Shows
The Bizgnus PodcastUse the power of conversation to create dramatic productivity gains• Learning to match your behavior to your beliefs
• Plus an explanation of what’s not quite right with bacon ice creram
Douglas Squirrel has been coding for forty years and knows more than something about artificial intelligence and business. A lot more.
But he is also concerned with something far more basic than fiddling with ChatGPT and its rivals. Mr. Squirrel says a successful digital transformation for any organization must start with a conversational transformation.
Douglas Squirrel joins us for this episode of Bizgnus Interviews to explain.
His experience includ...
2024-07-2813 min
The Bizgnus PodcastIs your business off-track in onboarding?• Expert tells why customer onboarding is as important as the sale
• “Find out what your customers want and need”
(Total Recorded Time is 16:51)
For more than two decades, Donna Weber has helped high-growth startups and established companies create customers for life with successful customer onboarding strategies.
And those, she says, are better than “hope as a strategy.”
“What I find most interesting as when companies listen to their customers,” Ms. Weber says. “Find out what your customers want and need. And that might be just picking up the phone and asking them a few...
2021-09-0914 min
The Bizgnus PodcastShow biz bug bites; book is born• A quiet Charlotte family is thrust into Hollywood
• “Writing for me was something that I didn’t share with anybody”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:21)
When it comes to the alure of show business, the same bug that bit stars like Ronald Reagan, Hilary Swank and Leonard DiCaprio bit a family living quietly in sedate Charlotte, North Carolina.
And while the DeBoer family’s star is still rising, it has spun off its first book, “Until Tomorrow, Little People.”
Family patriarch Matt DeBoer wrote the book based on a blog he wrote during th...
2021-09-0614 min
The Bizgnus PodcastFor personal change, the answer is inside• Transformation coach points to his own unusual experience
• “I have a mission on this Earth”
(Total Recorded Time is 25:04)
What he describes as a mystical experience has shaped the life and career of Harrison Klein, a professional speaker on the topic of transformation. He is an executive coach, among other interests.
“I have a mission on this Earth,” Mr. Klein says. “And the reason we’re all here is two-fold -- one is to experience joy and the other one is to expand the universe.”
That’s something he leaves up to each pers...
2021-09-0417 min
The Bizgnus PodcastAs a manager, why you should be thinking about suicide• It’s the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S.
• “When you bring up the word ‘suicide,’ people shut down”
(Total Recorded Time is 26:05)
Tom Fargnoli, a retired software and systems engineer and former Catholic Church deacon, wants to see business leaders talking about suicide.
“When you bring up the word ‘suicide,’ people shut down,” says Mr. Fargnoli. “In most cases, people are in so much emotional pain. ”
He married his high school sweetheart and had two children and five grandchildren. Then his life took a dramatic and unexpected turn: His wife...
2021-08-2926 min
The Bizgnus PodcastAre you overlooking the best talent on your teams?• Your best leaders might not be called manager
• “We like to call those people the ‘sparks’”
(Total Recorded Time is 14:30)
Executive coach Courtney Lynch, who has worked for years with high-performing leaders to help them achieve next-level results, says applying some of the leadership training used by the Marine Corps can bring out untapped talent in any organization.
And she doesn’t mean the stereotypical Marine drill sergeant approach.
“There are sometimes certain people on the teams that we’re involved with that just seem to have a lot of influence, and a...
2021-08-2011 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Zen of successful negotiations• Why you have to get out of your own head
• “I’ve got some good lessons about what I bring from swimming”
(Total Recorded Time is 23:13)
Successful negotiation – where there’s a balancing of needs – can be reached easier if those involved bring mindfulness to the negotiation table, says Matthew Moseley, a communication strategist, author and speaker.
He says that while active listening is a key skill for successful negotiation, doing it effectively requires getting out of your own head and developing empathy.
This is something he honed while setting three worl...
2021-08-1717 min
The Bizgnus PodcastClassroom best practices can help business leaders• Online professors offers ideas
• Could these ideas boost employee engagement?
(Total Recorded Time is 16:02)
For leaders trying to get their workers to be more engaged, there are lessons to be learned from the classroom, specifically from author and educator Marilyn Carroll.
In this Bizgnus Interview, Ms. Carroll offers tips that can be used by teachers and business leaders.
Please click here to watch the interview:
https://youtu.be/dmE-kQDm4-Q
Ms. Carroll says her online classes have a stunning engagement level of 80 percent, and her pass r...
2021-08-1616 min
The Bizgnus PodcastHow mindfulness can help make sense out of today’s chaotic world• Mindfulness trainer Julie Potiker says it’s an age-old practice that applies to the 21st Century
• “It’s not weird; it’s not woo-woo”
(Total Recorded Time is 19:10)
After getting through 2020, one might be given some slack if they still feel things are spinning out of control. But there is a very old way to come to grips with such new feelings.
Author Julie Potiker says it’s mindfulness, because “what you think changes your brain. And it doesn’t stop until you’re dead.”
She joins us in this Bizgnus podcast….....
2021-01-2514 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Joel Malkoff• The epiphany for a veteran salesman
• “Ethical behavior creates dedicated employees and loyal customers”
After years of selling – used cars, lighting supplies, whatever—Joel Malkoff says he had an epiphany that changed his life.
It brought him to the conclusion that ethical business decision-making is the way to sustained profitability, he says.
He’s taken his thoughts a step further, writing a new book that he calls a parable, “Selling Ethically: A Business Parable Connecting Integrity with Profits,” (GDL Press; October 2020).
“Ethical marketing and selling will allow you and your company to build...
2021-01-1813 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Marketing in the Age of the Micro-Attention Span• Visual marketing expert Amy Balliett on how to market to the Incredible Shrinking Attention Span
• What’s 60,000 times faster than the printed word?
(Total recorded time is 31:31)
The success of your marketing message might depend on its ability to attract and hold the attention of an audience that will buy in or reject it within seconds.
So says marketing expert Amy Balliett, founder of Killer Visual Strategies of Seattle, our guest on this expanded Bizgnus podcast.
2021-01-1122 min
The Bizgnus PodcastIs it finally time to re-think how men tick?• Why traditional authoritarian approaches no longer fit today’s leadership needs
• Revealed: The five “Cs” to success
Do nice guys really finish last? Not according to Ed Frauenheim in the new book Reinventing Masculinity.
