Leadership Beyond Borders

Sales and the customer journey. Are we giving salespeople the right tools to help them succeed? Years ago, sales were about pushing the customer in a direction and convincing them to buy. Today it is about discovering the customers' needs and proving to them their return on investment. Today we also have the tools to help sales persons guide them through the process and show the customers facts, not fiction. This episode explores the customer journey, beginning with customer contact and sales. Then, we explore what automation is available to sales today and how salespeople can best use it. Our guest is a regular contributor to our show and an expert in sales and the customer journey.

Leadership expert Chris Pearse used an analogy in his Forbes article in 2018 on "Leadership in Crisis" This analogy made us think about leadership. It brought to light the mistake we often make in leadership today. Although not in exact words, he said if you want to grow a pumpkin, you need four elements, earth, water, sun, and a seed. While growing that pumpkin, your focus is on those elements, not the pumpkin. With the right focus, result will be a great pumpkin. In leadership, most of the time, the focus is on the results like share prices and profit, not on the elements that create them. Unfortunately, this end focus distracts us from the aspects of good leadership, resulting in a challenge. How do we promote good leadership in this profit-oriented world? How do we encourage good leadership practices, and how do we recognize talent when we see it? Our guest in this show has taken a good look at leadership dynamics and how to recognize the attributes of exemplary leadership

In May 2020, just as SMBs worldwide struggled to get their businesses online because of the pandemic, Google introduced core web vitals.

In addition, Google informed businesses that these vitals would soon be ranking signals worldwide. In other words, if a business did not get this right, their ranking would be affected.

Finally, in August 2021, Google fully rolled out Core Web Vitals as a Google ranking factor.

So we are now in April 2022, 6 months later, and what are we experiencing?

Do businesses understand core web vitals and which vital is the most critical for ranking?

Our expert in this episode comes to form one of the world’s leading website builders for SMBs and Enterprises.

He talks to us about what he believes is the most critical core web vital companies need to pay attention to and how they can do that.

In addition, he talks to us about how focusing on this web core vitals can improve ranking and conversions.

Consumer Behaviors have drastically changed in the last 24 months.

We can observe the changes in foot traffic ( in-person behaviour ) when we are at the grocery store, airport, or simply walking in any city centre. Still, we do not always see the changes in consumer behaviours online.

We all know how our own search behaviours have changed, but unless you own a business with an e-commerce shop, you may not know how your customers search for your products or services. You may also not be unaware of what search engines are most interested in today.

But if you own a business, understanding what consumers are doing and how search engines react is essential if you want your business to be found. In this episode, we speak with an expert from one of the worlds leading technology companies, and he helps us understand the mysteries behind getting found on the web.

Germany's "Umwelt Bundesamt" talks about the new "Green Economy. "They claim the present economic system is destroying our natural resources with the result of eroding the prosperity of future generations. They say that "Business as usual" in industrialised countries' are resource-intensive, and with emerging countries following suit, it is not a feasible course for the future, which is why transforming into a Green Economy is necessary. . But this is Germany; what is the rest of the world saying? Are other countries, including the US, the world's largest economy, moving towards a Green Economy with clean energy? Is a new economic development model with positive connections between ecology and economics emerging? In this episode, we explore what is going on worldwide and in the world's biggest economy to advocate intelligent business practices and politics that link the economy and the environment with the perspective of saving our environment for future generations.

A company's greatest asset is its people. It does not matter how innovative your product or services are; the people who stand behind the products and services interact with the customer and continue to innovate to move a company forward. In March 2020, as companies struggled to move their workforces remotely, employers also faced "The Big Quit". As a result, many companies struggled to retain employees, but those companies that forged a collaborative and flexible culture thrived. In this episode, we look at how one company in the digital marketing/technology sector shifted their workforce, developed a great company culture and rose to the top of its market segment by encouraging employees to contribute and collaborate.

On February 22, 2022, the world shifted when Russia invaded Ukraine. Now five months later, we still witness devastation in Ukraine and the attack on democracy. We are seeing criminal acts as Russia uses war tactics that target civilians in the hope that the solidarity and will of the Ukrainian people will be broken. We are also feeling the wars impact the world economy. So when and how will this end? No one has a crystal ball, but we can examine the direction the world's most robust and influential economies are taking in the hope that this will end sooner rather than later. In March, at the beginning of the war, we spoke about the invasion with one of our most knowledgeable and repeat guests Dr. Jeffrey McCausland . Five months later, we check in with Dr. McCausland, whose vast military and leadership experience can help us understand what is happening today and where we may be heading.

Digital Marketing has become very complicated. Consumers have changed their behavior, Google is constantly polishing their Core Web Vitals, and new media channels are popping up daily. At the same time, we have other trends like stricter personal data restrictions while new technologies are emerging, and AI is becoming more prevalent when it comes to targeting audiences. This makes digital marketing trends hard to keep up for SMB's and even for brands who dedicated digital marketing teams. But is not hopeless because we have Digital Marketing Agencies who help businesses succeed. The top Digital Marketing companies have forged culture that helps the rest of us understand what is going on in digital marketing. In this episode, we speak with a Digital Marketing Agency that not only understands the trends but has built a unique company culture that supports its clients and helps them swim on top of the Digital Marketing Ocean rather than sink to the bottom.

Today we are facing the "Big Resignation". All over the world, companies are struggling to find personnel, and no one can answer why this is happening. Possible reasons are wage stagnation amid the rising cost of living, long-lasting job dissatisfaction, safety concerns around COVID-19, and the desire to work for companies with better remote-working policies and new work-life balance values stemming from the pandemic. Some economists have described the Great Resignation akin as a general strike of the people, but we still cannot pinpoint what is happening. Our guest in this episode believes we may not be having the right conversations with our employees today. If we had better conversations, we could increase engagement and maybe find the key to the "Big Resignation". We talk about the new best-seller "The Revelation Conversation: Inspire Greater Employee Engagement by Connecting to Purpose" and how it can help bring leaders and organizations back on track.

Consumer Behaviors have drastically changed in the last 24 months. We can observe the changes in foot traffic ( in-person behaviour ) when we are at the grocery store, airport, or simply walking in any city centre. Still, we do not always see the changes in consumer behaviours online. We all know how our own search behaviours have changed, but unless you own a business with an e-commerce shop, you may not know how your customers search for your products or services. You may also not be unaware of what search engines are most interested in today. But if you own a business, understanding what consumers are doing and how search engines react is essential if you want your business to be found. In this episode, we speak with an expert from one of the worlds leading technology companies, and he helps us understand the mysteries behind getting found on the web.