Mike Kitko is an Executive Self- Mastery Coach, Speaker, and Author. He found external success in the world through attaining powerful titles, incomes, and material possessions. His family only focused on material wealth as the primary means of trying to find happiness. He ultimately fell into depression, alcoholism, and the near-collapse of his family before he began a journey of internal happiness. Mike now coaches Executive Leaders to feel as powerful on the inside as they appear to those they lead – which creates a fulfilled person and powerful family.
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Early in Mike Kitko’s career, he found himself running from fear, inadequacy, and insecurity no matter what he accomplished. His life was crumbling around him and he struggled to maintain a facade of strength and composure. But when Mike took a step back and sought out a path of authenticity, he no longer felt like an imposter. He became the master of his own life and is now helping other leaders to do the same.
Mike and his wife pulled themselves out of the depths and started living the life they always wanted. But it is important to note the relatively short time frame in which the Kitkos’ transformation took place. We are only one decision away from changing our lives for the better and it starts with identifying everything that serves your vision and cutting out the things that don’t.
Mike Kitko wants to help you create a life of your own dreams, not a life someone else designed. It all starts with an internal journey and the ‘right’ path is the path that suits you! Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.
Ways to contact Mike Kitko:
Peter Guzzardi has worked in publishing for more than forty years. Prominent books he has edited include Stephen Hawkings A Brief History of Time, Deepak Chopras Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, Queen Noors Leap of Faith, Arianna Huffington’s Fanatics and Fools, and Paula Poundstone’s There’s Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say. Emeralds of Oz: Life Lessons from Over the Rainbow was published by HarperCollins in May 2019 and marks Peter’s debut as an author. An independent editor and writer, he lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Peter’s book, “Emeralds of Oz: Life Lessons From Over the Rainbow,” is available for purchase now where books are sold. You can see his upcoming events by going to peterguzzardi.com and clicking on “Events.”
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Peter Guzzardi stumbled upon a spectacular 75th-anniversary edition of The Wizard of Oz and it sparked an epiphany. It occurred to him that, throughout his forty-year career in publishing, all the lessons he learned from the brilliant minds of his industry were presented in the film.
Peter shaped the lessons into sixty-two insights that parallel events in the Wizard of Oz. Then, he distilled the insights into nine substantial takeaways dubbed the “nine emeralds.” The nine emeralds can be used to address particular issues in your life and work through them. They are extremely useful in a leadership position, especially as you learn to speak the language.
Each emerald is linked to an iconic moment in the film because Peter’s goal is to take you through an emerald circuit similar to Dorothy’s. The emeralds are intended to facilitate a transformation and help you step into the best version of yourself. Being your best self is not just about improving your own experience; it is about creating a richer and more rewarding experience for your employees as well. You will make a tremendous difference just by showing up that way.
Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.
Ways to contact Peter Guzzardi:
David Hauser has built a number of successful companies in the startup space, both organically and inorganically. He is the founder of Grasshopper, which was acquired by Citrix after he bootstrapped the company to $30M+. David founded Chargify and made it profitable, securing a Mark Cuban investment. He founded ReturnPath and is a founding member of National Entrepreneurs’ Day (http://entrepreneursday.org). David is an angel investor in Intercom, Unbounce, Munchery, Groove and more. He is a public speaker at FOWA, Big Omaha, LessConf, SuperConf, Entrepreneurs Organization, and has received major media coverage by CNN, Fox, Inc. Magazine, Fortune, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Inc. 30 Under 30.
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As leaders and business owners, we prioritize other people’s needs. It is part of what makes us great leaders in the first place. You signed up for long days and late nights when you entered this world, but you can only operate at full capacity when you put your oxygen mask on first. Sometimes, to help others, you have to help yourself. David Hauser explores that notion and more in his new book, Unstoppable.
We preach the importance of health and wellness, but we don’t always practice it ourselves. David Hauser struggled to prioritize self-care in the hustle-hard culture of modern entrepreneurship—a position that many of us are in right now. You have to recognize that there is no ‘right’ time to start practicing self-care and stop putting it off. When you achieve balance and become the best version of yourself, your business will reflect that. Health and wellness is a great place to start.
In this episode of the Absolute Advantage podcast, David Hauser joins us to share his journey of personal development. He discusses the key principles in his book, “Unstoppable,” such as the optimization mindset, the myths surrounding diet and exercise, and the top things you should be paying attention to on your own journey.
Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.
Ways to contact David Hauser:
Jennifer Brown is an award-winning entrepreneur, dynamic speaker and diversity and inclusion expert. She is the founder, president, and CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting (JBC), a strategic leadership and diversity consulting firm that coaches business leaders worldwide on critical issues of talent and workplace strategy. Brown is a passionate advocate for social equality who helps businesses foster healthier, more productive workplace cultures. Her book Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will to Change (2016) will inspire leadership to embrace the opportunity that diversity represents and empower advocates to drive change that resonates in today’s world. Jennifer’s second book, How to Be an Inclusive Leader, is available everywhere!
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Many of us look at leadership and say, “I don’t see anyone that looks like me or shares my story.” We leave parts of ourselves at home for fear of not being accepted. Jennifer Brown has been a member of the LGBTQ community for 22 years, and she struggled with her self-image in almost every role. Today, she is working with businesses and leaders across the country to eradicate that fear.
As a consultant and speaker, Jennifer has worked with Fortune 500 corporations like Wal-Mart and Microsoft to help them integrate strategies of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. But small businesses are starting to adopt these practices as well. Companies need a culture that promotes inclusivity because they will only recruit and retain the top talent if people can bring their full selves to work. It is a significant competitive differentiator.
