If there is one skill to master in life, it is selling. Why? Because no matter what you do, whether you are a product designer, an executive, an entrepreneur, or a preacher, if you develop the ability to sell your idea, your vision, your strategy, or your product/service, the sky is the limit. And more than merely selling, ultimately, mastery of selling comes when you develop the ability to be of service while selling. What does it mean to be of service while selling? It means that you authentically listen for people's concerns (whether in the foreground or background) and align on resolving it (if possible) within the context of your work/offering. That’s what John O’Leary -- #1 National best selling author, inspirational speaker, and top podcast host -- does and as he puts it, his job is to serve.  John's life journey has been everything but easy though.  At the age of 9 years old, 100 percent of his body was burned in a terrible fire. John was given a 1 percent chance to live but after a 5-month hospital stay, dozens of surgeries, and the amputation of all of his fingers, he pulled through. Today, John is the best-selling author of On Fire: The 7 choices to ignite a radically inspired life that sold upwards of 120,000 copies and was translated into more than 12 languages, as well as most recently In Awe: Rediscover your childlike wonder to unleash inspiration, meaning and joy. Live Inspired, John’s podcast ranks top #10 in iTunes and has over several million downloads. Having spoken at more than 1,600 events, and for more than a half a million people, in 48 states and in 11 Countries, John has found his true calling: Inspire and uplift people.  Tune in to the full episode to learn about: John's life journey The invaluable lessons his mother taught him How John's business was impacted by COVID-19 (hint: it's brutal) and what he did to address it What John does when he needs inspiration In AWE (the book) and how to reconnect with our childlike wonder What you can do to improve the quality of your life (practices you can use)

What will it take to lead effectively over the next decade? How can you prepare yourself for what will likely be called for as we navigate times ahead? Well, according to the author of Future Leader Jacob Morgan, who interviewed 140 global CEOs (of companies like Audi, Mastercard, Unilever, Oracle, and SAP) and surveyed over 14,000 employees, there are four mindsets and five skills that our current business leaders believe will be needed in our future leaders. Curious what they are? Tune in to the full episode to learn about: What current global CEOs believe leadership will require over the next decade What mindsets and skillsets you should develop to position yourself strategically to lead effectively Micro and Macro trends that influence leadership What it takes to build a brand for yourself The dynamics involved in writing a book (hint: you might be surprised at the distribution of effort)

What role does trust play, within your company, when it comes to your individual and team performance?  Well, it turns out a lot. As Joel Peterson  -- Chairman of JetBlue, Consulting Stanford Professor, Author, and Founder of Peterson Partners which is part Private Equity and Venture Capital firm with over $1 billion under management-- puts it: "Trust is the most powerful operating system you can have. A lot of people think of it as this fuzzy feel-good thing; I like somebody, therefore, I trust them. In the book I wrote The Ten Laws of Trust, the fundamental thesis was that you can factor analyze trust, and if a leader will follow these laws, they can actually build a high trust culture. A high trust culture is really a more powerful one because it can deliver on promises. A high trust leader can delegate more easily because the people under him or her are able to predict what they are going to do. People who are low trust, everybody is afraid of them and they’re afraid to make decisions. They’re unable to really empower others." In the absence of a high trust culture, what's possible for the company gets negatively impacted as trust is the foundation upon which relationships are built. In its most basic form, companies are made up of people working together and the quality of the interactions is correlated to the degree of trust. Also, Joel not only has pioneered and led some of the most forward-thinking companies but has also financed them. As a 2X author, Joel is uniquely positioned to understand what fundamentally successful companies do and has gracefully shared these operating principles in his latest book: Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Art of Launching New Ventures, Inspiring Others and Running Stuff? Tune in to the full episode to learn about: The importance of trust in organizations How to restore trust The correlation between trust and integrity, and how that impacts performance What is an entrepreneurial leader The difference between entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial leaders The framework for being an entrepreneurial leader How to spearhead your company culture amidst a crisis

