Corporate Unplugged

We’ve all suffered from ‘Not Enough Syndrome’ at some point in our lives. 

“In our relentless pursuit for external validation, we've lost sight with the fact that validation actually comes from within always, and I think that actually applies to business and products.”

Tara Schuster was told early on to pick a lane and stick with it. She couldn’t be or do more than one thing, but luckily for the rest of us she rejected this notion and has since become an author, playwright, and accomplished entertainment executive, currently serving as Vice President of Talent and Development at Comedy Central. 

In her first book, Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies, which lies at the intersection of self-help humour and memoir, she shares hard-won lessons in learning to love and care for yourself.

“I think we are very good at being mean to ourselves and treating ourselves with such little care. I mean shocking because we'll treat a guest 10X better than we'll treat ourselves.”

This episode is as brutally honest as her book and a refreshing listen for anyone who is struggling with self-doubt. 

In this podcast:

• Her standard day structure
• How to become more self aware
• The difference between a truth and a belief
• We need to unlearn cruelty
• Not every experience has to be exceptional
• Anyone can be a leader

Links:

• Tara’s Book - Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies: and Other Rituals to Fix Your Life from Someone Who has Been There
• Julia Cameron’s - The Artist’s Way

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With everything going on globally, taking your physical mailbox online is probably one of the smartest decisions you could make. Not just to protect yourself, but to protect the environment too. 

It’s such a smart move that today over 3.7 million Swedish people, almost half of the grown up population in Sweden, have Kivra. That’s roughly 25,000 companies and organisations that rely on Kivra, the digital mail company, for important letters, invoices, doctor’s appointments, salary specifications and so on. 

Anna Bäck is an entrepreneur and innovation leader who’s been leading a number of startups in China and Sweden, and most recently driving innovation and disruption as a design leader within McKinsey.

This is an incredibly interesting conversation, learning about Anna’s influences and transformational points in her life that have led her to where she is today - to a business model that goes hand in hand with doing good and driving a more sustainable future.

This is an inspirational podcast with an inspirational leader. 

In this podcast:

• Where the idea for Kivra came from
• The importance of creating a sustainable business model
• Her passion for making a difference in a positive way
• How she deals with fear and anxiety
• Why she values having a global world view
• The need for cross border collaboration

Links:

• www.kivra.com

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You might think it an impossible task to find inspiration in these troubled times. But according to Jen Grace Baron, co-founder and Chief Inspiration Officer at InspireCorps, an inspiration strategy firm that partners with organisations to drive business growth and also innovation, it’s precisely during times like these when we are most likely to find inspiration. 

“Some of what people find most inspiring in their whole lives, are some of the hardest times that they had been through or had survived.”

Inspiration is a complex entity, something that is hard to define in itself without using the word ‘inspiration’. It’s not a smiley thing that works just in the good times, it’s not something that we do only when it’s convenient, inspiration is a critical foundation for healthy humans. 

Inspiration is especially critical during times of crisis, such as the one we are enduring right now. 

“We found that during times of crisis, the ways that we act in the world change, right, all of how we're thinking and seeing the world changes. And in that unfreezing, there is an opportunity to shape new mindsets, to create new, powerful connections, to reinvent how we do business.”

So if you’re struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel, don’t despair, let this inspirational woman inspire you to bring about new change. 

In this podcast:

• Why inspiration is a muscle that needs to be worked
• How to get inspired
• How InspireCorps is working through Covid-19
• The difference between offering a service and being willing to serve
• Why it’s a birthright for people to be inspired in their work
• Post traumatic growth

Links:

• Dare to Inspire
• https://inspirecorps.com

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WD-40 Company has one of the highest employee engagement rates in the world (93%). And no wonder, at its helm is Garry Ridge, Chairman of the Board and CEO. 

Garry has been with the company for almost 33 years, having worked his way up through the managerial ranks to the top position, he knows what great company culture looks like, so much so, he not only practices what he preaches, he teaches it to the next generation of leaders too. 

Having realised that micromanagement as a leadership technique isn't scalable, if Garry wanted to take the blue and yellow can with the little red top to the world, he knew he’d have to set his employees free, to give them freedom to do their best work. So when he became CEO, he went back to school and worked hard to create an extraordinary workplace culture in WD-40 Company. 

“In 394 BC, Aristotle said, ‘pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work’. And I really believe that that's something that we need to do, to build an economic environment for our companies that firstly serves the people in the organisation. And if we take care of them, they will take care of our customers. So that's where the journey began.”

In this podcast:

• Why being a servant leader pays dividends
• Business has the opportunity to change the world
• Our values grant us freedom to make autonomous decisions yet still act as one 
• Why honesty and integrity aren’t values
• Why technology is forcing us to behave unnaturally
• The attributes of a bad CEO
• Why we need more love in the world

Links:

• https://www.wd40company.com/

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When Roberto Verganti first appeared on Corporate Unplugged, his episode quickly became one of the most listened to interviews on the show. Two years on, Roberto, Professor of Leadership and Innovation at Politecnico di Milano, currently founder and Director of The Garden-Center for Design and Leadership at Stockholm School of Economics, joins Vesna for another illuminating conversation, this time about meaning, purpose, innovation and real leadership. 