He says traditional aspects of masculinity actually inhibit progress in an organization, especially with Millennials filling more and more positions.
“While a debate has raged in our popular culture about whether men are getting too soft, a quiet consensus has developed in the organizational world: today, soft skills are success skills,” Mr. Frauenheim writes in the book, co-authored with...
2020-12-2815 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Jim Ewel and Agile Marketing• Today’s marketers were already facing exponential challenges. Then came COVID
• The authority on being agile in marketing offers tips, examples and ideas
(Total Recorded Time is 23:48)
It’s COVID, COVID, COVID. The pandemic is so serious, so widespread and an end to it seems so distant that it could make one wonder if marketing means anything today.
But our Bizgnus Podcast guest says savvy marketers can still make impactful campaigns, even in the midst of the pandemic.
He’s Jim Ewel, who pioneered the concept of agile mar...
2020-12-0619 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus podcast: Wes Boyd• He wrote 60 books while working fulltime as a newspaper editor
• Wes Boyd gave away his novels
• “I’d rather keep working and keep writing rather than sit in a chair and rock”
Wes Boyd knew how to work. While working as the editor and publisher of the Hudson, Michigan, Post-Gazette, a weekly newspaper, he turned out 60 novels.
Mr. Boyd has since died, but three years ago he carved out enough time for an audio interview with our previous publication, the Central Valley Business Times.
Because his experiences coul...
2020-11-2417 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: David White
• Why your organization’s culture may need to be changed – now
• Expert shows why some companies are dragged down by their corporate culture
(TRT 22:49)
When business finally emerges from the COVID pandemic, it will need leaders who recognize the corporate cultures entangling their organizations.
David White, a cognitive anthropologist, is focusing on ways to change corporate cultures based on the emerging “science of the cultural mind.”
In his new book “Disrupting Corporate Culture,” Mr. White says misunderstanding the culture of an organization can block effective leadership, especially when it’...
2020-11-2316 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Sean Ryan• Veteran leadership consu,tant boils success down to seven key gears
• “Seventy-five to ninety per-cent of organizations fall short of achieving the results they expect from their strategies”
(Total Recorded Time is 21:00)
The world may finally be seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the very long COVID tunnel. But before emerging from that tunnel, many businesses might want to re-think their strategies.
Author and veteran business consultant Sean Ryan says it might be a good idea to burn those tedious strategies because not enough attention is being d...
2020-11-1721 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Joseph Michelli and the Post-COVID world• What happens post-COVID? Our podcast guest talks with 140 top executives
• “What we heard was a kind of shift to humility”
(Total Recorded Time is 10:30)
The COVID-18 pandemic has brough deep changes to many businesses and not just the obvious, such as curbside meal pickups instead of inside dining.
That’s according to a researcher who interviewed 140 chief executive officers from some of the biggest – and smallest – companies about how the pandemic has changed their leadership.
“What we heard was a kind of shift to humility,” says Joseph Michelli of hi...
2020-11-1507 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Michelle Silverthorn• Expert shows why workplace diversity efforts fall short
• “If you want to hire diverse people, let them be diverse”
(Total Recorded Time is 20:20)
Despite decades of effort, workplace diversity still seems almost ephemeral. Michelle Silverthorn, an organizational diversity expert, is on a mission to change that.
She says that no matter how much organizations say inclusion matters or diversity counts, leadership in America looks the same as it did a century ago. In the Fortune 500 companies that compile diversity numbers, less than 4 percent of their workforces are racially and ethnically diverse. Additional...
2020-11-1216 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Don Laskin• Trying to publish that book? This podcast has insider info that you need to know
• “There are ways of making money. I don’t want to discourage anyone”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:20)
These days it seems like everyone with a keyboard is publishing a book. But book sellers will tell you that a huge percentage of those books is, well, to use a technical term from the publishing world, junk.
However, if you think you have a book in your brain that just needs to be published, take a few minutes to listen to...
2020-11-0519 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Jason Burt• Lost for decades, music recorded as WW 2 ended is found by a Central Valley teacher
• “This is the only recording of a frontline band unit made in the middle of WWII”
(Total Recorded Time is 13:28)
Few people have ever heard it. Perhaps even the musicians who played the tunes never expected they would be heard 75 years later.
Music recorded by a long-forgotten Army Air Force band while the wounds of the just-ended war in the Pacific were still fresh, has been found in an attic in the Central Valley and is being re-is...
2020-11-0411 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Anne Boudreau• Survivors of trauma offer paths forward through the COVID pandemic
• “It is truly, ultimately, up to us to heal ourselves”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:10)
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people and businesses in many tragic ways. Some firms have failed or are on the verge of shutting their doors permanently the human suffering is numbing.
But some seem to be doing okay. What accounts for that?
Anne Boudreau interviewed 40 survivors of trauma to understand how self-worth helps people survive and thrive.
“It is truly, ultimately, up to us to heal our...
2020-11-0117 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Darren Dahl• Strengthening your organization for the post-COVID world
• This solution is so simple it will need brave leaders
(Total Recorded Time is 38:06)
When the COVID pandemic finally ends, will the business world return to its customary form? Our Bizgnus podcast guest hopes there will be a fundamental change… one that could save capitalism.
Darren Dahl, a business journalist who has ghostwritten multiple books, is an advocate of a far more open form of management that he details in a series of books with entrepreneur Jack Stack, president and CEO of SRC Holdings Corporati...
2020-10-2528 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Kara Goldin• How a “mompreneuer” took an idea from her kitchen to a nationwide business
• “Don’t put walls up in front of yourselves that prevent you from ultimately getting out there and doing it”
(Total Recorded Time is 31:47)
What was coming out of her tap in her home kitchen didn’t exactly thrill Kara Goldin. Nor did diet soda because the weight never seemed to leave.
Then the idea: unsweetened water with just a hint of fruit taste.
What started as something she made in her kitchen for family and a few...
2020-10-2121 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Anthony Casablanca• What leaders should do when an employee grieves
• “This is a very unspoken, unaddressed area of leadership”
(Total recorded time is 22:45)
By just about any definition, these are not good times. We’re trying to cope with a pandemic that could be the worst in a century… the economy has tanked for many companies and workers… politics seems like unending trench warfare and then you add in typical workplace issues many of which, because of those outside pressures, are anything but typical these days.
