Posts by David Shriner-Cahn

Jeff Salz–anthropologist, explorer, keynote speaker, and expedition leader—advocates adventure as a mode of leadership. In this interview, he describes how “Adventure isn’t just defined by the activity—it’s really a state of mind and a state of perspective,” and suggests that leaders can learn a lot from approaching things from the perspective of an adventurer. This can be helpful to understanding leadership itself; Salz says that in today’s swiftly-changing business scene, “You have to have the skills of a leader that once belonged to the expeditionary.”

Here, he discusses what leaders can learn from adventure, and where anyone can find it, as well as:

• The leadership skills that any expedition-leading adventurer—or any leader—should have, including the ability to stay cool under pressure and have an intuitive grasp of a situation
• How to deal with uncertainty while leading a team
• Maintaining a sense of “purposeful certainty” about outcomes
• How to help a whole team share a sense of urgency and responsibility for outcomes
• How approaching business as an adventure can generate a sense of creativity, excitement, and openness to change

Jeff holds a Bachelor’s in Outdoor Education, a Master’s in Experiential Education, and a Ph.D. in Cultural Education. He is involved in adventure-base education, speaking, coaching and training, and has worked with executives at companies including Microsoft, Google, eBay, Motorola and the Walt Disney Company. He is also a founding contributor to Escape magazine.

Learn more about Jeff at www.drjeffsalz.com, or look for his book, The Way of Adventure. Jeff can also be seen on the History and Discovery networks, and can be reached at jeff@jeffsalz.com.

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Steve Farber has focused on leadership development for more than 25 years, and over that period observed that quality of leadership was “the deciding factor as to an organization or company’s competitive advantage.” To develop and help others with his experience, he developed the concept of “Extreme Leadership,” and explains that “Leadership is not about your position or your title; it’s not about what you call yourself. Leadership is about your ability to influence people around you to change the world for the better. In other words, leadership is an extreme act: by its nature, it’s extreme.” Steve is the President of Extreme Leadership, Inc. and founder of The Extreme Leadership Institute. Both help develop “Extreme Leaders.”

Here Steve discusses:

• The LEAP system, and the four qualities that all leaders should have
• Why simply asking your employees to “love” their customers is not enough, but how the workplace has to be made an enjoyable place to work in.
• Why leaders should always be examining their own practices by setting their sights beyond their own business, and to the industry as a whole
• Why being honest with your team about anxieties and risks can help create a culture of innovation and openness

Steve is the former VP of The Tom Peters Company. He has worked with an array of public and private organizations in a range of arenas, from the tech sector to financial services, manufacturing, health care, hospitality, entertainment, retail, public education, non-profits, and government. He is listed on Inc magazine’s ranking of the Top 50 Leadership and Management Experts in the world, and his third book, Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership, debuted as a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller.

Learn more about Steve or download a free audio program at SteveFarber.com.

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After eight years of analyzing risk in the reinsurance industry, Mark Hunter hired a career coach to help him assess what leadership meant to him. Soon, he left the industry to take an apprenticeship with his coach; today, Mark is the founder and President of Pinnacle Coaching, Inc., an international business and executive coaching company.

In today’s episode, he discusses modern leadership, including:

• Leadership as “a way of expressing ownership” and responsibility—over teams, fiscal results, or whatever falls under one’s purview
• Overcoming fear of that ownership through choosing a challenge, and viewing that challenge as an opportunity
• Why it is important to establish the kind of leader you are within your organization
• Why seeking outside points of view can be helpful in moving a business to the next level, particular in assessing communication and collaboration breakdowns

Mark is the author of The Brink: How Great Leadership Is Invented (2014). He is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation, and specializes in keynote speaking, workshop facilitation, business/corporate coaching, and team culture/context shifts.

Learn more about Mark at Pinnacle-Coaching.net, and learn more about his book at TheBrinkBook.com. Write to Hunter directly at Mark@pinnacle-coachingnet.

