Episodes

When foot traffic stopped in March 2020, Small and Medium Businesses had to become digital. Even though before March 2020, most local businesses had a presence on the web, and they knew that presence was necessary, they recognized that having a poor presence was almost like having no presence at all. But then the pandemic came, and SMBs finally understood their web presence was critical and that they needed to focus on the customer experience and engagement online. With the lockdown in place, it...

Many people do not like the term “Feminism”, but Feminism was the backbone of the women’s suffrage movement. In August 1920, because of Feminism, women won the right to political equality. But what has happened since 1920? Sure we have made some progress, but we have not moved the needle very far. Social, economic, employment and other types of equality have only made baby steps since 1920, and the question is why? We have equal employment laws that try to protect us once we are in a position, b...

Rohit Talwar opens his new book with a statement that says it all: “An Incomplete Past and an Uncertain Future” Rohit says that “The world has run out of adjectives to describe the shockwaves caused by the pandemic and the damage it has done to lives, societies, businesses, economies, and entire nations” Somewhere along the way we not only ran out of adjectives but we stopped predicting when things would go back to normal. If you think about it, in May 2020, we all hoped normal would be by Septe...

There are a lot of leadership lessons you can learn from military actions. However, in 2021, one military action proved things could go completely wrong and were highly unlikely to end positively. This was the withdraw of troops from Afghanistan. In World War II, they used the slang a total “Goat-Fuck” to describe a situation similar to this. But instead blame and criticism, let’s look at what we can learn from the mistakes made. What leadership lessons we can learn from the situation so we do n...

Fiction gives us the chance to provide power to or destroy cultural values, sensitivities, current or past issues and much more. We can learn from what characters do, where they are, how they behave and much more. Fiction is not just about a good story but also what we take away from the story. In this episode, we have a chance to talk with Suzanne Brockmann, the New York Times bestselling romance author. We talk about how she came about writing fiction that focused on Navy Seal Hero’s before th...

The line between fiction and reality is blurrier today than ever before. Sometimes a book or a movie filled with fictional characters can remind us of reality and often we tend to forget those are made-up stories may have no connection with reality. Very often real-life experiences can shape fiction and fictional experiences can shape the way we think. As we go through life we participate in the lives of others. We observe, we learn, and we think. Writers use their experiences to help readers im...

When Covid-19 struck, it forced societal changes around the world. Overnight, governments issued orders that limited large gatherings of people, restricted in-person business operations, and encouraged people to work from home as much as possible. The result was that businesses began to look for ways to continue their operations remotely, as consumers fast-forwarded into an almost entirely digital world. So what happened? Consumers shopped more online, and businesses had to adapt. But we are in ...

Financial security, what is it? For many, it is having the peace of mind to ensure that you can live and not live hand to mouth. For some, it means being prepared for whatever life sends your way is an essential part of being financially responsible. For others, it is having a steady income. One thing is for sure in 2020 and 2021, many people had financial difficulties as the economy went into a stand-still, businesses closed, people lost jobs, and many were struggling. But some people were prep...

Do you know what your boss or your company wants from you in your job? A hot question, right? Many of us will answer-well I think so- I think I know what they want. When we apply for a position, we get interviewed, and we get a job description. However, we often do not know what contribution the position makes to the company's overall performance. Part of the responsibility lies with the organization or the hiring manager, who should explain this to every applicant. Still, a lot of the obligatio...

Why do some speeches keep your attention and pique your interest, and others have you multitasking or turning the volume up on your i-tunes? I believe it is all about summing up all the information you want to communicate and conveying it clearly. A manner that keeps the listener attention and getting them engaged. But this is not easy. Regardless of whether it is writing a speech or communicating a written form, it takes practice and understanding. In this episode, we speak with an expert in co...

Body language and non-verbal gestures are the first things we notice when we meet someone in person, but what about in the virtual world? Is it the same? According to the European Commission, in 2019, only 5.4% of employees in the EU worked from home. However, in March 2020, this number had drastically increased, with most non-essential workers forced to work from home as the EU was in lockdown. This meant a new world of virtual meetings and conducting business remotely. However, aside from the ...

Three years ago, the European Union implemented the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in an effort to protect its citizen’s privacy. Deemed as the toughest privacy and security law in the world, it imposes obligations onto organizations anywhere, not just in the EU, so long as they target or collect data related to people in the European Union. So how are SMBs coping with the challenge that Data Protection and Data Management poses? Data Management is key whatever the size of the company...

