The Action Catalyst

Happy New Year from The Action Catalyst. This episode is a review of the highlights of 2019.  

These clips provide inspiration from leaders, authors, entrepreneurs, and more on challenging situations and how to learn and grow from them. Speakers include Kathleen Sarpy, Gloria Mayfield Banks, Todd Duncan, Edie Allen, and Roger Nierenberg.

Chris Spurvey grew up and still lives on the picturesque island of Newfoundland on the east coast of Canada.

After consciously choosing entrepreneurship as a means to create a better life for his family, Chris realized that negative beliefs about sales were holding him back from taking his ventures to the next level. He saw this as a major hurdle to not only his businesses but the businesses of virtually every other entrepreneur. Chris went to work on himself and found a way to sell that felt right.

Chris spearheaded the growth of Plato Consulting to the point it was acquired by one of the largest management consulting firms in the world (KPMG). In the process, he sold over $300 million in consulting services.

Following the acquisition, Chris turned his focus to helping other “non-sales sellers” find a way to grow their revenue in a consistent, stress-free manner.

He published It’s Time to Sell: Cultivating the Sales Mindset, founded Make Sales a Habit University and today is a growth advisor to business owners and their management teams throughout the world.

Chris’s newest venture is Dockridge Digital, a technology consulting and product development company focusing on helping businesses leverage digital to serve their customers.

Michael Brody-Waite, a recovering addict, acclaimed speaker, 3x CEO, Inc. 500 Founder, and leadership coach is on a mission to revolutionize the rules of leadership. Michael's unique perspective, from a background in overcoming addiction, is the foundation for his Mask Free Leadership System, built upon three principles that saved him from death and set him apart as a leader.

His TEDx talk, Great Leaders Do What Drug Addicts Do, has been viewed nearly 1,000,000 times in over 25 countries and provides insight into his 16-year journey from near homelessness and addiction to successful entrepreneurship.

With no college degree, Michael entered corporate America and went on to receive eight promotions in seven years. He went from a temporary representative at a kiosk in a mall for a Fortune 50 company to be a corporate manager of a three-state territory with 19 employees and responsibility for $250 million in revenue.

In 2010, Michael left that Fortune 50 company at the height of the recession to co-found and lead InQuicker, a healthcare SaaS company that revolutionized how patients schedule appointments. His leadership grew the organization from two employees to 50 employees, and 20,000% revenue growth in less than six years. This exceptional growth landed InQuicker a spot on the Inc. 500 list of Fastest-Growing Private Companies, Best Place to Work by the Nashville Business Journal four times and recognized as Healthcare Company of the Year by the Nashville Chamber of Commerce. In 2015, InQuicker was sold to a publicly traded company.

Brody-Waite's accomplishments include being named Most Admired CEO, Top 40 Under 40 by the Nashville Business Journal, and recognized by the Nashville Chamber of Commerce as Healthcare Entrepreneur of the Year.

Michael has worked in retail, spent nearly a decade in corporate America, and most recently served as the CEO of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, a 501c3 dedicated to connecting 2,000+ entrepreneurs with the resources they need to create, launch or grow a business.

Nicole Zasowski is a licensed marriage and family therapist and author of From Lost to Found. She is based in the state of Connecticut where she lives with her husband and two sons. As an old soul who wears her heart proudly on her sleeve, Nicole loves using her words to help others find an enduring peace and joy outside of circumstance.

Darrah is a four-time founder, author, and coach who used to cringe at the word "coaching."

But she was called to do this and was begged by her first clients to work with them. When they saw massive and transformational results in their lives and businesses, she stopped resisting and continued to serve.

After spending 10 years over-working and feeling burnt out while building a credit card processing company into 38 states and a networking events company for over 30,000 people, she learned the wrong way to do it. She then discovered that there was a better way.

A prolific writer and interviewer, she's worked with Shaq, Seth Godin, Bobbi Brown, Jillian Michaels, Adam Grant, Robert Herjavec, Nastia Liukin, Cam Newton, and the list goes on, with well over 1 million views of her work.

Her motto, "Design your life, build a career to fund it, and a network to support it," has inspired thousands to reach higher and dream bigger.

She was even named as #1 to follow by BossBabe Magazine.