Influencer

E77 | Mastering the Craft of Creativity | Bob Stromberg

From his home in St. Paul, MN Bob Stromberg travels continually performing his very unique blend of original story, standup and shtick. His work has left lasting impressions on Fortune 500 companies, raised multimillions for non-profits, garnered literary and theater awards and broken box office records in the US and Europe. The London Times said “ He’s a genuinely funny man”. The Chicago Sun Times called him, “... a mesmerizing physical comedian.” Most impressively, Bob has joined a very small group of elite artists who have stayed prolific and profitably busy for over forty years. How’s he done it? By “Mastering the Craft of Creativity”. In his online class, Bob shares three profound, transforming disciplines that lead to creating a rich, personal reservoir of original ideas.

E76 | Designing for Life's Events | Hannah Payne

Hannah Payne is the founder and designer behind Luba, a high-end ready-to-wear line where every sale goes back to support women through her charity, the LOVE Foundation. In her junior year of college, Hannah secretly "studied abroad" in Florence - little did her parents know, she was taking drawing and sewing classes to further her passion into a tangible business. While doing research for a school project, Hannah was disturbed to find out that there were more animal shelters than women’s shelters in the US. She was even more shocked to learn that shelters turned down 30 women and their children everyday, due to lack of space. Hannah decided that she wanted to create a business where she can not only pursue her love for fashion, but also give back and empower women.

E75 | The Journey to Ideas | Michael Woodward

Today we celebrate Columbus day.  Columbus day and Columbus himself have become increasingly controversial over the last few years.  Weather you love or loath Columbus, there are important lessons we can learn from him.  In today's episode I share on the importance of Pilgrimages and Purposeful Journeys.  I also leave you with 10 reasons why Pilgrimages might be the perfect thing to spark your next big idea or chase that long lost dream.

E74 | Overcoming Incremental Innovations | Christos Shepherd

Christos Shepherd is the Co-Founder of Campfire and an Ex-Airline Boss.  Fresh out of undergrad, Christos started - and later sold - Air Thalassa, a Greek airline.  He went on to help governments and entrepreneurs in Africa to start airlines of their own.  During a stint at JetBlue, he launched award-winning products like Mint - America's first-ever lie-flat experience.

These days, Christos is co-founder of Campfire, a revolutionary audio app that pays users to ask great questions to their favorite experts, celebrities, and podcasters.  Besides eliciting and sharing intimate audio stories, users can donate their earnings to their favorite charities.  On Campfire, social media does social good.  You (and your favorite charities) get paid to answer listeners' questions and Campfire's Silicon Vally technology eliminates trolls and repetitive questions.  Engaging with your audience has become a breeze. 

E73 | How to Stand Out in a Noisy World | Michael Gebben

Michael Gebben spent 7 years building a video company that was the envy of everyone in his field, GebbsTV.  One day he woke up to the realization that he’d built a cage of his own making and given up so much of his life in the name of something that didn’t really mean a whole lot.  So he hit reset, and over the last three years, rebuilt his life and his career around what matters and even launched a new inspirational YouTube Channel.  He has profoundly changed is metrics for success.

E72 | Finding Your Superconsumer | Eddie Yoon

EDDIE YOON is the founder of EDDIEWOULDGROW, a think tank and advisory firm on growth strategy. Prior to that he was a partner at The Cambridge Group where he worked for 18 years, a strategy consulting firm founded in 1975 that specializes in helping CEOs and senior leadership teams within Fortune 1000 corporations drive growth by understanding how to unlock new sources of consumer demand. In the last 5 years, he has helped double numerous businesses including cable media company, food brand, beverage company, pet food brand, consumer robotics, standby generators-from several hundred million to close to a billion dollars.

E71 | Innovation in Making Instruments | Jonathan Hodgetts

What does it take to make instruments like tubas, trumpets, french horns, euphoniums, and saxophones?  Jonathan Hodgetts set out to innovation in the world of brass instruments all while making the cost more assessable to musicians.  In his quest he has re-birthed old instruments and created new models.  

Wessex Tubas was established by experienced British tuba player, Jonathan Hodgetts, in 2010, with the aim of bringing the pleasure of brass music making to the masses.

E70 | Building the Classic Porsche RSR | Richard Schickman

Have you ever had the dream to purchase or build your perfect car?  Richard Schickman started The RSR Project and is living that dream.

Richard Schickman's passion for classic cars started early in his life.  In his teens he spent his days working on restoring all types of cars.  Along the way he birthed a new passion for classic Porsche cars, specifically the coveted Porsche 911 RSR racing cars. 

E69 | Ideas start in the shower | Leonard Kim

Most of us never take the time to face our fears.  Leonard Kim thinks we should start with our fears and use those to drive us to greatness.  Ultimately fear should drive us. In part one of our episode we discuss Facing and using your fears to direct you, overcoming failure, Personal branding, Overcoming startup failure, Ice cream, Becoming the expert and thought leader, Why Shortcuts are killing you, Defining Success, and so much more.

E68 | Growing up Jewish in an Amish World | Andy Beckerman

Creating ideas and finding your dream can be a destiny that you don't think is possible in your life.  Andy Beckerman shares his journey into finding his true identity and chasing his dreams, something that he didn't think could ever happen.  In part one of our episode with Andy we discuss comedy, finding your identity, discovery your dreams, getting honest with yourself, dealing with the unexpected, the process of ideas and creativity, getting past your safety net, and so much more.

