John E. Wade II ” I will try to love and help create a heaven on earth”– the most important sentence that I have written or may ever write, says author John E. Wade II about his recently published his new book, “How to Achieve a Heaven On Earth.”

This is a fascinating book because it is a compilation of short essays from various people including: Barack Obama, Ted Turner, Marianne Williamson, Al Gore, Thomas L. Friedman and many others. In a very short period of time, the reader can pick up this book and read a short essay written by over 101 insightful world leaders and thinkers.

During our interview together we discuss many of the essays and John’s personal views about how important it is at this juncture in history that we come together to help resolve many of our world problems.  Solving these problems is going to take leaders who not only have the skills and wisdom, but who also have a spiritual focus.

As John states, “We must move beyond religious tolerance to real respect among all of the world’s loving spiritual beliefs and practices.  Even differing beliefs can lead to similar values, which in turn may lead to behavior that is acceptable to God.”

The ten (10) elements that John believes are important to achieving a heaven on earth are:

1) Peace

2) Security

3) Freedom

4) Democracies

5) Prosperity

6) Spiritual Harmony

7)  Racial Harmony

8)  Ecological Harmony

9) Health

10) Moral Purpose and Meaning

John is a spiritual man on a mission to help achieve heaven on earth.  He is helping to expose readers to wonderful thought leaders with varying viewpoints so one can draw their own conclusion on how to achieve a heaven on earth.

I highly recommend John’s new book, “How to Achieve A Heaven On Earth”, and to learn more about John and his charitable endeavors please visit his website by clicking here.

Enjoy this wonderful podcast with John E. Wade II.

Tracey Jones

I was recently introduced to Tracey Jones the daughter of Charlie “Tremendous” Jones.  Charlie recently passed away, and Tracey has taken over the publishing business which is now called Tremendous Life Books.  It was a pleasure doing this podcast with Tracey and learning what it was like to be the daughter of such an icon in the speaking and motivation business.

If you have never read a Charlie “Tremendous” Jones book, I can highly recommend one of his greats, ” Life is Tremendous”.   In my interview with Tracey we speak about the simple yet valuable lessons that Charlie was always teaching as he would speak and meet with his audiences.  His passion for life was contagious, and he always had a way of helping one see life from a positive and different perspective.  As Charlie says in the front of his book ” Life is Tremendous! It really is.  You can be happy, involved, relevant, productive, healthy and secure in the midst of this high pressure, commercialized, automated, pill-prone society.  It’s not easy nor automatic, but it’s possible through the development of certain personal qualities which make up the traits of leadership.  And you can be a leader, because leaders are made, not born.

Tracy and I speak about the Seven Laws of Leadership that Charlie so passionately spoke about for so many years. The Seven Saws of Leadership are: 1) Learning to get Excited About Your Work 2) Use or Lose 3) Production or Perfection 4) Give or Get 5) Exposure or Experience 6) Flexible Planning 7) Motivated to Motivating.

Please enjoy my interview with Tracey as we explore her father’s work, and how the passion for what he started has transferred a generation to Tracey as she carries on the Jones legacy through Tremendous Life Books.

If you would like to learn more about the book titles that Tremendous Life Books has published please click here to access the Tremendous Life Book website.  I know you will enjoy this interview with Tracey Jones.

Jeff KleinI had the wonderful opportunity of meeting Jeff Klein at the recent Innovation and Humanities Conference in Orange, CA.  It was an inspiring to hear him speak,  and I was very impressed by his message and passionate delivery.  I subsequently have had several deep dialogues with Jeff and feel honored to know a man who’s mission is to help shift how we think about our work.

Jeff starts the preface of his book with a wonderful quote from Kahlil Gibran, “Work is love made visible”, and there could be nothing more true.   “Working for Good” has been written to support any conscious entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, leaders, and change agents at work who truly want to make a difference while making a living.

Jeff refers to as the essential skills of working for good as 1) awareness 2) embodiment 3) connection 4) collaboration 5) integration.  The combination of these five skills forms an integrated Working for Good system.

While each skill is connected and informs the other, there is a progression of development and application from awareness to embodiment, connection, collaboration and integration.  Awareness asks questions that seek to penetrate, to get behind facades and into the depth.  What’s going on here?

Connection begins with cultivation awareness–connecting with ourselves and working with our minds and hearts–and emerges as we carry awareness into embodiment, into action with our bodies.

Collaboration leads to integration and completes the full circle of the Working for Good system.  Integration is the dynamic process of combining various elements into a new whole that has its own presence and integrity.

Jeff Klein is truly a thought leader with a unique message, attempting people to understand that they have the abilities to apply new skills and passion to do good, and make a big difference through the work that they choose to do, no matter what the work.   As Jeff says,  “Awareness is the first step to becoming a more conscious leader, and with this first step we can all create work with a purpose focused in doing good in and for the world”.

I encourage everyone to not only read Jeff’s new book, “Working for Good“,  but to practice the exercises at the end of each chapter.  Jeff’s website is awesome and loaded with content, videos and downloads.  I highly recommend that you download the  26 principles of working for good.

Do yourself a favor and listen to this great podcast with truly a wonderful thought leader, then go to his website by clicking here and watch a couple of his video’s.  Enjoy this podcast–and start your practice of Working for Good.

Steve FarberI had the pleasure of being introduced to Steve Farber, the author of, “Greater than Yourself“, by a very good friend of mine by the name of Ron Schultz.  Steve and I had the opportunity to meet in person recently at the Innovation and Humanities Conference in Orange, CA and I was very impressed with his viewpoints on leadership.  Steve’s new book entitled, “Greater than Yourself“,  is truly a book about developing leaders with heart and soul.

