The Thought Leaders Show

The Leadership Mirror: Why Better Leadership Starts With Self-Awareness

Guest: Jana Cardona
Host: Dr. Tamara Patzer
Show: Thought Leaders Show
Recorded: August 26, 2026

Leadership is often taught as a set of techniques for managing other people.

But Jana Cardona begins somewhere else:

What is it actually like to be on the other side of me?

In this episode, Dr. Tamara Patzer talks with leadership development consultant, coach and author Jana Cardona about the central idea behind her book, The Leadership Mirror: Becoming the Person People Love to Work For and With.

The conversation explores self-awareness, limiting beliefs, mentoring, CliftonStrengths, communication, empathy, trust and becoming a more people-centered leader.

In This Episode
– Why leadership starts with self-awareness
– Looking honestly into the leadership mirror
– Childhood experiences and limiting beliefs
– How comparison affects confidence
– The importance of mentors and “courage builders”
– CliftonStrengths
– DISC and other assessment tools
– Different thinking and communication styles
– Why leaders should not expect everyone to think like they do
– Communicating expectations clearly
– Empathy versus authority
– Trust and people-centered leadership
– Valuing someone even when you disagree
– The 12 lessons of The Leadership Mirror

About Jana Cardona
Jana Cardona is a leadership development consultant, certified coach, trainer, facilitator and author.

She is founder of Designed 4 Success and works with individuals, teams and organizations to develop people-centered leaders.

Connect With Jana
Designed 4 Success
LinkedIn: Jana Cardona
Book: The Leadership Mirror: Becoming the Person People Love to Work For and With

Questions This Episode Answers
Why does leadership begin with self-awareness?
How do childhood beliefs affect adult leadership?
How can assessments help leaders understand themselves?
Why do team members interpret instructions differently?
How can leaders communicate with people who think differently?
What is people-centered leadership?
How does empathy change leadership?
How do leaders move from control toward trust?

Key Takeaway
Before trying to change everyone else, ask:

What is it like to be on the other side of me?

Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/jana-cardona-the-leadership-mirror-why-better-leadership-starts-with-self-awareness

The Last Love Letter: Why Estate Planning Is an Act of Love

Guest: Traci O'Neal Ellis, Esq.
Host: Dr. Tamara Patzer
Show: Thought Leaders Show: Legal Edition
Recorded: August 18, 2026

People often hear “estate planning” and immediately think about death.

Attorney Traci O'Neal Ellis sees it differently.

She describes an estate plan as a “last love letter” to the people who matter most.

In this episode, Dr. Tamara Patzer talks with Traci about using estate planning to create clarity instead of leaving grieving family members to guess what someone intended.

The conversation explores family dynamics, guardianship, blended families, communication, outdated plans and the questions people often do not realize they should be asking.

In This Episode

– Why estate planning is really about living
– The estate plan as a “last love letter”
– Why estate planning isn't only for wealthy families
– The danger of outdated estate plans
– Guardianship for minor children
– Blended-family planning
– Choosing the right people to carry out your wishes
– Family dynamics and conflict
– Why communication matters
– Should-ask questions
– Why curiosity matters when choosing an estate-planning attorney

About Traci O'Neal Ellis

Traci O'Neal Ellis is an attorney licensed in Georgia and Illinois with more than three decades of legal experience.

Her work emphasizes thoughtful planning, family relationships, intentional communication and understanding what clients truly want to protect.

Connect With Traci

Traci Ellis
LinkedIn: Traci O'Neal Ellis
Estate-planning resources

Questions This Episode Answers

Do I need an estate plan if I am not wealthy?
How often should I update an estate plan?
What estate-planning problems affect blended families?
How should parents select guardians?
Should families discuss estate-planning decisions?
What questions should my estate-planning attorney ask me?

Key Takeaway

Done thoughtfully, an estate plan can become exactly what Traci describes:
your last love letter to the people you care about most.

Legal Disclaimer: This program is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.The Thought Leaders Show
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Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-last-love-letter-why-estate-planning-is-an-act-of-love-with-traci-oneal-ellis-esq

Estate Planning for Young Families: What Happens If You Can’t Speak for Yourself?

Guest: Raj Aujla
Host: Dr. Tamara Patzer
Show: Thought Leaders Show: Legal Edition
Recorded: August 13, 2026

Estate planning isn’t only about what happens after you die.

It is also about what happens to you, your children, your finances and your family if you are alive but suddenly unable to make decisions for yourself.

In this episode, Dr. Tamara Patzer talks with California estate planning attorney Raj Aujla about why young families often wait too long to put basic protections in place.

Raj walks through practical questions involving medical decisions, children, guardianship, finances, wills, trusts and California probate.

