Laurel Mintz is the CEO and Founder of Elevate My Brand, a digital marketing and strategy agency. Inspired by the innovative consulting work she executed early in her career with some prestigious brands, Laurel knew she wanted to play a lot bigger. And a decade later, she has created an agency family serving both startups and blue-chip global brands like Facebook, Verizon, Digital Media Group, Paw Patrol, and Zendesk, just to name very few of the amazingly long list of relationships she has.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

The Challenge of Leaping into Entrepreneurship

We have an opportunity to look at it as a gift as challenging as things may be right now. And so, you have this opportunity to press pause and figure out what you really want instead of being on that constant hamster wheel grind. So, just take a pause, listen, and pay attention.

Have a “build it and they will come mentality.”. Having an impostor syndrome is okay. What's not good is when you fail to step into a role and own it. And so, you have to surround yourself with people that are going to support or teach you or be part of that team. Everyone is faking it, so don't let anyone intimidate you.

The Power of Mentorship

If you're thinking about starting something, having an informal advisory board is so critical. Have different people on that advisory board who will give you their time and their energy when you need it, without overextending them.

Those mentors that we pick in our lives actually like to be asked. People appreciate it when you ask them for help, and they have the ability to pay it forward, especially now with women, with the way we're all really holding each other up and supporting each other in business. So don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Creating a Culture of Caring in Your Company

You can't fake caring for people because people see through it. And when you're able to do that, your team feels that.

How Marketing Has Evolved Over The Years

The more people have slowed down, the better results they have gotten. Look at the data because it's that foundational work that you have to do before you blast out into the universe. That way, you're aware of when you're going to spend money, who to talk to, and when you're talking to them.

There are so many channels that provide opportunities digitally to speak to your audience but you have to be able to capture the right audience so you don’t end up wasting your money, time, and effort.

Resources Mentioned:

Elevate My Brand

Mitch Slater is a financial advisor at UBS and host of the podcast, Financially Speaking with Mitch Slater. Today, we talk about his colored work and interview history with the legendary Larry King,  business and reinvention passions, trends, and hobbies. Reinvention is really about the whole self and nurturing so many of those parts in us. How much are you willing to step out of your comfort zone to seek out the things you really want in life?

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Working with Larry King

Larry King had the genius of curiosity and listening. Being with him during those three years that Mitch worked with him, he learned the two most important lessons that helped him throughout the next 38 years of his work life and personal life.

The Power of Curiosity and Listening

Very few people know how to be able to sit over a kitchen table and have very intimate conversations about people's financial lives and their personal lives. You have to be able to communicate. For Mitch, Larry was the beacon of communication.

Be curious enough to know what else you can have in your life. Be curious enough to be able to talk to others and hear their stories and know what's possible.

Learn how to listen. Not just listen to other people, but more importantly, listen to yourself. Know how to be still and quiet enough to connect with yourself. And make sure you're doing what you want with your life.

The Recipe for Reinvention

Life is really looking inside, seeing who you are, and realizing the most important parts of you. Whether it's playing the piano, acting, interviewing, communicating through podcasting, or doing origami, that would be great. Look inside and realize where that was coming from, and be able to combine that with your work, and your family, and really create the life that you want.

It doesn't matter what you're doing, you can find a way to let anything into your life, absolutely. Open up your heart to the areas that you're most passionate about. Find those things where you step out of your comfort zone.

Return on Relationships, Not Return on Investments

Each client that you work with shines differently. And that's the only way to really develop a relationship. It's not about the investment – it's so much more than that.

Resources Mentioned:

Financially Speaking with Mitch Slater

UBS Wealth Management

Larry King Tribute:  https://youtu.be/k3pHHG4nbyg

Lesley Jane Seymour is a media entrepreneur and the founder of the CoveyClub, a new club for lifelong learners launched in February 2018.

From 2008-2016, she served as editor-in-chief of More Magazine, the leading lifestyle magazine for women over 40, with a readership of 1.5 million. She was also the editor-in-chief and social media director of More.com, which attracted over 12 million monthly page views and 600,000 unique visitors.

In 2012, Seymour was named executive director of Meredith’s Beauty Center of Excellence. In 2009 she was named number four on the Most Powerful Fashion Editors List by Forbes magazine. She also previously served as editor-in-chief for Marie Claire magazine and Redbook magazine, beauty director of Glamour, and copywriter and senior editor at Vogue.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

The CoveyClub

So many women feel they're being pushed to say it's over, or they're being pushed to be irrelevant, and they're not having as much control over their destiny.  The whole idea of the CoveyClub is to connect women who are 40 plus, with 50 as their sweet spot. These are women who still feel they're not done yet. They have a long life ahead of them and a lifelong productivity trail going on for as long as they want it to be.

