Business Confidential Now with Hanna Hasl-Kelchner

Zoom presentations and other forms of video enabled conference calling can feel a bit intimidating when you’re the one on camera trying to present yourself professionally. So how do you make yourself camera ready? Today’s guest, media expert and former TV producer Jess Todtfeld offers timely Zoom presentation tips to help you put your best foot forward.

• How to select a background that conveys a professional image. 
• Why the standard selfie camera angle is not ideal. 
• The 3 factors to focus on when doing a Zoom presentation.
• The one factor that turns people off more than any other.
• When it’s worth investing in additional lighting for a Zoom presentation. 
• When the magic of makeup makes sense for Zoom.
• How body language can impact your Zoom presentation. 
• The biggest mistakes people make on video conferencing calls. 
• And much more.

Jess Todtfeld is one of the leading communications and media training authorities in the U.S. With more than 15 years as a media trainer and consultant, Jess helps CEOs, business executives, spokespersons, public relations representatives, experts, and authors to become more confident, more in control, and to create more results from their speaking engagements and media appearances.

He brings with him 13 years of experience as a TV producer for NBC, ABC, and FOX, having booked and produced over 5,000 segments. Jess’ time in front of the camera includes features reporting, guest spots on national / international news programs. He’s been featured on just about every major network and trained clients in large corporations, like IBM, Land Rover USA, and JP Morgan to individuals in small business to non-governmental organizations such as the United Nations to actual government agencies such as The Social Security Administration.

If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Communications episodes.

Contact Jess and connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

You might also enjoy Jess’ other interview How to Attract More Power and Influence with Better Communication Skills.

Also be sure to check out Jess’ media training programs.

♥ Share this episode with someone you think will benefit from it. ♥

♥ Leave a review at Lovethepodcast.com/BusinessConfidential ♥

Seizing a golden business opportunity is every entrepreneur’s dream. But how do you do it?

Derrick Butler, Founder and CEO of Krisspi Technologies shares his remarkable entrepreneurial success story, from what inspired him to what he learned on his incredible journey.

* Inspiration for his golden business opportunity 

* 2 Personal habits that turn a golden business opportunity into success 

* Leadership challenges of executing a golden business opportunity 

* Strategically tapping your network 

* Lessons learned from the golden business opportunity journey 

* How startups can optimize their own golden business opportunity 

* And much MORE.

Derrick Butler is originally from Columbus, Georgia, and grew up in a military and entrepreneurial household, where his father was an officer in the Army for 30 years, and his mother was a licensed barber and a publisher.

Derrick chose business as a career path early, as he began working in his mother’s business at the age of 11. Growing up in the business world gave Derrick a passion for Entrepreneurship, and he believed that a degree in business was a necessity to achieve success.

Derrick graduated college with his Bachelor of Science in Business, and then attended Saint Mary’s College to complete his Executive MBA. Derrick is currently the Founder/CEO of Krisspi Technologies, an application-based company that connects barbers and hairstylists with clients who need hair services at home, office, or hotel. Krisspi is like “Uber” for barbers and hairstylists.

Krisspi has received national press in Digital Journal, PR Underground, and most recently on the digital news site Recently Heralded. Derrick is married with (5) five kids, and an avid speaker/coach.

If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Entrepreneurship Success Stories.

Contact Derrick and connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Learn more about Derrick’s amazing business, Krisspi.

♥ Share this episode with someone you think will benefit from it. ♥

♥ Leave a review at Lovethepodcast.com/BusinessConfidential ♥

Implicit bias is an uphill battle for those laboring under its burden and for organizations trying to eliminate it.

You may have experienced it yourself. It might even be the reason you started your own business. No matter how hard you worked, no matter how great your ideas, your objective skills, or even your past successes – you’re passed over, you lose out to someone else less qualified and in your gut you know there is some type of bias at work. It may not rise to the level of being illegal and even if it did you might not want to take legal action for a variety of reasons. BUT in your heart you know you’ve been unfairly disadvantaged.

What can you do? How can you turn that adversity into and advantage? Into your super power? Harvard professor and award winning researcher, Dr Laura Huang shares her insights and explains how.

• 
  
• The difference between implicit bias, unconscious bias, and systemic bias.
• The multiple forms of privilege in the workplace.
• The problem with traditional anti-bias training.
• How the myth of meritocracy muddies the water.
• How management can empower employees to find their strengths and advance the organization
• And much more.