How many women do you know want it all and try their best to have it? Work full-time, be there for the kids, volunteer for Parent Association at the kids’ school, run the household (which is a full-time job in itself) and have somewhat of a life? There’s a lot, right? As Romi Neustadt — author, entrepreneur and mom — puts it: You Can Have It All: Just Not At The Same Damn Time (which is also the title of her book). As a former corporate chick who traded in the billable hour to become an entrepreneur, she’s figured out how to juggle being a wife, a mom, a professional success, and a healthy human without losing her mind. And she’s on a mission to help other women Have It All too. Romi’s first book, Get Over Your Damn Self: The No-BS Blueprint to Building a Life-Changing Business, was selected as a Forbes Best Business Book for Women and sold over 200K copies. Her second book You Can Have It All: Just Not At The Same Damn Time makes a distinction between doing it all (which is where most of us go wrong) and having it all. Romi provides a framework to get your life on track and in line with what really matters to you. Tune in to the full episode to learn about: How to have it all: key insights to leverage in your life The difference between doing it all and having it all The difference between your priorities and goals How to free yourself from doing stuff that doesn’t excite you How to get your life on track

To put this female versus male diversity deficiency into perspective at senior levels in Corporate America, among chief executives of S&P. 1500 firms, for each woman, there are four men named John, Robert, William or James according to the New York Times. There’s been a lot of talk these past years about the need to have more women in leadership roles, yet progress is slow. Why is that? I believe it is because we haven’t gotten to the source of what’s really getting in the way: our inherited bias on gender. And I’m not just talking about the perception of women in the workforce, but the one we women have about ourselves, which stops us from taking on things we are not highly certain we can deliver on.  And here's someone that is doing something about this (hint: you can too)... In speaking with Dr. Amel Karboul, who was the Former Minister of Tourism in Tunisia, is an Author, Speaker, Philanthropist, and non-profit Business Leader (who was one of few women to hold a top government position and took on extraordinary responsibilities in her career), she explains how she would often push the women on her team to take on roles that they didn’t know how to do, which would, ultimately, lead to their growth. Not only does Dr. Amel Karboul stand for more female leadership but is focused on nurturing and empowering the next generation of leaders towards a sustainable future. In partnership with the Education Commission team, Dr. Karboul has played a leading role in a major global initiative engaging world leaders, policymakers and researchers, and she has developed a brilliant and compelling investment plan for achieving equal educational opportunity for children and young people, which you will hear more about in this episode. (The financing model is fascinating and is also impact investing!!) Tune in to the full episode to learn about: What it's like to be a senior political cabinet member and female How to best lead women into leadership positions Creative impact investing models Venture investing for good How to overhaul the non-profit sector and bring in the for-profit investors What is broken about our education system: why kids are not learning What needs to be the focus to create a global breakthrough in this area

If there is one organization that is highly effective in aligning their troops, it's the army. But ever wonder how they do it? Or if their strategy is replicable in business or with your team? Rach Ranton is a TED speaker, corporate leader, author, and motivational consultant who served in the Australian Army for 11 years. Her TED Talk titled “Where are we trying to end up?” and book DAUNTLESS: Leadership lessons from the front line draw parallels between leadership concepts the military is especially brilliant in executing and how those concepts can be leveraged in business. In particular, Rach calls out one tactic: Commander's Intent. Commander's intent is a technical term used in the army to get aligned and initiate coordinated actions. When alignment and coordinated action are present, can you guess what becomes possible? High performance. It's a thing of beauty. I've seen it in teams we coach but Rach breaks it down to a 3 step process. Tune in to the full episode to learn about: Commander's Intent: how to align your team and organization Major leadership lessons learned from the front lines How to apply these lessons at work Foundational principles that must exist for high performing teams