It's great to have a place to go where you can talk honestly about your issues, your fears, your motivations, and your barriers. And you have real, accomplished women who have the wisdom, experience, and who can connect you to a greater network.

Looking for Outside Approval vs. Working on Loving Yourself

A lot of people are looking for outside approval I was looking for. But you have to work on loving yourself and knowing your issues and being okay with your issues. Everybody has issues they’re not going to get away without. But hopefully, your good points outweigh your bad points. Think of the things you really value and how are you going to be able to bring those things to life and share those with other people.

Reinventing Yourself

People have found those places for their next lives and it's important to have that space for people to talk about them. Reinvention comes in all shapes and sizes. Just go for it. It takes courage and it takes figuring things out. But you have to know where you really want to be. Whether it's a five-minute reinvention or a 10-year reinvention, it's yours to do what you want with it.

Resources Mentioned:

https://www.coveyclub.com/

Kathy Carter is the Chief Revenue Officer of LA 2028, CEO of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties, and she has been in this role since October of 2018. She and her team are responsible for all of the revenue and marketing functions of the Support Team USA and the LA 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games including sponsorship sales, consumer products, brand marketing, hospitality, ticketing, and events.

Prior to this, Kathy served as the president of Soccer United Marketing, a Major League Soccer commercial subsidiary, and was in charge of managing and growing the business operations for premier soccer organizations and events in the U.S., including MLS, U.S. Soccer, and the Mexican National Team, among others. Kathy became a founding member of Major League Soccer and was instrumental in building the league from the ground up and had such a profound effect on the world of soccer. When she stepped off the proverbial treadmill in early 2018, she decided to take some time to reassess and reinvent.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Thoughts on Taking Risks

As an athlete, you lose a lot of games. Then you pick yourself up and you dust yourself off. You go back out and you play another game. That's one of the great benefits of growing up in sport is it allows you not to see things as risks, but rather see things as opportunities.

Do anything you can do to get exposure to the broader business, and ultimately, hopefully, can become a more valuable and more contributing member. Just be there and start to understand the inner workings of the game, as opposed to feeling like you have to jump a couple of the rungs.

Ways to Get in the Game That You Love

Love the game and decide that if it's not the way you want to live where you have it as your full-time job, but you can also find ways to participate in it even in a part-time capacity.

How Do We Reconcile Things to Be The Best Version of Ourselves?

There is no perfect, and therefore, as individuals, the idea that any of us is perfect is a fallacy. It's always a work in progress. And therefore, part of what we need to do is make sure we take feedback. Don’t take it personally and make excuses for things that people give you as feedback. And if you can do that, then you can start to evolve.

Resources Mentioned:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathycarter17/ 

IN-Q is a National Poetry Slam Champion, award-winning poet, bestselling author, and multi-platinum songwriter. His groundbreaking achievements include being named to Oprah’s SuperSoul 100 list of the world’s most influential thought leaders being the first spoken word artist to perform with Cirque Du Soleil, and being featured on A&E, ESPN, and HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. He has inspired audiences around the world through his live performances and storytelling workshops. Many of his recent poetry videos have gone viral with over 70 million views combined.

Leading organizations including Nike, Instagram, Spotify, Google, Lululemon, Live Nation, Shazam, The Grammy Foundation, and many more have brought IN-Q in to motivate their teams through his keynote speeches and acclaimed storytelling workshop. It's a transformational bonding experience for companies who want to share their story more authentically.

Inquire Within is an extraordinary collection of IN-Q's poetry, his work, his words, and his wisdom.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Finding the Silver Linings

Everyone defines themselves, consciously or unconsciously, by the external world, especially in a capitalist society. We're all trying to accomplish something. It's a complicated dichotomy to figure out how to use that as fuel to achieve your goals. But at the same time, to not be so attached to your expectations that you allow it to steal your joy. There's always going to be more. There is never an end to more. So if more is your goal, you're always going to come off short.

The purpose of life is not to have this much or who you know, or what you've achieved. It's not even what you do in the world. It's who you are in this moment. In the neverending now. It's the joy of being alive and the miracle of being alive.

A Few Lines from His Favorite Poem

When you notice something beautiful do you think that's a beautiful moment, or that would be a beautiful picture? 

When you attempt to capture something, do you alter its very nature? 

Can you sit with the uncertainty like God's other creatures? 

Do you have to freeze a memory to immortalize its features? 

Do you need to prove that you were there in order to exist? 

Do you crave the recognition in a way you can't admit? 

Do you wrestle with impermanence with poison on your lips? Do you resist the emptiness by trying to imprison bliss? 

Capturing Pictures vs. Capturing Moments

By taking pictures, it's how we prove that we were there. This is the thing that gives us value so much so that we actually miss being there. We don't notice what's actually around us. And in that way, we missed our lives.

