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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: May, 2019
May 29, 2019

Michelle Tillis-Lederman is a recognized speaker, trainer, leadership coach and consultant, and author. She was named by Forbes on their list of “25 Professional Networking Experts to Watch.” Through her company, Executive Essentials, Michelle works to help national and global businesses, organizations and individuals build stronger relationships. Michelle has been featured on NBC, CBS, the New York Times, Forbes, Working Mother Magazine and many other high profile publications and news outlets. Prior to her current work, Michelle served as an NYU professor, financial executive and CPA.

Michelle’s newest book, The Connector’s Advantage: 7 Mindsets to Grow Your Influence and Impact, seeks to help readers learn to more effectively communicate, form and cultivate relationships, and ensure that their voices are heard, through smart strategies and sage advice from more than two dozen experts in the area of communication and relationship-building.

Michelle Tillis-Lederman is truly an expert in the art and science of building better relationships and becoming a Connector, and I hope that you will listen to her wisdom and apply it to your own role as a business leader.

As business leaders, we live and die by our relationships to the people around us. Whether they are our clients, our peers, or the teams we lead, our relationships to the people we work with professionally can either drag us down or elevate our leadership to new levels of success.

I want to introduce you to Michelle Tillis-Lederman. Michelle is an expert in strengthening those key relationships that are so important to our role as business leaders. Through extensive professional experience and research, Michelle has mastered the art of creating, growing and strengthening relationships, and she has helped many high-profile organizations create more successful, impactful and effective teams.

In this week’s episode of Absolute Advantage, Michelle discusses her background in every aspect of the finance industry and her interest in creating stronger connections between members of organizations. She explains why anyone can become a Connector, someone who serves as the catalyst for stronger relationships in everyone around them. She describes the different types of connectors and their various strengths, and she shares tips and strategies for strengthening your own relationships with others and becoming a true Connector.

How to connect with Michelle Tillis-Lederman:

May 22, 2019

Harry Maziar’s career as a business leader has been long, successful, and storied. Harry served as the President of Zep Manufacturing Company, a division of National Service Industries, for 27 years. Prior to his role as President, Harry served as the company’s first director of sales, where his leadership helped to create double-digit growth consistently for two and a half decades.

In recent years, Harry has served on a number of business and community boards for both for-profit and charitable organizations. He is also the author of Story Selling: Sage Advice and Common Sense About Sales and Success, where he offers a collection of entertaining and informative stories as a mechanism to teach the key principles of sales in a memorable and engaging way. Harry’s passion is to inspire and empower others to pursue their life’s purpose and find true success.

Harry Maziar’s wisdom, experience and talent for sales and leadership can be valuable tools for your own pursuit of being the most effective leader you can be. I hope you will listen to the episode and absorb Harry’s teachings.

As leaders, we’re always looking to better ourselves, strengthen our leadership, and inspire those around us. That focus and drive to constantly be improving is a key ingredient in becoming a great leader. And one of the many ways that we can learn important lessons is through stories

Today I’d like to introduce you to master storyteller Harry Maziar. Harry is a business leader and salesperson with a proven track record of success. As both director of sales and, later, President of Zep Manufacturing Company, Harry led his company through an incredible period of growth and prosperity over the span of his career. Harry is also the author of Story Selling, in which he shares powerful, entertaining and inspiring stories of sales and leadership.

In this episode of Absolute Advantage, Harry discusses the importance of storytelling as a way to transfer knowledge in a memorable way. He talks about the qualities of a leader and the critical role that clear communication serves in leading others and bringing them to your way of thinking. And he shares his thoughts on mentorship and the importance of paying it forward. Harry Maziar is a thoughtful, genuine and entertaining storyteller and a truly exceptional leader.

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May 15, 2019

Petra Velzeboer is an international keynote speaker, psychotherapist, mental health consultant, executive coach, and podcast host who is dedicated to helping others through developing empathy in the workplace to create stronger connections with our teammates and improve the productivity of our organizations.

Petra’s own remarkable story is one of triumph in spite of the odds being stacked against her. Having been raised in a cult, Petra experienced a level of abuse and control that led her to develop addiction problems and ultimately consider suicide as her only way out. However, Petra was able to overcome these incredible challenges, conquer her addiction issues, and attain an education that was denied to her as a child growing up within a religious cult.

Petra shares her powerful and inspiring story in an effort to help lift others up and promote kindness and compassion. She believes greatly that empathy, authenticity and connection are the keys to making the world a better place and to allow us, both individually and as a society, to achieve our full potential.

Inspiration, motivation and empathy can come from many sources. These sources can be uplifting stories of human love and compassion, or they can come from a darker place of overcoming the most difficult of life’s challenges. But, no matter the source, we can draw on these stories to lift ourselves up, inspire ourselves, and better understand ourselves and the world around us.