In this episode of the Absolute Advantage, Jennifer Brown discusses the “full self” and the advantages of bringing it to work. She explains the impact that building a culture of inclusivity has on small businesses and Fortune 500 companies alike. Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.
Ways to contact Jennifer Brown:
John Waid has thirty years of sales and sales leadership experience in Fortune 500 companies and twelve years of senior consulting experience in the learning and development field. John earned his MBA in International Business from a top program and is fluent in three languages which has allowed him to work in Europe, North, Central and South America. He started his own firm, C3—Corporate Culture Consulting, to work with leaders and their companies on their cultures.
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John Waid is the founder and CEO of C3, a firm that specializes in aligning an organization’s culture with its strategic goals. In his experience, culture represents the relationship of values and behaviors within an organization. When your organization’s values are well-defined, employee behavior is the best indicator of how the values are being exemplified.
Values are implemented by profound leaders, and leaders are people that others follow voluntarily. Leaders are responsible for the culture, coaches are responsible for the growth, and managers are responsible for operational excellence. Although all of those components play a role in the organization’s success, you cannot achieve growth and operational excellence with a frail culture.
The most well-run companies put their employees first, their customers second, and their profits third. At the top of the pyramid is your leader or the ambassador of your culture, and at the base is your results. Everything in between determines how much you are going to grow. However, many organizations do not have a structure like that in place.
In this episode of the Absolute Advantage, John Waid explains the direct link between a company’s culture and its performance. He shares his methodology and talks about the role of culture in recruiting, growth, and ultimately, profit. Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.
Ways to contact John Waid:
Erik Salzenstein’s story is one that truly shows the power of change and what’s possible. From greed and addiction to purpose and fulfillment. Erik found himself facing life in prison, with his back against the wall where he finally had to face his worst enemy up until that point…himself.
What stands out that he had to go to prison to find freedom and realized he was in his own prison long before actually being behind bars. He then went on to spend 4 years relentlessly pursuing personal growth, coaching, speaking, running workshops and even being published in a newspaper all while in prison. He developed a 4 step process using the acronym ROCK that allowed him to tap into his full potential and develop the ROCK solid foundation needed to transform and build his life on. He’s since used this process with much success to his clients lives.
Erik is a powerful and sought out speaker and transformational coach who shares his signature talk “From Prison to Prosperity” and takes people through his ROCK process and helps them break free from the constructs of their own prison.
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Erik Salzenstein was facing life in prison at just 23 years old, but as his freedom was being ripped away, Erik realized that he was never free in the first place. None of his decisions were made in a heightened state of mind because fear, doubt, and insecurity fueled his M.O. The deeper he crawled into that hole, the higher the stakes became, and Erik finally realized that to grow as a human being, he had to believe that he could achieve something more.
At that point, he was able to embark on a journey of personal transformation, bringing as many others as he could along with him. By tapping into his own experience of self-discovery, Erik could help others step into their greater selves by making choices that align with their core values and beliefs.
In this episode of the Absolute Advantage podcast, Erik Salzenstein joins host Kelly Hatfield to share his story and talk about helping people understand who they really are so they can make decisions that embody the best version of that. Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.
Ways to contact Erik Salzenstein:
John Livesay, aka The Pitch Whisperer, is a sales keynote speaker and shares the lessons learned from his award-winning sales career at Conde Nast. In his keynote Better Selling Through Storytelling, he shows companies sales teams how to become irresistible so they are magnetic to their ideal clients. After John speaks, the sales team becomes revenue rock stars who know how to form an emotional connection and a compelling sales story with clients. His TEDx talk: Be The Lifeguard of your own life has over 1,000,000 views. His best selling book is Better Selling Through Storytelling.
He is also the host of The Successful Pitch podcast, which is heard in over 60 countries. These interviews make him a sales keynote speaker with fresh and relevant content. Audiences love him because they know hes been in their shoes.
John has been interviewed by Larry King and appeared on TV as an expert on How To Ask For What You Want And Get A Yes. John currently lives in Los Angeles with his King Charles Spaniel, Pepe, who welcomes him home after he returns from being a sales keynote speaker, reminding him of the importance of belly rubs.
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As a leader, the right direction is not always clear, but establishing a personal brand will give you parameters that you can always fall back on. John Livesay taps into his background in advertising to provide strategic insights for building your brand and communicating it through the art of storytelling.
Storytelling is what makes us memorable, and whether you are making the first touchpoint or trying to close, creating an emotional connection is the key to playing the long game. Crafting a compelling narrative is one of the most effective methods to accomplish this, and with the proper strategy, your sales team will be able to attract key prospects at a point in the sales cycle when they are ready to spend.
In this episode of the Absolute Advantage podcast, John Livesay joins host Kelly Hatfield to share his story and talk about the fundamental components that make storytelling an effective pitch strategy. If you tell the best story, you’re going to get the ‘yes,’ so find out how to move “from invisible to irresistible,” with John Livesay.
Ways to contact John Livesay:
Ric Lindberg is a freelancer who helps global organizations with business intelligence and team development based on coaching, metrics and KPIs. He is a deep technical data-nerd who understand the desire to replace tools and processes for better results, but having worked within business intelligence for 24 years, Ric learned that it’s never about the tool. The path to better and lasting change requires leadership way more than tools.
He’s been podcasting for more than 5 years about self-leadership, focus and relationship building on the show Relationship Power at work and has now turned into a beginner YouTuber helping parents better connect to their computer gamer children.
Ric helps you Connect and Levelup.