Resources Mentioned:

https://in-q.com/

Book: Inquire Within

The New You Workshop

Follow IN-Q on Facebook and Instagram.

Melanie is the founder and CEO of the Brandman Agency. Her clients are the who's who of the luxury travel and lifestyle industries. She's got offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Sydney. She's a trusted advisor to her global roster of clients as well as a resource for media and tastemakers.

Melanie also founded Travel Curator, an extraordinary digital publisher dedicated to luxury travel, which now reaches over a million people, targeting the affluent and forward-thinking global travelers.

Today’s episode is a reminder that no matter the circumstances, you have the power to create success, fulfill your dreams, and live with passion. You'll pick up some reinvention and life advice and tips from someone whose passion for life is contagious and whose brilliant mind and sharp business acumen have enabled her to build a global public relations firm doing what she loves.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Working Hard to Do What You Love Every Day

It's okay to be a nice person. Enjoy what you do. Be nice to people along the way. Help your competitors. There are a lot of sharks in this business who are competitive. But if you do a great job, and you're good to people who work for you, they are your family, you're good to your clients, you do the best that you can do, you find new ways of doing things, then success will come.

About the Travel Curator

Melanie has been spending so much time on email answering people about travel so she created this little website and started loading information doing travel guides, and it started to take off. And it was really very organic and word of mouth. Six years later, they have over a million visits a month and they generate all original content. They do partnerships and collaboration with hotel brands around the world. Just remember that people want authentic, credible information, insider tips, and where to go from someone who knows what they're talking about.

Reinventing Tips

Sometimes you don't have to reinvent your entire life. You just need to look at what you're doing, what you love to do, and how to expand on that to bring great joy to yourself.

With so much great talent was in the marketplace right now, a lot of great people had lost their jobs. A lot of people also realized that they didn't want to work a nine-to-five anymore. Now that they were working from home, they realized they wanted flexibility.

Learn how to listen, sit back, and really dig into what works for you. You don't usually have the time and yet the last nine months have given us such an opportunity.

Take baby steps. You don't have to jump at full speed. It's okay to make mistakes because that's the best way to learn. And ask people you trust to help you because people really want to help.

You can’t be great at everything. A great boss knows their strengths and weaknesses and they hire people who can make up for their weaknesses. Plus, it’s so much more fun than just doing it on your own.

Resources Mentioned:

Brandman Agency

Travel Curator

James Orsini is currently the president of The Sasha Group, which is a division of VaynerMedia. Prior to that, he also served as the CEO and Chief integration officer at VaynerMedia working alongside Gary Vaynerchuk. James has a 35-year career under his belt as he previously worked for The Rowland Company, Goldman Sachs, and KPMG.

The Sasha Group is a company that runs like a consultancy on the frontend and an advertising agency on the backend. The company has now grown to 65 people in just a year. Senior talents help consult these entrepreneurs, founders, or challenger brands into a new way of marketing, which Gary calls Marketing for the Now.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Dealing with the naysayers

It chokes a vision when people panic. It's therefore important to be able to help translate your vision to the team.

How the Covid Situation and Remote Work Affected the Work Product

What you're seeing is a new norm for working. Even when you're working from home, you can really stay connected. In fact, James has never felt closer to his company than he does right now.

The boxes make everybody equal. They're all equal in size. An account executive has the voice of a senior vice president because it's just the same box size. Plus, there is more effort now to do some social events to keep people together.

What is 4Ds?

4Ds is a classroom workshop type settings of 10 to 12 people in a conference room. It's a full-day immersion and Gary is there for an hour and a half. He goes around the room and everybody gets to ask their question.

Advice to Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Absorb the fact that the world is different now. So you have to adapt right now. Most are in survival mode. This is not about producing the greatest profits of all time. This is about being around to live and fight another day.

Attack and move a piece of your business from defense to offense in order to survive.

Resources Mentioned:

The Sasha Group

Marci Freedman is living her true north, and yet still reinventing in many ways every day. She's curious and lives life to the fullest with that bright light that always burns inside her. Marci is a brilliant example of what's possible when you set your mind to it.

Today, Marci shares some reinvention and life advice and tips as someone who has done the corporate gig, the entrepreneurial gig, and everything in between.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Marci’s Aha Moment

When the investment group that Marci joined went Chapter 7, she lost a part of herself. But then she realized that failure was actually her biggest success in life because it led her to a spiritual journey that she’s still on right now.

Marci no longer wanted to work for a corporate company. Instead, she’s betting on herself because she is the brand. Marci then decided to have her own small company where she had to do everything. But when people ask her what she does, she still tells them that her number one job is her. When you go through change, you learn to live differently.