In This Episode

– Why young parents need estate planning
– Medical decision-making during incapacity
– Durable powers of attorney
– Advance health care directives
– Guardianship for minor children
– Why naming a godparent may not create legal guardianship
– Grandparents caring for grandchildren
– Wills versus trusts
– California probate
– Privacy and estate planning
– Why trusts are not only for wealthy families
– Protecting the family during incapacity as well as death

About Raj Aujla
Raj Aujla is a California estate planning attorney and founder of Aujla Legal in Pasadena, California.

His practice focuses on helping families understand wills, trusts, incapacity planning, probate and family protection.

Connect With Raj
Aujla Legal
LinkedIn: Raj Aujla

Questions This Episode Answers
Do young parents need estate plans?
Who takes care of children if both parents are hospitalized?
Is a godparent automatically a legal guardian?
Does a spouse automatically have authority to make every decision?
What is the difference between a will and a trust?
Does a trust avoid probate in California?
Do grandparents need legal authority when caring for grandchildren?

Legal Disclaimer: This program is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

The Thought Leaders Show
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Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/raj-aujla-estate-planning-for-young-families-what-happens-if-you-cant-speak-for-yourself

Asset Protection by Design: Estate Planning Before the Crisis

Guest: Evan W. Turk, Esq.
Host: Dr. Tamara Patzer
Show: Thought Leaders Show: Legal Edition
Recorded: August 21, 2026

The best time to make important legal and financial decisions is before a family is facing illness, incapacity, divorce or a long-term-care crisis.

In this episode, Dr. Tamara Patzer talks with attorney Evan W. Turk, founder and managing attorney of Turk Law Group and author of Asset Protection by Design, about approaching estate planning intentionally—by design rather than during a crisis.

Evan brings both legal and financial experience to the conversation, having trained on Wall Street as a financial advisor and operated a registered investment advisory firm before building his legal practice.
In This Episode

• Estate planning before a crisis
• The importance of powers of attorney
• Planning for incapacity
• Adult children and aging parents
• Protecting inheritances
• Inheritance and divorce
• Long-term-care planning
• Medicaid misconceptions
• Veterans benefits
• State-specific Medicaid rules
• Using Zoom and recorded meetings with families
• Documenting capacity and important decisions
• AI and technology in modern legal practice
• Keeping estate-planning information current

About Evan Turk
Evan W. Turk is founder and managing attorney of Turk Law Group.

His background combines law, investments and financial planning. He is admitted in Florida and New Jersey and is the author of Asset Protection by Design.

Connect With Evan
Turk Law Group
Medicaid by Design
LinkedIn: Evan W. Turk
Book: Asset Protection by Design — Second Edition

Questions This Episode Answers
Why is a power of attorney so important?
What happens if a parent loses capacity without one?
Can an inheritance be protected from divorce?
When should families plan for long-term care?
How are Medicaid and Medicare different?
Can veterans benefits interact with other programs?
Why do Medicaid rules vary by state?
How can technology help families document estate-planning decisions?

Key Takeaway
Make important decisions while you still have choices.

By design—not during a crisis.

Legal Disclaimer: This program is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, investment or financial advice.

The Thought Leaders Show
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Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/evan-w-turk-esq-asset-protection-by-design-estate-planning-before-the-crisis

From Plumbing Problem to Patented Product: The Happy Toilet Story

Guest: Linda Stanfield
Host: Dr. Tamara Patzer
Show: Thought Leaders Show
Recorded: August 19, 2026

Sometimes the best business ideas begin with an ordinary problem everyone else has learned to tolerate.

For Linda Stanfield and her husband, Chris, that problem was the toilet.

After more than four decades in the plumbing business, they repeatedly saw customers looking for an easier way to keep toilets clean.

That frustration eventually led to Happy Toilet Cleaner.

In this episode, Linda shares the invention story, the early prototypes, what decades in plumbing taught them about the problem, and how two experienced business owners unexpectedly became consumer-product inventors.

In This Episode

• How decades in plumbing led to Happy Toilet
• Why traditional in-tank tablets created a problem
• Understanding toilet refill water
• How the Happy Toilet dispenser works
• The first bowl prototype
• The famous car coin-holder prototype
• Moving from idea to patented product
• Becoming an inventor later in life
• Building a company with your spouse
• Customer service as product research
• Improving instructions and messaging through customer feedback
• The potential for hotels, health-care facilities and commercial settings
• Linda and Chris’s long-term vision for toilet cleaning

About Linda Stanfield
Linda Stanfield is an inventor, entrepreneur and co-founder of Happy Toilet Cleaner with her husband, Chris Stanfield.

Before developing Happy Toilet, the couple spent more than 40 years operating a plumbing company.