Include in that grief counseling when one of your staff suf...
2020-10-1815 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Roy Whitten• A sea change is underway in how companies operate that could lead to prosperity for some and failure for others
• “A movement that’s been happening under the surface”
(Total recorded time is 37:30)
It’s been flying under the radar for years but now it’s emerging as a different, perhaps more sustainable way of doing business.
Roy Whitten, an expert in attitude and its role in human performance, says it may result in one of the most transformative times in business history.
The “it” is social entrepreneurship, which includes the impact...
2020-10-1128 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Roy Whitten and Scott Roy• There finally is a better way to sell
• “Our mission is to prove that ‘selling’ isn’t a word to be ashamed of”
(Total recorded time is 32:15)
Challenges to the success of businesses do not begin and end with the COVID-19 pandemic. Before COVID – and likely after it – is the challenge of selling a business’s goods or services.
That’s where Roy Whitten and Scott Roy come in for many companies in more than 40 countries.
They are the authors of the best-selling book “Decision Intelligence Selling: Transform the Way Your People Sell.”
...
2020-10-0525 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Dan Sachs• Former restauranteur knows the real recipe for business success
• “A lesson that’s not just for business, but is actually a lesson for life”
Total Recorded Time is 23:55
Dan Sachs knows a thing or three about business success.
Now the executive director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago, Mr. Sachs was president of Meerkat Advisory, a hospitality and leadership development advisory group, a professor of management and entrepreneurship at DePaul University, founder and owner of BIN 36 Restaurant Group and holder of a grand diplôme from École...
2020-09-2823 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Audio Interview: Nir Bashan• Too many in business are letting their creativity languish, expert says
• “Everything about creativity can be learned”
Despite all the talk about innovation, people in business are not taught how to think creatively. As a result, many careers stall and companies are grappling to compete and survive.
“Everything about creativity can be learned,” says creativity expert and business consultant Nir Bashan, author of the new book, “The Creator Mindset: 92 Tools to Unlock the Secrets to Innovation, Growth, and Sustainability (McGraw-Hill; August 2020).
Mr. Bashan has a new way of thinking that he says bridges the...
2020-09-2118 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Audio Interview Podcast: Josiah Vencel• Public pension plans are just murder for insider Josiah Vencel
• “It’s nonfiction wrapped in fiction”
There are only a few ways to keep a public pension fund financially viable: employee contributions, taxpayer funds and returns on investments. Those are the legal ways.
But Bakersfield author Josiah Vencel has a retirement plan that’s just plain murder.
“As I was writing, I realized people don’t understand pensions,” says Mr. Vencel, author of the who-dun-it thriller, “The Pension Plan.”
“Retirees are dying at exactly 80 years old,” he says. “Their deaths appear natural so nobod...
2020-09-0819 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: Howard Ross
• No, you’re not immune to bias
• “Work that really does have an impact is when you help people understand the way they’re making decisions”
Howard Ross, a lifelong social justice advocate, and author of the book, “Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives,” says the more we think we are immune to biases, the greater likelihood that our own are invisible to us.
“We tend to think that human beings are rational in our decision making,” Mr. Ross says. “But in fact we know now … that virtually every...
2020-09-0718 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Bizgnus Podcast: The Rise of the Introverts• Expert Jennifer Kahnweiler says it’s time organizations were introvert-friendly
• “You’ll get so much more out of your team if you play to their preferences”
(Total recorded time is 17:22)
Chances are, whether yours is a for-profit company or a non-profit, you are overlooking a lot of existing talent.
They are the introverts. And they are rising, albeit slowly.
It’s estimated that introverts represent nearly half of the U.S. workforce. Yet extroverts get the rewards.
Leaders need to recognize that when the needs of introverts are ignored, they...
2020-08-3017 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Michael Fillios• How to spot the hidden technology reefs that could shipwreck your small business
• “You can be leveraging technology in the same way that a Fortune 500 company”
(Total Recorded Time is 13:35)
Let’s just add another major worry when it comes to keeping your small business afloat in these troubled times of recession and COVID pandemic. It’s trying to steer a company through the hidden reefs of using outdated software or hardware, says Michael Fillios, founder and CEO of the IT Ally Institute, a Mason, Ohio-based nonprofit organization helping small and medium-sized businesses.
“There’s...
2020-08-2313 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Dan Bruder• Why putting competition and profits hurts your entire organization
• “It’s not just about meeting specific metrics or goals”
(Total Recorded Time is 15:27)
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing businesses to rethink how they operate, now is the time to find a better way to a stronger bottom line says author and business leadership consultant Dan Bruder.
“What type of impact could your company have on its customers, employees, and community if everyone was collectively focused on pursuing a common cause?” Mr. Bruder asks.
He says an organization’s potential “is exponentially gre...
2020-08-1615 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio & Video Interview: Edward Flores• Why are COVID rates so high in the Central Valley?
• UC Merced professor has an unsettling answer
A new study from the University of California, Merced, finds a link between low-wage work and the spread of COVID-19 in the Central Valley.
The Central Valley is now a focus of efforts to control spread of the often-deadly virus that causes COVID-19. The emergence of the region as a hot spot in the pandemic is explored in a new study from UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center.
Researchers found that California counties with hig...
2020-08-0521 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Thalma Lobel• Renowned psychology professor reveals research that could boost your team’s productivity and reduce stress
• “Just looking at the blue color for a few minutes will increase your creativity”
(Total Recorded Time is 24:03)
Sometimes it’s the trees. Or the beach. Or just gazing out the window at a garden.
These actions seem to help humans be more creative while reducing stress, says psychology professor and author Thalma Lobel.
“Just looking at the blue color for a few minutes – even less—will increase your creativity,” says Ms. Lobel. “It is true...
2020-07-2820 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Michael Baran• Are “microagressions” poisoning your relationships?
• “Microaggressions, typically, are neither micro nor aggressive”
Total recorded time is 15:55
Every day, people exclude and alienate others – and often quite unintentionally.
This can be as simple as frequently mispronouncing a co-worker’s name. Or it can be more overt, such as avoiding someone who looks different.
Social scientist Michael Baran, senior partner and digital solutions lead at inQUEST Consulting, has been researching the problem.
“Microaggressions, typically, are neither micro nor aggressive,” says Mr. Baran. “What people mean by that is those times when...
