Winning Teams

Today’s guest on A Life and a Living Podcast is Steve Orrin, the Federal CTO at Intel. Steve is a recognized expert and frequent lecturer on enterprise security and has a background as a serial entrepreneur. During a time where cybersecurity is constantly changing and new risks are developed on a daily basis, Steve and others in similar positions are working hard on cybersecurity innovation.

Steve’s vast amount of knowledge is evident in this interview as he helps businesses navigate a better understanding of what cybersecurity is and the challenges we face with working remotely. Not only that, but we also discuss the role of AI. What is AI and how can even small AI innovations benefit your business? There are always challenges to pay attention to, so listen on as our guest explains what to focus your efforts on and the role of technology and cybersecurity in your business decisions.

What We Talked About in This Episode:

Steve’s Role at Intel: Federal CTO

What Companies Need to Pay Attention To and Be Concerned About

Risk Calculation: It’s Not All or Nothing

Continuous Monitoring and Control

How to Determine and Look at the Weakest Link

The Challenges in Cybersecurity in Working Remotely

Understanding and Focusing on the Data

What Exactly Goes Into Security

Services That Are Available Now in Cloud Security

Business Preparation for AI

How Can AI Benefit Your Business?

The Role of Technology Innovation in New Work Models

Steve’s Book Recommendation and Daily Rituals

About Our Guest:

Steve Orrin is the Federal CTO at Intel where he leads Solution Architecture, Strategy, and Technology Engagements. He is an experienced CTO and entrepreneur with a concentration on security and security related topics and technologies as well as federal and enterprise business challenges. Steve is also a regular speaker on Security, Privacy, Data Science and application, and technology innovation topics. 

Links and Resources:

* Intel Homepage

Steve Orrin on LinkedIn

Intel Corporation on LinkedIn

         Connect with John Murphy:

YouTube

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to subscribe, tune in, and share this podcast. Thanks for tuning in!

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A Life and A Living Podcast

Today’s guest is no stranger to A Life and a Living Podcast. We’ve heard from him before and I’m thrilled to have him back to continue learning his business strategies. Miha Matlievski has an amazing story, coming from a series of failures and working hard to keep going. 

What I like most about Miha is his great sense of simplicity. He makes it all sound easy, although he never underestimates the amount of work involved in being a successful entrepreneur. In this episode, we discuss Miha’s focus on building systems for profitability, the key pillars to have in place to align a scalable business, and what he means by the “soft skills.” According to Miha, those soft skills are what can change things drastically for a business. Founder of Fail Coach, Miha uses his failures and comebacks to help others in their journey to scale their business and in their entrepreneurial endeavors.

What We Talked About in This Episode:

What it Means to Miha to be “The Fail Coach”

Miha’s Focus on 6 and 7 Figure Entrepreneurs

Systems in Place to Become a 4 Hour CEO

Benefits of Systems on Profitability

Key Pillars to Have in Place to Align a Business to Scale

Foundational Pieces, Values, and Soft Skills That Make Growth Easier

Preparing an Exit Strategy and Implementing Properly

Common Big Mistakes Made by Entrepreneurs

Pivoting and Adopting Change When Needed

Routines That Prepare You For Whatever Comes Your Way

Learning and Growing As an Entrepreneur: It is Always Possible to Learn

Business is Not Complex

Going One Step Deeper to Grow From Each Lesson

Mindfulness to Boost Energy

“Miha in Your Pocket”

Miha’s Book Recommendation and Daily Routines

About Our Guest:

One business coach has forged his approach to helping entrepreneurs and business executives by using a monumental personal failure and eventual redemption to help get others where they need to go to find their personal success and fulfillment. As he himself experienced, dealing with the psychological and emotional aspects of success and failure is crucial, according to Miha. While he admits that entrepreneurs want growth, scalability, more sales, etc. he says what they really need is the right mindset, a healthy relationship with failure, emotional intelligence (“EQ”), mindfulness and other “soft skills.”

Fail Coach Miha Matlievski has been featured in numerous publications, both online and in print, and is full of stories about his own personal background, his approach to working with clients and what they have achieved with his help. Offering a more holistic approach to business coaching than what is typically available to entrepreneurs and business executives across the globe, the story of The Fail Coach will no doubt appeal to many.