Following our 3 part series on the book Battle Tested! Gettysburg Leadership Lessons for 21st Century Leaders which aired in April and May 2021, we dig deeper into what we can learn about leadership from the military. Military leadership involves making critical decisions, often in high-pressure situations with significant risks. Influential military leaders ask the right questions and think strategically about making well-informed conclusions upon which they can act; they also know how to motiv...

Rob Lachenauer, the CEO at Banyan Global Family Business Advisors in Boston, was quoted in Forbes as saying: “In a non-family business, you can quit your job, and it’s usually a career-enhancing move. In a family business, you sure can’t quit your family,” But family businesses are the backbone of most economies. In the US, the immigration waves during the first part of the 19th century brought new Americans seeking greater economic opportunity, and many began family businesses. In Europe, the f...

We all have a roadmap that guides us through our work life and our personal lives, and as David Nour says, it's not about balance it's about blending But our maps are not linear, as life is not linear and there are many forces that influence us. Last week ( July 13 episode Leadership Beyond Borders ), with spoke with leadership advisor and author David Nour about his new book Curve Benders. We talked a lot about personal and professional growth, transitions rather than transactions, work-life be...

We all have a roadmap that guides us through our work life and our personal lives, and as David Nour says, it's not about balance it's about blending But our maps are not linear, as life is not linear and there are many forces that influence us. Strategic relationships can also dramatically alter our non-linear growth trajectory against the forces that will shape the future of how we will work, live, play, and serve others. These are the words of our guest in Part I of this two-part series. We e...

We live in an undeniable digital world where most of the global population are active web users, and the pandemic has been a contributing factor to the increasing inactivity. The internet is being used for communication, staying social, working from home, learning, entertainment, and shopping. When you consider these trends and consider that in the US and the EU, it is estimated that 15% of internet users have some disability that hinders their full use of a website, it is time to ask ourselves ...

We live in a global economy and a multi-cultural world and being culturally adaptable is becoming ever more critical. It does not matter if you call it cultural intelligence, adaptiveness, or sensitivity; you must have some attributes that make you culturally agile to be a successful professional. Being culturally agile can help professionals from different backgrounds interact more effectively and ultimately increase overall individual and company performance. But this is easier said than done....

Truly successful individuals and leaders recognize that they cannot always have the answer themselves and that it is unrealistic for any one person to be the expert on everything. Truly great leaders, though, understand that they may not have to be the answer themselves. They merely need to be the catalyst for others to generate the answers, as well as to create a safe culture and environment for such energies to come forth. This quote from Dr Jeffrey Magee, author of The Managerial Leadership B...

Change is inevitable, it is sometimes in our control and is deliberate and predicted and sometimes it is out of our control. Sometimes there are slight changes and sometimes we face changes of magnitude like we all faced over the last 18 months. But as leaders how we deal with change will be reflected in how our employees will deal with it. Our approaches, reactions and attitudes and either lead people to change or have them resisting it. In this episode we talk about some of the levers we can u...

If you gathered some of the worlds top CEO’s in one room, what would they say were the lessons they learned from the crisis we have been through over the last 18 months? What would they say about the future? In this episode, we speak with an executive coach/journalist who spoke with CEOs from all over the world to find out what they were thinking and, more importantly, what they were doing!. Interestingly, many of them identified the same challenges and opportunities that have emerged from the p...

There used to be two forms of marketing; online marketing and offline marketing and then the explosion in digital happened and now there are now more than 41 different types of marketing happening on numerous platforms. Because of all these options, it becomes confusing for companies when they begin to build a marketing strategy. Developing an effective marketing strategy takes time and expertise and sometimes businesses just do not know how. But there are essential elements that need to be in a...

Today’s business leaders face several challenges, and they all did not just start with the pandemic, but they are not alone. For hundreds of years, our military leaders have been facing challenges even more significant than those we face today. So the question we pose in this episode, what can we learn from our military leaders. In Part 3 of this three-part series, we look at history and one of the US’s most important Civil War battles, Gettysburg. We use this battle to teach us some essential l...

Today’s business leaders face several challenges, and they all did not just start with the pandemic, but they are not alone. For hundreds of years, our military leaders have been facing challenges even more significant than those we face today. So the question we pose in this episode, what can we learn from our military leaders. In Part 2 of this three-part series, we look at history and one of the US’s most important Civil War battles, Gettysburg. We use this battle to teach us some essential l...