2020-07-2315 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio & Video Interview: Janet McKee• Using quantum mechanics in everyday life
• “You create the outcome of your life from within you and your own power”
Total recorded time is 24:57
The writer Agatha Christie had her famous fictional detective Hercule Poirot solve crimes using the “little gray cells” of his brain. Our CVBT interview guest today says we can solve many of our own problems using something much smaller than little gray cells
Janey McKee says we need to use an aspect of quantum mechanics to achieve real success in business and life.
Quantum mechanics holds that not...
2020-07-2320 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio & Video Interview Podcast: Andy Challenger
• Why the jobless numbers are not going down
• “Despite a couple positive signals that we’ve seen, there’s some real worry”
Total Recorded Time is 7:49
The Department of Labor said last week that it counted 1.3 million newly unemployed people across the nation. Outplacement expert Andrew Challenger says while some of those suddenly on the unemployment rolls can directly blame the COVID-19 pandemic, more worrisome is that a large number lost their jobs because of the deepening recession.
“As the economy has slipped into an official recession, there are many more sec...
2020-07-1906 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio & Video Interview Podcast: Christopher Callahan
• New president of University of the Pacific offers vision for the future of the university
• “I’m so inspired by our young people today”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:27)
The tri-campus University of the Pacific, with its main campus in Stockton, a college of law in Sacramento and a school of dentistry in San Francisco, should continue to develop its dual personality in the years ahead, says Pacific’s new president, Christopher Callahan.
Mr. Callahan sees the two halves of the university as one offering smaller classes, with strong faculty-studen...
2020-07-1514 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview: Tara Peters• Demotivated employees were a problem before COVID; now what?
• “One of the sources of demotivation … is stress”
Total Recorded Time is 16:39
Demotivated employees were a $500 billion business crisis. Then Came COVID-19.
Before the COVID-19 outbreak, by several measures between 60 percent and 70 percent of U.S. workers were less than enthusiastic their work, costing businesses between $450 and $550 billion each year.
Add in one worldwide pandemic, newly remote and anxious employees, and news of daily layoffs, and leaders are left to plead, “Now what?” as employees mentally check out.
Actually, this C...
2020-07-1215 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Kate Lanz
• Why managers need to recognize brain sex
• The “4 C’s” a manager can implement today
• “You can’t ignore gender”
(Total recorded time is 14:41)
In these days of pandemic, every business needs to get the most out of its greatest asset: it’s employees.
But in many businesses, half or more of that potential is going unused or is mis-used.
That’s because women are being asked to think like certain types of men, to compete like men, solve problems like men, and communicate like men -- even thoug...
2020-07-0614 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Jason Burt
• Music from the heart and heat of World War Two is is being remastered for a 21st Century audience
• “I discovered them while going through his attic”
(Total recorded time is 11:32)
Jason Burt is bringing to today’s audiences music recorded in the fire of the Pacific war of World War Two.
Mr. Burt, who spent much of his youth in the California Delta, is the history teacher at Clarksburg Middle School.
And he is the person who discovered long-forgotten recordings of an Army Air Force HQ band st...
2020-07-0410 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Amy Posey, extreme adventurer• What leaders can learn from top adventurers
• “The end result if you can work through that conflict and communicate effectively is you get better product”T
Total recorded time is 24:20
You don’t have to scale the face of Half Dome with only your bare hands and toes to be a successful business leader, but it might help as not plunging 4,800 feet to the valley floor might gain you admission to the smallish club of true extreme adventurers.
Extreme adventurers have the ability to see obstacles -- and setbacks...
2020-06-2819 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Lisa Ryan
• Management consultant say now is the time for companies to be intensely training the next generation of leaders
• “How do I quickly and effectively move my emerging leaders … into leadership positions”
Total Recorded Time is 16:40
There could well be another aspect of the current COVID-19 recession that is about to surface: a tsunami of retirements by senior members of many businesses who look at the death rate from the pandemic and re-order their priorities, says management consultant Lisa Ryan, chief appreciation strategist with the consulting firm Grategy of Cleveland.
Before a...
2020-06-2115 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Julie Olson-Buchanan• Even when working from home, you can strive for a balance between work and life, Fresno State expert says
• “We do better when we’re rested and when we have time away from work”
Total Recorded Time is 13:13
Remember when going to your place of business meant getting dressed and then driving somewhere? But for months now going to work for millions has meant ambling down the hallway in your pjs to sit with your laptop at the kitchen table to work remotely amid the debris left from breakfast.
Talk about being on c...
2020-06-1413 min
The Bizgnus Podcast📷 The CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Jonathan Keyser• Commercial real estate disruptor calls for nore “conscious capitalism”
• “You can create extraordinary success by helping others succeed”
Jonathan Keyser, founder and CEO of the Phoenix, Arizona-area commercial real estate company Keyser LLC, says he’s a reformed ruthless jerk.
“My journey reinventing myself from a ruthless jerk to someone who’s committed to serving other people was not an easy one,” he says.
Key to the transformation, he says, is following the ideas of the conscious capitalism movement.
“Conscious capitalism is a movement started by John Mackey,” Mr. Keyser says. “The basic...
2020-06-0718 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio/Video Interview Podcast: Ed Muzio• Chaotic times require adaptive leadership, he says
• “It’s very easy to get into a conversation about history”
(Total Recorded Time is 17:30)
In these chaotic and incredibly uncertain times, effective leadership can fall back on a proven, specific way of leading and managing teams, says Ed Muzio, chief executive officer of Group Harmonics of Austin, Texas, and a three-time author of books on leadership.
“Every management team has in it some level of a fictitious belief that they can see the future,” Mr. Muzio says. “One thing that happens an awful lot in managemen...
2020-05-3117 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Howard Ross• In recovering from the COVID Recession, expert says genuine compassion should be part of the recovery
• “The kind of situation we’re in now creates enormous stress”
(Total Recorded Time is 21:46)
The current work-from-home requirements brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to radically different ways of operating for most organizations. And that calls for leaders who can address the emotional toll that the isolation is taking on their employees’ physical, mental and financial well-being, says Howard Ross, a lifelong social justice advocate and a principle in Bethesda, Maryland-based Udarta Consulting. Mr. Ross is cons...
