Making Waves at C-Level: Business Tips for Executives, Leaders, and Entrepreneurs

Why do we need to be intentional with energy? And does the significance of your energy matter as a leader? Dustin James says energy matters more than most people think.

In this interview Thom Singer talks to professional speaker, entrepreneur, and corporate energizer Dustin James about how energy impacts your whole organization.

About Dustin James

Dustin E. James is America’s Top Corporate Energizer.  He is on a mission to elevate the workplace by helping corporations increase sales performance by building resilient, connected and creative leaders. 

This motivational speaking powerhouse takes energy and engagement to an entirely different level. Dustin has presented to over 500,000 individuals in-person and virtually throughout the United States.  

Dustin’s interactive learning experiences motivate and inspire through massive crowd engagement, creativity, and professional story telling. Creativity is one of his calling cards, with over 200+ plus stories to tailor for each of his events. Dustin has been a TOP PERFORMER in 4 different industries, he is a proud husband and father of two, he is a serial entrepreneur, a TEDx Speaker, and John Maxwell Certified Coach.

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/dustin-james

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Episode 722 is a combination of 12 short interviews with toy store owners and toy manufacturers. Thom Singer was the EmCee for the ASTRA Toy Marketplace and Academy and had the chance to spend 4 days with the coolest people in the toy industry. He has worked with this association several times, and has learned that "toy people are fun people" and they are creative and innovative business leaders.  

Your city might just have one or more independent toy stores. If so, you should check out these businesses. There is a lot to learn from toy stores around creativity, being playful in your career, customer service , innovation, and hard work. 

In this interview he asks people about the toy industry, how retailers morphed and grew during the pandemic, and what lessons other industries can learn from the toy business.  

This is fast past series of two to five minute chats that are full of business advice. 

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/Toy-store-lessons 

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Sometimes you have to take the "road less traveled" to find success in business. The guest on Episode 721 of "Making Waves at C-Level has done just that. In this interview Ed Rigsbee shares his eclectic career journey and the lessons he has learned along the way.

As an individual or a company, innovation is key to finding your highest levels of success.

About Ed Rigsbee

Ed Rigsbee is unique in the fact that he holds both the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential and that of the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP). He has been referred to as, the dynamite that blew up the log jam. If your organization is ready to take a definitive step toward growing your organization, Ed is ready to help you through the maze or land mines, road blocks, and subversives. He is available to help your non-profit “move the needle” toward accelerated membership growth.

Looking for the missing link to explosive membership growth? It’s member ROI at your core. Learn to calculate, prove and communicate your organization’s member ROI and prove to the non-members in your industry/profession that membership in your organization is a smart business decision. Trade associations and professional societies of today must continually prove the return on investment they deliver to members in order to stay relevant. Today, membership organization leaders must see their organization through the eyes of the non-member and be capable of proving the actual yearly sustainable real-dollar ROI that their current members receive in order to maintain high-level member retention and continual new recruitment. Learn how to turn your ambivalent members into member recruitment evangelists.

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/ed-rigsbee

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Have you ever thought about how your strategic planning and succession planning impacts your corporate culture? Well according to Liz Weber, it plays a big part. And culture matters in business now more than ever.

This episode of "Making Waves at C-Level" is a conversation about succession plans, strategy, and culture. Thom and Liz go deep into her expertise and find ways you company should be looking at your org chart and thinking about how you cover the roles of EVERY employee.

About Liz Weber

In the words of one client, “Liz Weber will help you see opportunities you never knew existed.”

A sought-after consultant, speaker, and trainer, Liz is known for her candor and ability to make the complexities of leadership E.A.S.Y. She creates clarity for her audiences during her results-oriented presentations. Participants walk away knowing how to implement the ideas she shares.

Liz has been named a Top 100 Leadership Influencer for 2022 by LeadersHum, a Top 100 HR Influencer by Engagedly, and a Top HR Influencer to Watch by BambooHR and HR Exchange Network. She. She is one of fewer than 100 people in the U.S. to hold both the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) and Certified Management Consultant (CMC) designations; the highest earned designations in two different professions.

As the President of Weber Business Services, LLC, a management consulting, training, and speaking firm headquartered near Harrisburg, PA, Liz provides strategic and succession planning, executive coaching, and comprehensive leadership training programs to business owners, leaders, executive teams, and boards of directors.

Liz holds an MBA in International Business and is an experienced national and international board director. Liz has extensive association leadership experience as she’s served at the national and international board levels and has won awards for her initiatives and service.

Liz has supervised business activities in 129 countries. She has designed and facilitated conferences from Bangkok to Bonn and Tokyo to Tunis. In addition to writing nine leadership books, and her Leadership Insights blog articles, Liz posts to social media daily.

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/liz-weber

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Thom Singer sits down with one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Austin, Texas. His friend, Brett Hurt, is the author of The Entrepreneur's Essentials and the founder of six successful companies. 

In this conversation they chat about Brett's entrepreneurship, the new book, what makes a B Corporation, and how Brett can do a 22 minute plank. This interview is full of useful information for anyone at any level of their business career.  

