In Episode 7 we continue our conversation with speaker, communication expert, and World Adoption Day founder Hank Fortener.

For part two, Hank gives us a deep dive on what makes a great communicator - and some of his ideas will definitely surprise you. For starters, Hank tells us why preparation and empathy are the keys to great communication, why storytelling is at the heart of great leaders and great companies, as well the biggest mistake leaders make when communicating to their employees. 

Just like part one, part two of our conversation with Hank is packed with actionable tips, engrossing stories, and great book recs, all delivered with Hank’s trademark humility and sense of humor. We love the way Hank thinks about his work, his life, and the businesses he advises, and we think you will too.

If you haven’t yet, check out part one of our conversation here.

Key Takeaways

• Hank explains what he means by “real-time clear thinking,” and explains why this, in combination with an overwhelming sense of empathy, is the key to great communication.
• Hank walks us through the tactics he uses to put himself in the mind of his audience before he speaks.
• Hank breaks down what he calls the "magic of communication."
• Hank explains why listening and observation are actually the most important trait of great storytellers.
• Hank tells us why storytelling is at the heart of great leadership and great companies.
• Hank breaks down the difference between actual meaningful communication and mere self-expression.
• Hank tells us why the most successful people say no to most things, and yes to only a few.
• Finally, Hank explains why maximizing your team’s capabilities is the mark of great leadership.

Links

• AdoptTogether
• World Adoption Day
• Mosaic
• @HankFortener on Twitter
• Hank on LinkedIn
• Hank on Instagram

Recommended Reading

• The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
• Philosophy in the Flesh by George Lakoff 
• James Altucher
• Tom Rath
• Keith Ferrazzi
• Product Launch Formula

Liked this episode? Then let us know! subscribe, rate, and review the show for a chance to win a SnackNation gift box for your office. Details at AwesomeOffice.org/podcast.

Episode 6 | How to Become a World-Class Communicator with Hank Fortener (part 1)

Our guest in Episode 6 of the Awesome Office Show is non other than Hank Fortener, an adoption expert, pastor, speaker, and sought-after authority on culture and leadership.

As the founder of AdoptTogether.org and World Adoption Day, Hank has dedicated much of his life to helping young people who are (in his words) “without a tribe” feel a sense of family and belonging. Through his organizations, Hank has helped more than 1,400 families raise 6 million dollars towards adoption expenses to help bring their children home. He is also a pastor at Mosaic, a vibrant church led by Erwin McManus in the heart of Hollywood, where he delivers thoughtful and impassioned sermons to massive audiences.

Luckily for us, Hank has applied much of his learning around human behavior and belonging to the business world.

Hank really blew us away at our Awesome Office Launch Party earlier this year - and we weren’t the only ones. Hank's 15-minute presentation was one of the most buzzed about talks that night. That’s why we knew we had to have him as a guest for a deeper dive on the Awesome Office Show.

In our conversation, Hank talks about the key to communication for leaders, why solving problems is the most important job of any individual, team, or company, and why it’s important to set aside your ego if you actually want to do that.

Like a couple of our other guests, our dialogue with Hank was too good to cut short, so we decided to break this episode into two parts.

This episode is full of actionable tips to help your company go from good, to great, to Awesome:

Key Takeaways

• Hank explains the “Why” behind his organizations AdoptTogether.org and World Adoption Day.
• Hank tells us why he prefers the word “tribe” or “team” over “family” when describing relationship dynamics in the business world.
• Hank explains why empathy is the key to effective communication and how to cultivate empathy in your preparation before public speaking.
• Hank talks about why solving problems is more important than being right, and how to set aside your own ego in order to do so.
• Hank tells us how companies and leaders can (and should) become better story-tellers.
• Hank explains why leaders should make a place for charity, goodwill, and community in their organizations.
• Hank explains why he believes that profit-only business leaders will age out of the majority of the world’s most successful companies in the coming years.

Links

• AdoptTogether
• World Adoption Day
• Mosaic
• @HankFortener on Twitter
• Hank on LinkedIn

Recommended Reading

• Tom Rath
• The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
• Communicator
• Philosophy in the Flesh by George Lakoff (http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Flesh-Embodied-Challenge-Western/dp/0465056741)
• James Altucher
• Tom Rath
• Keith Ferrazzi

Liked this episode? Then let us know! subscribe, rate, and review the show for a chance to win a SnackNation gift box for your office. Details at AwesomeOffice.org/podcast.

In part one of our conversation,

In part two, we dive even further.