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By helping businesses harness the power of advanced analytics and team development, Ric Lindberg works with his clients to build a stronger connection between the employees and their work. Lindberg’s process combines a technical background in computers with intra-organizational analysis to create custom strategies based on the unique business problems of each client.
As a freelance consultant, Lindberg has spent years refining the skill of empathic listening which allows him to construct metrics-based solutions with a deep understanding of a business’s functionality. His approach is very data-centric, but software and tools are only a small part of the work he does.
When leaders become more vulnerable and start to understand the worldview of others, it opens a pathway for connection that yields higher productivity and better team chemistry. Ric Lindberg is helping leaders tap into that by eliminating the traditional power dynamic and coaching them to unlock the full extent of their teams’ capabilities.
Ways to contact Ric Lindberg:
Joe Williams helps coaches, consultants and entrepreneurs become world-class communicators!
Joe is the Founder of Creative Performance Group, where he helps people get their message out to the world in the most powerful way possible. He created the Master Your Message Bootcamp, an intensive training that has created hundreds of other successful speakers, coaches, consultants, and authors. In addition to live events, consulting, and corporate programs, Joe lead the Impact Entrepreneur group a high-end mentorship program for professional speakers, coaches, and consultants.
His new book “The Impact Awakening: How to go from having a calling to changing lives”, focuses on how to master your message, communicate it powerfully, and scale it into an Impact Business.
Joe is a passionate student and trainer of personal and professional development techniques he has worked with and spoken for peak performance coach Anthony Robbins for over 20 years.
Joe’s work has led him to consult with companies in a number of fields such as financial services, aerospace, retail business, internet and software, direct sales, publishing, entertainment, and the federal government. Joe is professionally responsible for helping his clients create over $50 Billion in new business.
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Both of Joe Williams’ parents went to prison for tax evasion when he was just a teenager, and his drive to produce results was born almost instantaneously. Williams had a knack for entrepreneurship and managed to take his company public at only twenty-six, but it didn’t take long before he realized that shuffling around an office was not his passion.
Williams developed a friendship with Tony Robbins in the late 90s who gave him the opportunity to discover his true passion; public speaking, mentorship, and coaching. Now, Williams works with people who are trying to reinvent themselves and helps them take their calling, story, message, or gift, and create an action plan to bring it to the world.
In this episode of the Absolute Advantage Podcast, Williams joins host Kelly Hatfield to share his story and discuss the methodology he uses to make transformational strides with his clients’ endeavors. Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.impactawakeningbook.com for a free pdf of Williams’ new book.
Ways to contact Joe Williams:
Jonathan Keyser is the founder and thought leader behind Keyser, the largest tenant rep commercial real estate brokerage/consulting firm in Arizona. Through his disruptive focus on selfless service, Jonathan is re-shaping the commercial real estate industry, and his firm has quickly become one of the fastest-growing CRE firms in the country, representing companies globally across multiple industries.
Jonathan is thrilled to share his journey and mission of selfless service through his highly-anticipated book, You Dont Have to Be Ruthless to Win (hitting bookshelves in mid 2019). A strong supporter of the Conscious Capitalism movement, Jonathan is eagerly working toward the upcoming launch of The Keyser Institute to inspire and equip the next generation of selfless leaders. Jonathan is passionate about helping and empowering others, and has been involved in many different executive and nonprofit organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Phoenix and several business leadership organizations in Arizona. He is also spearheading an initiative to connect Arizona business leaders, alongside Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (www.arizonabusinesscommunity.com).
On the personal side, Jonathan prioritizes family. He is a loving and devoted father to wife and four children. Jonathan is extremely committed to personal development and self-improvement, and he stays active with mountain/water sports, spin, and hiking.
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With a background that instilled concrete values and a strong moral compass, Jonathan Keyser had a difficult decision to make when he entered the world of commercial real estate. It wasn’t necessarily that Keyser had ill will, he just didn’t know how else to succeed in that industry other than to become a ruthless prick. After years of clawing his way up the food chain with one self-serving act after another, Keyser eventually attended a conference that flipped his perspective on building relationships by revealing the success that can result from helping people.
Keyser is not hustling an instant-gratification, get-rich-quick scheme. His methodology focuses on creating long-term, sustainable success by nurturing relationships through selfless service. It was a grueling transition for him to make, but Keyser is a completely different person now. He is the founder of a commercial real estate brokerage that is built on the principle of succeeding by helping others succeed, and he trains all of his team members to live out that value in all facets of their lives.
In this episode of the Absolute Advantage podcast, Jonathan Keyser joins host Kelly Hatfield to share his journey and discuss the challenges and successes he experienced on the path of selfless service. Keyser breaks down his philosophy and highlights all of the key principles that business leaders can follow to reach a higher level of happiness and success. Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more informative episodes about pushing the boundaries of your leadership potential.
Ways to contact Jonathan Keyser:
Carey Jenkins had an unconventional path to CEO of Substantial, a Seattle-based digital product studio that has worked with companies like Amazon, Mercedes Benz, and the Wall Street Journal. In 2012, Carey joined the client services team, and six short years later she became the CEO. As the sixth female employee and first mother hired at Substantial, Carey is proud that Substantial has grown the female employee base to 37% overall and 40% on the leadership team, and she is committed to empowering other women to seize more leadership opportunities.
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Beyond the excitement of graduating from college, many students wander out of the auditorium as lost souls. Their failure to recognize opportunity in disguise creates a void of purpose, but it is important to acknowledge that no one in history had a road map to success. Carey Jenkins’ story emphasizes the importance of framing adverse situations differently to become more resilient. Ironically, her success story is more of a collection of failures than successes, but in this episode of Absolute Advantage, she explains how a will to learn from them will only tear you down and rebuild you stronger.