Why a reappearance? 

Because the subjects Roberto has been researching and writing about for the last couple of decades are more interesting and relevant today than ever before, and his ideas, insights and work need to be shared with an even wider audience. 

If companies and leaders want to make an impact, they need to provide meaning to their customers through their products and services. Companies should be thinking: ‘If they don't need what we do, it's our problem. It's not their problem.’ And the best leaders are the ones who have learned to say: ‘I don’t know, but I'm curious to know, and now we discover together’.

If you missed Roberto’s first episode where he talks about why less is more, how to navigate in a world full of opportunities and why we need to understand social sustainability, do listen to it (link below). 

In this podcast:

• Why it’s human nature to find meaning
• The importance of having a purpose
• How to innovate your product
• The power for leaders of saying ‘I don’t know’
• Why fear prevents learning and kills curiosity
• The KPIs through which you measure purpose and meaning

Links:

• https://corporateunplugged.com/roberto-verganti/
• Overcrowded – Designing Meaningful Products in a World Awash with Ideas by Roberto Verganti
• The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson

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What makes a really listenable podcast? Is it a great production value? A plethora of interesting guests? A personable host? Whatever it is, Kristoffer Triumf, host of popular Swedish podcast Värvet, has figured the podcast magic out. 

Kristoffer is a popular podcaster and host of Värvet, Sweden's favourite podcast. What makes the podcast so incredibly relatable is that he has very deep dialogues with a very diverse crowd of people - from filmmakers to artists to business leaders, Kristoffer has interviewed over 400 people so far, and counting. 

He originally set out to chat particularly with comedians, but has since broadened his horizons to a much wider audience, and he’s been richly rewarded for his diversification in guests - Värvet has had around 90 million downloads to date. 

Besides having a voice that you can’t help but be drawn to, he has also developed the art of really listening to what his guests are saying. He leaves time for them to truly reflect on his question before answering, meaning they can express what they want to express and he doesn’t interrupt them, nor does he cut them off short. In a sense, Kristoffer affords guests a sense of psychological safety, which is apparent in his dialogue with each and every person. 

Kristoffer also has a genuine interest in people - a trait that is very unusual nowadays, but something that needs to be encouraged in more people. Because with a genuine interest comes the ability to really connect with someone, and in turn allowing them space to express who they are, meaning we can learn a lot more from them. 

“I think it's always important to understand someone, to learn from people, to understand where they come from, you know, why do they do what they do?” 

In this podcast:

• The dream that led Kristoffer to becoming a podcast host
• What life means to Kristoffer
• Why we all have a duty to share our talents
• How he chooses his guests on his podcast
• Why he thinks we need to listen more
• What companies need to focus on
• How not having a vision impacts all of us
• What the world needs most right now

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Do you often find yourself wishing you were more persuasive? Would you love to know the secret to making great decisions? Do you want to do more good and work for a business that does good in the world? Then you want to listen to Zoë Chance, the persuasion expert. 

Zoë studies and teaches behavioral science to help great people become more influential. At Yale School of Management, she works with executives and has developed a popular MBA elective called Mastering Influence and Persuasion, aka "Doing Uncomfortable Things That Make You a Better Person." Her course ‘How To Make Behaviour Addictive’ is also heavily in demand.

“The key insight that I’ve learned… is that the primary drivers of all of our decisions and all of our behaviours are unconscious.... we can't just reflect on those. We only perceive the conscious, rational processes of decision making. It's our gut first reactions that are actually very hard to change. And then, consciously, we look for reasons to be able to do those things that we already want to do.”

What the world needs most right now, according to Zoë, is to be able to create a more democratic marketplace of ideas. 

"The way information is shared these days is so consolidated and hierarchical, we miss out on most of the knowledge that exists."

In this podcast:

• Why some companies and brands are really good at connecting emotionally to people
• Mastering influence and persuasion
• How to connect authentically with another person
• Zoë’s new book - the general topic of the book is influence for nice people
• Why Zoë’s mission is to help smart, well intentioned people become more influential
• How we can transform more companies to be ‘humanity plus’ engines
• Why she believes education needs innovation
• Climate change should be the priority for every company right now

Links:

• www.zoechance.com

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The idea that the smallest innovation can cause the biggest disruption doesn’t just apply to products and things, it applies to people too, says Whitney Johnson, the world renowned expert on disruptive innovation and personal disruption. 

This is a person with 1.7 million LinkedIn followers, the one who was selected as a Top Voice in 2018, so she knows a thing or two about disruptive innovation. But Whitney hasn’t always been so influential. 

The best selling author and frequent lecturer for Harvard Business School’s Corporate Education began her career working on Wall Street as a secretary. Quickly realising she wasn’t going to make the money she needed, she began to take night courses and was able to transition from being a secretary to an investment banker. 