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Soon after the 2008 downturn, Josh was faced with a decision: find another job, or create something new? He chose to reinvent himself as a freelance CFO for businesses in St. Louis, using LinkedIn to build his business. Soon, he became a LinkedIn campaign designer for several clients, and in 2011 founded Linked Selling, which has grown to serve clients all over the world in a range of industries.

In this interview, Josh discusses:

• Choosing to start a new business in a rough economy
• Recognizing when your clients are asking for new services, and having the flexibility to offer them more services
• Networking online through LinkedIn—and why it’s not all about pitching
• Recognizing when you need to hand over parts of the management of your business to others
• Placing hiring and training systems in place to make sure that your employees can be successful

Linked Selling specializes in fully outsourced LinkedIn lead generation campaigns. They represent clients in the US, Canada, UK, Asia, and Australia, in a wide variety of industries; clients include Neil Patel and Microsoft. Josh’s company also operates LinkedUniversity.com, an online training program for LinkedIn marketing.

Josh’s book Connect is being released on June 15; learn more at TheConnectBook.com/smashing, or through Josh’s LinkedIn page.

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In this interview, JP Hervis discusses his career shift from award-winning journalism to public relations, a shift that “made sense”: as a journalist, he was “too often” receiving press releases that he could see needed improvement. Having never taken a public relations or business course, Hervis began working freelance for a small PR firm; he is now the president and founder of Insider Media Management.

Here, he discusses:

• How “every business has a story—and the story is usually the people. And the people are the distinctive elements of any business.”
• How to hire the right PR firm for your needs, and why identifying your needs is so important to firm selection
• Why leaders need to consider what story they are telling about their business—both for their customers and for their employees
• The importance of maintaining years-long business relationships by “not getting too comfortable” with long-term clients
• Recognizing every member of your staff, and being sure they are not growing bored, but are being positively challenged with interesting work

Insider Media Management is a public relations, digital marketing and advertising firm that has represented clients around the country in a wide variety of industries, including medical, technology, sports, entertainment, law, consumer goods, hospitality, and more. Hervis has worked with celebrity sports figures, chefs, CEOs, law firms, doctors and small business owners.

Hervis has received awards and recognition for his work from the West Virginia Associated Press, Mississippi Associated Press, Society of Professional Journalists, and National Academy of Arts & Sciences. In 2014, he was selected by Boca Life Magazine as one of the top 40 Under 40; Insider Media Management has been named one of the top public relations agencies in South Florida by the South Florida Business Journal.

Learn more about Hervis at InsiderMediaManagement.com, or call them at their headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida at (561) 995-6560.

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Ted says that “my resume looks like someone threw a grenade into a normal career.” Currently the Chief Marketing Officer of Meddle.it, Ted is a three-time CEO who has founded several businesses. Here, he describes how businesses and leadership styles need to adapt to what he calls a post-industrial economy, where social media and shared social intelligence have changed the balance of power for companies, employees, and consumers.

He also discusses:

• What companies should do when people trust individual employees far more than corporate messages
• How companies can work with employees on social media to create trust and interest
• What’s “unnatural” about a command-and-control leadership style
• Why working with volunteers is invaluable leadership experience, and why you should treat all of your employees like they are volunteers

Meddle.it is an enterprise SaaS firm specializing in content marketing through employee advocacy. Ted is the author of A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Survive. He is also a Forbes Top 20 Social Media Power Influencer, an Inc. Top 100 Leadership Expert, and an Inc. Top 100 Speaker. He is currently working on a project about “The modern CEO,” and what it takes to lead a business in the post-industrial age.

Learn more about Ted Coiné via his Twitter @TedCoine.

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Orlando Bowen is a former professional athlete and television personality who motivates youth and corporate audiences with keynotes. Here, he shares his story of a traumatic 2004 episode in which he was seriously assaulted by two corrupt plain-clothes police officers; he describes how they planted drugs on him and charged him with assault. After being acquitted and settling a lawsuit against the Peel, Ontario police out of court, Bowen has dedicated his life to working with youth, helping them become future leaders. He is the founder and Executive Director of the One Voice One Team youth leadership organization.