Jenkins’ toolbox as a CEO includes project management, people management, writing, and public speaking, but not a single one of those skills came from her experience in one role or industry. They are the culmination of all her past experiences and failures, which led to greater opportunities that she was already prepared for. Jenkins faced many challenges climbing the ranks to become a female executive, but she made it to the top because of her capacity to lead and adapt to adversity—any one is capable when they start asking “why not me” instead of “why me.”
Throughout her journey, Jenkins was always hungry for feedback and coaching, but what set her apart was the ability to step into really uncomfortable situations and recognize her value to the company. This relentless mindset drove her to fight tooth and nail for the CEO position when the opportunity presented itself, and it proved that you can always pull yourself up if you’re prepared to do so.
Ways to contact Carey Jenkins:
After their business crumbled due to a sudden illness that had Joeel bedridden for a year, Joeel (jo-ELL) and Natalie Rivera (ri-VAIR-uh) decided they never wanted to be in that situation again. So they dedicated themselves to converting their training and speaking programs into online courses that would outlive them and would provide passive income. They reached over 100,000 students from 191 countries in only 3 years. They believe that entrepreneurship is the ultimate form of empowerment. Today they teach INDIEpreneurs how to create a purpose-driven business in this new economy so they can monetize their passion and live life on their terms.
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Joeel and Natalie Rivera both had entrepreneurial dreams early on, but what brought them together was their desire to help others, create a legacy, and make an impact on the community. After their paths merged, Joeel and Natalie found a collective calling to establish a multitude of platforms that would help business leaders in the community grow. As fate would have it, their devotion to the cause quickly caught up with them and Joeel fell severely ill, completely incapacitated and unable to work.
The adversity Joeel faced culminated a desire to build something that would outlive him, so Joeel and Natalie began converting all of their content into videos that were accessible to a much larger audience. All of their students have an expertise that they haven’t acknowledged yet, so the Riveras thrive on helping students identify their passions in order to monetize and share them with the world. The courses are not necessarily complex and a lot of them are built around simple skills that other people are hungry to learn; if it is something you can teach, it is something you can turn into a passive income and anything is possible.
For the most part, a lot of the information being taught is already out there, but the reason people pay for these courses is because Joeel and Natalie’s students provide packaged content that is taught step by step. A lot of changes are taking place as the capacity to do business online grows, so people are searching for more niche information as they develop new skills to keep up with the shift. That demand is only growing with people looking to make a greater impact in this world, by stepping into themselves and assuming a growth mindset. In this episode of Absolute Advantage, Joeel and Natalie explain how you can accomplish that by uncovering your passions and sharing them with others. Click here to listen to the episode.
Ways to contact Joeel and Natalie Rivera:
Kathleen Trotter is a fitness expert, media personality, personal trainer, writer, life coach, certified Pilates and ELDOA instructor, and overall health enthusiast. Her passion is motivating others to find their fit. Kathleen does this through writing, regular TV and media appearances, working with clients (ranging from athletes of all ages to individuals living with Parkinson’s disease and osteoporosis), and speaking engagements.
Kathleen holds an M.Sc. in Exercise Science from the University of Toronto and a nutrition diploma from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition. She is a C.H.E.K. Level 3 trainer, a Level 2 Fascial Stretch Therapist, Level 1 ELDOA practitioner, and a certified Pilates Equipment Specialist.
Kathleen started her work as a fitness writer at Chatelaine in 2010. Shortly after, she started blogging for the Huffington Post and filming and writing for the Globe and Mail. Kathleen has published articles in magazines, such as Canadian Running, Glow, Todays Parent, Healthy Directions, and Impact Magazine.
Kathleen is regularly interviewed as a fitness expert for multiple news outlets including Global News and the Toronto Star. She also makes regular TV and media appearances on Breakfast Television Montreal, Rogers Ottawa, CTV News, CHCH Morning Live Hamilton, the CBC, ABC News 7, and many others. Kathleen has been a guest on numerous radio shows, podcasts, and is a regular on Zoomer Radios The Tonic.
Her new-found passion is motivational speaking. Kathleen’s speaking engagements have included a series of motivational lectures at the Toronto Public Library, guest lectures at the University of Toronto and Concordia University, Lunch and Learns at the University of Toronto, and corporate presentations, including her recent Cisco Women of Influence keynote talk.
Kathleen loves her job. Her mission is to inspire as many people as possible to adopt (in an intelligent way) a healthier lifestyle and to make healthier choices because they love themselves, not because they hate themselves. Kathleen does not believe in body shame. Kathleen does believe in goals and results. She does not believe in being easy on yourself or letting negative brain propaganda win. She does believe in self-compassion and holding yourself accountable. Kathleen does not believe in being active to create a whole new you. Kathleen does believe in being you, but working toward creating a you who has more healthy habits. She believes in learning and growing, passion, gratitude, and actively finding pockets of joy. Most important, Kathleen believes in actively creating the version of yourself that you want to be, and that the key to health success is finding YOUR fit hence the name of her first book, Finding Your Fit.
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Kathleen Trotter is a speaker, author, and media personality set out to help people ‘find their fit,’ but this process requires a lot more involvement than starting a diet or getting a gym membership. Unless you are willing to act to change, your future self is just going to be a version of your current self. Trotter’s approach focuses on making fundamental changes to your mindset in order to prioritize self-care and become the best possible version of yourself.
