Amy Eliza Wong is the founder of Always On Purpose®. She is an executive leadership coach, author, and facilitator working with organizations such as Salesforce, Roku, LinkedIn, and more. Amy offers transformative leadership development and cutting-edge communication strategies to executives and corporate teams around the world, as well as institutions including Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley. She pulls from various disciplines, studies, and practices to find a consilient approach to achieve genuine, lasting success - what she refers to as ‘‘the fundamentals of thriving.” Amy's debut book, Living on Purpose, shows readers how to feel more connected to the people around them and be truly satisfied by the life they’re leading. It was released at the end of May 2022, and within less than a week it became an Amazon Bestseller in Work-Life Balance and Business Communication Skills.

@12:08 - Nate Leslie (nateleslie.ca)

When you think about your book, living on purpose, leadership and executive coaching, whose lives do you think will be impacted most, who are going to listen to this conversation today?

@12:24 - Amy Wong (alwaysonpurpose.com)

Yeah, great question. So the book really has been written for and who's going to benefit from this conversation is the individual who really is committed to doing well in the world and whether that's by an external standard, internal standard.

It's that, you know, they're relatively ambitious. They're relatively committed. They do the work to to quote unquote thrive. And really who this book is written for is for all the folks that have done it, quote unquote, right?

And still feel totally unfulfilled. Or you can look at your life on paper and say, wow, I have no reason to be quote unquote unhappy, but yet there's something missing.

And it's definitely for the individual that recognizes it's not going to be doing more of the same. I just don't know what to do different.

And so who's going to really benefit from our conversation today is the individual who feels that way. It's like, gosh, I'm so close to genuine inner peace.

And I know I'm getting in my own way. I get that it's not going to be a bigger title.

I get that it's not going to be more money, even though I swear to God, my head is convincing me that's the case.

I just don't know what it is. And so that's what I think people have to look forward to is what is that and how do we have to come back?

Connect with Nate Leslie: www.nateleslie.ca 

Connect with Lee Chaix McDonough: www.coachwithclarity.com 

Buy Lee's book: Act on Your Business: Braving the storms of entrepreneurship and creating success through meaning, mindset, and mindfulness

Intro Transcript:

A letter to the Intrepid entrepreneur:

I see you working hard all day every day to bring your dreams to life, to voting countless hours to build your business, spending way too much money on the right course, the right program, the right coach, anything that might streamline your path to your dream.

I see you posting on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, appearing on guest blogs and podcasts, creating your content, sharing your story, perfecting your elevator pitch, working out the kinks in your about page, learning the ins and outs of copy that converts and sales pages that sell.

I see you doing all the right things, checking all the boxes, showing up, diving in, giving it your all and then some.

Your drive, your devotion, and your ambition are practically tangible. I see you plagued with self doubt, uncertain whether you have what it takes to make this entrepreneurial thing work.

mistakes, vacillating between a mindset of abundance and opportunity, and one of anxiety and self condemnation, desperately trying to brave the storms in your business and your life as the winds swirl and the rain pours.

I see you. I see you because I am you. I know all too well what it's like to have a dream, a passion, a desire for something great.

When I began my coaching business, I wanted to change the world by connecting with mindful, energized, motivated people who wanted to love their work and their lives.

I saw myself serving people powerfully and changing lives. Then shortly after I began my vision clouded. These are just a few words in the letter to the intrepid entrepreneur from my guest today, former psychotherapist and social worker, now executive coach working with entrepreneurs, Lee Shea McDonough, author of Act on Your Business. This is a great conversation where we explore the intersection between therapy and coaching, entrepreneurship, and values leading the decisions that we make as entrepreneurs.

Once again, I love the conversation. I hope you do too. Thanks for listening.

Connect with Nate: www.linkedin.com/in/natelesliecec

Connect with Lisa: www.linkedin.com/in/lisamortonrdpr

About this episode:

This conversation was great. you know. It started heavy in one thousand nine hundred six Ira bombing in Manchester, England flattened the downtown.

My guest. Lisa Morton, at the time, was just starting a business in public relations and was involved in building up the city and giving it a new identity and helping cast a vision for a brighter future, which now is unrecognizable in downtown Manchester from only twenty five years ago.

After that terrible attack, the theme that runs through this conversation with Lisa is around the importance of personal values, living those values, defining them within sight of your organization in creating a culture based on behaviors that are accepted

Eliminating the behaviors that are not accepted that don't align with the values. I learned a ton. It's personal. It's raw.

There's a ton of storytelling and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did recording it. This is Lisa Morton, CEO and founder of Roland Dransfield in Manchester, England public relations firm.