2020-05-2520 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Peter Holtz
• Lathrop CPA explains why it’s not too late to apply for federal help for a small business
• “There’s still some money out there”
It’s not too late for small business owners to apply for federal help, says veteran Central Valley CPA Peter Holtz, whose practice is based in Lathrop.
He says there’s still about one-third of the second round of the “Paycheck Protection Program” (PPP) still unallocated. “There’s still some money out there in PPPs,” he says.
He says his firm alone has helped Valley-based small...
2020-05-1911 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Mr. Biz
• Why Ken Wentworth calls himself a “fractional CEO”
• “It’s hard to have that strategic vision when you’re always ‘putting out fires’”
(Total Recorded Time is 18:20)
Recorded March 10, 2020
Somewhat like Superman, mild-mannered Ken Wentworth has an alter ego: Mr. Biz.
It’s his trade name for his real-life vocation of consulting business leaders to help them make their companies more successful.
“It’s hard to have that strategic vision when you’re always ‘putting out fires’ and running your business,” Mr. Wentworth says.
That’s where he and his team...
2020-05-1715 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio (and video) Interview Podcast: Mark DeLuzio• Why leaders need to rethink their business models
• “You’ve got to ask your stakeholders what’s important to them”
Before the coronavirus took the world by surprise, most companies and even nonprofits blissfully carried on, blinded by record profits, donations and industry kudos.
But in too many cases, the money and praise masked business models that were mediocre, at best.
Now, the overnight recession is closing or downsizing organizations faster than any even since the early 1930s, throwing tens of millions out of work and eroding or eliminating investments.
Before it’...
2020-05-1020 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Mark McKee• How businesses are pivoting to get ready for a post-COVID world
• “What do you manage to? That’s the hardest determination at this point”
(Total Recorded Time 11:38)
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With some states “re-opening” after weeks of COVID-19 lockdowns, business is trying to see how much they will have to pivot to meet new opportunities, says Mark McKee, president and chief operating officer of the online payroll and back office services company OnPay.
“As people have started to understand mo...
2020-05-0311 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Rick Brinkman
• The doctor is in and ready to cure meeting malaise
• “It’s such a universal issue, meetings”
Total Recorded Time (TRT) is 25:44
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Oh, no. Another meeting. Meetings in organizations, whether in person (remember those?) or virtual can make everyone shudder.
So we’ve called the doctor.
Doctor Rick Brinkman, perhaps better known as a motivational speaker, trainer and author, says there is no reason to dread meetings – if. If they ar...
2020-04-2624 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Natasha Wallace
• A better way to fix career burnout for the manager -- and the managed
• “Unless you really pay attention to yourself and are conscious of yourself … you can’t really make any decisions or choices to change it”
Total Recorded Time (TRT): 21:50
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Career burnout. Many managers and other professionals face it. When it’s recognized it can lead to an encore career following a particular passion. For Natasha Wallace, it prompted her t...
2020-04-2021 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Karen Sullivan
• Fourth-generation entrepreneur offers marketing tips for small business and insight on how COVID-19 will change marketing
• “If you’re going to own a business, especially today, you’ve got to be a marketing superhero”
TRT (Total Recorded Time) is 18:42
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After a quarter century of running her own business, fourth-generation entrepreneur Karen Sullivan has seen marketing evolve through one phase after another. From that, she says, it’s the tried and true that still...
2020-04-1318 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Peter Hilsenrath
• University of the Pacific economist says COVID-caused contraction could be worse than 1929 crash
• “The impact on small businesses is just phenomenal”
Total Recorded Time (TRT) 11:08
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An economist who has spent much of his career researching the financial aspects of the health sector says the economic contraction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may very well be leading to a full-blown recession.
Peter Hilsenrath, who holds the Joseph M. Long Chair of Healthcare Management...
2020-04-1011 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: John Farhat
• Entrepreneur says for success, businesses should integrate their information technology strategy with their business strategy
• “Your IT strategy is your business strategy”
Total recorded time (TRT) 16:51
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Most business owners know their business strategy. And they may suspect that those “IT guys” know the information technology strategy.
But long-time IT expert John Farhat says a company’s IT strategy ought not be separate.
“Your IT strategy is your business strategy,” says Mr, Farhat, founde...
2020-04-0616 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Julia Ivy
• Northeastern University executive professor says she has a better way to get a new job
• She calls it “boutique employability”
Suddenly, finding a new job is much harder, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy’s overnight plunge into recession.
But Northeastern University executive professor Julia Ivy says she has an original approach for impressing a potential employer.
By defining their space in a company that fits their multidimensional profiles and showing a targeted employer their “boutique employability,” job candidates position themselves as more than just another applicant, Ms...
2020-04-0217 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Jon Petz
• With a dash of magic, he has motivated thousands
• “I was a very shy kid”
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In talking with Jon Petz, you would not imagine him as an introverted person. After all, he is a frequent guest on podcasts, radio and television and stands in front of thousands as a motivational and keynote speaker.
But it didn’t start that way.
“I was a very shy kid … and I started learning to do...
2020-03-2815 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Andy Challenger
• Outplacement export says immediate, and big, government action needed to avert massive layoffs
• “This is truly unprecedented in the way it’s affecting American small businesses so quickly”
If Congress and the President do not take immediate and massive action to pump up the economy, layoffs of unprecedented size will wash across the nation, warns outplacement expert Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
“This is truly unprecedented in the way it’s affecting American small businesses so quickly,” says Mr. Challenger in this same-day CVBT Podcast Interview. “It’s...
2020-03-2305 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Maureen Metcalf
• Disruptive times demands innovative leaders – but where are they?
• “Adaptive leadership is required”
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In disruptive times such as these, it takes a new type of leader to guide businesses – leaders for whom innovation seems to be part of their DNA.
Maureen Metcalf, founder of the Innovative Leadership Institute in Columbus, Ohio, says these new leaders can mean increased profitability and increased employee effectiveness.
Such leaders don’t just walk in the door. But Ms. Metcalf...
2020-03-1515 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: The coronavirus recession is coming
• Global supply chains are unprepared
• “We’re in for a global recession”
https://tinyurl.com/syqft9z
The COVID-19 coronavirus may well trigger a massive worldwide economic downturn. That’s the warning from global supply chain expert Nada Sanders, who is a distinguished professor at Northeastern University in Boston.