It is all about small wins because your health and well being is just an aggregate of every decision you make in the moment. If you can assign more value to health and exercise, you will be able to make small adjustments in real-time that make a significant difference in the long run. You cannot effectively lead others if you are not leading yourself first, and by taking Trotter’s initiative you can start to replenish your energy, self-confidence, and overall happiness that will see a major shift at work and in the household.
The growth mindset assumes that there is no experience good or bad as long as you learn from it. In this episode of Absolute Advantage, Trotter joins host Kelly Hatfield to talk about creating a system to hold yourself accountable and grow as an individual in your pursuit of better health. Learn some of the strategies that Kathleen has used to successfully transform the lives of her clients’ lives.
Ways to contact Kathleen Trotter:
Drew Tarvin is the world’s first Humor Engineer teaching people how to get better results while having more fun. He has worked with thousands of people at 200+ organizations, including Microsoft, the FBI, and the International Association for Canine Professionals. He is a best-selling author, has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and TEDx, and has delivered programs in 50 states, 20+ countries, and 6 continents. He loves the color orange and is obsessed with chocolate.
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The term ‘humor engineer’ might seem completely foreign, because Drew Tarvin coined it himself. His work focuses on becoming effective with humans, and he is driven by the discovery that similar skills are needed to be successful in both comedy and leadership.
In this episode of The Absolute Advantage, Andrew Tarvin discusses a powerful shift in mentality that can generate positive momentum in the workplace and the direct benefits of integrating humor into your communication.
You can use humor to get your team to pay attention, and if you do that consistently people want to experience it in your meetings. But, although it is not a perfect strategy in every situation, humor can be used more than we realized to change perspectives and get people to experience a change of state.
Tune in to this week’s episode of The Absolute Advantage podcast to learn how you can start implementing strategic humor to make a difference in the workplace.
Ways to contact Drew Tarvin:
Tevis Trower is the founder and CEO of Balance Integration Corporation, focused on helping build corporate cultures that allow employees to thrive. Their remarkable client list includes companies like Google, Yahoo, Disney, Viacom, AOL, Soros, Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley and more. Tevis is considered a pioneer and leader in the field of cultural transformation at work, with significant expertise in imposter syndrome, trust, innovation, emotionally sustainable leadership, and fostering an environment of resilience. She has been featured in prominent media outlets such as Forbes, Business Week, Fortune CIO, The New York Post, Yoga Journal and many more.
Early in Tevis’s business career, she recognized that there is a need for more human-focused leadership in today’s business world. Many companies say “people are their most valuable asset”, but not enough companies focus on creating powerful people-focused cultures that allow their employees to shine. Tevis believes that the key to being a stronger, more effective and empowering leader is to recognize and embrace the reality that you bring your whole self to work, both your strengths and your weaknesses.
Tevis sees imposter syndrome as a sort of “default human state” that we all experience, created by our fear of failure and our strong need for success. She believes that what pushes many high performers to succeed is not a desire to win but a drive to avoid failure and the stigma associated with it. In her work, she helps people recognize their focus on the things that create discontent rather than the things that bring them joy, and she helps them reconnect with their heart and with the things they love.
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There is a tremendous amount of pressure that every leader has to face, but the reality is that much of that pressure comes from within. From imposter syndrome to fear of failure, from being honest about our weaknesses to the constant need to bring our best selves to work every day, we often create our own obstacles that get in the way of stepping into our potential as great leaders. How can we face these challenges in an emotionally honest and authentic way?
For this episode of Absolute Advantage, I invited Tevis Trower to speak with me about these very challenges. Tevis is the founder and CEO of Balance Integration Corporation, an organization that helps top companies like Google, Yahoo, Disney, Viacom, and many others build great cultures and empower their executives to thrive. Tevis is an expert in imposter syndrome, trust, innovation, emotionally sustainable leadership, and fostering an environment of resilience. She has been featured in prominent media outlets such as Forbes, Business Week, Fortune CIO, The New York Post, Yoga Journal and many more.
During the episode, Tevis discusses the mental and emotional challenges that leaders have to deal with, and she shares some surprising statistics about the expectations employees have for their leaders. She discusses the importance of authenticity and the vital skill of allowing ourselves to admit our weaknesses, and she offers smart strategies for coping with the pressure of being a great leader. I hope you enjoy our conversation and learn much from Tevis Trower’s wisdom.
Ways to contact Tevis Trower:
Tommy Baker is a writer, speaker, author, coach, consultant, and the host of the Resist Average Academy. He is the CEO of Tommy Baker Fitness and an entrepreneur who believes in people’s endless potential and whose goal is to help them achieve their purpose and potential. After beginning his career in the financial services sector, Tommy had an awakening during the 2008 economic crash and realized that his life was on a path he didn’t want to follow.
Tommy realized that he was “in it” for the wrong reasons, and so he made major life changes, took on a new mindset, and began a journey of self-discovery and growth that led him to his current work. This clarity and willingness to listen to his own internal voice were transformational for Tommy, pushing him to create the life he truly wanted for himself and achieve his personal and professional goals.
Tommy believes that developing the right mindset is the key to making a change, especially for ambitious and driven high-performing leaders. In his work, Tommy teaches skills related to mindset, intentionality, and emotional intelligence and resilience to create transformation, strengthen leadership and help business leaders and entrepreneurs make a greater impact.
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Mindset is such an important factor for strong leadership, and having the right foundation and habits is the key to developing a powerful mindset. However, with a world full of chaos and distractions constantly pulling for our attention, it can be difficult to develop the right practices to strengthen our mindset. It can often be too easy to shrug off meditation or to say we don’t have time for journaling, yet these activities can be transformative tools if we are willing to invest in ourselves.