Connect with Miha Matlievski:

 https://www.fail.coach/

Links and Resources:

Fail Coach Miha Matlievski Home Page

LinkedIn  |  Facebook  |  Instagram

Normally on A Life and a Living Podcast, I have a guest that I am interviewing. This episode, however, we are doing something slightly different. Yes, I have a guest. But it is less of an interview and more of a conversation with my friend and colleague, John O’Gorman.

John and I work closely with many teams around the world and today we are sharing some observations from working with these teams. We use the metaphor of a PitStop as you will know from Formula 1. What happens in a PitStop can determine a win or a loss in the race. As in a Pitstop in F1 you have to slow down coming into the Pitstop and then accelerate with care coming out of it.. So what does that mean for the team? What does a pitstop actually look like? John and I discuss the purpose and the means for taking these steps back to address role clarity and priorities and how to avoid burnout and team fatigue. Especially after the last year and a half, many teams are experiencing burnout and struggling with prioritizing the right work.

What We Talked About in This Episode:

The Pitstop Metaphor That We Use to Improve Progress and Potential

Slow Down to Speed Up: Important Conversations During a Pitstop

How to Decide What Takes Priority – You Can’t Do it All at Once

The Reality of Burnout

Role Clarity or Lack Thereof

Moving Dialogue to Confidence and Performance Gain

Dealing with Ambiguity

Key Priorities for the Immediate Return

The Right Way of Working

Zoom Fatigue and the Negative Impact

Opening Meetings with the Overall Purpose to Determine Relevance

Understanding the Impact of Engagement on Positive Progress and Momentum

The Power of Thank You

About Our Guest:

John is an accredited executive coach and managing partner of Growth PitStop®. His passion is performance psychology, unlocking human potential and aligning models of growth and performance thinking. John is also an Associate of John Murphy International.

To reach John, go to his website: https://growthpitstop.com/pitstop-team/

Links and Resources:

Growth Pitstop Home Page

Pitstop Research Series Books

         Connect with John Murphy:

YouTube

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to subscribe, tune in, and share this podcast. Thanks for tuning in!

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A Life and A Living Podcast

Normally on A Life and a Living Podcast, I have a guest that I am interviewing. This episode, however, we are doing something slightly different. Yes, I have a guest. But it is less of an interview and more of a conversation with my friend and colleague, John O’Gorman.

John and I work closely with many teams around the world and today we are sharing some observations from working with these teams. We use the metaphor of a PitStop as you will know from Formula 1. What happens in a PitStop can determine a win or a loss in the race. As in a Pitstop in F1 you have to slow down coming into the Pitstop and then accelerate with care coming out of it.. So what does that mean for the team? What does a pitstop actually look like? John and I discuss the purpose and the means for taking these steps back to address role clarity and priorities and how to avoid burnout and team fatigue. Especially after the last year and a half, many teams are experiencing burnout and struggling with prioritizing the right work.

What We Talked About in This Episode:

The Pitstop Metaphor That We Use to Improve Progress and Potential

Slow Down to Speed Up: Important Conversations During a Pitstop

How to Decide What Takes Priority – You Can’t Do it All at Once

The Reality of Burnout

Role Clarity or Lack Thereof

Moving Dialogue to Confidence and Performance Gain

Dealing with Ambiguity

Key Priorities for the Immediate Return

The Right Way of Working

Zoom Fatigue and the Negative Impact

Opening Meetings with the Overall Purpose to Determine Relevance

Understanding the Impact of Engagement on Positive Progress and Momentum

The Power of Thank You

About Our Guest:

John is an accredited executive coach and managing partner of Growth PitStop®. His passion is performance psychology, unlocking human potential and aligning models of growth and performance thinking. John is also an Associate of John Murphy International.

To reach John, go to his website: https://growthpitstop.com/pitstop-team/

Links and Resources:

Growth Pitstop Home Page

Pitstop Research Series Books

         Connect with John Murphy:

YouTube

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to subscribe, tune in, and share this podcast. Thanks for tuning in!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A Life and A Living Podcast

Hailing from Virginia, today’s guest is an expert on managing and leading a team through change. We’re no stranger to change especially in the last year, but how can leaders engage their teams and work together to embrace inevitable change towards high-performance and success?