She says the COVID-19 outbreak is not just a rapidly spreading disease, it’s having a multidimensional domino effect on the world’s businesses. Ms. Sanders says Wall Street and many economists underestimate the dynamics of the global supply chain.
She...
2020-03-1322 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Alexander Fleiss
• He says artificial intelligence will be the biggest change since the internet
• “AI, and automation in general, will create a lot more jobs”
(TRT* 23:45)
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Artificial intelligence – is it the stuff of fearsome fiction – or a radiant future for humanity?
Alexander Fleiss, chief executive officer of Rebellion Research, comes down on the side of the latter argument, and decidedly so.
He says his entire company is based on using artificial intelligence as an everyday...
2020-03-1022 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Paul Powers• Software startup entrepreneur is taking machine learning to new levels
• “We realized there was a lot more opportunity than we’d initially thought of”
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Fulton had this problem with his first steamboats. The Wright brothers probably faced many of the same issues. All, and others before and since, invesnted something that seemed to solve a major problem but how to build a business out of such an idea.
Paul Powers, chief executive officer of software company Physna LLC of Cincinnati...
2020-03-0831 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Rosemarie Rossetti• A traumatic event reshaped her life
• “It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon”
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For most people, lives are changed by small events -- a tweak here, a nudge there. But for the guest on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast, life changed suddenly and dramatically one day in June 1998.
Rosemarie Rossetti is now a keynote speaker, trainer, author, consultant, and president of Rossetti Enterprises Inc. in Columbus, Ohio.
But in 1998, things were different. She was recently married and hobbies li...
2020-03-0716 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Michael Colburn• Just how possible is it to have employees who self-manage?
• Leadership guru Michael Colburn offers tips on how to reach that nirvana
• But Wait! There's more! See below....
For managers who are mired in the nit-picking style of oversight, there is an option they (and their employees) might only dream about: the self-managing worker.
But such dreams are reality with many companies says long-time leadership coach Michael Colburn.
Put formally, “self-management is the ability and the will to act in the best interest of the organization in such a...
2020-03-0115 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Kenneth Cloke• Yes, Americans are getting much grumpier
• “This isn’t just in the political arena. It also rolls over into families and relationships”
• And tips for dealing with it at work
Grumpy. Cross. Argumentative. Belligerent. Those words and others like them seem to describe life in America today.
“There are several elements in this. One is the political environment as we head into an election year,” says Kenneth Cloke, director of the Center for Dispute Resolution in Santa Monica, who has been resolving disputes for years.
“And this isn’t just in the political ar...
2020-02-2222 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview: Brent Gill• Success as an author often starts after the book is written
• “You have the ability to control and adjust and tweak”
When Shakespeare put down his quill after writing his first play, his work was only starting: He had to market “Henry VI.”
It’s no different for authors 500 years later. The writing of the book or the play is just the start. Then the author has to market his or her work.
Publishers do that for their big name authors. And writers who also would rather write a check can hire excellent...
2020-02-1728 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Steven Manchel
• Before you recruit from a competitor – or jump to one -- listen to this podcast
• “Nobody should resign on the spur of the moment any more”
Recruiting top talent from a competitor can help a businessm or drown it in ynending legal problems. And an employee jumping from one company to another can sometimes be jumping into a legal bonfire, costimg them and their new bosses times and money.
An attorney, Steven Manchel has dealt with many of these problems and has headed others off for hundreds of clients.
“Nobody...
2020-02-0917 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Podcast: Gleb Tsipursky• Get rid of that decision-making gut
• “You can certainly go with your gut if you want to end up like Boeing”
Worried that a decision you’re about to make could spell disaster for your business? Cognitive neuroscientist Gleb Tsipursky says whatever you do, don’t go with your gut.
Despite what some management gurus claim and despite the example set by the current administration in Washington, to run a truly successful business now, leaders must take a rational approach to making significant decisions says Mr. Tsipursky.
He joins us for this CVBT Au...
2020-02-0226 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: Paul Napper• Author Paul Napper says there’s a common reason so many are anxious in the U.S.
• “We actually have a silent epidemic … of anxiety”
The United States is chock full of people who are anxious. Anxious about their businesses. Their lives. You name it.
One of the reasons, says researcher and author Paul Napper, is that people have lost their “agency.”
“This is primarily an American problem. We have gotten to a state of near-overwhelm as a society,” he says. “We are very over-stimulated. We have robust data that suggest there is a tremendous...
2020-01-2024 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: Jer Jessi
• Looking for expert advice? Jer Jessi offers the world
• “And we are looking to grow”
Sometimes you have a problem for which not even YouTube videos are specific enough. So how do you get the expert help quickly and without causing the bottom line to convulse?
Enter Jer Jessi, formerly of Switzerland and now living in Florida who has put together an online service that matches experts with those who need specific advice.
It’s called “CoachTheWorld” and offers a spectrum of coaching, live and one-on-one.
Please click h...
2020-01-1113 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: Jason Caldwell• Want to improve your leadership skills? Row across the Atlantic Ocean*
• “I do crazy adventures basically, seemingly impossible things”
• *Or you could listen to this podcast
Jason Caldwell has done something it is safe to say very few other humans have ever done in the history of humankind: He’s has rowed a small boat some 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. Not once, but twice.
He admits to making mistakes on that first row, but he corrected course for the second time and after rowing for 35 days, 14 hours, and 3 minutes he and his crew w...
2019-12-1715 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast (redux): Norma Hollis• The overlooked authenticity factor to success
• “The most effective thing you can do is be yourself”
A lot of people want to be effective public speakers, whether to advance a business or profession or to actually make it a career. But a veteran speakers coach says too many overlook a key to success – being authentic.
“My passion is authenticity,” Norma Hollis says. “I spent 30 years studying what it meant to be authentic.”
The Los Angeles based coach says being authentic – not trying to copy another person – is a key to success as a public speaker. “T...
2019-12-1617 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast (redux): Ora Nadrich• Four steps to overcoming stress
• “You have to really confront those negative thoughts”
Stressed-out by the job? Or just life in general? There’s a four-step method to calm down and be productive again.
And it starts with a simple question: “Says who?” says meditation and life coach Ora Nadrich.
“You have to really confront those negative thoughts that want to bring you down, that want to sabotage you,” says Ms. Nadrich. “Saying something like ‘says who?’ keeps you pretty well-armored to be able to face those kinds of thoughts.”