For this episode of Absolute Advantage, my guest is Tommy Baker. Tommy is a writer, keynote speaker, coach, and author. He is the host of the Resist Average Academy and the companion podcast of the same name, and he is the CEO of Tommy Baker Fitness. His goal is to help empower others by setting them on a more mindful, purpose-driven path. Tommy believes in limitless human potential and in the long-term transformational power of emotional intelligence and emotional resilience.
During the episode, Tommy shares how he realized that his own life was on a path he didn’t want, and he discusses the steps he took to change his mindset. He offers strategies to help you find clarity of purpose, and he explains why clarity is one of the true keys to being a more effective leader or entrepreneur. I hope you are engaged and enlightened by Tommy Baker’s wisdom and that you are able to implement his strategies into your own life.
Ways to contact Tommy Baker:
Juliana Stancampiano is the CEO of Oxygen, business leader, and strategist whose work involves helping business leaders and their teams modernize workplace education. With more than 15 years of experience, Juliana has helped leaders translate their company’s sales and business strategy into tangible achievements for people in sales, service and delivery, and retail channels. Juliana is the author of Radical Outcomes: How to Create Extraordinary Teams that Get Tangible Results.
In her role as CEO, she and her teams partner with clients in large companies including Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Sony, Big Fish Games, Starbucks, Expedia, Western Digital, and many more. As a business development and strategy expert, Juliana believes in helping unburden themselves of distractions and challenges so that they can better focus, excel in their jobs, and create success for themselves and their organizations.
Juliana believes that building and supporting great teams and giving them the resources and support they need to thrive is the key to business success. Part of her work involves helping organizations find ways to maximize the potential of their teams while making the workplace be an enjoyable experience rather than a grind.
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Many companies say “our people are our greatest resource”, but the sad fact is that too few companies behave that way. Strong, cohesive, effective teams can accomplish incredible things, but many companies don’t give enough thought to how to best support their employees and structure their teams to maximize their success.
For this episode of Absolute Advantage, I was joined by Juliana Stancampiano. Juliana is the CEO of Oxygen, a consultancy that helps Fortune 500 businesses strategize, modernize, and enable their employees for success. Juliana is also the author of Radical Outcomes: How to Create Extraordinary Teams that Get Tangible Results, where she offers readers a blueprint for a new way of collaborative, fast-paced and highly effective working using modern tools and strategies.
On this episode of Absolute Advantage, Juliana shares why the modern workplace has changed and collaborative team efforts will be the key to business success and innovation going forward. She shares why the “old” way of doing things can’t keep up with today’s highly stressful, distracted, competitive environment, and she offers strategies for creating camaraderie and a supportive environment where teams can flourish. I hope you find tremendous value from Juliana’s knowledge that you can implement into your own teams.
Arthur Joseph is the founder and chairman of the Vocal Awareness Institute, and he is widely considered to be one of the world’s foremost communication strategists and authorities on the human voice. Arthur’s stated mission is to “Change the World Through Voice”. His trademarked, proprietary voice and leadership training program, Vocal Awareness,™ is a program to teach a mastery of communication skills to enhance a student’s leadership and personal presence. Arthur’s Vocal Awareness uses body language techniques, vocal warm-ups, and storytelling.
Arthur’s clients are leaders in politics, business, entertainment and broadcasting, hospitality, athletes, motivational speakers, life coaches, actors, and singers including globally recognized talents such as Angelina Jolie, Sean Connery, Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Jerry Rice, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and more. Prior to founding the Vocal Awareness Institute, Arthur served as faculty at the University of Southern California School of Theatre, a visiting professor at the New York University Graduate Extension program, and a visiting artist at Yale and George Washington Universities.
At a young age, Arthur recognized that he had a talent for hearing and interpreting tonal and non-verbal cues in the spoken word, and he also recognized the power of speaking with awareness of these cues. Arthur was able to cultivate this talent and teach others to be more aware of their speech. Much of leadership is convincing others to see things the way you see them, and a clear, confident and powerful voice can be an incredible tool that any leader can take advantage of.
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Most of us speak automatically, using our words to convey our intent. Few of us give much consideration to how we deliver those words. Or worse, we confuse having a powerful voice with having a loud one. The truth is that how we deliver our message is just as important to our leadership as what the message contains.
For this episode of Absolute Advantage, I was delighted to be joined by Arthur Joseph. Arthur is the founder and chairman of the Vocal Awareness Institute, and he is widely considered to be one of the world’s foremost communication strategists and authorities on the human voice. Arthur works to teach others how to deliver powerful and effective messages by being more aware of the way they speak. Through his Vocal Awareness program, he helps leaders and influencers from all walks of life become more effective communicators.
On this episode of Absolute Advantage, Arthur demonstrated some of the powerful exercises he teaches, and he shows how speaking with awareness and intentionality can amplify the message in the words you speak. He explains how altering the way you speak can help empower you and give you a tremendous sense of confidence. And he explains how speech plays a profound role in effective leadership. I hope you are as surprised and enlightened by Arthur Joseph’s wisdom as I was during our conversation.
Ways to contact Arthur Joseph:
Steve Gordon became CEO of an engineering consulting firm at age 28, and he grew the firm's revenue by ten times in just twelve years. He's invested the last twenty years in the study and application of selling high-ticket services. He is the editor of four business newsletters read by thousands of CEOs, professional practitioners, entrepreneurs and sales pros around the world. Steve consults with businesses in thirty different industries, all selling high-ticket products and services in high-trust selling environments. He is a bestselling author, the founder of The Unstoppable CEO, and the host of the podcast of the same name.
