidas, ModCloth, Reebok, Target, Tiny Prints, Gymboree, and Warby Parker.

Bob is a regular contributor to numerous outlets, writing about performance marketing, strategy, and culture. He is the recipient of the Boston Business Journal 40 under 40 award, the SmartCEO Boston Future 50 award, and a finalist for the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year in New England, among other accolades. A sought-after speaker, Robert presents to global audiences and serves as an advisor to high-growth businesses.

Bob strongly believes in giving back. He serves on the Board of Directors for BUILD Boston, is a global leader in Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO) and founded The Fifth Night charitable event (www.fifthnight.org). He previously served on the boards of the Performance Marketing Association and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mass Bay and participated in the annual Rodman Ride for Kids for a dozen years, raising almost $100,000 for charity.

In his spare time, Bob is an avid writer, skier, traveler, cyclist, and serial home renovator.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why Bob says, “My job is to fire myself,” and what it means to lead authentically
  • How you can inspire your people to be a little bit better every day
  • The importance of hiring for your culture and how to do it
  • A simple solution for defining your core values so well they are always on your mind
  • What Bob gained from “a book’s worth of mistakes in hiring”
  • Why you need to interview against aptitude and outcomes, not experience
  • What hiring an “up and comer” versus an “old hand” can do for your company’s future

Ways to contact Bob:

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