About Lisa:

25 years ago, it became apparent to Lisa that the only way to work somewhere that had suitable goals and values as an enterprise was to start it herself. Almost immediately, her talent for creating relationships became apparent when Manchester suffered a devastating bombing. Lisa got involved heavily in rebuilding the city centre and over the years has played a large part in helping to regenerate neglected parts of the city centre to create the new key “pillar” neighborhoods that make up the city. As a result, Lisa has been at the forefront of the response to crises in her community,

Lisa Morton is the CEO and founder of Roland Dransfield, one of the most established communications agencies in Manchester, England. For the last 24 years, Lisa has worked to forge meaningful, lasting business relationships that create both business growth and social impact alongside her team of award-winning strategists, journalists, creatives, digital, and social media specialists. Now with a London office and a partnership with an LA-based agency, of which the founder is a former Roland Dransfield team member, Lisa is continuing to expand Roland Dransfield and explore new paths for growth.

Lisa’s commitment to purpose-driven work is exemplified by Roland Dransfield’s “We Built This City” podcast, a podcast series which hears from Mancunians, born, bred and adopted, who put the heart into Greater Manchester. The podcast has been nominated for Best Business Podcast by the prestigious British Podcast Awards and celebrates stories of determination, loyalty, and diversity across culture, arts, politics, sport, music and business. Roland Dransfield’s other recent award wins include PR & Marketing Agency of the Year, Marketing Personality of the Year (Downtown in Business), Best PR/Social Agency Campaign (MPA), Small PR Agency of the Year (MPA), PR Agency of the Year (MPA) and Best PR Agency (The Talk of Manchester). They are currently shortlisted for Prolific North Best PR Agency and Best Digital Campaign and Best Social Impact Award 2020 (Downtown in Business), among others.

Connect with Nate: www.linkedin.com/natelesliecec

Connect with Ira: www.linkedin.com/in/irawolfe

Nate Leslie 0:07

Hi listeners Welcome to Leading with Curiosity. My guest today, Ira Wolfe, is a thought leader in the future of work. He is a top five global thought leader on HR, TEDx speaker, and an HR influencer. We explore the connection between a Bruce Lee quote and growth mindset. We learn the number one skill that will be required in today's workplace in these crazy ‘sort of post pandemic’ times. I know, like always I'm gonna have to go have to have a guy like Ira on the show again, so much we could have explored and didn't get to. I hope you enjoy the episode as much as I did recording.

Nate Leslie 1:02

You know, I've been doing a lot of research and you are a leader, a thought leader around the future of work adaptability. In a post pandemic era, modern leadership in 2022. What are you thinking about these days around the future of work in these times that we're living in?

Ira Wolfe 1:21

I think a lot about it for very obvious reasons. We're living in what I call the never normal and the never normal is pretty it's a pretty good description of where we are. It started with VUCA. I don't know if your listeners may or may not be familiar with that book. It's been around for about 40 years. It started with Warren Bennis in the 1980s. He was one of my favorite thought leaders on leadership. And he talked about what the future was going to be, how you needed to prepare leaders and develop leaders, which I know is what you do. And he talked about a world that would be volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. And I can't think of a better acronym than VUCA to describe the world we live in now. But especially in 2020, volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous and everyday we continue to live there. So basically, having studied that, that being a passion of mine for the last, well, I've always liked studying change, but especially over the last 20 years when I was introduced to that i It's my here's my time, this is the time to live in, you know for that and people are really struggling. I mean, you can tell from that from stress and burnout and well being and people changing jobs and what the work environment is there's so much so much going on. So, again, we need to talk about how we prepare? How do we help people adapt better?

Nate Leslie 2:52

Yes, I do that every day. Yeah, yeah. Let's go there. Gosh, when you think about VUCA being from the 80s and now how uncertain and ambiguous. This next chapter in our lives is you know, helping people be adaptive. You've talked about the adaptability quotient. What do you want to share with that?

Listen to the episode to see where this goes…

Connect with Nate Leslie - www.nateleslie.ca

Connect with Julie -  www.booklaunchers.com/7steps

Hey, listeners, thanks for checking out this episode today with Julie Broad. Julie, originally from Canada, is now based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is the founder of Book Launchers, a full service book publishing and marketing company.

For those of us in an industry with domain expertise, considering writing a book, this is an awesome conversation for you to hear. If you've ever thought about writing a book to promote your business, to grow a business or even just know that the story you're sharing with the world needs refinement around who your audience is and what it is that you're actually trying to do, I think this episode is for you.

