The Game Changer Network

6 Timeless Principles for Networking Your Way to the Top

Interview by Chicke Fitzgerald of the Game Changer Network as a part of the Best of the Game Changer series, showcased on C-Suite Network

The original live interview was 10/09/15.

No matter where you are on your career trajectory, a new college graduate, a CEO, or anywhere in between, networking is essential to your success. Here, David Bradford shows us, "network" doesn't have to be a four-letter word. Bradford, "The Bottlecap Kid", rose from humble beginnings to become CEO of two of the country's top 50 tech companies and is arguably the most connected human on planet Earth. In this book, he shares with us his six "UP Principles" - The very same strategies he attributes to his tremendous success. Today, David is Executive Chairman of VIEW- Virtual Immersive Educational Worlds aka FluentWorlds. Imagine a 3D virtual classroom where instead of having video games interfering with classroom instruction, video game technology is at the core of your instructional paradigm. The VIEW is transforming the way education and language training is done.

The Game Changer is featured on C-Suite Network.

Wendy Wallbridge- Spiraling Upward: The 5 Co-Creative Powers for Women on the Rise Women comprise 51 percent of the world’s population, make up over half the workforce, and control 85 percent of consumer decisions. Never before have women been so degreed or so represented as decision makers in all areas of influence. Why, then, do we still feel as if success eludes us? Why do we sometimes struggle to keep our drive alive? The linear, heads-down, forward-at-all-cost approach to success that has been forged by men will never take us to the heart of fulfillment. Women are not designed for the straight and narrow path. But until now there hasn’t been another choice. Wendy Wallbridge, principal of On Your Mark Corporate Coaching & Consulting, Inc. is a pioneer in the coaching field and recognizes this unmet need of professional women for an alternative path to success. Spiraling Upward: The 5 Co-Creative Powers for Women on the Rise offers a cogent, step-by-step roadmap for professional women to unlock their power and achieve success on their own terms.

Perry Marshall-80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More This on demand audio series is a part of the Executive Girlfriends Group Vignette Series. Chicke Fitzgerald interviews Perry Marshall. The original live interview was 6/12/15. Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay Per Click advertising, he pioneered many of today’s best practices and wrote the world’s best selling book on internet advertising, The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords. He’s also driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, being the first to articulate 80/20 as a fractal law of nature. 80/20 is the central lever for nearly every profitable strategy in sales, marketing and business. His book 80/20 Sales & Marketing is required reading in many growing companies.

Carol Sanford-The Responsible Entrepreneur: Four Game-Changing Archetypes for Founders, Leaders, and Impact Investors This on demand audio series is a part of the Executive Girlfriends Group Vignette Series. Chicke Fitzgerald interviews Carol Sanford. The original live interview was on 8/14/15. Responsible entrepreneurs are a special breed, seeking to transform industries and even society itself. They challenge and refine cultural assumptions, laws, regulations, and even the processes of governance. This requires them to do and think far beyond what is usually required of business leaders. The Responsible Entrepreneur offers a blueprint for this new kind of business leadership, describing the means by which any entrepreneur can pursue a higher order of work. In it, Carol Sanford, one of the most trusted names in responsible business development, brings her vast expertise in helping executives and corporations to the entrepreneur looking to launch and scale a venture. Carol works with all functions and levels of business: from C-suite executives of Finance, Business Development and Sales, Marketing, IT, R&D, to operations leadership. This includes acquisition, merger, brand development, product management and channel building resulting in decades long market leadership.

Bonnie Marcus- THE POLITICS OF PROMOTION: How High-Achieving Women Get Ahead and Stay Ahead This on demand audio series is a part of the Executive Girlfriends Group Vignette Series. Chicke Fitzgerald interviews Bonnie Marcus. The original live interview was 7/03/15. Working industriously, diligently, and with heads down has served women well. They now hold 57 percent of all bachelor’s degrees and 51 percent of all doctorates, and earn 47 percent of law degrees and 45 percent of all master’s degrees in business. Yet, with optimism and ambition, women enter the workforce and are blindsided: only 5.2 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions and 5.4 percent of Fortune 1,000 CEO positions are held by women. The problem? A naïve negligence of workplace politics, argues Bonnie Marcus, award-winning entrepreneur and founder and president of Women’s Success Coaching. In her new book, Marcus details common, research-backed land mines women encounter in the workplace – from unconscious and second-generation bias to a lack of self-confidence and a distaste for self-promotion – and provides proven tools for women to arm themselves for success. Bonnie received a BA from Connecticut College and a M.Ed. from New York University. She is an ICF certified executive coach. As the President of Women’s Success Coaching, Bonnie assists professional women to successfully navigate the workplace and position and promote themselves to advance their careers.