Connect With Linda
Happy Toilet Cleaner
LinkedIn: Linda Stanfield
Happy Toilet social channels

Questions This Episode Answers

• Who invented Happy Toilet Cleaner?
• How does Happy Toilet work?
• Why shouldn’t some cleaners be placed directly in a toilet tank?
• What is refill water?
• How do you turn a household problem into an invention?
• How do inventors make early prototypes?
• How can customer complaints improve a product?
• What is it like to build a company with your spouse?

Key Takeaway
Innovation often begins by looking at an old problem differently.

And as Linda likes to say:

“It’s so flushing easy.”

The Thought Leaders Show
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Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/linda-stanfield-from-plumbing-problem-to-patented-product-the-happy-toilet-story

Thought Leaders Show: Legal Edition | Guest: Tamryn E. Valenzuela, Esq., the NJ Legacy Lawyer

Tamryn Valenzuela grew up in a two-cop household in Jersey City and spent the better part of two decades on the criminal side of the law: civilian clerk for the Jersey City Police Department, the Hudson County prosecutor’s office, six years with the public defender in Sussex County. In 2021, two things happened at once. She recognized a defendant in a Hudson County courtroom as the same man she’d been typing arrest reports on in 1997, and she was living through the aftermath of her father’s death without a will. He had been her stepfather from infancy, and she had never once called him that while he was alive. After he died, one sibling made sure she was reminded, over and over, that legally he wasn’t her father.

In this conversation with Dr. Tamara Patzer, Tamryn explains why the fight was never about money (what she wanted was a t-shirt from his drawer that smelled like him), why 98 percent of families sit in her office and say “we all love each other,” and why the law makes it hard to honor even the clearest verbal wishes. She lays out the three documents every adult should have from their 18th birthday on, and why she puts the will last. She tells the story of a client who inherited an entire IRA because a sibling wasn’t born yet when the beneficiary form was filled out, and now files a gift-tax return every year to split it. And she describes a 2026 case in which a child went months without health insurance after her father’s death because no guardian was named, while four sets of loving relatives fought in court over who should raise her.

Questions this episode answers

• Why would a lawyer leave criminal law after twenty years for estate planning?
• What happens to a blended family when there’s no will?
• Is a handwritten letter enough? Why do verbal wishes fail even when the family wants to honor them?
• What are the three documents every adult needs at 18, and what does each one actually do?
• Should a power of attorney take effect immediately or only on disability?
• Why does an out-of-date beneficiary form cause a gift-tax problem for the survivors?
• Why can an accident settlement sit for years when there’s no executor?
• What happens to a minor child when no guardian is named in a will?
• Do you need a trust, or is a will enough?
• Why is estate planning not just for rich people?

About Tamryn Valenzuela
Tamryn E. Valenzuela, Esq. is Chair of the Trusts & Estates Practice Group at Laddey, Clark & Ryan LLP, with offices in Sparta, Morristown, and Phillipsburg, New Jersey. With more than two decades of legal experience, her practice covers estate planning, administration and litigation, guardianships, and long-term-care planning through individualized asset protection strategies. She previously served as judicial law clerk to the Hon. Angelo Servidio, J.S.C., Hudson County Vicinage, and as a court-appointed advocate for foster children and incapacitated individuals. She was named to the 2026 New Jersey Super Lawyers Rising Stars list and serves as Secretary and Executive Board Member of the Sussex County Bar Association (2026–2027). She is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the Estate Planning Council of Northern New Jersey, and the New Jersey State Bar Association. Her community work includes hosting Wills for Heroes, coaching the Vincent J. Apruzzese High School Mock Trial Competition, and chairing a committee for the Patriot’s Path Council, Boy Scouts of America. She holds a J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law and a B.A. from Montclair State University. She is licensed in New Jersey and the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Connect with Tamryn
@njlegacylawyer on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook. She says she’s responsive to DMs.
Laddey, Clark & Ryan: https://www.lcrlaw.com/about/tamryn-e-valenzuela-esq/ | 973-313-8605
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamrynvalenzuela

This episode is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Tamryn Valenzuela is licensed to practice in New Jersey; laws vary by state. Figures mentioned are current as of the recording date. Consult an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction about your own situation.

The Thought Leaders Show
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Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/when-love-isnt-enough-why-you-need-a-will-with-tamryn-e-valenzuela-esq-the-nj-legacy-lawyer

Zen Waseme Shares Insights on the Must-Attend International Law and IP Conference in Paris

In this episode, Dr. Tami Patzer talks with Zen Waseme, an intellectual property attorney at ArtWorks, about the upcoming International Law and IP Conference in Paris, France.