I learned a ton. It was a fun conversation. I got a lot out of it personally and really appreciate your time.

Enjoy the episode.

Transcript Intro:

@08:11 - Nate Leslie (nateleslie.ca)

When we were talking before we hit record here, we were getting into what it is that brought us together on this episode.

I have a feeling my wife might come home later today and she'll walk in the door and I'm going to say, "Guess what, honey, the day has finally come. I'm starting the book because Julie convinced me!" because I just gained so much from it.

So Julie we're going to explore using the writing of a book to help promote a business, an idea to build a business around credibility, credibility in the marketplace.

I'm really excited about where it's going to go. Why don't we start with a simple question like what is book launchers all about?

@08:57 - Julie Broad | Book Launchers (Book Launchers)

Yeah. So I started book launchers five years. Ago actually to help people grow or write a book that will grow their brand, grow their business.

And the reason was because I had self published two books and I found a knowing who to hire and in what order was quite challenging and how do you know who's good and all the pieces but b and even more importantly was nobody was thinking about marketing until I got to the very end and I hired a PR company and then they're thinking about marketing.

What you need is somebody who rates from the very beginning goes, okay, what are you trying to do with this book and how are we going to sell it when you're done and positions the book at every step.

And that's why I created Book Launchers. We are full service and we start with marketing in mind from the very beginning and then at the very end we have a team that will be alongside you, helping you, pitch you to media, speaking engagements, live appearances, running ads, getting bookstores and libraries and all the full thing so everything a traditional publisher would do and then some but you keep going all rights and royalties.

Click play to the rest of the conversation!

Connect with Kimberly: www.iexcelerate.com

Connect with Nate: www.nateleslie.ca

/ˈkandər/ noun - the quality of being open and honest in expression; frankness.

Kimberly Gerber, the founder of Excelerate. Leading with Curiosity caught my attention as I thought Kimberly’s background in creating innovative leadership programs would make her a great guest. Kimberly specializes in helping C-Suite executives and CEOs continue to elevate their leadership presence and their careers in a variety of fields. Her focus of candor and kindness is designed to help her clients become the best version of themselves. Kimberly and her team at Excelerate have provided over 38,000 hours of coaching, and proudly boast that their clients have a 94% promotion rate. For 30+ years she has helped transform the impact of 1500+ leaders in over 100 countries including Verizon, USC, Revance, Blizzard, Allergan, UCLA, COOP, and more.

Connect with Nate - www.nateleslie.ca

Connect with Dan - www.mondaymusings.org

Highlights  from My Conversation with Dan Kerr: American School of Paris, France.

“You are the Weather”

Dan was named an NAESP Distinguished Principal in 2021.

He’s been an Adjunct Professor for Endicott College teaching two Master’s Degree classes in Madrid and Prague each summer, as well as online throughout the year. He teaches Change Management in International Schools, and Innovative Practices in Education. He loves teaching young leaders, and learning from such bright, passionate, and committed international educators!

Dan Kerr is currently the Lower School Director at the American School of Paris.  He arrived in July of 2017 after 3 amazing years as the Intermediate School Principal (Grades 3-8) at Academia Cotopaxi American International School in Quito, Ecuador. Before that he was in Shanghai at SCIS in China for 4 years as the Middle School Principal,  and previous to that he spent 7 wonderful years in Jakarta, Indonesia at Jakarta Intercultural School. My first international position was in Abu Dhabi in the UAE…He’s been an International School Teacher/Administrator for over 20 years and there’s no lookin back now!

About Monday Musings

www.mondaymusings.org 

"I began blogging years ago sending my thoughts (Musings) out to my School faculty in an attempt to share my vision, and to open up the lines of communication. They’ve become somewhat of an expectation over the last many years, and it’s fair to say that they’ve morphed into opportunities for me to address issues, share my educational fairytale, and to celebrate accomplishments with the surrounding school community, and indeed the world. They’ve also helped me “sharpen the saw” so to speak, as the professional discourse that stems from these posts has allowed me to share ideas and issues with educational leaders from around the globe. I am a featured blogger for THE INTERNATIONAL EDUCATOR (TIE online), and you can follow my posts there as well.  I’m also an adjunct professor for Endicott College, teaching in their Masters Degree leadership program in Madrid and Prague every summer.

Essentially, the Musings are my attempt to stay current, as well as a forum to gain valuable feedback on how to turn a school from good to great. It’s an on-going process…over 250 posts and counting and still so much to learn."