In a not so distant era in time, the terms heart and soul were probably frowned upon using, and the word love was a definite no-no.  It is so refreshing to see that things are shifting, and that we are moving from the me to the we.  That collaboration, cooperation and sharing best practices are the actions by true thought leaders.

Steve’s whole premise in his easy to read book is about three simple, but powerful, ideas.

1) Expand Yourself – shift your perception from I to We, from Alone to Interdependent and from Me to We.

2) Give Yourself – commit  a specific percentage of your time that you’ll consistently offer to your “Greater Than Yourself” project.  What Steve means here is be willing to help someone succeed with all of your heart and soul.  Want for their personal success more than yours, and be willing to commit to helping them attain it.

3) Replicate Yourself – you’ll experience the power of expanding beyond your personal, one-to-one influence-the raw material for changing your organization for the better.

I am convenienced that if the leaders of this great nation of ours, from congress to our President, were to practice what Steve Farber articulates in this wonderful book and parable, that our nation would be a much better place to live.  That the current problems of our world would be solved much more easily, and with so much more cooperation.  I can only hope that they get a copy of Steve’s book, read it and practice the simple but extremely powerful “lead by example” principles.

I highly recommend this book, and encourage you to visit Steve’s website by clicking here for a wealth of content that is bound to shift your personal leadership style.  Enjoy this interview with a dynamic, engaging and wonderful leader himself Steve Farber.

Erik MichielsenI was in my office one day, and got a surprise call from Erik Michielsen.   He was referred to me by author Simon Sinek who has appeared on his video blog entitled “Capture Your Flag” and was also a guest on Inside Personal Growth.

The further I dialogued with Erik about his website, I began to realize what an amazing resource he has created for people searching for more fulfillment in their careers.  Erik engages in wonderfully authentic dialogues with the men and women on the street about their feeling, emotions and motivations around their careers.

His online interview show and career planning resource, Capture Your Flag, showcases common character building themes empowering rising leaders’ personal and professional development.  Its purpose is to disarm fears you have and open future planning possibilities.

Interviewees represent an approachable peer group who continue to work through these same challenges in their respective journeys.  Interview segments are categorized by “Fulfillment Flag” to highlight common elements informing interviewee decisions and career progression.

I encourage anyone who is currently questioning their career path, or who is new to the job market to check out Erik’s website.  It is a great resource and will most likely provide the viewer with useful knowledge about his or her next steps in career planning.  You can visit Erik’s website “Capture Your Flag” by clicking here.

Will Marre I have been a fan of Will Marrè’s for a long time.  His workshops and writings are fantastic!!! He is a joy to listen to and  dialogue with.

His new book entitled, “Save the World and Still Be Home for Dinner“,  is designed to enlighten and move his readers to action.  All of us can admit that we live in a world that is constantly changing.  Our lives have been moving at a faster pace, and we are looking for more meaning and purpose in our personal and professional lives.

Will’s new book ” Save the World and Still Be Home for Dinner” is written to get you thinking about your personal promise.  What is is that you would do to make a difference in the world?  What is your personal promise to yourself and your family?

Will asks you to “change how you think about change.”  To create a world of sustainable abundance which means to find the pulse of life we can maintain that doesn’t burn us out or exhaust us but enables us to be fully present in each moment filled with both gratitude and new solutions.

If we are to live lives filled with sustainable abundance, then as leaders we need to be Real Leaders.  We need to be responsible, ethical, create abundance and a legacy.  When we look at our world from a real leadership perspective our challenges become opportunities, and our decisions are made with the whole world in mind.

Will encourages individuals to know themselves, to dig deep within themselves and do some soul searching.  Why are you here?  What is your promise, and how can you fulfill it?

As the author articulates,  soul as I mean the word is not some poetic spiritual abstraction or article of religious dogma, but the core essence of who we are as living breathing, feeling, thinking human beings.  Our soul is the deepest dimension of our awareness, as silent intelligence that underlies all of our mental and emotional functions.  Our soul is not the object of our thinking.  It is the thinker.  The “me” before the thoughts.  is is the sacred essence of our individual identity.

So if you are looking to search your soul, and find a place within yourself that resonates with the essence of your being and from this place be moved to take action and make a difference in this world, then I not only highly recommend “Save the World and Still Be Home for Dinner” I also recommend that you watch some of Will’s great video’s on Save the World and Still Be Home for Dinner by clicking here.

You are going to love this interview with Will Marrè, and I know you will want to read this book more than once to really dig into the essence of the message.

Patricia Varley While Patricia is not an author yet, she is certainly a highly qualified speaker, trainer and coach.  Her concepts and ideas about leading your life from the inside out will assist anyone seeking to grow and learn more about themselves.

She works with business people in assisting them to become transformational leaders and thinkers.  In my interview with Patricia we explore the patterns that we need to shift to obtain a more balanced life and to become more centered.

Reinventing Success from the Inside Out with Patricia Varley is a powerful facilitation guide and supports participants in transitioning between the mainstream and what is evolving on the planet at this transformative time in history. She leads people through the processes, tools, techniques and strategies to awaken their integral authenticity and discover and communicate their uniqueness and live their vision. She assists a wide range of clients in multiple industries, developing and implementing creative strategies and insights to help them achieve integrated and satisfying professional and personal lives. By connecting them more to who they are, they are better prepared to shift and take an evolutionary leaps in all areas of their lives and work and live from their highest potential.

I am certain that you will see a book in the near future by Patricia. But in the meantime you can visit her website to learn more about her coaching, and workshops by clicking here.