Zen Waseme is an experienced intellectual property attorney who has been instrumental in developing ArtWorks, the only ABA-approved intellectual property legal incubator and residency program. With a global network of attorneys, Zen is passionate about honoring intellectual property as an international practice and supporting creative professionals.

During the interview, Zen discusses the core objectives of the conference, which include helping attorneys and law students understand intellectual property law from an international lens.

The event will feature sessions led by artists, attorney-artists, and Zen herself, covering crucial topics like trademarks, copyrights, patents, and the importance of the Madrid Protocol agreement. Attendees can also look forward to networking opportunities, cultural experiences like an art crawl and a boat ride on the Seine, as well as the chance to earn valuable CLE credits.

This conference is a must-attend for legal professionals and law students interested in intellectual property, international law, and supporting the creative community.

By attending, participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the global nature of intellectual property practice, learn strategies for serving creative clients, and have the opportunity to build valuable connections with a diverse network of legal professionals from around the world.

To learn more about the International Law and IP Conference and ArtWorks’ innovative programs, visit ArtWorksInParis.com. Don’t miss this chance to immerse yourself in the dynamic intersection of law, creativity, and international collaboration.



The Thought Leaders Show
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Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/artworks-in-paris-invites-legal-professionals-to-an-immersive-intellectual-property-cle-bootcamp

Jeffrey Wolfe is ready to help you distrupt your world to create massive success!

Surround yourself with high-performing entrepreneurs on a bucket-list adventure!
What’s on your bucket-list? From Archeological digs to piloting wing suits, join your peers for adventures of a life time. Then pick their brains for way to continually expand opportunities for your business, Team, family, and the communities you service. We invite “Celebrity CEO’s” – Entrepreneurs that have built multiple companies, hyper-performers in niches or achieved revenue exceeding $100M – to add new perspectives to the deep-dive discussions you’ll be having during “down-time.”

These are very exclusive bespoke adventures:

– Small groups of 7 – 12 mid-size company CEO’s
– Experience a shared “bucket-list” adventure to prime “out-of-the-box” thinking
– “Celebrity” CEO’s included to discuss your business questions & concerns
– Personal Concierge services to manage communications & connections with the “outside”
– Luxury accommodations & transportation

“Jump off a bridge with me…after that you’ll be beyond thinking out-of-the-box.” -Bridge To Nowhere Jump Master discussing mindset shifts.

Are you living your “bucket-list” now? Or is the list simply getting longer?

To learn more about our CEO Adventure Summits and upcoming events, email me at [email protected].

The Thought Leaders Show
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Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/jeffrey-wolfe-disrupt-your-world-and-create-massive-success

A lifelong healer, author, meditation teacher, artist and inventor, David Adelson has spent decades studying quantum physics, consciousness and unified field theory, developing more than 500 easy-to-use Enhancers™ to reduce stress and increase success and joy in life. His dynamic approach has helped countless clients and followers around the world achieve more happiness, abundance, peace, and connection http://davidadelson.com/

https://takethisquiznow.com/

How Aligned Are You To Your True Calling?

Will it take you years to achieve your dreams or will it happen faster than you could imagine? Take the 60-second quiz to find out what your goals, vision, and decisions say about how aligned you are to your unique calling and how quickly you can make it happen.

https://takethisquiznow.com/

Plus, get a personalized alignment acceleration guide on how to quickly move forward with clarity, confidence, ease, and grace.

David Adelson says: The purpose of life is expansion of happiness. Early on, my father always reminded me, “have fun”. Whether heading out to apply for a job or take a final exam, just as the door was about to close behind me on my way out, he’d call out, “Just have fun.” Years later, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of TM®, said “Life is bliss” and as a TM® teacher in the 1970s, I believed him.

Get to know David Adelson: https://davidadelson.com/about/

Get free Peace and Harmony download here:

https://peaceandharmonydownload.com/

The Thought Leaders Show
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Get your pen and paper and take notes. You will want to listen to interview over and over again in order to get all the gold nuggets!

Henry Devries shares insights in how to use books and speaking to land high paying clients.

Storytelling helps consultants and coaches persuade on an emotional level. Maybe that is why companies like FedEx, Kimberly-Clark, and Microsoft are hiring storytelling experts to teach their executives to tell relatable stories. Nothing is as persuasive as storytelling with a purpose, and readers will learn the techniques of telling a great story employed by Hollywood, Madison Avenue and Wall Street. How you can add persuasion power to presentations Eight great metastories you need to tell The art and science of storytelling Three key characters of persuasive stories: hero, nemesis, and mentor Why you should not be the hero of your own stories If you want lessons on how to improve your persuasion power, with a dash of wry humor thrown in, then Persuade With a Story! is the book for you.

Email: [email protected]

Web: http://marketingwithabook.com

Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/henrydevries

The Thought Leaders Show
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