Podcast 572: World Famous How to Create a Kick-Ass Brand with David Tyreman

Most of us are aware that branding ourselves  or our companies can be a challenging task.  It is as if there is a magic formula that when you have the correct ingredients your company can blast off into the stratosphere where customers are clamoring to subscribe to your service or purchase your products.

David Tyreman has authored a book entitled “World Famous-How to Create a Kick-Ass Brand.  David has worked with some of the biggest companies like Banana Republic, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Nike and many others.  In my interview with David we explore the components that are required to create a kick-ass brand.  David explains there are five of them and they are:  1) Dare 2) Learn Why People Buy 3) A Defined Differentiation 4) Adding Value 5) Ready, Set Engage.  These steps make up the roadmap for someone wanting to develop their brand.

We also discuss the power of a super niche, defining what you do best and not spreading yourself too thin that your customers are confused by your offering or service.   You also need to be concerned and do you research on the demographics and psychographics of your target customer.  Remember not everyone is your customer, so develop a plan and research your customer profile so you know what makes them tick.

David is a master at helping people brand themselves or their company.  His book “World Famous-How to Create a Kick-Ass Brand” is loaded with stories, examples and advice that can assist both the newbie or the experienced marketer.

I would recommend that you check out David Tyremen at his website by clicking here.  World Famous also has a great branding course that you might want to consider taking.  If you are interested finding out more about the course please email David at david@worldfamouscompany.com.

 

Podcast 563: Enabling Collaboration with Martin Echavarria

Collaboration is something that is the buzzword in today’s business world.  Everyone is looking to collaborate and develop stronger strategic alliances that will result being greater innovation, profits and synergy.  Most executives would like to find out the magic ingredients on how collaboration and strategic alliances are developed, nurtured and successfully implemented.

Author Martin Echavarria has studied how collaboration and strategic alliances are successfully developed and result in a positive synergy for all parties involved.  In our interview together about his new book entitled ” Enabling Collaboration-Achieving Success Through Strategic Alliances and Partnership” he explains how any business can gain traction and better develop these all important relationships.

Martin states that certain key skills employed across the alliance development process are important regardless of alliance type.  These skills consist of emotional intelligence, relationship intelligence, perspective taking, systems thinking, cognitive intelligence and somatic intelligence.

To learn more about successful collaboration and alliance development please listen to my interview with Martin.  If you want to check out Martin’s website you can click here.

I hope you enjoy this great interview with Martin Echavarria the author of “Enabling Collaboration“

Podcast 561: Plus Change-Genesis of Innovation with Moe Glenner

Change is everywhere, change is the only constant and it certainly is not going away.  What do we do, how do we manage change?  You and your fellow workers learn how to live with it, cope and make it your ally.

As the author Moe Glenner states in his new book “Plus Change-Genesis of Innovation” “Since life will frequently take us to the intersection of creativity, change and innovation, how do we successfully navigate the junction?  Now, that is the question of the millennial?

In Moe’s book “Plus Change” he navigates us through the elements of change and unlocks the secrets to turning that change into growth, potential and profits.  Moe has what he refers to as the “Nifty-Nine Principles to the creative process.  These principles are wonderful ways to move change into creativity, and they are 1) Release the endorphins 2) Separate idea generation from idea evaluation 3) Always test assumptions 4) Avoid patterned thinking 5) Create new perspectives 6) Minimize negative thinking 7) Take (prudent) risks 8) Get lost! 9) Turn Out the lights.

If you want to get more context regarding these principles click on this Youtube interview that Moe did about the book.  It provides the viewer with an overview of the book and its contents as well as more insight into the principles.  I hope you enjoy this interview with author Moe Glenner, please visit his website by clicking here.

 

Podcast 554: The New Corporate Facts of Life with Diana Rivenburgh

This interview is with the remarkable Diana Rivenburgh on here most recent book “The New Corporate Facts of Life.”  In this book, Diana can show business leaders how to seize and profit from the opportunities born every day in this new era of catalytic change.  This book will arm readers with practical models and tools in order to rid your business of outdated and useless practices and to bring it up to speed with modern influences.

Diana Rivenburgh has 25+ years  experience with organizational and leadership development, change, consulting and strategy creation.  She has her M.S. in Positive Organizational Development and Change from Case Western Reserve University and her B.S. in Business Administration from New York Institute of Technology.

Learn more about Diana Rivenburgh at strategic-imperatives.com.  You can also purchase “The New Corporate Facts of Life” here.

 

Podcast 539: The Fear Free Organization with Joan Kingsley

Every organization today is attempting to get the greatest engagement and productivity from their employees.  In my recent interview with author Joan Kingsley the author of ” The Fear-Free Organization” we discuss the important characteristics required to create a fear free organization.

Leadership and trust are obviously a key characteristics that that help to build confidence in the employees, but  neuroscience shows that individuals and organizations are more successful when people are encouraged to take risks, to explore new ideas, and to channel their energies in ways that work for them.  In my interview with author Joan Kingsley we explore how to make your organization less fear driven and more fearless.

I hope you enjoy this wonderful interview with Joan Kingsley about her new book entitled ” The Fear-Free Organization”  You can learn more about Joan and the book by clicking here to be taken to her consulting organization website.