Jason also talks about the absolute

Finally, we end the episode with

We really appreciated Jason’s

Key

Jason explains why he thinks of

Jason talks about the importance of

Jason talks about why it’s important

Jason talks about what he considers

Links

Recommended

Enter our Ratings and

Our goal is to help as many people,

We’re giving away one free gift box

Our featured interview for Episode 3 is none other than Jason Nazar, the co-founder and former CEO of Docstoc, and the creator and host of Startups Uncensored, the longest running and most widely attended technology gathering in southern California

As an active tech entrepreneur, investor, writer, and speaker, Jason knows a thing or two about creating strong teams, inspiring cultures, and work environments in which individuals can become their ideal selves.

In our conversation Jason describes his first foray into entrepreneurship at age seven, explains why he did a 180 on the importance of culture, and reveals the three hiring rules that helped make DocStoc go from a mere idea to a massive online repository of business intelligence with more than 50 million registered users.

Our conversation with Jason was too good to cut short, so we made it into two parts. 

Key Takeaways

Links

Recommended Reading

Enter our Ratings and Reviews Contest, Win a Free SnackNation Gift Box!

Our goal is to help as many people, teams, and companies as possible. To that end, the ratings and reviews on iTunes help us tremendously. That’s why we’re celebrating our launch with a ratings and reviews contest.

We’re giving away one free gift box full of premium healthy and delicious snacks (courtesy of SnackNation) per week from now until October 29th, 2015. All you have to do is subscribe, rate, and review this podcast, and confirm your review at AwesomeOffice.org/Podcast.

The Awesome Office Show is all about leading people, creating culture, and inspiring Awesome for companies of all shapes and sizes. So for the show’s very first guest, we went with someone who embodies the spirit of that mission; someone who has personally interviewed more than 1,200 candidates; someone whose passion for people and development permeates everything he does, and who has cultivated a culture of growth that helped transformed his company into the second fastest growing private company in America. 

We’re talking about Quest Nutrition president and co-founder Tom Bilyeu (pronounced “bill-you”).

Tom, along with his two partners, has completely reinvented the nutrition bar category in a periods of just a few years, and redefined what it means to snack healthy by creating healthy treats that taste like they’re bad for you, but actually are not.

Having grown up in Tacoma, Washington in a family that struggled with obesity, Tom felt a personal drive to segue into the health and fitness industry and help his loved ones and others like them revolutionize their relationship with food.  As it would turn out, this new focus on something deeply personal and passion-based led him and his two partners to found Quest.

We expected Tom to drop some magic on our first episode, and he certainly didn’t disappoint.

One of the most fascinating things we learned about Tom is that he credits much of his success to a concerted effort to rethink — or even unlearn—the lessons of the past, including the fixed mindset and so-called “slave mentality”that plagued him early on in his career. 

Tom had so much good stuff for us that we decided to give this conversation two episodes. So join us as we delve into the mind of Quest Nutrition’s Tom Bilyeu. 

Key Takeaways

• Tom discusses the “slave mentality”he held early in his career, and how he was able to recognize and break out of it. 
• Tom explains why it’s so important for leaders to be vulnerable, and why you shouldn’t confuse vulnerability with weakness.
• Tom walks us through the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset, and explains why adopting a growth mindset has made all the difference in his life, his career, and his company. 
• Tom takes us through his belief in the importance of disciplined practice, and how he tricks his brain into working through moments of boredom or frustration.

Links & Recommended Reading

• QuestNutrition.com
• InsideQuest.com
• Tom Bilyeu on Twitter
• The Quest Nutrition Belief System (25 Bullet Points)
• Mindsetby Carol Dweck

Enter our Ratings and Reviews Contest, Win a Free SnackNation Gift Box!

Our goal is to help as many people, teams, and companies as possible. To that end, the ratings and reviews on iTunes help us tremendously. That’s why we’re celebrating our launch with a ratings and reviews contest.

We’re giving away one free gift box full of premium healthy and delicious snacks (courtesy of SnackNation) per week from now until October 29th, 2015. All you have to do is subscribe, rate, and review this podcast, and confirm your review at AwesomeOffice.org/Podcast.

In Episode 2, our conversation with Quest Nutrition president and co-founder Tom Bilyeu continues. 

In part 2 of our conversation, Tom mentioned a few things that surprised us. 

For starters, he explains that if you’re an employee at Quest Nutrition, he’s not just there to give you the support you need to achieve your goals and grow as a professional. Likewise, his mission isn’t just to provide consumers with nutritious, healthy snacks that taste great while improving your overall metabolic health. 

Ahead of all these things, Tom sees it as his job to do one thing and one thing only —

To free you from the Matrix. 

We were intrigued, and had to know more. His explanation revealed more than we expected, including the development of Quest Nutrition’s 25 bullet mission statement, and why he’s ok with Quest serving as an incubator for human talent. 

In this episode, we also debut our rapid-fire “Minute of Magic”segment, in which we challenge Tom to answer a series of questions in quick succession. 