She says that by facing a...
2019-12-1609 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: Bay Area manufacturer moves headquarters to Central Valley• Jatco Incorporated finds warm welcome in Modesto
• Uses robots and human workers for precision molding
For anyone who might have thought high-tech manufacturing cannot be found in the Central Valley, there’s a now-former San Francisco Bay Area company that might change one’s mind.
It’s Jatco Incorporated, a plastic injection molding company that has packed up and moved its headquarters and main manufacturing plant to Modesto after some 40 years in the Bay Area.
Steven Jones is president of Jatco and joins us on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast to tell why h...
2019-12-1612 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: Darren Gold• Mr. Gold advocates rewriting your internal code
• "It’s about 10 beliefs that you hold"
Are your beliefs hijacking your life? Can we erase and replace our internal programming—and thus master our own code?
Our guest on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast is Darren Gold, author of the new book, “Master Your Code: The Art, Wisdom, and Science of Leading an Extraordinary Life.”
Darren, thanks for joining us and we’re pretty sure you’re not talking about mastering Morse code….
2019-12-0717 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: When 'Off with their heads!' stops working
• Tips for real-time conflict resolutions
• Plus something for free
If you’re not King Louie , then it’s likely that when you want to chop someone’s head off, few will help.
So how can you and other managers resolve disputes quickly and for the better?
Management and personal development coach Loretta Love Huff says she has some answers, including those she put into a recent book, “6 Keys for Dissolving Disputes: When ‘Off with Their Heads!’ Won’t Work.”
She joins us as the guest on this CVBT Audio Inte...
2019-12-0221 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: What every entrepreneur can learn from an air mattress
• Joseph Michelli explains the success of Airbnb
• “How does a company … grow that meteorically in ten years?”
What started with renting out a spare bedroom furnished with a couple of air mattresses has exploded seemingly overnight into the multi-billion dollar company known as Airbnb.
Your company may not have any air mattresses to rent or even give away, but Airbnb’s growth offers lessons on how many companies can grow in the hyper-competitive works of the 21st Century.
Joseph Michelli has examined the Airbnb history and methods for a new book a...
2019-11-2510 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview: John DiJulius• Why relying on digital connections with customers is not enough
• Consistently raising the bar on customer service
In politics, it’s the economy, stupid. But in business in the 21st Century, it’s the relationship. So says our guest in this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast, John DiJulius, chief executive officer of the DiJulius Group of Cleveland.
He’s written many books and spoken to thousands in his years as a management consultant. Now he’s almost evangelical for a much higher level of customer service.
Mr. DiJulius cautions that while digital connections...
2019-11-1821 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Judi Glova• Tapping “intuitive intelligence” to make the big decisions
• “Intuitive knowing is generally that first gut feeling”
If you make important business decisions based on a flash of intuition, is that a bad thing?
Probably not says our guest for this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast.
Judi Glova teaches how to tap intuition for better decisions. She calls it “intuitive intelligence.”
Click here to listen to our CVBT Podcast with Ms. Glova:
2019-11-1118 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Podcast: Charlie Gilkey• Author of the new book “Start Finishing” tells how to control distractions and interruptions
• We spend about half of our time thinking about something other than what we’re supposed to be doing
So when were you going to finish that project? Yesterday? Well, surely today. That is if you’re not interrupted or distracted.
And that’s the problem says our guest on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast… interruptions and distractions.
Charlie Gilkey says we spend about half of our time thinking about something other than what we’re supposed to be doing. At wo...
2019-11-0325 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: The 7 deadly sins that cripple careers for women• Veteran coach identifies the major problems -- and offers solutions
• Don’t show up to throw up
There are the seven deadly sins talked about in religion. And then there are the seven deadly sins that will sabotage your career, says speaker, career coach and author Aimee Cohen.
By not correcting these “sins,” women can find their careers hitting a dead end, she says.
Too nice, trying to do too much, trying to do it to perfection – all can be career killers, says Ms. Cohen. And that can also include what she calls th...
2019-10-2610 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: WorkVine 209For the tens of thousands who crawl along I-205 through Tracy just to get to I-580 to continue the bumper-to-bumper crawl to Silicon Valley, dreams of starting their own business might founder on where to do it.
While many sit on a couch at home or grab a table at a Starbucks, there’s an oasis in Tracy, just off the freeway, for entrepreneurs and even established businesses.
It’s a co-working space called WorkVine209, started by retired police officer Eric Hawkins and his wife Lynda.
2019-10-2110 minThe Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: Brady Patterson• Clearing up the mysteries of marketing
• “Marketing and technology overwhelm a lot of people”
Small business startups often have great expertise in a product or service, but that pool of talent drains swiftly as more tasks are demanded of the entrepreneur.
One of those is marketing. While some who know little about marketing think they wrote the book, the smart business owner either gets training or hires experts.
One place to get that training is a strictly online school called the Success Road Academy, which offers more than 50 courses.
“Marketing...
2019-10-1318 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Bill TreasurerAsk a manager what’s the hardest part of the job and many these days are likely to say it’s dealing with fearful employees who play it safe at all costs.
Fear of being labeled, fear of their managers, fear of retaliation, and fear of losing their jobs all topped a recent study as to why workers don’t speak up.
But for businesses looking to grow and stay ahead of competition, this silence can come at a financial cost.
“I think it’s more often the case that leaders stoke people’s fears,” Mr...
2019-10-0648 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Audio Interview Podcast: Douglas Brooks• Why managers need to remember what Einstein said
• “There is absolutely no, zero, nada, zilch, reason why we … subscribe to Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity”
Fifteen years in management with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company helped shape how management consultant Douglas Brooks looks at problems – and solutions.
He has developed a 52-week plan for managers to develop greater customer-focused teamwork, to motivate and to retain top employees.
Mr. Brooks has put his ideas into a new book with the blunt title, “If This Book Doesn’t Help, It Might Be You.”
“I tried to enca...
2019-09-2922 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: Building a business of sustainable value• Sherre' DeMao says it’s the secret sauce of success
• “That can add to the bottom line when a company is sold”
Business owners looking to move their businesses to a second generation often realize it will take more than a good balance sheet to ensure success when others are at the helm.
For many this means building a business of sustainable value, says Sherre' DeMao, an author, speaker and business coach as well as being the CEO of her own company, BizGrowth Inc., in North Carolina.
