I recorded this episode on the afternoon when I learned of the passing of one of the world's greatest minds, and someone I had the privilege of considering a friend and a mentor - Prof. Clay Christensen of the Harvard Business School.

Prof. Christensen was best known for his theory of "disruptive innovation", first introduced in his 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma, which has been called the most influential business idea of the early 21st century.  He was the New York Times best-selling author of many more books, including "The Innovator's Solution" and "How Will You Measure Your Life"  [Marina - include hyperlinks to Amazon's site for those books and the Innovator's Dilemma].  He had his own Institute of Innovation at Harvard.  

In this episode I share my his passing is so hard for me and three lessons I learned from this wonderful human being about Innovation, Disruption, Love and Humility.  

Today, I sit down with best-selling author of “Mastering Leadership” Michael Strasner, who is also a master leadership trainer, a master leader, a coach and a dear friend, and who has trained me to be a leadership coach and facilitator. 

We talk about creating SYNERGY on your team and how life is a team sport. 
We explore juicy questions like:
* How can a type A driver personality build a collaborative team without losing their sense of direction? 
* How to avoid burnout as a driven entrepreneur
* What to do when the strategies that worked for you in the beginning of building a business don’t work for yo anymore. 
* Wantrepreneurs vs. Entrepreneurs
* How to avoid divorce and being “uncle daddy” while you build a successful business

Resources for the emotional intelligence trainings mentioned on the interview:  www.bostonbreakthroughacademy.com.  

Note, Lisa has completed the Heartcore Leadership trainings and the PhD trainings (Master Leadership Program) with Michael Strasner.  

You may have heard the expression "Self Love" being thrown around and you may be surprised to see it used in the context of building teams. 

It could sound woo-woo to you, but it's true - if you don't trust and love yourself, you will have a hard time trusting and attracting other people for the long-haul.

So, what to do? How to shift out of inner conflict, self-doubt and into self-love?

In this episode you'll discover an NLP technique for overcoming inner-conflict that I learned from Eben Pagan and his wife Annie Lala (www.ebenpagantraining.com).  In fact, I'll walk you through the strategy right on the episode in less than 10 minutes!  You can use this strategy on your own to build coherence and self-love in areas of your life that are causing you anxiety and stress today. 

I also reference one of the most important books that I've read on the topic and it's "Letting Go" by Dr. David Hawkins - I highly recommend this and his other book, "Power vs Force". 

In this episode, I tell crazy stories with experiments I ran at Zynga, the gaming company, which produced surprising results and taught me the value of experiments and the value of failure!

In the Tip of the Week, I share an incredibly impactful exercise taught to me by one of my mentors Eben Pagan that will teach you how to overcome fear of failure in as quickly as 1 week.

Also, if you're in Portland, I'm holding a free workshop on "The Art of Teambuilding - Critical Mistakes to Avoid" open to all entrepreneurs.  It will take place on Thursday, January 16 2020 at 5:15pm at Industrious Pioneer Square. Click here to get your ticket.  

At the end of 2019 and the end of the decade, I give you the tools to plan for 2020 and for growing your team and company in the New Year and the New Decade. 

The key to building teams and businesses is the same as successfully climbing big mountains and that is developing an Endurance Mindset.

Often times, as entrepreneurs, we're tempted to do everything with a sprint pace, while building a business for the long-term requires us to run a marathon and not burn out. 

In this episode, I introduce you to the Summit Success Coaching Methodology and how you can apply it in building your team and business.  I share stories from my 3-week long expedition on Denali and the months-long preparation for it and how the lessons I learned can be applied in business. 

I share stories from our crazy early days of running sprints back to back at Zynga, where I was an early product manager and what we learned from the crash-and-burn cycle.

In this week's "Coach's Corner", we talk about how to transition from that super early startup mentality of running fast into a longer term thinking and planning. 

I introduce a new show segment: "Which type of unconscious bias is it?"

Finally, in our "Tip of the Week" segment I give you tools and ideas about practically planning for the long-term.  One of the tools I mention is Impact Filters, which I've found to be incredibly useful when you start any project, including hiring for a key role.  Here's a link to an Impact Filter template. 

In this episode, I share a vulnerable personal story from my life, as well as a story from my my career and my mountaineering experience that shines light on an amazing character trait that can free up a lot of your energy and help you attract an amazing team like nothing else. 

It's simple, but it's not easy and it requires your conscious awareness and intention to use it.  I show you how to cultivate this trait in our "Tip of the Week" segment in 3 easy steps.  

Today I share the strategy that has made the biggest difference for me when building teams in Silicon Valley and also when hiring my Virtual Assistant.  Think of it as using the 80/20 rule - spending 80% of your time and energy with the 20% of the applicants who really matter.  

Unfortunately most entrepreneurs today tend to hire fast and fire slow. And it really works much better and easier the other way around.  

The strategy I talk about has been also successfully used by Russell Brunson of Clickfunnels and his company to hire their Facebook Ads person, as well as by other startups.  

Today I interview Adam Flores, a young revolutionary business leader and a radical student in leadership, social media, and Internet marketing. 

Adam shares his story of going from a dishwasher at a golf course to building over $1M in revenue in his business through the power of team.

In today's interview, you'll learn:

- Why you need to be obsessed with getting people a result vs wanting to create a product you think is cool

- How you learn what your customers need when you start serving them

- Why it’s better to give 100% of someone else than 5% of you in an area of your business

- How entrepreneurs get addicted to feeling like they’re irreplaceable

- The biggest hiring mistake he made and the qualities he hires for today

- Using your bank account as a scoreboard,

and more!

Schedule your free demo with Adam's company - get a strategy session on how to build, launch and scale your business at:

www.dreamfactory.co

In this episode, I have a surprise for you!  I set out to survey a group of amazing engineers who I've personally worked with to find out exactly what makes them say yes to taking a risk with an early-stage company and what makes them say no.

I gathered the data and I also ended up including parts of my call with one of them - an engineer by the name of Kelly, who lays out in a very articulate way several foundational principles for every early-stage entrepreneur to follow if they want to attract not just amazing engineers, but also strong team players in every part of their company.

I introduce myself and my background with building amazing teams. I tell stories of teams from:

- my time building teams from scratch in Silicon Valley
- my mountaineering experience
- my experience growing my own team in my leadership coaching business

I also give you a quick win tip that you can apply right away to attract a lot of strong candidates to you, whether you're recruiting an assistant or an engineer.  I also give you the opportunity to download my complete "How to hire your Virtual Assistant" Playbook here:

www.athenastrategypartners.com