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Interview by Chicke Fitzgerald of the Game Changer Network as a part of the Best of the Game Changer series, showcased on C-Suite Network

This on demand audio series is a part of the Executive Girlfriends Group Vignette Series. Chicke Fitzgerald interviews Greg McKeown. The original live interview was 9/11/15.

Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin? Do you simultaneously feel overworked and underutilized? Are you often busy but not productive? Do you feel like your time is constantly being hijacked by other people’s agendas? If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the Way of the Essentialist. The Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done. It is not a time management strategy, or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter. By forcing us to apply a more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy – instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us. McKeown is the CEO of THIS Inc, a company whose mission is to assist people and companies to spend 80 percent of their time on the vital few rather than the trivial many. Clients include Adobe, Apple, Google, Facebook, Pixar, Salesforce.com, Symantec, Twitter, VMware and Yahoo!.

The Game Changer is featured on C-Suite Network.

Steven Overman- The Conscience Economy: How a Mass Movement for Good is Great for Business This on demand audio series is a part of the Executive Girlfriends Group Vignette Series. Chicke Fitzgerald interviews Steven Overman. The original live interview was 7/31/15. A generation of people around the world, from Boston to Bangkok, from New York to New Delhi, are making everyday choices in ways that defy traditional logic. They are judging where and how their clothes were made, not just how they fit. They are thinking global but buying local. Steven Overman provides context, inspiration and some basic tools to help readers reframe how they evolve and grow whatever it is they lead—whether it’s a community, a business, a product, or a marketing campaign. From the boardroom to the startup loft, from the State Department to the pulsing marketplaces of the developing world, The Conscience Economy will help international leaders, influencers, investors and decision-makers to manage, innovate and thrive in a new world where “doing good” matters as much as “doing well.” Ignore it, and your consumer or voter base will rebel, using a host of free tools and cheap connectivity to spread their rejection to peers around the world in real time. Leverage it, and Conscience Culture is a wellspring of financial upside. Steven Overman recently joined Kodak as Chief Marketing Officer, where he will lead the renewal of one of the world’s biggest brands.

This call focused on leadership with Shelly Rachanow, the author of What Would You Do If You Ran the World? The tagline of her book is Everyday Ideas from Women Who Want To Make the World a Better Place. Shelly Rachanow comes from a long line of butt-kicking women. Her grandmother raised four kids on her own and worked outside the home at a time when women weren't supposed to do either. Her mother routinely fought for better sidewalks, programs, and laws for the disabled while still managing to have time for her children (not to mention dinner on the table) every night.

Susan Skog- Mending the Sisterhood & Ending Women's Bullying This on demand audio series is a part of the Executive Girlfriends Group Vignette Series. Chicke Fitzgerald interviews Susan Skog. The original live interview was 11/6/15. Mending the Sisterhood & Ending Women’s Bullying is an eye-opening, game-changing look at where, why, and how women are bullying, blocking, and shunning other women, from conference rooms to cul-de-sacs. Most importantly, author Susan Skog issues a positive call-to-action for all women to lift one another up, not tear each other down. Trained as a journalist, Susan Skog is an author, writer, and advocate for developing-world women and girls. Susan's first book, Embracing Our Essence: Spiritual Conversations with Prominent Women, helped spark the women's spirituality movement across the country. To rally support for girls' education, safe water, maternal health, and poverty relief, Susan's gathered untold stories, from Asia to Africa, that have appeared on NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox, and in The NY Times, LA Times, People, Reader's Digest, AARP, and other top media outlets.

Tania Luna- Surprise: Embrace the Unpredictable and Engineer the Unexpected This on demand audio series is a part of the Executive Girlfriends Group Vignette Series. Chicke Fitzgerald interviews Tania Luna. The original live interview was 10/23/15. Do you prefer when: A) Things go according to plan? or B) When the unexpected happens? Most of us pick control and predictability. Yet research reveals a counterintuitive truth: surprise is the key that unlocks growth, innovation, and connection. It is also the secret ingredient in our best memories. Through colorful narratives and compelling scientific findings, authors Tania Luna and Dr. LeeAnn Renninger shine a light on the world's least understood and most intriguing emotion. They reveal how shifting our perception of surprise lets us thrive in the face of uncertainty. As a young child, Tania Luna left her home in post-Chernobyl Ukraine to take asylum in the US. Tania Luna has an unusual title: she calls herself a “surprisologist.” The co-founder and CEO of Surprise Industries, Luna thinks deeply about how to delight, and how to help individuals and teams thrive in uncertain circumstances and develop the bonds needed to get through them.