Connect with Nate:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/natelesliecec/

Connect with Jennifer:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachjenniferchapman

Hi curious listeners. Thanks for listening to this episode. My conversation today is with a very bright and experienced leadership coach, Jennifer Chapman, from Indianapolis, Indiana. She studied coaching at Georgetown University and is a member of the International Coach Federation.

This conversation today took a little turn about five or six minutes in and we just stayed down that path around group coaching, how to actually engage a group of leaders in this coaching process. They could be internal from the same one organization, or independent organizations. I think it was a really great insight for people to wonder, “what is an entry point into this? What could I do with members of my team after they've done a training program to really keep the learning going at a cost effective way?” We also explored the work that she does with an audience that is in the science, technology engineering, and finance industries, where coaching can have a huge impact breaking down some barriers and stereotypes are the communication and leadership styles in those industries.

It was a pleasure. There's a chance to connect with her and get some free tools at the end of it to get the most out of your learning resources. If you're like me, you're always into something listening, learning if you're listening to this right now. You're one of us! I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did. Here is Jennifer Chapman.

Connect with Shawna:

www.ShawnaSchuh.com

Connect with Nate:

www.nateleslie.ca 

Would you like to rekindle your curiosity? Perhaps, you’d like to explore why magnificent leaders are master questioners. You only have one life to live. One is enough when you lead from within. Imagine a professional woman, who was sent to finishing school (3 times...but that’s a different story), lives on 20 rural acres with a variety of pets, and simultaneously improves the world by teaching leaders to “relearn how to learn” and, as a result, evolve into their true potential. Pretty awesome, right?

Shawna Schuh is an innovative thought-leader who can help you unpack the pesky problems you encounter when you lead people. With a curious mind, herself, and a Master’s Certificate in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Shawna is exceptionally skilled in the art of uncovering leadership blind spots and catapulting leaders out of the leadership weeds.

Having worked with organizations like Nike and Columbia Sportswear to associations such as Fashion Group International and the National Speakers Association. Shawna shares a unique perspective so that the information and ideas she promotes stick and work. With two TEDx talks to her credit, as well as 3 decades of experience, you will be enlightened as well as entertained while shifting from the less stellar things most leaders do to focus only on what the best leaders do.

I'm joined in this episode by an incredibly intelligent and well spoken woman, Sophie McLean. She's calling in from Minorca, a tiny island of the coast of Barcelona, relocating from NYC's Upper East Side to write her second book. I took on the adventure of interviewing Sophie knowing that I'd really have to lean in to keep up! The deeper connections I've made to being present, a 'beginner's mind', and leadership have left me with a feeling of peace, in a currently chaotic world. By accepting the idea that we 'know almost nothing' is more freeing than I ever could have imagined. 

Connect with Sophie @ www.sophiemclean.com

Connect with Nate @ www.nateleslie.ca 

About Sophia McLean 

Born in Algeria, educated in Morocco and France, with a professional career in the USA and UK, Sophie has led an eventful life. She has been a helicopter pilot, a teacher, a designer, a relief worker, a war refugee, a CEO, and served as a United Nations representative on The Commission on the Status of Women’s Hunger Project. She has been shot at, shipwrecked, and widowed. She has lived on a farm, a boat, a penthouse, and in an ashram. As a wisdom teacher, Sophie has spent decades leading transformational seminars to over 80,000 people around the world, of all ethnicities, ages, religions and social backgrounds – all engaged with the universal existential questions of “Who and what am I?” and “What is my life about?” 

Sophie McLean's mission is to contribute to the creation of a new culture for humankind; or the shift from Homo Sapiens to Homo Spiritus, as Dr. David Hawkins so beautifully wrote. Sophie's seminar and podcast topics span both human and metaphysical dimensions – exposing and deconstructing the automatic ego, consciousness, freedom, love, stress, anxiety, fear, relationships, health, sex, money, ownership, leadership, spirituality, creation and evolution, the feminine and the masculine, responsibility, and making an effective, actionable difference in the world. 

Sophie engages people in a rigorous review of their life and a systematic questioning of their conclusions on the basis that without examining our network of ideas, beliefs, social and cultural judgments, and our assumptions about the world, those are transformed into constraints. Her interest is in the nature of what it means to be human. Sophie's book, The Elegance of Simplicity: A Wisdom Teacher's Epic Journey to Awareness, is a compelling, thought-provoking work of autobiographical fiction, one that communicates life-altering concepts proposing an effortless pathway to awareness. It’s a deeply authentic and dramatic story of self-discovery, about what is possible when you take responsibility, own your power, and become one with life. In Sophie McLean's life and work, she strives to bring elegance, worldly experience, grit, courage, and insight leading to revelation and transformation.