Dr. Laura Huang is an Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and an expert in interpersonal relationships and implicit bias in entrepreneurship and in the workplace.

She is also the creator of #FindYourEdge, an initiative dedicated to addressing inequality and disadvantage through personal empowerment.

Her award-winning research has been featured in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, and Nature, and she was named one of the 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40 by Poets & Quants.

She has previously held positions in investment banking, consulting, and management, for organizations as Standard Chartered Bank, IBM Global Services, and Johnson & Johnson.

Laura holds an MS and BSE in electrical engineering Duke University, an MBA from INSEAD, and a PhD from the University of California, Irvine. She is also the author of Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage.

If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Communications episodes.

Contact with Dr. Huang and connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

Also be sure to check out Dr. Huang’s book: Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage. 

CONGRATULATIONS – you’re a manager now.

If you secretly feel like the cat who finally caught the mouse and are not quite sure how to avoid common management leadership traps, you’re not alone. Today’s guest, HR pro Barbara Mitchell has years of experience helping new and seasoned managers side-step leadership traps and can help you maximize your impact and influence as well as build trust and and high performance teams.

• The 2 biggest challenges new managers face.
• Why thinking your positional power means you have all the answers is a huge leadership trap.
• The 3 management behaviors that are leadership traps.
• How employee engagement starts well before you hire someone.
• Why onboarding employees is not solely an HR department responsibility.
• What to do when you feel your job is threatened by a super star who reports to you.
• An easy way to side-step the leadership trap inherent in managing remote employees.
• And much more.

Barbara Mitchell an acclaimed expert in human resources management and award winning co-author of The Manager’s Answer Book: Powerful Tools to Maximize Your Impact and Influence, Build Trust and Teams, and Respond to Challenges – a 2020 winner of the prestigious Next Generation Indie Book Award.

Barbara is enthusiastic about helping organizations find, hire, engage and retain the best available talent. That’s why she founded The Mitchell Group, a management consulting practice that helps clients with people and talent management issues. She also maintains an active blog. Prior to her consulting, she spent much of her business career with Marriott International.

You might already be familiar with some of Barbara’s other work. In 2012, together with Cornelia Gamlem she wrote The Big Book of HR because managing people is the most challenging part of any leader’s day. The dynamic writing duo has since drilled down even further with their latest timeless release, The Manager’s Answer Book.

If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Leadership and Management episodes.

Contact Barbara and connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Big Book of HR Twitter, as well as the Got Work Conflict Twitter.

Don’t forget to check out her book: 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahaslkelchner.substack.com

Judgment recovery is not as easy as asking “show me the money” after you win a lawsuit. Getting a judgment in a court of law gets you a piece of paper and the right to now go and collect on it. It doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily be successful AND if you’re not successful if feels like getting victimized all over again.

So if you want to know how to actually recover what’s rightfully owed to you, you’re going to love today’s guest. He’s the nation’s leading financial forensic expert and he’ll explain what you need to do to successfully enforce and recover a legal judgement in the United States.

• Why building a better relationship with the local sheriff’s department is a smart idea.
• Why deposing the debtor immediately after the verdict isn’t the smartest thing to do.
• How to avoid the debtor’s delays and stall tactics.
• The financial forensic research you need to do before engaging in judgment recovery.
• The best strategy for locating assets the debtor hides.
• The mistake lawyers often make when seeking judgment recovery.
• And much more.

Joe Dickerson is a domestic and international judgment enforcement expert and instructor who helps individuals and businesses enforce civil judgments in the U.S. and around the world as CEO of Financial Forensic Services, LLC.  He also trains people on how to do asset recovery.

His relevant experience in helping victims recover money runs deep and includes being a former Detective Sergeant of the Houston Police Department in Texas, and founding member of Houston’s Harris County District Attorney’s Organized Crime Bureau.

He has also taken the lessons he’s learned over the years and put it in writing in his international best-selling book, Diagnostic & Prescriptive Judgment Enforcement: The New Model for Judgment Recovery.