The Power to Create the Life You Want

It’s very important to take some time to tune into yourself and check if you’re still in there. We get to choose as we do everything in life. And we have to give ourselves more credit and know we're entitled to choose to live the life we want to live.

It's not always happiness and flowers. There's some sadness as well. And when those feelings come in, acknowledge them. Be self-aware of what's happening. Then surround yourself with the smartest people in the room because that collective is what makes you successful.

This is your one and only life. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to wake up 20 or 40 years from now and realize you still haven’t don’t what you should’ve done? Whatever it is that you wish to do, there's no reason to not incorporate some version of that into your life. But you have to believe you’re entitled to do that, then figure out your roadmap to get to that place. You're not just doing what you love. You're making a living doing what you love.

Resources Mentioned:

http://www.number14.us

Reinvent Your Life! What Are You Waiting For by Kathi Sharpe-Ross

Jeffrey Hayzlett is a primetime TV and podcast host, keynote speaker, and global business celebrity. This man has bought and sold over 250 businesses over the course of his career and about $25 billion in transactions.

Jeffrey is a primetime television host of C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett and Executive Perspectives. He is the business podcast host of All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett. He's the Chairman and CEO of the C suite network, home of the world's most trusted network of C-suite leaders.

He is the author of four bestselling business books, the most recent one being The Hero Factor: How Great Leaders Transform Organizations and Create Winning Cultures. He sits on many boards and had an amazing role at Kodak as CMO for four years.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Insights into Reinventing Yourself

You have to balance yourself – spiritually, personally, relationship-wise, and business-wise. You also have to have everybody to have input on that so you can't just reinvent yourself without taking those into consideration. There are times you could screw up and make mistakes in your business. But it's the everyday stuff that matters.

Advice to Entrepreneurs

You can do anything you want the way you want to do it. If you had to do it the way other people told you, Uber, Facebook or Amazon would never have been invented. Most of those businesses were built and started during downturns, depressions, and recessions. And some of those greatest companies that you see such as Airbnb and many others all started out of necessity. So what are you waiting for?

Delegate, Automate, or Eliminate

Try to get through the five to eight things you need to get done for the day. Then delegate, automate, or eliminate. Also, do the hard things first and don’t wait until the end. Otherwise, you’re just going to be putting it off. Block off a couple of hours in the morning that no one can mess with.

Resources Mentioned:

https://c-suitenetwork.com/

The Hero Factor: How Great Leaders Transform Organizations and Create Winning Cultures by Jeffrey Hayzlett

Deborah Wahl is a veteran of the marketing and business world. She is a leading innovator amongst chief marketing officers, revitalizing brands by aligning customer and company objectives across industries and markets.

Deborah is currently the global CMO of General Motors and CMO of Cadillac. She was the CMO of McDonald's USA for three years. And prior to that, she had incredible senior level and C-suite positions at Pulte Group, Chrysler, Lexus, Toyota, and Ford.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

How to Become Introspective

We all get so busy in our current jobs or roles that we don't take the time to be introspective. And it’s usually when you do a job change that’s the most valuable time in the world because it forces you to stop and think and dive deep. So try to go back to what motivated you when you were young and before your career. Ask yourself what were those things that brought you complete joy in life and when were you happiest?

Choosing The Company or People You Want to Work With

Notice the importance of who you work with. Understand what their personal values are and check if you really buy into that. Find that match. Then you start putting together your environment, what drives your joyfulness, the purpose of a company, and where you want to go.

The Reasons That Hold People Back From Reinventing Their Lives

People just don't make time for them or they don't know what to do or how to tap into their purpose or passions. And then, sometimes they'll wake up 10-15 years later, and they still don't know where they're going or what they’re doing. They still don't feel connected to who they really want to be in life.

Reinvention Tips

We have to work from a place of safety and confidence. The more everyone can provide that, the more everyone blossoms. If we shine the light on these great ideas and the efforts that people have, it's just going to blossom so much more than when people are throwing salt or trying to put holes in your ideas.

It doesn't mean you shouldn't be rigorous. But you have to come from a place of support and good intention. You have to work on this purposefully because it can be so easy for your ego to step in and be worried about territories.

How to Tackle Your Fear of Failure

You never advance personally or learn until you get yourself into a situation that makes you so uncomfortable. So take a risk because it builds confidence every time. And oftentimes, there are people who will offer their support. If you come to work every day and do a great job and really do your best then that's what you should be proud of.

There are some things you can't control but all you can control is doing your best and constantly striving and then putting yourself out there. And the only way we grow is if we go into spaces that are uncomfortable for us.

Resources Mentioned:

Reinvent Your Life! What Are You Waiting For by Kathi Sharpe-Ross