Here, he discusses:

• The necessity of finding fulfilling work
• How “understanding who you are and what you stand for” will help you overcome challenges and move forward.
• Surrounding yourself with people who share the same values
• How your value system will help you make trajectory-including decisions at “moments of truth”—decisions that may affects your business, life, and relationships
• Handling “game breakers”—when you have to set your goals aside to handle unplanned-for situations

Orlando’s mission is to inspire people to be “Game Changers” in the lives of others. He created the SWOLE Leadership Development Program (Self-respect, Work hard, Overcome adversity, Lead by example, and Excellence). He was awarded the 2012 African Canadian Achievement Award, the 2013 Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, and a national 2014 Harry Jerome Award for community service. He is also the 2015 president of the Toronto Chapter of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers.

Learn more about Bowen at www.OrlandoBowen.com.

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Julie Ducharme is a speaker, consultant and author on leadership, business, and marketing. She is the CEO of JD Consulting LLC, CEO of Julie’s Party People, and president of Synergy Learning Institute. She is also a Professor and mentor for the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) Program at Walden University. Here, Ducharme speaks about when and how to choose to strategically expand a business—whether by investing in new equipment, human capital, or by forming strategic partnerships.

She also discusses:

• When caution can become a liability, and when a calculated risk is the right move for a business
• The importance of understanding your market, and of understanding how social media can help you reach out to consumers
• Knowing when to spend money to make money, whether by investing in equipment, marketing or technological education.
• Understanding the power of networking and partnerships, and getting to know people in the industry who “might need you”—or who , in turn, you can send clients to for services you don’t offer
• Finding good mentors by immersing yourself in the industry

Ducharme started her career in college and professional sports; for the past 15 years, she has been working with corporations, colleges and universities around and outside of San Diego. She regularly consults for businesses and schools in various areas of business, public outreach, curriculum, program design and other topics in the business and academic arenas, and is published chapters in the bestselling The Refractive Thinker series.

Learn more about JD Consulting at www.jdconsultingsolutions.com or about Ducharme’s education programs at  www.synergylearninginstitute.org. Ducharme also has presences on LinkedIn (Julie Ducharme) and Twitter (@julieducharme).

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Salim Ismail is a speaker, strategist and entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley. He specializes in breakthrough technologies, and has spent the last six years building Singularity University as its founding Executive Director and current Global Ambassador. Here, he discusses how rapidly-changing technologies are changing both the face and the needs of a variety of industries and society in general, and how this rapid change can translate to opportunities for those who are able to adapt and move at a fast pace.

He also discusses:

• Why we’re experiencing another “Gutenberg” technology moment—or ten of such moments!—at the same time
• How our political, technical, legal, healthcare and education systems all need to be updated for today’s fast-moving technological world—and what Singularity is doing to address these changes
• Why we are experiencing “one of the most extraordinary opportunities in the history of business”, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses that can change and innovate quickly
• The challenge of communicating huge visions as a leader to people who may not be in the same headspace
• The value of “detoxing” periodically to get away from the psychological stress of starting and running a business

Prior to his work at Singularity, Ismail was a Vice President at Yahoo, where he built and ran Brickhouse, Yahoo’s internal incubator. His last company, Angstro, was sold to Google in 2010. He has founded or operated seven early-stage companies including PubSub Concepts, which laid some of the foundation for the real-time web.

Ismail has been featured in the New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Wired, Vogue and the BBC. He advises Fortune 500 executives and many world governments on the future of technology and has recently released his first book, Exponential Organizations.

Learn more about Singularity University at SingularityU.org; Ismail’s book at ExponentialOrgs.com, or follow Ismail on Twitter (@SalimIsmail).