I wish I had known about Joe’s book several years ago. As an attorney I know first-hand how difficult it can be to collect on a judgment. In one case I had many years ago I sent a judgment to the local Sheriff’s office to execute. Whenever I called about it I was told “don’t you worry, we have 30 days to execute that order.” I had someone from the office drive by the business and they confirmed it was still up and running. BUT on the 30th day when the Sheriff’s office went to do their job they found crickets. There was a padlock on the door. The lights were out. The place was empty- cleaned out.

If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Risk Mangement and Law episodes.

Contact Joe and connect with him on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Check out his international best-selling book: Diagnostic & Prescriptive Judgment Enforcement: The New...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahaslkelchner.substack.com

Trust and collaboration are essential business leadership skills. You crave the brain storming energy and productivity it creates; but, at the same time trying to wrap your arms around it feels like catching a wave – the tighter you try to hold on, the more you find yourself holding gritty sand and sticky seaweed. Today’s guest, Jill Ratliff, is an executive coach who will share how we can reliably improve workplace trust and collaboration.

* What good leaders do in stressful moments to promote trust and collaboration

* How trust and collaboration starts with positive energy

* Why problems aren’t the problem when it comes to trust and collaboration

* The leadership story of NFL running back Dorsey Levens

* The importance of “know where you hold and where you fold”

* The leadership traits that foster trust and collaboration

* What the best bosses do to build trust and collaboration

* And much MORE.

Jill Ratliff an Executive Coach and Leadership Speaker with more than 20 years of Fortune 100 Human Resources Management experience.

Jill also is a longtime mentor with Pathbuilders, an organization that helps high-performing women accelerate their careers, and an opinion columnist for CEOWORLD magazine.

More recently she’s written the book  Leadership through Trust and Collaboration, a practical guide to learn why current strategies to build leaders aren’t working – and what can be done to improve them. It includes profound new ways of thinking that simplify how the best leaders lead in challenging situations.

If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Leadership and Management episodes.

Contact Jill and connect with her at Jill Ratliff Executive Leadership, on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Also be sure to check out Jill’s book Leadership Through Trust & Collaboration: Practical Tools for Today’s Results-Driven Leader.

♥ Share this episode with someone you think will benefit from it. ♥

♥ Leave a review at Lovethepodcast.com/BusinessConfidential ♥

Hard-driving leaders experience tremendous levels of stress that can often lead to serious health problems, such as heart attacks. Sure, you’d like to get some relief. Nobody really wants hypertension and cardiovascular disease. But who has time to figure it all out?

Well, my next guest, Prof. Peter Alexander did. He’s a recovering hard-driving leader himself who has some quick and easy stress relief tips for you.

* How Prof. Pete decided to leave a successful career due to stress

* The 7-step Lighten Model for stress relief

* The Hawaiian stress technique to use when going into difficult situations

* How entrepreneurs can reduce stress to achieve their business dreams

* The all purpose stress reliever for hard-driving leaders

* The key take-away from Lighten Your Day

* And much MORE.

During his career Peter Alexander has had the privilege to work in a variety of positions including Sales, Marketing, College Professor and Small Business Owner. Each role had one thing in common he says – high stress. It got so bad, Pete was diagnosed with stress-related diabetes and also ended up in the hospital with a severe case of diabetic ketoacidosis, and only a few hours away from being comatose.

It was a huge reality check. He knew it was time to walk away even though I had a great job, secure income and good benefits.

He’s since poured his energies into helping other hard-driving leaders avoid his mistakes and dedicated his professional career to helping others benefit from the stress management tools and techniques he learned and experienced first-hand. He’s even put his findings between two covers in a book called Lighten Your Day.

If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Self-care and Wellness episodes.

Contact Prof. Pete and connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

If your business invoices aren’t being paid fast enough you might benefit from today’s invoicing tips so that you can improve your cash flow and get money rolling in sooner rather than later.

And you’re in luck, today’s guest, Mary Schaeffer, puts the “payable” into accounts payable and her practical invoicing tips will have you running to see if you’re invoices reflect best practices.

* How understanding the invoice process provides insights for invoicing tips

* Invoicing tips to avoid payment delays

* Why invoicing tips apply equally to paper and electronic invoices 

* Invoicing tips regarding invoice automation solutions 

* Invoicing tips best practices 

* And MUCH more

Mary Schaeffer is the founder and publisher AP Now, the author of more than 20 business books, an accounts payable best practice trainer, a course and content creator; not to mention the host of the AP Now podcast.

