The MIC With Paul Leon

In this episode of The Manager’s Mic, I sit down with Melissa Coloton, a commercial leadership expert with 20 years of experience and more than $1 billion in new business generated throughout her career.

Melissa shares how high performers, sales leaders, executives, and entrepreneurs can pursue success without burning out, abandoning themselves, or sacrificing their health, energy, and relationships. We talk about purpose at work, career identity, self-compassion, sales success, personal connection, and how to stay grounded when life or work becomes unsustainable.

This conversation covers burnout, purpose, sales leadership, high-performance habits, emotional resilience, career setbacks, self-leadership, and what it means to honor yourself while still pursuing meaningful results.

You will learn how to:

• Redefine purpose beyond one title, job, or achievement
• Stay connected to yourself during career pressure and uncertainty
• Practice self-compassion when success starts to feel heavy
• Recognize when ambition is being driven by fear
• Build sales success through belief, relationships, and personal connection
• Navigate change without losing your health, energy, or identity

The goal is simple: build success without losing yourself in the process.

Chapters
00:00 Melissa Coloton on Success Without Burnout
02:21 What Purpose Means in Business
05:12 Men, Women, Family, and Purpose at Work
08:34 Career Setbacks, Identity, and Losing Purpose
13:23 Self-Compassion During Hard Seasons
18:01 How to Stay Connected to Purpose
24:31 Practical Ways to Honor Yourself
31:23 The Law of Whatever
34:16 Humor, Improv, and Real Conversations
37:18 How Purpose Drives Sales Success
39:20 Selling With Belief and Personal Connection
43:25 What Baby Biotechs Teach Us About Purpose
50:12 Reverse Engineering $1B in Sales Success
56:38 Burnout, AI Disruption, and Career Identity

Follow Melissa

Website: https://melissacoloton.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissacolton/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissa_coloton/ 

For more tips on leadership, visit The Manager’s Mic:  https://www.themanagersmic.com/

Legal Disclaimer

Leonsolutions, LLC, and the content it produces are for educational purposes; your results may vary. No guarantee of results is claimed. The publisher of this content is not responsible for any actions taken or not taken as a result of reading, watching, or listening to our content.

I sit down with Sean Patton, MBA ACC, a former U.S. Army Ranger and Special Forces Green Beret. Sean is also an executive performance coach, keynote speaker, author, and host of the popular podcast No Limit Leadership. His experience in building trust in teams, creating a compelling vision, and leading through uncertainty will empower you to lead better.

Do you want to level up your leadership skills by connecting the principles of military leadership with those of business ownership to shape organizational culture for the better?

If yes, then we invite you to join our conversation as we discuss how to:

✅ Build trust across teams with different goals and competing priorities

✅ Create a leadership vision that inspires high performers

✅ Lead through conflict, friction points, and uncertainty

✅ Strengthen workplace culture through communication and feedback

✅ Develop employees so they stay engaged, grow, and perform at a higher level

✅ Understand why human leadership matters more as AI changes management

Chapters 

00:00 Trailer and Newsletter Plug

01:02 Meet Sean Patton

02:14 Understanding Special Forces and Leadership Dynamics 

6:23 Leadership Challenges in Complex Environments 

12:01 Building Trust And Relationships in Leadership

17:28 The Importance of Vision and Intensity in Leadership

21:04 Navigating Leadership Transitions 

23:36 Lessons From Business Ventures

27:40 Sean Patton’s Journey to Self-Discovery

30:06 The Leadership Trinity Framework

35:53 The Future of Leadership in a Tech-Driven World

Follow Sean Patton, MBA:

Website:  https://SeanPatton.me

Coaching:  https://Novus.Global/seanpatton

Book (A Warrior’s Mindset: The 6 Keys to Greatness):  https://amzn.to/4a6W4r4

Podcast (No Limit Leadership):  https://nolimitleadership.buzzsprout.com

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolimitleadership

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/nolimitleadership

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@NoLimitLeadership

For more practical tips on communication, sales enablement, team building, workplace culture, and leadership development, follow The Manager’s Mic Podcast.