Today’s guest is Rick Maurer. Rick is the president of Maurer & Associates, a consulting firm that provides expertise in implementing strategic and tactical change within the workplace. He is also the author of numerous books, but today we hone in on his most recent publication Seizing Moments of Possibility: Ways to Trigger Energy and Forward Momentum on Your Ideas and Plans which is currently available as a free eBook. It is a thoughtful and reflective book and in our discussion today, Rick explains how we lead people through change and promote curiosity. Listen on to find out how change is crucial and having everyone in the loop on the process is key to success.

What We Talked About in This Episode:

Rick’s Newest Book Seizing Moments of Possibility

The Speed and Amount of Change in Recent Years

False Illusion That We Are Making Progress

The Type of Energy Needed to Manage

Real Life Examples of Understanding Change

Simple Tweaks That Allow For Something New

Why Change is Frightening to Some

When Life Takes Over and Puts Great Ideas Aside

People Problems and Leadership Headaches

The Human Tendency to Resist Change

Building Trust and Communication From the Start

The Power of Influence

Constant Gauging of Impact

Feeling the Sense of Urgency

The Common Phases of Major Change and Possibilities

Understanding and Truly Seeing the Trajectory

Rick’s Book Recommendation and Daily Rituals

About Our Guest:

Rick Maurer and his associates work with leaders who want to lead Change without Migraines™. We provide the expertise to help you identify even deeply hidden resistance and turn that opposition into support. Using the Change without Migraines™ approach, clients often find that even the most difficult strategic and tactical changes go more smoothly, and achieve their intended results. Their approach to leading change is unique. Knowing how to work with resistance is key to turning skepticism and opposition into support for major new initiatives. If leaders understand resistance they can often avoid it before it occurs – or get things back on track when a change is about to derail.

Connect with Rick Maurer

 

 https://www.rickmaurer.com/home/

Links and Resources:

Rick Maurer Home Page

Seizing Moments of Possibility by Rick Maurer

Free eBook Version Of Seizing Moments of Possibility

Rick Maurer on LinkedIn

Rick Maurer on Facebook

Why do some companies fail while others succeed? What makes Amazon such a big winner while other, longer-established companies have now gone out of business or struggle to stay afloat? And how can we build our own business to the point where we can successfully sell it off for vast sums of money down the line?

My guest today is an utterly fascinating lady who shares insights that answer all of the above questions. As a seller of over 500 companies, Michelle Seiler Tucker is an expert at buying, selling, and fixing companies, and getting them on the buyer’s market. In fact, she has a reputation for selling businesses for way more than they’re worth (and has even written the book on it). 

During our interview, she has so much great information to offer about every consideration for making a business attractive to potential buyers, and thus, sellable. She especially emphasizes being clear on when you want to sell your company, even when you’re just getting started as an entrepreneur. Listen as Michelle walks through her GPS Exit Model and 6P Method, pinpointing all the things that’ll make a difference in the growth and evaluation of your business.

What We Talked About in This Episode:

How Michelle Got Started and Her #1 Pet Peeve

The #1 Reason Why 80% of Businesses in the U.S. Don’t Sell

The Worse Time to Sell Your Business

Michelle’s GPS Exit Model and How to Decide Your Business’s Destination

Five Types of Business Buyers in the U.S. and Which Type Is Likely to Buy Yours

Driving Up the Value of Your Business Using Michelle’s 6P Method

Why the Business Landscape in the U.S. Has Flip Flopped 

Three Questions to Ask Yourself When Preparing for a Pivot

Three Questions Amazon Asked Their Customers to Prosper and Win

How Business Owners Wrongly Design Their Processes

The Highest Value Driver of Business and Its Six Pillars

Protecting Your Business Property and the Mistake Entrepreneurs Make With Contracts

Why You Need to Have Your Own Database

Why Lack of Profits Is Never the Real Problem

How Michelle Sells Businesses for More Than They’re Worth

When It’s the Right Time to Sell Your Business

The Importance of Being Crystal Clear on Your Potential Buyer(s)

The Book That Has Impacted Michelle the Most

About Our Guest:

Michelle Seiler Tucker is the founder and CEO of Seiler Tucker Incorporated. She’s a Merger & Acquisition Master Intermediary, Certified Senior Business Analyst, and best-selling author and speaker. For more than 20 years, she’s helped hundreds of entrepreneurs build scalable, sellable businesses and been a leading authority on buying, selling, and improving businesses. She currently owns and operates several successful businesses and continues to assist buyers in being their own boss, creating financial freedom, and increasing their quality of life. In her book Exit Rich, she’s packaged her extensive knowledge, experience, and proven formulas into a step-by-step process for buying, selling, fixing, and growing your business.