About Brett Hurt

Brett Hurt is the CEO and co-founder of data.world, an Austin-based Certified B Corporation and public benefit corporation. data.world makes it easy for everyone—not just the "data people"—to get clear, accurate, fast answers to any business question. data.world's cloud-native data catalog maps its customers siloed, distributed data to familiar and consistent business concepts, creating a unified body of knowledge anyone can find, understand, and use. data.world is also home to the world’s largest collaborative open data community, including public COVID-19 datasets. In 2017, 2018, and 2019, data.world was honored on the “Best for the World” list by B Lab that recognizes the top 10% of all B Corps globally. And in 2020, data.world was named by the Austin Business Journal as one of the top-three companies to work for. Brett is also the co-owner of Hurt Family Investments (HFI), alongside his wife, Debra. HFI are involved in 115 startups, 31 VC funds, and multiple philanthropic endeavors.

Brett co-founded and led Bazaarvoice as CEO, through its IPO, follow-on offering, and two acquisitions. Bazaarvoice became the largest public SaaS (Software as a Service) business in social commerce and was named by the WSJ as one of the top IPOs of 2012. Brett also founded and led Coremetrics, which was rated the #1 Web analytics solution by Forrester Research and, like Bazaarvoice, expanded into a global company and leader. Coremetrics was acquired by IBM in 2010 for around $300m.

In 2017, Brett was given the Best CEO Legacy Award by the Austin Business Journal. He is a Henry Crown Fellow and Braddock Scholar at the Aspen Institute. Brett began programming at age seven and doing so on the Internet at age eighteen. He finished his book, “The Entrepreneur’s Essentials”, in August 2019 (available at databrett.medium.com for free).

Two beautiful children and married to Debra, my much better half, since 1996.

About "The Entrepreneur Essentials" Book

The Entrepreneur’s Essentials developed through Brett’s series of blog posts called Lucky7—named in honor of his mother—to help all entrepreneurs take proactive steps to avoid mistakes that, though common, can have a hugely negative impact on their business.

Brett presents this book as a guide with 23 informative lessons, pulling from impactful experiences from his own life as both a startup CEO and investor, sharing dual perspectives to give deeper insight. He explores the stages of a startup’s progression from deciding on a company name to hiring well and understanding what it takes to be an inclusive leader worthy of your own company. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or a first-time business owner, The Entrepreneur’s Essentials will help you explore ways to make your startup better.

You can get the book at https://theEntrepreneursEssentials.com 

About data.world

data.world is the enterprise data catalog for the modern data stack. Their cloud-native SaaS platform combines a consumer-grade user experience with a powerful knowledge graph to deliver enhanced data discovery, agile data governance, and actionable insights. The company is home to the world’s largest collaborative data community, which is free and open to the public. It’s where people discover data, share analysis, and team up on everything from social bot detection to award-winning data journalism. They use what we learn from this community to improve the enterprise product and vice versa. 

www.ThomSinger.com/podcast/brett-hurt

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This episode is the return of the "Making Waves at C-Level" podcast after a month long hiatus. Host Thom Singer has been making some changes to his career and business life - and so stay tuned to see a lot of new things happening here on this podcast.

In this interview he talks to Zora Chase from Chasing Nectar Digital Solutions. They discuss why all companies should have a digital expert in their corner and bring up the important strategies for digital.

This is also the first time Thom Singer has ever interviewed anyone from his Kindergarten class. Yes, the two first met in the early 1970s in Ms O'Brien's kindergarten room at Hugo Reid Elementary in Arcadia, California. The two grew up in the same schools though High School, and were both the homeroom "Anchors" of their school's closed circuit TV newscast during their senior year.  

About Zora Chase

Very few digital companies can confidently compare the benefits of digital versus traditional media. Chasing Nectar founder, Zora Chase, is able to leverage more than 20 years combined in broadcast and digital media, guiding dozens of businesses with marketing needs that span from grand openings, form fill, eCommerce, lead generation and branding. She built a team to share perspective to help you make sound marketing decisions. They strive to help you attain more customers without more spend and deliver results.

About Chasing Nectar Digital Solutions

Chasing Nectar places digital ads for growth-minded businesses. They work with clients to analyze the spend with a goal of delivering a substantial Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). They offer an array of products including Facebook and Instagram, Targeted Display Ads, Geo-Targeting, Video Ads, including OTT and YouTube, PPC, SEO/Reputation Management; Online Audio, Household IP Targeting and Live Chat.

Chasing Nectar stays on top of the rapidly evolving digital ad environment and use over 15 different ad exchanges to access premium inventory that is brand safe and delivers optimal ROI for our clients.

https://www.thomsinger.com/zora-chase 

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Zora Chung joins the conversation on "Making Waves at C-Level" to talk about growing a business, Angel Funding, and business success. ReJoule is a start up that does fast testing for eclectic vehicle batteries.  

