Podcast Blog

Hear how women-owned businesses are kicking it!

Today’s podcast is all about a topic that we here at SAMC are working on ourselves: how to help women create and grow their businesses. My conversation with Alicia Robb was wonderful. Alicia has spent ten years as a senior fellow at the Kaufman Foundation in St. Louis studying entrepreneurship and particularly women entrepreneurs. You can read some of her Google Scholars articles here. Of particular interest to me, and perhaps to you as well, is her work on minority-owned business performance and the impact of gender differences on business results. So can women start and run hugely successful businesses? You bet. Listen in and learn how.

Learn how to re-think your life looking forward!

I have known Elisa Spain for a long time. Having presented to a number of her Vistage groups, I'm deeply familiar with her particularly effective approach to helping people and their organizations change. As she has watched her members craft the next stages in their careers—selling their businesses, retiring from leadership positions, coping with transitions—she has changed too, shifting her focus to help them see their lives through a fresh lens. Her approach, grounded in successful executive coaching, leadership development and even from her own life experiences, has worked exceptionally well. Can others benefit from her insights? Definitely! In this podcast, you'll hear more about her approach, how it works, and how it might work for you.

Hear how if you can dream it, you can do it!

We met Amanda Zuckerman when she spoke at the HER Summit (Helping Entrepreneurs Rise) at Washington University this past October. Amanda is a Wash U alumna who saw an unmet need and turned it into a great business, dormify.com, that has opened an entirely new market space—very Blue Ocean style. Named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2018, Amanda is a perfect example of how you, yes you, can come up with a new way to fulfill an unmet need, turn that idea into a company, and watch it take off. Want to learn how she did it? Listen in, she tells us! Enjoy.

Hear how to make your impossible possible!

How do you hire and retain the right staff? How do you scale or fail? If you feel like we bring you lots of folks who can help you get "Off the Brink," you are right. Today’s interviewee, Allison Maslan, wants to help you scale your business for growth—which, as she tells us, it is not for the faint of heart. Allison was referred to me by a dear friend who is trying to scale her own business for growth and needed a hand. Unfortunately, all too often businesses fail because they don’t know how to go from small to bigger, fast enough to thrive. Allison tells us how. Listen and learn!

Hear how this entrepreneur brilliantly capitalized on unmet needs!

Brit Arthur is one of those creative women who sees a problem and just wants to solve it. Who says women aren’t as ingenious as men? They haven’t met Brit. Back when she was in school at Pratt Institute studying fashionwear, she saw a problem. She hated the way bathing suits were made and how they fit women’s bodies. Designers were making things that all looked the same. Fabrics and fit were compromised to keep costs down. What do you do when you're a talented, young, inspired visionary? You do better, much better! Wait til you hear Brit's phenomenal story.

Hear how strategy is the way to get to where you want to be!

As you know, we are Blue Ocean Strategists. As such, we love to talk with like-minded folks who help companies and their staff re-think their strategies, fill unmet needs and carve out unoccupied market space. That's why Rich Horwath is such a great guest today. One of the biggest challenges for companies is how to craft an appropriate strategy for today’s fast-changing times. Another is how to get the entire organization to embrace that strategy, live it and evaluate whether it's working. Both play into Rich's forte—helping people understand how to think strategically regardless of what type of strategy they have. Lots for you to learn and apply!

Learn how to lead and succeed, no matter your gender!

I had the pleasure of interviewing Susan Chodakewitz about her own personal journey through aviation management, aerospace and defense work. It is unusual to find women in these industries. Part of our discussion was about this very topic: how do we get more women into the defense, aerospace and aviation industries? And why have these important sectors not been places where women felt they belonged? These industries are so dominated by men that women have a difficult time breaking in and staying relevant. Susan, however, created a successful career and now shares with others how she did it and why they should as well. Listen and share!

Learn how to build a business and a life!

What, you may ask, is a business sherpa? The answer is Tristan Wright, a Melbourne-based leadership coach and my On The Brink podcast guest this week. During our interview, Tristan talks about how he helps businesses grow, and also how he grew his own business from a start-up in his kitchen, literally, into a global operation. Quite a feat! You'll find that Tristan is very articulate about the challenges all start-ups face and how to stay focused on building from the customer backwards, one step at a time, with the scalability needed to achieve 7-figure results.

Learn how to overcome discriminatory gender bias!

As you may know, I am researching my next book about women and how they are smashing the myths of what they can or cannot do in this world. I was therefore thrilled to have the opportunity to interview Andrea (Andie) Kramer and her husband Al Harris about their new book, “It’s Not You, It’s the Workplace.” Our conversation digs into those lingering myths about women’s workplace relationships. Why, you might wonder, are these relationships so difficult, in which women think other women are just plain mean to each other, don’t help other women succeed, and are more challenging to work for than men. Well, that is all myth. Listen in and learn why.

Learn how to navigate tough conversations with emotional resilience

Susan Steinbrecher has developed an approach that you should know more about. Focused on helping people better understand how to talk to each other, develop stronger relationships and overcome their differences, Susan is an expert in helping businesses and other organizations build strong teams. Her new book, "Meaningful Allignment: Mastering Emotionally Intelligent Interactions at Work and in Life,"  teaches us how to do this too. In fact, it's a novel about a man whose work life and home life are in tatters. By using Susan’s methods, he discovers a different way to deal with people, and turns around himself and his life. In our podcast, you'll learn how to build emotional resilience and navigate tough conversations with confidence and compassion!