Andy Beckerman has been writing and performing comedy in New York City since 2009. He recently co-created and executive produced a comedic pilot about race called INSIDE CAUCASIA for truTV and is currently serving as a consultant on Jessica Williams’ Comedy Central pilot. Previously, he has written for shows like THE PETE HOLMES SHOW (TBS) and CEDRIC'S BARBER BATTLE (The CW).

E67 | Making the impossible possible | Leland Jones

Purpose and Passion are somethings that some spend their entire life trying to find.  Leland Jones shares his experience on how you can stop waisting your time and start living your life of destiny.  Ultimately this can lead you to changing the world around you because a human with purpose is unstoppable.  

E66 | Going Beyond Tolerance | Dr. Eric Bryant

On today's episode we discuss Christianity and diversity with Dr. Eric Bryant. Often we focus on our differences and find ourselves divided.  We've settled for tolerance instead of true embrace.  Eric's book, Not Like Me: A Field Guide for a Divided World, is celebrating it's 10th anniversary with a rerelease and update for the challenging times we are facing today.

E64 | Make your Message a Movement | Divya Parekh

Divya Parekh brings over 25 years of rich and varied experiences to her roles as a coach and a speaker. Her professional career includes positions as a university associate professor, scientist, biotechnology professional, and as a global business relationship and leadership coach. She merges her biopharmaceutical career with my extensive experience as a coach, author, consultant, and speaker. Her passion for coaching and the sincere desire to make a positive impact on people led her to develop effective evidence-based leadership and partnership programs.

E63 | The Trial and Error of Innovation | PJ Jonas

PJ Jonas is a business owner, goat-wrangler, entrepreneur, and mother. After getting goats to provide healthy milk for her eight children, she decided to put some excess milk into a batch of handmade soap. That decision was the beginning of Goat Milk Stuff, a growing goat milk products business that has been featured on The Today Show, The Doctors, The Huckabee Show, and in “O”, the Oprah Magazine.

What started with an initial small batch of soap has expanded into a host of goat milk items such as goat milk soaps, cheeses, candies, fudge, gelato and more. It’s a team effort to keep the farm running, make and ship all the products, and welcome visitors to the farm. PJ’s husband, eight children (aged 9 to 19), and six full-time employees, all work hard to promote the goodness of goat milk.

E62 | Making Creativity Personal | Laura Meoli

Laura Meoli is a digital media content creator with 10 years experience. Her achievements include a NY Emmy Award, seven Telly Awards and multiple festival wins for her video projects, "Give a Little", "Women of Action", "Perspective", and the "Granville T. Woods Documentary".

Topics covered in this episode: Creativity, Finding passion, Asking difficult questions, The importance of impact, Living a life with multiple interests, Taking risks, Staying on track, Gratitude, Defining Success, and so much more.

E61 | Building Mind Palaces | Dr. Anthony Metivier

On today's episode we chat with Dr. Anthony Metivier is the founder of the Magnetic Memory Method, a systematic, 21st Century approach to memorizing foreign language vocabulary, dreams, names, music, poetry and much more in ways that are easy, elegant, effective and fun.

Metivier writes books and creates training for a variety of people who need help with a number of different memory needs. What separates him from other authors on memory skills and development is that he doesn’t focus on long strings of digits or training for memory championships. He offers simple techniques for memorizing the information that will change your daily life: foreign language vocabulary, names and faces, material for tests and exams. There’s no hype in his training, just techniques that work.

E60 | Overcoming Band-Aid Solutions | Christie Lindor

Christie Lindor a 15+year management consultant and blogger focused on people and organizational transformation.  Recently she publishing her first book, The MECE Muse: 100+ selected practices, unwritten rules, and habits of great consultants.  She hosts a pop-up podcast show in preparation for her book launch called The MECE Muse Unplugged. 

Topics covered in this episode: Finding the right mentors, Choosing to be successful, Becoming a mentor, The Mece Principle, Creating a new mindset, Having difficult discussions, The importance of Empathy, and so much more.

E59 | The cost of inefficiency | Gavin Zuchlinski

Have you ever wondered if there is an easier way to do something?  That was the birthplace of Acuity Scheduling.  Gavin Zuchlinski was searching for a way to help his mom become more efficient with scheduling appointments for her customers.  He didn't find the solution, so he built it.  

In 2006 Acuity Scheduling was born.  Along the way they have become the industry leader for business scheduling.  As the company grew, Gavin knew he had to leave the safety of his Cybersecurity job (a job he loved) for the unknown of growing Acuity Scheduling.  They have now served over 50,000 businesses with making their scheduling needs efficient proving that it was worth the risk to create something amazing.

E58 | To Chase the Dream, Burn the Bridge | Dustin Mathews

Sought after by the biggest names in business to monetize their message, mission or movement, business builder and marketing expert Dustin Mathews is THE mentor and coach to the stars. Dustin is the co-founder of Speaking Empire – the disruptive company in the leadership and education space, whose chief mission is advancing the human race by empowering leaders to communicate powerfully, unlock their fullest potential and ultimately step into their Greatness.

Dustin is the author of many bestselling books and has shared the stage with athletes, business celebrities, and titans of business. His latest book  (Co-Authored with Dan Kennedy) the NO B.S. Guide To Powerful Presentations: How To Sell ANYTHING With Webinars & Online Media, Speeches & Seminars (Entrepreneur Press) is set for release on June 13th.