About Zora Chung

Zora Chung is the cofounder and CFO at ReJoule, a battery diagnostics and optimization company focused on maximizing the value of every battery. ReJoule has graded over 1MWh of used electric vehicle (EV) batteries as part of their project to repurpose used EV into a stationary application. This project is funded by the California Energy Commission where Zora has blogged to document their learnings, progress, and obstacles. ReJoule’s work has been featured by Wired, Frost & Sullivan, and across a few podcasts and conferences. Before founding ReJoule in 2017, Zora has spent over 12 years in corporate finance at Clorox and Walmart eCommerce. She's created long-range strategic and financial plans, negotiated contracts, and evaluated new and existing business models and optimized them for scalable growth. She holds a B.S in Business Administration from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. 

About ReJoule

ReJoule is setting the standard for battery health diagnostics to improve the economics of electric vehicles (EV) batteries across its life cycle. Current health predictions only get worse as the batteries age and other ways to test the batteries can take hours. ReJoule’s fast and non-invasive diagnostic has already tested forklift, truck and bus batteries. It was proven to be at least 50x faster (5 min or less vs. 6-10 hours) than current testing methods without sacrificing accuracy. They’ve raised over $5M in non-dilutive grants and in 2022 got their first few paid customers - one is a top 10 automaker seeking to repurpose their used EV batteries in a second-life application. The ultimate goal is to get ReJoule’s technology into production vehicles and at service centers around the world. The founding team is a brother-sister duo balanced between an innovative technical cofounder who has built all the IP in-house and an experienced finance and business strategist.

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/rejoule

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Given changes in the economy and lack of resources, many companies are looking to do more with less. Carolyn Strauss knows you can get more done with less and she shares this with passion and enthusiasm. She has found ways throughout her career to thrive in competitive industries with limited resources. She is clear that there is a time and place to let go of the past offerings, to let go of people, and to look for the best times to make these changes.  

About Carolyn Strauss

Carolyn Strauss is a former CEO and has spent her life studying how to help companies optimize their most important resource, their people. As one of the top female professional MC's, her job is to keep conferences energized and running smoothly. As a professional speaker having earned her CSP, Carolyn works with organizations to keep people and teams running smoothly, and over the years, she has worked in most industries.

She is the author of 5 books, the co-host of the podcast "Another Day Above Ground" and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Carolyn is mom to a 5 year old golden retriever and she believes a good day contains chocolate. You can reach her at carolynstrauss.com

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/carolyn-strauss

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Wellness is more important than ever for your employees. Why is it important to focus on health in the workplace? Elaine Pasqua tells us all about it and how you and your people can stay healthy.

About Elaine Pasqua

Once upon a time, a 6’5″ 250 pound man looked at petite Elaine standing at 5’3″ and said: “You are the biggest little thing I’ve ever seen!”

This funny and energetic live wire has been traversing the country for more than 27 years, advocating for positive choices, optimal health, healthy relationships, and productive lives.

Elaine’s pursuit for making a difference in the lives of others began when she spoke out after losing her mom and stepdad to AIDS related complications. Her career as a professional speaker stemmed from passion, not from the desire to make money. That passion is reflected in her work today. Enhancing the quality of life for others resonates through Elaine’s keen knowledge, compassion, ability to connect, and sharp humor.

Elaine’s enthusiasm for making a difference has remarkably taken her to work with:

Elaine is proudly serving as the president of National Speakers Association’s Philadelphia Chapter. She is an author, columnist, and producer/director of public service videos. She has been featured in USA Today, NY1 News, Time Warner TV, NPR, NBC Sports Radio, CBS Sports, and Knight Ridder News Service.

When she is not traveling on planes, trains, and automobiles, you can find Elaine hiking, traveling for pleasure with her husband Jeff, singing with friends until the wee hours of the morning, or in her beautiful gardens with lots of dirt under her fingernails! She is the proud mom of Evan and David who are happy, productive, and caring young men…whew, she made it through parenting!

https://thomsinger.com/podcast/elaine-pasqua

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In this episode the conversation is all about change and innovation at work and how companies can create a culture that leads to more innovation. The guest is Adam Braus, whom Thom met at SXSW 2022.  

Also, this is the only episode in the history of 714 shows where a cat walked across a keyboard in the middle of the interview....so listen for the cat playing piano.

About Adam Braus

Adam Braus is a people- and mission-driven leader in technology and higher education. Braus builds and works with and on teams that envision, design, build, launch, and grow innovative new institutions that build people up. He has been working in higher education building innovative new colleges and college programs that are accessible to all for almost a decade. His recent books include:

Motivate: How to Defeat Distraction, Ignite Interest, and Secure Success - https://bit.ly/motivate-book Leading Change at Work — https://bit.ly/leading-change-at-work

The Future of Good: A Guide for Good People Going Forward (coming June 1 2022)

Braus’ philosophy about people — both in teaching and managing them — is to help them generate clear goals, an inspiring purpose, and a warm, safe environment, and then give them lots of choice, time, freedom, and support — with those elements in place, people learn and achieve more than you could assign them to do (and they don't burn out!). Braus is open to business and book coaching, collaborating on and advising high impact projects, startups, and non-profits, and exploring ambitious solutions to big problems.

Connect with him on LinkedIn to reach out or see his updates. You can also see his work on his website https://www.adambraus.com or on medium https://ajbraus.medium.com/.

https://Thomsinger.com/podcast/adam-braus

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