Podcast 524: The Hidden Leader with with Scott Edinger

Leadership, it is a hot topic these days.  If you look inside businesses most organizations are looking for good leaders.

In my recent interview with author Scott Edinger we discuss his new book entitled “The Hidden Leader’.  Scott has been working with leaders for years developing the best and the brightest.  In his his new book we discuss the characteristics that he finds in all good leaders, and frequently these hidden leaders are overlooked by the management of the organization.

There are probably many people you can think of that are hidden leaders within your organization.  Most of these hidden leaders have amazing interpersonal skills,  strong values, high levels of integrity, focus on results and the customer.  They have already developed the traits and characteristics of a leader, and have not officially been given the title.  If you want to learn more about discovering and developing the greatness within your organization I recommend listening to my interview with Scott Edinger the author of “The Hidden Leader“.

If you would like to view Scott’s website just click here, or you can connect with him via Twitter by clicking the link.  I hope you enjoy this great interview with Scott Edinger.

Podcast 518: Holacracy The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World with Brian Robertson

The new book Holacracy-The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World is a book that will get anyone in business thinking about how to organize their company.  As a matter of fact, many major companies have embraced Brian Robertson’s Holacracy System including the forward thinking organization Zappos.

In my interview with Brian we take an in-depth look into how to design an organization with this new management model.  Holacracy is a combination of individual accountability, team transparency, and flexible, face-paced tactical meetings to help in creating greater levels of efficiency, adaptability and productive operations.  Holacracy also develops absolute habits of making commitments about when you will deliver a particular project or action.  For instance in tactical meetings you capture next action, but do not attach deadlines or commitment to them.  You might be asking why?  Committing to deadlines has downsides and obscures a more dynamic, reality-based approach.  Brian states that by accepting the next action item in your role, is by definition making the commitment to continuously track the action, and to consciously do the action as soon as it becomes the most important item among your possible actions.

I encourage you to listen, take notes and learn from Brian Robertson a man on a mission to transform how organization run, and how the cultures are transformed.  He has a fascinating approach and one that is worth your investigation of time to understand.  If you want more information about Holacracy you can click here to be directed to his book site, or click here to be directed to Holacracy.org.

Podcast 498: The Best Place to Work with Ron Friedman PhD

I recently interviewed author Ron Friedman PhD the author of a new book entitled “The Best Place to Work, The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace”.  As many of you might be aware the levels of engagement in the US workforce is abysmal with levels of disengagement at about 71%.  So just why do we have such an amazingly high rate of disengagement from employees?

The answer to this question and many more can be found in Ron” new book ” The Best Place to Work“.  Ron spent years studying the best places to work, he interviewed people and heard stories. He researched motivation, creativity, management, behavioral economics, neuroscience and combined this into his new book.  In my interview with Ron he provides insights into what is required to create the “Best Place to Work.”  It is not an easy formula for their are so many factors that affect how people perform and engage at work.  Autonomy, Purpose, Meaning, Fun, Play are just a few of the many elements of the workplace formula that Ron and I discuss in our interview.

I know that you will find my interview with author Ron Friedman to be enlightening and give you new perspective on what companies are doing and can do to develop environments in the workplace that foster  more productivity, creativity and innovation.

I hope you enjoy my interview with Ron and please check out his book website for the book by clicking here, you can also follow him on Twitter, and learn about his consulting organization called Ignite 80 by clicking the link.

 

Podcast 486: Value Proposition Design with Alan Smith

You might be familiar with all the buzz around something called the “Business Model Canvas”.  There are currently three books in the series which started with “Business Model Generation” then “Business Model You” now a new book ” Value Proposition Design“.  So why the interest from the business communities in this interesting way of developing a business model.  Simply put, it is engaging, inclusive ,compelling and it works.

Authors Alex Osterwalder, Yves Pingeur, Greg Bernarda and Alan Smith are the dynamic team behind the business model canvas.  I recently had the pleasure of having a dialogue with Alex Smith the brains behind the book designs, which I might add are a big reason for the success of the books.

During our dialogue we discuss the key elements in creating a great value for customers, we also get into the steps necessary to create the value proposition canvas: Customer Profile, Value Map and Fit all  extremely important considerations in the developing a any new product design.  Alan and his colleagues refer to gain creators, and pain relievers as one of the most important elements in developing great designs.

While this all might sound simple it is daunting to create a new product, test it and know that you are creating something that is really needed and wanted by your customers.  Developing something in a vacuum is crazy,  where your perception of what will relieve your customers pains is exactly that a perception and not the reality of the situation.  Developing then testing your product is so important, I speak from experience I have developed a few products and testing is so important so you can gain feedback.

Alan and his team have recently released a cloud based software system allowing teams to collaborate on developing a business model canvases, it is called Strategyzer.  In my humble opinion I have never seen software as simple as Strategyzer, providing results in minutes.  If you work with a team and you are in the process of developing a new product or service I would highly recommend checking out this amazing new cloud based software.

I encourage you to listen closely to Alan Smith as he guides the listener to a better understanding of Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Design.  If you want to just click on the links provided below that will take you to the related websites associated with Value Proposition Design.

Value Proposition Design

Strategyzer