Mary has also been named a top 50 Influencer in accounts payable by the Accounts Payable Association and is the author of 127 Best Practices for Accounts Payable.

She definitely puts the payable in accounts payable.

If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Finance episodes.

Contact Mary and connect with her on LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

Follow her AP Now podcast and visit her content rich accounts payable website.

Get the FREE Invoicing Tips Sheet here.

The silo effect or silo mentality in organizations, when one group’s specialization walls then off from everyone else is often viewed as a consequence of growth.

But todays guest, Sarah Siwak Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Airhouse, says that the silo effect shuts out more than it shuts in and hurts the bottom line.

And in this insightful interview she share more about what those costs actually are.

* How the silo effect reduces productivity

* Why the silo effect slows the scaling of your business

* How cross-functional teams combat the silo effect

* How to incentivize better communication to limit the silo effect

* And MUCH more.

Sarah Siwak is proof that staying in one lane is rarely the best option.

After obtaining her B.A. in Russian, she stepped into a marketing and web production role at an early-stage tech startup in Tokyo. Armed with a new-found love for both marketing and tech, Sarah went on to lead marketing initiatives for several large, innovative players in the industry like Zenefits, Heap, and Shyp. Now, as the Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Airhouse, she’s applying lessons learned from her less-than-traditional path to power logistics solutions for emerging direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands.

The single-minded pursuit of narrow expertise has its perks. But so does intellectual omnivory. When it comes to navigating dynamic business landscapes, the broader your palate, the better your chances to survive and thrive.

That kind of intellectual omnivory — a boundless appetite to learn, coupled with a capacity to see the hidden threads among disparate ideas — comes naturally to Sarah Siwak. As Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Founder of direct-to-consumer e-commerce logistics solution Airhouse, Sarah is living proof that staying in one lane is rarely the best option.

After obtaining her B.A. in Russian, she stepped into a marketing and web production role at an early-stage tech startup in Tokyo. Armed with a new-found love for both marketing and tech, Sarah went on to lead marketing initiatives for several large, innovative players in the industry like Zenefits, Heap, and Shyp.

Now at Airhouse, she’s putting a lifetime of intellectual omnivory to good use by helping direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands simplify the costly, unpredictable business of getting their products into the hands of buyers

If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Leadership and Management episodes.

Contact Sarah and connect with her on LinkedIn, and Twitter .

And be sure to check out Airhouse. 

Rating and reviewing the show helps us grow our audience and allows us to bring you more of the rich information you need to succeed from our high powered guests. Leave a review at Lovethepodcast.com/BusinessConfidential.

Joining the Business

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahaslkelchner.substack.com

Business bottlenecks are like flat tires. They slow you down and happen at the worst times. Nobody likes them.

What are the most common business bottlenecks and what can you do to avoid them? Entrepreneur coach, Laurent Notin explains. 

* The 3 most common business bottlenecks

* How to know when you have a business bottleneck

* The first thing you need to do to get unstuck

* How to hire the right team to solve and anticipate business bottlenecks

* And MUCH more.

Laurent Notin is an Entrepreneur Coach, Start-up Mentor and Host of Inter:views Cracking The Entrepreneurship Code.

He is a French national who left France at 23, spent 20 years in South-East Asia, before relocating to Finland in the summer of 2019.

His professional background is in market research and advertising, where he ran 7-figure businesses across 3 countries.

Throughout the years, he’s developed a passion for coaching, mentoring, advising and training people. Combined with his entrepreneurial mindset, becoming a coach to entrepreneurs just made sense.

Today, Laurent help entrepreneurs deal with the biggest risk they face: being stuck, or what he calls becoming the bottleneck in their businesses.

They are many ways you can be a bottleneck, but the result is always the same: you’re stuck.

And when you’re stuck, your business is stuck because you can’t think about anything else. This is exactly when Laurent comes in, helping entrepreneurs get so they can focus on growing their businesses again.

If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Entrepreneurship episodes.

Contact Laurent and connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Check out his podcast — Inter:views Cracking The Entrepreneurship Code and his website. 

You can even schedule a free call with him: https://tinyurl.com/book-your-free-call

Rating and reviewing the show helps us grow our audience and allows us to bring you more of the rich information you need to succeed from our high powered guests. Leave a review at 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahaslkelchner.substack.com