Cross Pollination

Today we have special guest and author Jim Knight, a Training & Development veteran for 30+ years.  Jim has facilitated on a variety of interactive topics, including sessions on organizational culture, world-class service, employee branding & engagement, performance management, philanthropy, leadership and facilitation training.

Jim’s recent book, Culture That Rocks, focuses on his 21 years of work with the Hard Rock Café brand and lessons he learned along the way as he helped build their renowned workplace culture. He eventually became  the  head  of  the  School  of  Hard  Rocks,  running  point  on  all  training  & development functions for Hard Rock International.  Jim is also the founder of Knight Speaker and People Forward.

Today we have special guest Bruce Tulgan, bestselling author of It's Okay to Be the Boss, Not Everyone Gets a Trophy and his most recent book, Bridging the Soft Skills Gap, joining us for our 20th episode. Bruce is internationally recognized as the leading expert on young people in the workplace and one of the leading experts on leadership and management. Bruce has worked with tens of thousands of leaders and managers in hundreds of organizations ranging from Aetna to Wal-Mart; from the Army to the YMCA.  Bruce was named by Management Today as one of the few contemporary figures to stand out as a “management guru.” Bruce also lectures at the Yale Graduate School of Management and writes articles for many different associations including TRAINING magazine and the Huffington Post.  Before founding his company, RainmakerThinking in 1993, Bruce practiced law at the Wall Street firm of Carter, Ledyard & Milburn.

As a dynamic consultant, coach, and educator, Sarah Scala has over 15 years of experience in supporting organization development, leadership, and change management for diverse organizations. She is passionate about creating solutions that strengthen interpersonal skills and support change with individuals, teams, and organizations.

We met when Sarah was giving a presentation on “Sustaining Success through Mindfulness, Optimism, Resilience and Grit.”  I was especially interested around the topic of resilience and grit and how Millennials fit into the equation.  Do we have resilience and grit as a generation?  Most older generations would argue that these core elements are lacking in this generation?  Can we build grit and resilience?

Dan Schawbel is the Founder of WorkplaceTrends.com, a research and advisory membership service for forward-thinking HR professionals, as well as the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm. Dan is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin’s Press) and the #1 international bestselling book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future (Kaplan Publishing), which combined have been translated into 15 languages. Dan is a columnist at both TIME and FORBES, and has been featured in over 1,000 media outlets, such as “The Today Show” on NBC, “Street Signs” on CNBC, “The Nightly Business Report” on PBS, “The Willis Report” on Fox Business, “Fox & Friends” on Fox News, NPR, People Magazine, The Economist and Wired Magazine. He’s spoken at Google, NBC Universal, McGraw-Hill, Oracle, Harvard Business School, MIT, Time Warner, IBM, and CitiGroup. Dan was named to the Inc. Magazine 30 Under 30 List in 2010, the Forbes Magazine 30 Under 30 List in 2012, and BusinessWeek cites him as someone entrepreneurs should follow. - See more at: http://danschawbel.com/about-dan/#sthash.6yBzBD3e.dpuf

Today we are broadcasting live from the 15th Annual SHRM Vermont State Conference.  This year the conference is titled, HRevolution: Change Tomorrow Today.  What better way to talk about changing tomorrow today then to discuss the young, game-changing professionals themselves, the Millennials.  I’ll be presenting at this conference shortly after the podcast at 3pm, but I also noticed another group of individuals presenting on Millennials with a unique twist – and this obviously peaked my interest!  The two women I have joining me for XPollination are Jessica Sabick of Vermont Energy Investment Corp. and Lindsey Lathrop-Ryan of Change the Story VT, and both have just finished their presentation on Attracting and Retaining Millennial Women to Your Company. We'll take a deeper dive into their presentation and the topic of Millennial women.

Special guest Jacques Bastien: Millennial Marketer, Hustlepreneur, Professor, Speaker, Writer, Designer, Founder of boogie, Breadcrumbs, and Authenpic is joining us today on another edition of XPollination.  The founder of boogie (boogie.nyc), a disruptive social media and viral marketing agency helping brands engage with Millennials through photos, videos, music and conversations, Jacques has offices in Albany NY, Brooklyn NY and Los Angeles, CA .  He is also a partner/investor/founder at a few others startups, including Cased Up (casedup.co), Breadcrumbs (trybreadcrumbs.com), Authenpic (authenpicapp.com), and What The Fee (whatthefee.co).

Jacques’s passion is in technology, startups, entrepreneurship, fashion, and social media. He runs a blog called hustlepreneur.co to help inspire, motivate and educate other young entrepreneurs. He is currently writing a book with my wife about young relationships. This book will feature stories from their relationship.

Jacques was the featured speaker this week at Startup Grind, which is powered by Google for entrepreneurs, as an up and coming young entrepreneur to watch.

A special summertime broadcast from Lake George in New York, generations and Millennial expert Matt Harrington talks with a group of Millennial friends about the future of education, community and leadership.  Relax, grab a drink, and enjoy the show!

Special guest Giulia Sergi has worked in a variety of technology roles; previously with Bank of America, and now currently with HealthScape.  She is also a graduate student at Northwestern University studying Learning and Organizational Change. Her passion is around understanding the dynamics of organizations, teams, and the individuals in them.  Today she joins us to talk about the idea of knowledge sharing and why it’s crucial in our work environments especially as the it gets more complex and fast-paced.  Millennials obviously play a crucial role (and are somewhat of a pioneer) in this idea of knowledge sharing so we wanted to get her on the show to talk to us about the idea.

Special guest James (J.J.) Williams, CEO & CIO of Williams Financial, joins us this XPollination episode. J.J. is an Investment Adviser Representative registered with the State of Vermont.  He earned an M.B.A. from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He earned his Bachelor degree in Business Administration from Southern Vermont College in Bennington, Vermont.

J.J. has been a financial service professional for more than 10 years. He started his career as a bank manager of the main office at a local community bank. In 2003 he left banking to manage an independent broker/dealer, overseeing operations, finance, and compliance as well as counseling his clients. In 2005 he opened Williams Financial Management, LLC – an independent, fee-only, registered investment advisory firm that works with individuals, families, and businesses throughout the country.  

J.J. is fascinated with the new generation, having previously chaired the Entrepreneurial Department at Hudson Valley Community College for many years.  His approach to a holistic mindset to wealth is refreshing and cutting edge in the financial world.

Special guest Porter Knight with Productivity Vermont, a company dedicated to empowering busy professionals to achieve more at work, joins us on this XPollination episode. They believe that productivity doesn’t just happen; it begins with a conscious commitment. It requires skill and decision-making to thrive, and may need ongoing support to sustain. Productivity Vermont sets out to create a system that fosters these characteristics in the workplace.

Their powerful strategies have helped thousands of executives, employees, and entrepreneurs acquire a greater sense of purpose, hone their decision-making skills, and achieve greater life balance while boosting their performance at work.