When Steve began his role as CEO of his engineering consulting firm, he knew nothing about marketing or selling services. Steve quickly recognized the need to study sales and marketing as a way to attract new clients and keep his business thriving. Steve now shares the hard-won lessons he learned with other CEOs and growth-minded professionals through his consulting business.
Steve recognized that the same "sales" skills that work so well for product-based businesses tend to be detrimental to selling a service. Sales pitches are fine for getting a customer interested in your product, but they won't help you become someone's trusted advisor. That's why Steve developed the Unstoppable CEO and fine-tuned his marketing strategies to be tailored solutions for service firms.
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As the leader of a service-based business, the challenges you face are often very different from those of a product-based company. Growing your business has added layers of complexity because you and your team are your company's product. Marketing yourselves can be challenging, but your business can't grow or thrive without leads and without new clients.
For this episode of Absolute Advantage, my guest is Steve Gordon. Steve knows firsthand the challenge of leading and growing a service-based organization; when he was just 28 years old, he became the CEO of the engineering consulting firm he had worked at since college. One of the biggest challenges Steve faced as CEO was that he had gone to school for engineering, not marketing. He didn't know how to effectively sell his company's services, so he began studying. Thanks to his hard work and dedication to learning effective marketing processes, he was able to grow his firm's revenue by ten times in his twelve years as CEO. Today, Steve and his team work with other business leaders to help them achieve those same remarkable results.
On this episode of Absolute Advantage, Steven shares the major marketing challenges service-based firms face, and he outlines the strategies he and his team employ to help them overcome these challenges. He discusses the importance of narrowing your focus to marketing to the right clients rather than to anyone with "a heartbeat and a wallet". He talks about why improving your offer and being more valuable to your clients matters. And he shares organic and engaging marketing strategies that your prospective clients will actually appreciate. I hope Steve Gordon’s wisdom helps you supercharge your marketing.
Ways to contact Steve Gordon:
Krister Ungerböck is a keynote speaker, CEO coach, and global expert in the Language of Leadership. Krister served as CEO of one of the largest family-owned software companies in the world before he retired at age 42. As a global CEO, Krister did business in 40 countries around the world and led hundreds of employees across 8 countries. With truly remarkable employee engagement rates of 99.3%, Krister won five consecutive annual Top Workplace Awards.
As a keynote presenter, Krister's highly sought and engaging wisdom addresses today's most pressing topics such as employee engagement, winning the war for talent, retaining high-potential employees, developing leaders, and business growth. He shares the hard-won skills he developed through his time as a CEO, with a particular focus on the importance of emotional intelligence.
Krister’s upcoming book The Language of Leadership: Words to Transform How We Lead, Live and Love offers business leaders a way to learn a powerful new language of leadership that allows them to speak in a more impactful and emotionally intelligent way. Krister’s methods can help maximize employee engagement, productivity, business growth, and talent retention. The Language of Leadership gives business leaders a simple, straight-forward and practical way to become a better boss.
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“It’s not what you say, but how you say it.” Think about it, how many times have you heard that expression in your life? Even so, how often do you stop to consider not just your message but how you are communicating it? Are your words being received as you intended them?
My guest for this episode of Absolute Advantage is Krister Ungerböck. Kirster is an award-winning leader, keynote speaker, CEO coach, and a true expert in the Language of Leadership. Kirster believes that one of the most powerful ways we can level up our leadership is through emotional intelligence and in learning to understand how our choice of language impacts and sometimes alters the message we are communicating to our teams. In Krister’s upcoming book The Language of Leadership: Words to Transform How We Lead, Live and Love, he outlines many of the techniques he has used himself to become more aware of his own language and how it impacts those around him, both personally and professionally.
On this episode of Absolute Advantage, Krister shares smart tips and strategies for identifying and altering the language you are using as a leader, and he explains why emotional intelligence and language choice matters so much for employee engagement and morale. He discusses how the language skills he teaches others can be applied to all aspects of our lives, both professionally and personally. And he shares wisdom from his upcoming book on steps we can take to become more conscious of the language we are using in our interactions with others. I hope you learn much from our conversation that you can implement into your own leadership.
Ways to contact Krister Ungerböck:
Johnny Wimbrey is an internationally-acclaimed talk show host, motivational speaker, and the bestselling author of From the Hood to Doing Good and co-author of several volumes of Multiple Streams of Inspiration and Conversations on Success. His mantra, "Say Increase!" is repeated all around the world by dedicated and enthusiastic audiences, and his remarkable rags-to-riches story has inspired people from countless countries around the world.
Johnny's early life consisted of living in a battered women's shelter with his single mother. He was first exposed to illegal drugs at eight years old, and by the time he was fourteen, he was selling them. However, despite this incredibly difficult childhood, Johnny decided he was meant for a better life. He completely turned his life around and, starting from rock bottom, he was able to build an immensely successful life for himself and others. Today he is a celebrated and inspiring speaker and, along with his wife, founded Wimbrey Worldwide Ministries, a nonprofit organization that has built six schools in Central America and has helped to fund water purification systems to provide clean drinking water for communities in Africa.
Johnny’s life story is one of truly overcoming adversity to achieve greatness, and now he works to share his message that it doesn’t matter what race, religion, background or economic situation, everyone can find true success, wealth and happiness.
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As you know, my goal with the Absolute Advantage podcast is to help you become the best leader you can be, to help you create a powerful Ripple Effect that positively impacts those around you, and to inspire you with stories of great leaders who have overcome their own challenges and found true success.