Legal Disclaimer

Leonsolutions, LLC, and the content it produces are for educational purposes; your results may vary. No guarantee of results is claimed. The publisher of this content is not responsible for any actions taken or not taken as a result of reading, watching, or listening to our content.

This leadership conversation features coaches Brian Powell and Tom Reynolds exploring how effective leadership, coaching, and intentional team development drive organizational effectiveness. They explain how to build high-performing teams through psychological safety, honest communication, and strong collaboration in real workplace conditions.

About Bryan Powell

Bryan Powell is the co-author of The Efficient Frontier of Teaming™, a number one Amazon Best Seller in three leadership categories. The book offers a practical framework for understanding why capable teams underperform and what it takes to move beyond high performance toward Optimal Performance™. It was built inside real teams operating under real accountability pressure.

Alongside Brian’s coaching practice, he is finalizing his doctoral research in performance psychology focused on how psychological safety shapes team performance in results-driven environments.

Tom Reynolds  

Tom Reynolds is the co-author of The Efficient Frontier of Teaming™ with Brian Powell, where he contributes his expertise around psychological safety and agile goal setting. Specifically, his chapters help teams to see how the right kind of conflict can build psychological safety, and that you can hit a moving target if you plan as though your plan will break down. 

With a background in business and clinical psychology, Tom uses a practitioner-scholar approach to design leadership solutions that bridge the divide between research and practical application. He holds a Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Widener University, the only program in the United States to provide integrated training across those two disciplines.

Ask about their free team-building tool, the team contract!

https://www.theefficientfrontierofteaming.com/contact-us

Buy Their Book

https://amzn.to/4fJ7R2i 

Chapters

00:00 Trailer

00:50 Meet Bryan Powell & Tom Reynolds

04:04 The Challenge of Team Alignment and Development

05:44 The Role of Authenticity and Disagreement in Teams

07:28 Building Trust Through Tough Conversations

08:56 Frameworks for Psychological Safety Across Industries

12:34 The Team Contract Tool for Engagement

14:10 Workplace Changes and Future Skills with AI

16:06 Essential Competencies for the Next Decade

19:44 Reflections on Using AI in Education and Work

22:03 The Power of Human Judgment in the Age of AI

24:23 Building Authentic Teams and Leadership Mindsets

28:16 The Impact of Authenticity and Engagement on Performance

33:19 Research Insights on High-Performing Teams

36:13 The Partnership and Journey of the Authors

41:02 Final Advice for Leadership Teams Seeking Effectiveness

Legal Disclaimer

Leonsolutions, LLC, and the content it produces are for educational purposes; your results may vary. No guarantee of results is claimed. The publisher of this content is not responsible for any actions taken or not taken as a result of reading, watching, or listening to our content.

The ADDIE model helps managers, trainers, and content creators build training that is structured, useful, and easier to improve. In this video, Paul Leon walks through the five stages of ADDIE and explains the step that many teams underuse after launch.

Many organizations analyze, design, develop, and implement training, but stop at rollout or at basic participant feedback, rather than measuring whether people learned, applied the skill, and improved results. This video shows how to use the ADDIE model to strengthen training content, sales enablement, team development, and learning outcomes.

You will learn how to:

• Analyze learner and performance needs before building content
• Design training with clear objectives, structure, assessments, and brand consistency
• Develop better content with AI and stakeholder review
• Implement training with teams or field reps
• Evaluate results through feedback, application, and business-impact data

The goal is simple: build training content your team can actually use.

Chapters

00:00 Why the ADDIE Model Matters
00:24 Analyze: Start With Learner and Performance Data
02:08 Design: Build With Objectives and Structure
03:01 Develop: Use AI With Stakeholder Review
05:01 Implement: Launch the Training
05:28 Evaluate: The Step Most Teams Underuse

For more practical tips on management, training, sales enablement, leadership communication, and building better teams, visit The Manager’s Mic:

https://www.themanagersmic.com/

Legal Disclaimer

Leonsolutions, LLC, and the content it produces are for educational purposes; your results may vary. No guarantee of results is claimed. The publisher of this content is not responsible for any actions taken or not taken as a result of reading, watching, or listening to our content.