But just what is a company...
2019-09-2329 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: Norm Laviolette• How techniques used by improv actors can be applied to business
• “That audience is often drunk and yelling at them”
The laughter of an audience at a comedy improv keeps comedians going. But those warriors of the standup wars are also using techniques that can help business leaders be more effective.
So says Norm Laviolette, who has been performing, directing or producing live comedy for more than 20 years. His new book, “The Art of Making Sh!t Up: How to Work Together to Become an Unstoppable Powerhouse,” describes how the techniques of improv can transfor...
2019-09-1415 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: Unleashing the power of younger generationsDespite millions of young people headed to college, there’s one educator and entrepreneur who thinks that could be the wrong path for a lot of young people.
He’s our guest on this CVBT Audio Interview Podcast… Mark Perna… who says it’s critical to prioritize career exploration as part of the K-12 system and not wait until one is packing for college.
2019-09-0914 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT PODCAST: Artificial Intelligence -- boon or threat?
• The real threat may lie in its use by governments
• “I’m very worried that the same kinds of abuses that are occurring in China could trickle into our system”
Back in 1957, the journalist Vance Packard published his book called “The Hidden Persuaders,” revealing how advertisers used consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including subliminal tactics, to manipulate expectations and persuade Americans to buy certain products.
Now fast forward 62 years and we’re in the age of artificial intelligence, called A-I for short.
Artificial intelligence is hard at work, changin...
2019-09-0324 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: The not-quite rock star finds success in the Amazon• Former musician Michael Maher is now helping small business increase sales using Amazon
• “They’re very, very intent on customer satisfaction”
Michael Maher has gone from musician to corporate ladder-climber to selling used guitars on eBay to starting his own e-commerce business to what he’s currently doing, advising small businesses on how to sell their products through the nation’s largest online retailer, Amazon.
“I used my knowledge of selling music gear on eBay and the guide of a mentor to launch my own ecommerce business,” Mr. Maher says.
That $2,000 investment grew to t...
2019-08-2626 min
The Bizgnus PodcastTurning burnout to your career's advantage
The CVBT PODCAST: Coping with burned-out bosses
• Expert says this can be a unique opportunity for those who work for such a boss
• “Burnout is very pervasive now. It’s out there. It’s everywhere”
Burnout at work is so prevalent that the World Health Organization recently classified “workplace burnout” as a disease.
But career guru Vicky Oliver says when the boss is burned out, it can for an opportunity for those who work for her.
“If your boss is burned out and you can somehow ‘step up’ into the void...
2019-08-1913 min
The Bizgnus PodcastCVBT PODCAST: Preparing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
• What companies should be doing now for a digital future
• “We should certainly be prepared in terms of essentially having a plan on how to retrain ourselves”
Remember the industrial revolution? No, not the one with steam locomotives and such. The fourth one, that’s happening right now.
The fourth industrial revolution is one of digital transformation. Just like companies that continued to make buggy whips when gasoline-powered cars were catching on a hundred or so years ago, companies that fail to fully integrate digital functions and innovation into their entire organization...
2019-08-1217 minThe Bizgnus PodcastCVBT PODCAST: The role of PR and marketing to business success • Beth McRae offers tips from experience
• ““We’ve kept our company very diversified over the years”
As entrepreneurs will say, owning a business provides harsh lessons.
Beth McRae, who oversees the McRae Agency in the Phoenix area, has had a few of those tough lessons but has survived and prospered.
Her company has more than 20 years in the public relations, social media and marketing industries, weathering downturns from the dot-com bust to the Great recession.
What’s the secret?
We asked Ms. McRae to set the stage by...
2019-08-0315 min
The Bizgnus PodcastPODCAST: Stopping sabotage in the workplace
What’s stopping women from getting to the top jobs in corporations? Backstabbing sabotage might not even make a list a manager might make.
But two veteran educators who are studying the problem say women are often undermining other women in the workplace.
In this CVBT Audio Interview podcast, we talk with the researchers… Joy Wiggins, who is founder and executive director of Joy Wiggins LLC, a consulting company focusing on equity, inclusion, and social justice… and Kami Anderson, who is founder and executive director of Bilingual Brown Babies, a company focusing on fostering...
2019-07-2925 min
The Bizgnus PodcastThe Sharon Bowes interviewPodcast: Adapting yourself and your company to change
• Sharon Bowes shares secrets of mastering the swiftly changing landscape
• “Survival, even of a large well-established business, is not mandatory”
2019-07-2210 minThe Bizgnus PodcastThe CVBT Podcast: Elaine Lindsay
• How to embrace social media without going nuts
• “You have to do your research so that you know where your customers are"
Small business owners can often feel like one-person fire departments, racing from one problem or opportunity to another. And then comes marketing… and especially marketing using social media.
If it all seems too much, our guest in this CVBT Podcast can ease some of your concerns.
From Ottawa, via Zoom software, we’re talking with Elaine Lindsay.
Please click here to listen to our audio interview wi...
2019-07-1527 min
The Bizgnus PodcastPODCAST: The key to unlocking success may be closer than you thinkToo many business people have, essentially, canned themselves like summer berries, putting a lid on their success, says business coach Tasha Chen.
“Your thoughts create,” says Ms. Chen, a native of Jamaica and who tries to spend as much time as possible there. “We have the ability to create our lives. Being grateful and thankful for what we have as well as what we would like to have is an absolute must.”
She says self-imposed “lids” -- negative thoughts that destroy from within -- hold people back from reaching real success.
In today’s exclusive CV...
2019-07-1019 min
Manager Mojo with Steve CaldwellThe Leader’s #1 Skill–Be a Peacemaker – an enlightening conversation with Douglas E. Noll, attorney turned peacemaker who can de-escalate even the tensest situation in 90 seconds or lessDouglas E. Noll
The Leader’s #1 Skill – Be a Peacemaker
Have you ever been so angry that having a level-headed conversation simply wasn’t possible? When you are out-of-control with anger, the last thing you want to do is calm down. You want to be heard! As a manager and leader, likely you’ve encountered members of the team who have been equally emotional and you had no resolution but to allow time to pass so they could calm down. The #1 skill for handling that situation is to be a peacemaker, and it is critical to learn the skills of de-escalation tha...
2017-09-2600 min