“For people who worked on Wall Street, like that just does not happen, that divide is so wide. And so for me, that was kind of a disruptive moment.”

Today, Whitney is recognised as being one of the world's most influential management thinkers and is best known for her work on driving corporate invention through personal disruption. She's the author of the books ‘Disrupt Yourself’ and ‘Build an A-Team’. 

She’s developed her own framework and diagnostics to dig deep into the important question of how executives can both create and destroy value. 

“When we're willing to become a silly little thing, we can maybe not take over the world, but we can certainly take over our world... We know from the theory of disruption that when you pursue a disruptive course, your odds of success are six times higher and your revenue opportunity is 20 times greater.”

In this podcast:

• Where Whitney’s ideas about disruption first came from
• Learn, leap, repeat
• Why organisations need to encourage their individual employees to be disruptive
• Learning outstrips money as a motivator
• Learning makes the individual happy and benefits the organisation
• Amateurs compete and professionals create
• Why the world needs more love and prayers

Links:

• Traeger Grills
• Build an A-Team
• Disrupt Yourself
• Disrupt Yourself podcast

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What would you do if you were misdiagnosed with an autoimmune disease as a teenager, subsequently spending 10 years undergoing major surgeries, having 3 organs removed and over 40 hospitalisations, and then once in remission find yourself sabotaged, sexually abused and harassed early in your career in Silicon Valley? 

Some people might shy away from the spotlight after all this, but Robin Farmanfarmaian is not most people. Far from it. 

Robin is a professional speaker, entrepreneur and angel investor working with cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence software, device and pharma companies poised to impact 100 million patients. She’s currently the CEO and co-founder of ArO, a dynamic vision correction company. 

In her role as keynote speaker she covers multiple topics and has written and published two books - “The Patient as CEO: How Technology Empowers the Healthcare Consumer” and "The Thought Leader Formula: Strategically Leverage Your Expertise to Drive Business & Career Goals".

Why has she chosen to target diseases that affect over 100 million people? Because Robin is a giver, and she believes in paying it back by paying it forward. 

“Diseases or disorders like sleep apnea, cancer, autoimmune disease, infectious disease, and things like that all have more than 100 million patients worldwide. So I picked that number because it really tackles the biggest problems in healthcare in terms of which diseases are the most prevalent.”

Listen to this incredibly giving, inspirational woman share how she overcame personal and professional adversities to create the life and career that she has today. Learn about the exciting, cutting edge medical companies Robin is involved with, as well as her advice for companies on how to keep employees engaged and why businesses need to invest in their people. 

In this podcast:

• The raison d’etre for Robin’s life mission
• How medical technologies have already changed healthcare
• Why happy employees make happy customers
• Invest in your employees
• Businesses need to focus on innovation and incorporate the latest technology
• Why you need to start your thought leadership journey while you’re still in high school
• The four things the world needs most right now

Links:

• The Patient as CEO: How Technology Empowers the Healthcare Consumer
• The Thought Leader Formula: Strategically Leverage Your Expertise to Drive Business & Career Goals
• BrainCheck app
• Scribe Media
• Adam Grant - TED talk

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What if you knew that mastering the art of public speaking was easy? That you could transform your business, your career and your life by getting to grips with this one skill? That you could find yourself a member of a global community with a hub (and a welcoming home) in every city around the world?

Well, that’s just what Eric Edmeades is on a mission to do. Eric is an author, serial entrepreneur and international business speaker. He has logged thousands of hours on stage, even sharing it with the likes of Tony Robbins, Richard Branson and Bill Clinton. Eric’s been involved in a variety of businesses ranging from mobile computing to Hollywood special effects, and now he has turned his attention to his latest project, creating a global movement called Speaker Nation.

“One of the greatest gifts that I ever gave myself was overcoming both my fear and my lack of confidence around communication. I changed my life by overcoming my nervousness and working to cultivate skills and learning how to engage an audience and communicate effectively.”

Learning to conquer his fear around public speaking inspired Eric to help others overcome their anxieties. He had already triumphed in the wellness world with his Wildfit programme, helping over 15,000 clients in 130 countries around the world change how they feel about food. Now he is determined to help others who are struggling to get their words out or struggling to create the kind of influence they want. 

He already runs The Speaking Academy, an outstanding and highly effective 5-day presentation skills training program, but Speaker Nation is a movement that will create an international community for aspiring and professional speakers who share in a common vision of a better future, that will make them better.

In this podcast:

• The Speaker Nation launch in Amsterdam
• Why overcoming his fear of public speaking was the best gift
• The responsibility of enabling effective communication
• Your democratic right to speak
• The global dream for Speaker Nation
• The connection to Mindvalley and Wildfit
• Why leadership needs to focus on the people
• Why we are living in the best possible time

Links:

• Speakernation
• Mindvalley
• Wild Fit
• The Speaking Academy

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