Bad feedback can quietly damage team trust, even when a manager has good intentions. In this episode of The Manager’s Mic, Paul Leon shares lessons from managing 17 direct reports and explains how new managers can give feedback that builds rapport instead of breaking it.

This conversation covers why self-awareness matters, how intention and impact are not the same, and why psychological safety is critical when giving feedback.

Paul Leon also breaks down a simple feedback framework for managers: be timely, be specific, and stay forward-looking. For new managers, feedback is not just about correcting behavior. It is an opportunity to build trust, improve communication, and create a safer team culture where employees feel comfortable speaking up.

Chapters

00:00 Why Bad Feedback Damages Team Trust

03:13 Self-Awareness for Better Manager Feedback

04:23 Fast Feedback Loop: Timely, Specific, Forward-Looking

06:29 Three Feedback Rules for New Managers

07:32 Building Rapport Through Difficult Conversations

Watch or listen to more from The Manager’s Mic on tips for new managers

• https://www.themanagersmic.com/
  

Legal Disclaimer

Leonsolutions, LLC, and the content it produces are for educational purposes; your results may vary. No guarantee of results is claimed. The publisher of this content is not responsible for any actions taken or not taken as a result of reading, watching, or listening to our content.

In my conversation with Dr. Heather Kidwell, she shared her expertise in strategic leadership. Her insights will help newer managers avoid burnout. Learn strategies to reconnect with your purpose to overcome a challenging work environment.

Follow Dr. Heather Kidwell

An Article to Overcome Burnout

https://humanitydrivenleadership.substack.com/p/its-not-just-burnout-its-something

Learn About The BurnUP Program

https://www.humanitydrivenleadership.com/the-burnup-sm-method 

LinkedIn

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

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Dr. Heather Kidwell

01:53 Defining Strategic Leadership

04:46 Management vs. Leadership

07:32 Trends in Young Professionals and Management

09:21 Personal Experiences in Corporate Leadership

11:07 Defining Your 'Why'

13:48 Navigating Career Transitions

16:30 Understanding Shame

20:18 Finding Happiness and Purpose

25:18 Future Focus: Convergent Depletion Syndrome

26:33 Understanding Burnout and Exhaustion

28:25 Convergent Depletion Syndrome Explained

30:27 Exploring Solutions and Support Systems

33:59 The Role of Spirituality in Leadership

34:49 The Performative Nature of Corporate Environments

Legal Disclaimer

Leonsolutions, LLC, and the content it produces are for educational purposes; your results may vary. No guarantee of results is claimed. The publisher of this content is not responsible for any actions taken or not taken as a result of reading, watching, or listening to our content.

Emily Green shares how she created a community for those seeking speaking opportunities. She shares her journey of owning a marketing agency, which she later sold. If you are a new manager looking to create engagement, this episode is for you.

Follow Emily Green

Website 

 https://emily-green.com/ 

Join The Love Means Business Community

https://emily-s-site-eec1.thinkific.com/products/communities/my-community-speaker-support  

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Emily Green

02:49 Lessons from Selling a Business

04:13 Understanding Marketing Agency Dynamics

05:09 Client Success Stories and Growth Strategies

06:55 Building a Brand and Agency Culture

09:37 The Decision to Sell and Transitioning to New Ventures

12:01 Challenges Women Face in Business

14:41 The Importance of Support and Community

20:12 Exploring Love Means Business Community

21:02 Tips for Building a Community

23:46 Creating Value through Networking and Opportunities

26:30 The Art of Writing for Engagement

32:02 An Important Lesson from Emily’s Career Journey

Follow the podcast that helps new managers avoid the habits that kill rapport

https://www.themanagersmic.com/

Legal Disclaimer

Leonsolutions, LLC, and the content it produces are for educational purposes; your results may vary. No guarantee of results is claimed. The publisher of this content is not responsible for any actions taken or not taken as a result of reading, watching, or listening to our content.