So take the red pill with Tom, and see how far this rabbit hole goes…

Key Takeaways

• Tom explains what he means when he says his job is to “free you from the matrix.” 
• Tom describes the utility in listening to criticism no matter who its from, and how the adoption of a growth mindset led him to that conclusion. 
• Tom describes the importance of culture, and why he made it an actual part of his job description.
• Tom talks about why he ditched the standard mission statement for Quest in favor of his “25 bullet points that every human being needs to know in order to achieve every dream they’ve ever head.”

Links & Recommended Reading

• QuestNutrition.com
• InsideQuest.com
• Tom Bilyeu on Twitter
• The Quest Nutrition Belief System (25 Bullet Points)
• Mindsetby Carol Dweck

Enter our Ratings and Reviews Contest, Win a Free SnackNation Gift Box!

Our goal is to help as many people, teams, and companies as possible. To that end, the ratings and reviews on iTunes help us tremendously. That’s why we’re celebrating our launch with a ratings and reviews contest.

We’re giving away one free gift box full of premium healthy and delicious snacks (courtesy of SnackNation) per week from now until October 29th, 2015. All you have to do is subscribe, rate, and review this podcast, and confirm your review at AwesomeOffice.org/Podcast.

Today our guest is Nanxi Liu, an entrepreneur, innovator, and frankly, one of the most accomplished people under thirty we’ve ever come across. 

Nanxi is the co-founder and CEO of Enplug, a company that builds the leading software for displays in stores, hotels, sports arenas, restaurants, and offices. Since their founding in 2012, the company has grown from 5 co-founders to a team of more than 50 people in North America, Africa, and Europe. Every day, millions of people use Enplug's technology in dozens of countries around the world. 

Prior to Enplug, Nanxi co-founded and now serves on the board of Nanoly Bioscience, which develops polymers that enable vaccines to survive without refrigeration.

In today’s featured conversation, Nanxi offered us her utterly unique perspective on culture and leadership. We touched on a number of different topics, including why she opts to live with a third of her colleagues in a shared house in West Los Angeles. 

Key Takeaways

• Nanxi explains why a third of the Enplug team have opted to both live and work together.
• Nanxi talks about her definition of a “family-style”company culture, and how you can build a family-like culture even if you don’t happen to live with your colleagues. 
• While she agrees that transparency is important in establishing trust, Nanxi points out an instance in which she went too far and over-shared with her team. 
• She explains how building your own office furniture can kill two important birds with one stone.
• Nanxi shares her definition of an Awesome Office, and describes what she sees as the hallmarks of a truly inspired space.
• Nanxi talks about the importance of fearlessly approaching people, no matter what the context.  

Links & Recommended Reading

• Enplug.com
• Nanxi’s blog
• @Nanxi_Liu on Twitter
• Nanxi Liu on LinkedIn
• Escape Room LA

Recommended Reading

• Inc.com: “The 8 Most Gut-Wrenching Things Every Entrepreneur Must Go Through,”by Nanxi Liu
• Forbes: “A Self-Made Woman Gets Lucky In The Middle Seat,”by Denise Rester
• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

Enter our Ratings and Reviews Contest, Win a Free SnackNation Gift Box!

Our goal is to help as many people, teams, and companies as possible. To that end, the ratings and reviews on iTunes help us tremendously. That’s why we’re celebrating our launch with a ratings and reviews contest.

We’re giving away one free gift box full of premium healthy and delicious snacks (courtesy of SnackNation) per week from now until October 29th, 2015. All you have to do is subscribe, rate, and review this podcast, and confirm your review at AwesomeOffice.org/Podcast.

Lead people. Create culture. Inspire Awesome.

Welcome to the Awesome Office Show, the podcast that’s all about leading people, creating culture, and inspiring Awesome for businesses of all shapes and sizes. 

Each week we talk to a business leader, entrepreneur, HR pro, or engagement specialist at the most successful and buzzed about companies in the country, and learn their most actionable tips, tactics, and best practices - and share them with you.

This is a behind the curtain look that you’re not going to find anywhere else. If you care about developing stellar cultures that provide lasting value for employees, customers, and shareholders, then this is the podcast for you. 

Why is this episode 0? Well, this is the episode before Episode 1. And this time out, the tables are turned on AO Show host Sean Kelly. While he's usually the one asking the questions, his good bud and business partner Andy Mackensen calls the shots in Episode 0. 

The Awesome Office Show is hosted by speaker and social entrepreneur Sean Kelly. Sean is the founder of The Association of Workplace Engagement (AWE) and the co-founder and CEO of HUMAN, makers of SnackNation. He has been named one of Forbes’ 30 under 30 and been a TEDx presenter at Columbia University.

ENTER OUR CONTEST! 

Visit AwesomeOffice.org/Podcast to win a free SnackNation gift box, full of premium healthy and delicious snacks! All you have to do is subscribe, rate, and review this podcast.