That’s why I’m so delighted to introduce you to Johnny Wimbrey. Johnny is the very definition of a rags-to-riches story; he started life with no advantages and many obstacles, but he was able to turn his life around through optimism, determination, and force of will. Today, he shares his profound story with the goal of inspiring others to realize that they aren’t limited by their surroundings and situation. Johnny is a speaker, author and thought leader who overcame some of life’s most significant difficulties to rise into his own success.
On this episode of Absolute Advantage, Johnny shares his deeply personal story of overcoming adversity and achieving greatness. He lives his life as an example that your past doesn’t dictate where you are going and that you can change the course of your own destiny. He shares how the first step on his journey was personal forgiveness, and he discusses how he managed to change his entire mindset to focus on his potential rather than his limitations. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Johnny Wimbrey and that you are as inspired by his powerful story and the Ripple Effect it has created as I am!
Ways to contact Johnny Wimbrey:
Regan Hillyer is a multimillionaire global changemaker, thought leader, entrepreneur, philanthropist, global speaker, and mindset coach. Regan is the founder of Regan Hillyer International, a company that offers clients personal development and business training. Regan has helped thousands of clients and has impacted millions using her unique mindset tools. She is also the author and co-author of several books, including The Abundance Codes: Fifty-Two Codes to Unlock Abundance in Every Area of Your Life.
Regan strongly believes in the power of mindset changes as a catalyst for incredible personal, professional and financial growth. Regan’s specialty is in helping experts uncover their true message and launch powerful personal brands that both make an impact and leave a lasting legacy. After originally preparing to be an architect, Regan had a powerful “aha!” moment and realized that she was on the wrong path in her life. Her second “aha!” moment came when she realized that to become truly successful she would need to invest in herself and evolve her own mindset. Today, she has helped thousands of people build multiple six- and seven-figure businesses, location free, using the incredible mindset tools and strategies she developed for herself.
Regan is an incredible thought leader and is living proof that her methods work. She has been able to turn her company, Regan Hillyer International, into a thriving multi-million dollar business using the very principles that she teaches others. She believes that 80% of the work you need to do to find true success is internal, and only 20% involves external strategic action.
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Do you ever feel like you keep running into a wall, no matter what you do? Have you tried to work on personal development but feel you’ve made little progress? Or have you ever wondered if your life is on the wrong path and that you are meant to be doing something else, something more impactful and meaningful?
Regan Hillyer knows what that feels like. Regan grew up in Auckland, New Zealand and was fully prepared to become an architect… until a lecturer had the class envision what their lives as architects would look like in 20 years. Suddenly, Regan realized she was on the wrong path, so she left school and began searching for a greater purpose. However, through all of her attempts, nothing seemed to work, and now she was $100,000 in personal debt for mentors, coaches, seminars, and programs with little to show for it. It all changed when a coach told her that 80% of her success was related to mindset and only 20% was related to actions she was taking externally. Today, Regan is leading a multiple seven-figure business that teaches others to reshape their mindsets in the same way she did.
On this episode of Absolute Advantage, Regan shares her powerful personal story and discusses the methods, tools, and processes she uses to help her clients “rewire” their mindsets, release their personal limitations, and step into a life of true abundance and success. Regan shows us that our mindset can either elevate us and help us break through to the next level, or hold us back with (usually false) internal limiting beliefs. I hope you will listen to the episode and embrace Regan’s remarkable wisdom in your own life!
Ways to contact Regan Hillyer:
Matt Sandrini is a high-performance and business coach, Amazon bestselling author, and an expert in time management and productivity. His coaching helps entrepreneurs find the results they are looking for through clarity, structure and accountability. He helps his clients reduce their stress, improve the productivity of their workday, and get more accomplished in less time.
Matt is the founder of Time Zillionaire, a website and program designed to help entrepreneurs and business leaders cut through the endless minutia we tend to get trapped by, and instead learn to focus on those few activities that will actually benefit our quest for success and happiness. Quick weekly emails provide actionable tips and strategies and offer readers easy access to Matt’s wisdom. Matt is also the author of Invest Your Time: Work Less, Achieve More, Master Your Life, where he outlines many of the strategies he teaches to his clients.
Matt learned early in his own entrepreneurial career to question the value of his time and the activities he was spending it on. When he began his first business, he recognized that he was focusing on the wrong activities and putting in too much time for too little value. That was when he began learning to refocus his priorities and better manage his time, and today he shares those valuable practices and habits he developed for himself with other business leaders and entrepreneurs.
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It takes a mix of many different ingredients to find success as a business leader: money, the support of your team, professional and social connections, the list goes on and on. But there is one precious resource that could be said to be more valuable than the others. This particular resource is always in short supply, and there is really no way to get more when you run out. Of course, I’m talking about time. Balancing your time can easily be a constant struggle and source of stress for any business leader. It seems that there are always countless things jostling for your attention, so how do you know where you can best spend this precious resource?
Meet Matt Sandrini. Matt is a business coach, Amazon bestselling author, and a time management expert. Matt believes that the key to finding true success as a business leader or entrepreneur is learning to cut through the static and focus on the activities that truly matter and best contribute to your happiness and success. In his own entrepreneurial career, Matt had to learn to refocus his efforts and make the most of the time available to him, and now he teaches others the valuable skills he developed.
In this episode of Absolute Advantage, Matt shares his strategies for determining where you are spending your time and discovering all the places you are losing it to unhelpful, unnecessary activities. He offers up sensible strategies and insights for maximizing the amount of time available to you and accomplishing as much as possible in as short an amount of time as you can. Your time is incredibly valuable, and I hope you’ll spend a little of it listening to my conversation with Matt Sandrini and learning from his incredible time-saving wisdom!
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.
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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.
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.
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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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