Dr. Stephen Trzeciak is a Physician-Scientist, TED speaker, and Professor of Medicine at the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, who’s dedicated a large portion of his career to helping patients in the intensive care unit. More recently, he authored the book Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference where he studies how compassion impacts patient outcomes. At the core of his research, he asked one fundamental question: Does compassion really matter? It turns out, it does. When authentic, it plays a big role in positively impacting patient outcomes, and I will dare to say that this finding doesn't only limit itself to the medical field. Think of its application in the business world. Within team dynamics. How compassion contributes to company cultures and trust. Tune in to learn about how compassion drives higher returns: What is compassion really? How is compassion different than empathy (and how both play out) The inter-dependency of empathy and compassion How does compassion drive a measurable impact Data shows we are in the midst of a compassion crisis- here's why? Knowing when you are burnt out and how to overcome it The role that being present plays in driving compassion

Leadership as a keyword has over 4.4 billion search results on Google. The corporate leadership training industry is big too. Organizations in the US alone spend upwards of $14 billion annually on training their employees to be leaders and leadership development is ranked as one of the top three things senior executives (and business leaders) are most interested in. Yet, somehow, most of these leadership programs fail to deliver on their promise: access to being a leader. Why on earth would that be the case? In a remarkable conversation with Lynne Twist -- a pro-activist and acclaimed author who raised hundreds of millions for philanthropic causes (standing in the vision of a world that works for everyone, with no one and nothing left out) -- who had the opportunity to work alongside iconic world leaders like Mother Teresa, Buckminster Fuller, Maya Angelou and the Dalai Lama (to name a few), points to something very important on the access of leadership. Here's the tip of the iceberg in terms of our conversation together on this episode: "When you make that kind of commitment, when you take a stand with your life, what comes through you is a level of effectiveness, inspiration, and I’ll call it guidance that one doesn’t even know is possible. You stop living your life, your little life starring you, and you live your stand. When you take a stand, you let go of any position you have. You take a stand that gives you incredible access. Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand and I’ll move the world.” You can and you do." - Lynne Twist Tune in to learn about: The root access to true leadership Dealing with both ends of the spectrum: deep pain and extreme joy What it's like to stand for something bigger than yourself (a world that works for everyone, with no one and nothing left out) The Hunger Project and its global initiatives The Pachamama Alliance — a social profit (nonprofit) organization whose mission is to empower indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest About the book The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life

Most of us like to think that we use data to inform our decision-making process and path forward, but there's one challenge. It's possible and quite common that we seek out data to validate what we already believe. That's called confirmation bias. In speaking with Alex Edmans, a TED and Davos speaker, rigorous academic researcher and Professor of Finance at the London Business School, he argues that confirmation bias can lead us down the wrong path in business and in life, and provides ways to counteract this automatic human tendency. Alex’s research has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and The Economist, among others and he was interviewed by some of the most respected television channels like Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, and CNN just to name a few. In addition, as the author of Grow The Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit, Alex outlines actionable and evidenced-based ways for organizations to upgrade their leadership and drive the company into an empowering growth paradigm where everyone wins. Tune in to learn about: What is confirmation bias How you can effectively deal with confirmation bias as to elevate your leadership skills What the next era of business will look like (hint: all stakeholders win) The importance of learning soft skills in school and in business About the book Grow The Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit

Innovation and critical thinking are key skillsets in business, but have you ever wondered what makes them possible? The answer is creativity. In speaking with the co-founder of acclaimed off-broadway show Blue Man Group, which was acquired in 2017 by one of the most renowned entertainment companies out there -- Cirque du Soleil -- whose shows have been seen by over 160 million people, Matt Goldman shared how a horrific school experience inspired him to co-founder the Blue School, a progressive independent school in New York City with over 300 students that explores creative ways to educate the leaders of the future. Tune in to learn about Matt's fascinating entrepreneurial journey and: How you can harness your creative juices to drive innovation How traditional schooling might be stifling creativity How Matt's fun social game can foster creativity in ways you wouldn't expect (and it's up for grabs!) What it takes to overcome the "real" entrepreneurial journey Thriving in the face of learning disabilities