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After serving in the army and later becoming a registered nurse, Rick Martinez founded MedTrust, a staffing service that sends nurses and doctors to military hospitals nationwide, where they’re needed. Today, his focus is Project BINK, which helps people contemplate and act on what he calls “bink” moments—those moments when clarity and a level of awareness enters one’s life, as clear as the clink of a wine glass. Here, he speaks about giving such moments time and space, and understanding how to use them to move forward in life and/or business—toward “purpose-driven happiness.”

He also discusses:

• Assessing risk and responsibility before making major changes
• Understanding difficult situations as potential opportunities for a life change
• Maintaining a work-life balance, even when the same qualities that make you a good entrepreneur may cause challenges outside of the workplace
• Taking advantage of the value of mentors and community to entrepreneurs
• Making sure that thought and planning eventually lead to action

The San Antonio Business Journal named Rick one of its “40 Under 40,” and MedTrust was listed among the US Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Top 100 companies. In Martinez’s second company, Alamo CrossFit (a licensee of the global brand CrossFit, Inc.), he created a corporate culture to reflect his own ideals—gym clients became members of a “Tribe,” working together and motivating each other to achieve shared goals. His current focus is Project BINK.

Learn more at www.projectbink.com or at www.itsRickMartinez.com.

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Sales and sales management expert Jack Daly has built 6 companies into national organizations, two of which he subsequently sold to the Wall Street firms. Today, he delivers keynote and general session presentations on sales; he has also been a cited influencer for several prior guests on Smashing the Plateau. Here, he argues that having a proven system for sales and sales management in place is a “differentiator” for business success, and that companies need to consciously work to create a winning company culture, and prioritize quality and training over speed when growing their sales force and helping individual salespeople become more effective.

He also discusses:

• How sports teams—who never take the field without systems, processes, preparation, training, and practice—are more prepared for success than “most businesses in the world today.”
• The central importance of a playbook for success
• Why people and companies tend to underperform compared to their potential because they “run to the urgent at the expense of the important”
• The importance of executing simple, basic things that work—and executing them well. “Take a breath! Don’t be in such a hurry to go out into the marketplace. Figure out what works, and then build it in your processes.”
• The four necessary legs of a winning company culture, and how to begin implementing them: Recognition systems; communication systems; personal and professional development processes; and employee empowerment processes.

Daly is currently developing a companion book to his bestselling Hyper Sales Growth, titled The Sales Playbook for Hyper Sales Growth, which will provide more details on the systems and processes described in Hyper Sales Growth, along with timelines for putting them into play.

To learn more about Daly, visit JackDaly.net or call (888) 298-6868.

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Speaker, author, entrepreneur and financial expert Greg Crabtree has come a long way since he grew up on a chicken farm in Alabama. He is currently CEO of Crabtree, Rowe & Berger, PC, a CPA firm that helps entrepreneurs build the economic engine of their business; he also specializes in helping clients develop a business plan that includes a “purpose”—a sense of how they want to help their community or give back once the business becomes successful. Here, he discusses why all small business should have that plan and that purpose—and why purpose should not come at the expense of profitability.

Other topics include:

• The key untruths that too many small business owners tell themselves regarding pay and profitability
• Separating owner wealth vs. business profitability
• Why “profit plus purpose equals impact”
• The importance of knowing “what does healthy look like, and how to get there” for your business
• The problem of listening to “the noise” of the media and business anecdotes, rather than hard business numbers
• “The number one problem inhibitor to success in today’s market is effectiveness of marketing… Nine out of ten companies that we break down are not spending enough money on marketing”
• Why financial consultants needs to be more proactive about helping clients learn from the results of audits and other financial work

In addition to serving as the Crabtree, Rowe & Berger‘s CEO, Crabtree leads the business consulting team, which helps clients align their financial goals with their profit model and their core business values. In 2011, Greg published the book Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! He is a National Area Council Member of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and is involved in the ALS Association of Alabama and the Boys and Girls Clubs of North Alabama. He is a former board member of the Atlanta chapter of The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO).

Learn more about Crabtree’s work at SimpleNumbers.Me; Crabtree Rowe & Berger’s site is available at CRBCPA.net.

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