I want to introduce you to Petra Velzeboer. Petra is a psychotherapist and mental health consultant, and she also works as an internationally respected keynote speaker and executive coach, as well as hosting her own podcast, Adversity to Advantage. Petra’s story is a remarkable tale of falling all the way to rock bottom and then climbing back up again through perseverance, willpower and hope.

In this episode of the Absolute Advantage podcast, Petra shares her emotional story of growing up in a religious cult, being subjected to brainwashing and intense punishment, turning to substance abuse to deal with the internal hurt and turmoil, and eventually overcoming all of these obstacles to find true success and happiness. Petra’s story is deeply personal, powerful, and inspiring. Petra also discusses her role as a mental health professional and the vital importance of mental health and self-care as a leader.

Ways to contact Petra Velzeboer:

May 8, 2019

Dr. Daphne Scott is a leadership coach and corporate development expert with more than two decades of experience working with organizations. In addition to her own extensive coaching and leadership training and her degrees in Applied Positive Psychology and Physical Therapy, Daphne leans on her background in theater with the Second City Improvisational Conservatory Program to strengthen and diversify her coaching.

Daphne is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, certified Hendricks Coach, a founding member of the Conscious Leadership Group, as well as a member of the International Coaching Federation. She has also studied with top-level executive coaches, consciousness experts and organizational psychologists.

Daphne believes that one of our key roles as leaders is to equip and enable the people around us to succeed. This involves spending the time and effort necessary to help them identify their natural abilities, and it also involves putting them in positions that best leverage those abilities. It requires us to recognize and appropriately respond to the thoughts, feelings, fears and questions our team may experience.

A goal we all have in common is our ongoing work to become better, stronger leaders. It’s why I created the Absolute Advantage podcast, to help you obtain the skills and wisdom of other great leaders so that you can achieve your maximum potential.

That’s why I want to introduce you to Dr. Daphne Scott. Daphne is a leadership coach and corporate development expert par excellence. Daphne believes that we have the ability to equip our teams with the skills and motivation needed to truly excel in their roles… but only if we ourselves step into our own potential as leaders.

In this episode, Daphne discusses the importance of understanding the thoughts and feelings our team members experience, and she shares her five key relationships that we as leaders should develop: our relationship to time, to money, to ourselves, to our friendships, and to the unknown. By strengthening those relationships and by taking proper care of ourselves, we can then create that all-important Ripple Effect in our team.

I hope you will listen to the episode and embrace the remarkable insights Daphne Scott shares during our conversation. Daphne’s wisdom is an amazing road map you can follow in your quest to become an unstoppable leader of an incredible team!

Ways to contact Daphne Scott:

May 1, 2019

Laura Gassner Otting is a professional keynote speaker, respected author, and successful entrepreneur. She helps innovators, idealists, and iconoclasts get “unstuck” by providing the extra push they need to achieve extraordinary results.

Laura is the founder of Limitless Possibility and a founding board member of the Boston-based philanthropic group SheGives. Prior to her current work, she served as the founder and president of the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group for more than thirteen years. She also served as a Presidential Appointee in the Clinton White House, helping guide and shape AmeriCorps. Laura is the author of several successful books including Mission Driven and Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector, and her latest book is called Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life.

Laura is a strong believer in not letting others put you in a box and hold you back. She believes that we all have limitless potential within ourselves to set our own definition of success and then achieve that success by breaking through walls and finding our own path through life. Limiting thoughts, whether from ourselves or others, have no place in Laura’s philosophy. She truly believes that self-empowerment is the key to unlocking our true potential and becoming limitless.

All of us have certain limits and expectations placed upon us from the time we come into this world. Whether it’s the parent that pushes us to go to medical school, or the teacher who tells us we aren’t capable, or the well-intentioned family member who warns us against pursuing our dreams, outside pressures are a constant anchor that too often weighs us down.

Laura Gassner Otting wants to free us from that weight. Laura is a professional keynote speaker, author and entrepreneur who believes in the hidden potential present in every person. Laura believes in helping people achieve consonance, the state of aligning what they do with who they are. Through her four C’s (calling, connection, contribution, control), Laura helps people break through their limits and achieve success, no matter how they define it for themselves.

In this episode, Laura discusses her career journey and shares how she “accidentally” became a keynote speaker. She shares strategies and insights from her new book, Limitless, with the goal of helping her readers get “unstuck” from the roadblocks they face and break through to a new level of success, prosperity and empowerment. She teaches people that success is not a list of boxes someone else creates for you to check off, success is however you define it.

As business leaders, from time to time we can all use a reminder that our limitations are illusions and that our goals are within our reach. I hope you’ll listen to the episode and share in Laura Gassner Otting’s remarkable wisdom.

Ways to contact Laura Gassner Otting:

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