#ThoughtLeadership #LoveMeansBusiness #WomenInBusiness #ManagersMic

Can sales skills improve in just 13 days? In this episode of The Manager’s Mic, I break down practical sales training principles that help sales professionals improve communication, sharpen their value proposition, understand buyer psychology, build a stronger sales pipeline, handle rejection, and follow up with purpose.

Follow me online for more sales management tips

https://www.themanagersmic.com/

In this video, you will learn:

• How to improve sales skills through consistent action
• Why a strong value proposition matters in every sales conversation
• How buyer psychology affects sales outcomes
• Why tone and communication style shape trust
• How to build and protect a healthy sales pipeline
• How to handle rejection without losing momentum
• Why persistence and follow-up drive more closed deals
• How relationship-based selling creates long-term success

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Sales Mastery
04:12 Understanding the Sales Process
09:36 Effective Communication Techniques
14:25 The Role of Follow-Up in Sales

#Sales #Management #Tips #ManagersMic

AI is changing how leaders are discovered, evaluated, and hired — and your personal brand may already be falling behind.

In this episode of The Manager's Mic Podcast, personal branding expert Melanie Borden (founder of Borden Group) breaks down exactly how to build a personal brand strategy that AI can not erase. From searchable leadership to digital visibility tactics that get you found, this is the AI personal branding conversation every manager needs to hear.

What You'll Learn:

• How AI is reshaping how buyers and hiring managers evaluate leaders

• What "searchable leadership" means and how to make it work for you

• Practical personal brand strategy to future-proof your career in the AI era

• The most common AI personal branding mistakes leaders make

• How to build real digital visibility as a manager or executive

About Melanie Borden: Melanie Borden is the founder of Borden Group, a personal branding agency helping executives and entrepreneurs build powerful, searchable digital identities.

Follow Melanie Borden

Website - https://humantobrand.com/

Book- https://amzn.to/3OhUL0Y 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanieborden/ 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thebordengroup/ 

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Melanie Borden and Her Expertise 

01:24 The Impact of AI on Buyer Evaluation 

04:46 Embracing AI: Skills for the Future 

08:25 Defining Searchable Leadership 

11:02 Strategies for Enhancing Searchability 

16:56 Common Mistakes in AI Personal Branding 

22:01 Melanie's Personal Journey and Lessons Learned 

32:29 Future-Proofing Visibility in Leadership

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Legal Disclaimer

This content is for educational purposes; your results may vary. No guarantee of results is claimed. The publisher of this content is not responsible for any actions taken or not taken as a result of watching or listening to this content.

Most sales managers inherit broken compensation plans and wonder why their best reps keep leaving. In this episode, compensation expert Scott Trumpolt breaks down exactly why most sales compensation plans fail and what you can do to fix it.

Scott shares his experience in designing pay structures that actually motivate your team, reduce sales turnover, and create clear career pathways for your salespeople if you're a new sales manager trying to understand why your top performers keep walking out the door.

This one is for you.

What you'll learn:

• Why most compensation plans backfire (and the psychology behind it).
• How to build a career roadmap that keeps your best reps engaged.
• The real difference between base + commission vs. commission-only roles.
• How market-based pay reduces sales turnover and boosts retention.
• Why transparency and simplicity are the foundation of sales performance management.

Follow Scott Trumpoltt

Book: https://amzn.to/4vf9XfN

Website: https://hrcompensationconsulting.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-trumpolt-m-a-g-r-p-257a6b317/ 

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Scott Trompolt 

02:00 Plug to The Defragmented Consultant 

04:58 Sales Compensation Structures and Their Importance 

12:20 Understanding Sales Turnover Rates 

17:10 Creating a Career Roadmap for Sales Professionals 

24:16 Career Architecture and Growth Paths 

28:54 The Importance of Compensation Clarity 

34:48 Challenges in Commission-Only Sales Roles 

41:31 Key Takeaways on Transparency and Simplicity

#SalesManagement #SalesTurnover #SalesPerformance #Tips #ManagersMic