To reach Michelle, go to her website: https://seilertucker.com

Connect with Michelle Seiler Tucker:

Today’s guest brings a fascinating topic to our usual business and leadership conversations. Zulma Reyo has an incredibly interesting background as a medium and the purpose of her work is to help people stop doing and start being.

Zulma Reyo is the founder of the Zulma Reyo School of Consciousness and author of Inner Alchemy: The Path Of Mastery, which is available as a free ebook. Today we discuss energy and how to understand its use and relevance in leadership and business. She beautifully explains the importance of changing the way you think and perceive reality and the effect of this shift on your life.

She says it best with her mission and promise: “The purpose of our school is to transform a human being and give them the tools of self-transformation so that they can connect with greater wisdom and change this world.”

 

What We Talked About in This Episode:

The Zulma Reyo School of Consciousness

Zulma’s Family and Educational Background

The Definition of Energy and How to Understand Its Use

Zulma’s Book Published in 1989 and the Reason She Updated it in 2020

The Relevance of Energy in Leadership and Business

Change the Way You Think and Perceive Reality

Building a More Humane Society Through Inner Alchemy

Doing vs. Being

Experiencing Without Judgement

The Effect of Gathering Your Momentum

Sustain This Type of Living: Zulma’s Second “Ah-ha”

Zulma’s Hope For the Future

Quieting the Negative Inner Voice

Zulma’s Views on Spirituality and What It Means to Reality

The Greatest Power as a Human Being

Zulma’s Daily Rituals

About Our Guest:

Zulma Reyo is the founder of the Zulma Reyo School of Consciousness and author of Inner Alchemy: The Path Of Mastery. She studied Humanities at Puerto Rico University and completed a BA in Romance Languages and Literature at New York University, where the beginnings of her formal search to understand the complexity of the human condition began to unfold. She went on to complete an MA in Education at NYU, which was followed by post-graduate studies in psychology and counselling at San Fernando Valley State College in California. After working in a private practice and then founding the Zulma Reyo School of Consciousness, she followed her dream of reaching more people by expanding her activities to Europe, and settled in Spain in the mid-90s. There, she consolidated her line of work and continued to develop methods of meditation and self-knowledge. Zulma now spent almost four decades of her life dedicated to teaching, writing, training, workshops, and conferences.

To reach Zulma, go to her website: https://www.zulmareyo.com/en/home

Connect with Zulma Reyo:

Zulma Reyo Home Page

Zulma Reyo on YouTube

Inner Alchemy Zulma Reyo on Facebook

Zulma Reyo on LinkedIn

Connect with John Murphy:

YouTube

How does mindfulness practice impact us in a business setting? We hear a lot about mindfulness, but how can it be used to better our leadership and management? Today’s very impressive and knowledgeable guest, author Latha Poonamallee, shares just that.

Latha has an incredible combination of interests and expertise as an academic, author, and tech entrepreneur. She is passionate about radical change towards building a more just, equitable, sustainable, compassionate and prosperous world and her work is certainly reflective of that. Latha’s recently published book Expansive Leadership: Cultivating Mindfulness to Lead Self and Others in a Changing World – A 28-Day Program is a structured journey to help aspiring and current leaders to clarify their identities, to identify and reflect on their mental models to become more expansive leaders.

In this episode, Latha helps us understand the need for a shift in mental models from being focused on the right behaviors to a self-reflection practice. This shift can lead to impactful change in developing one’s emotional intelligence and can give us space to respond rather than react. She emphasizes the importance of moving from individual practice of mindfulness to interpersonal and community practice to come together for the benefit of the community and world at large.

What We Talked About in This Episode:

Latha’s Interesting Combination of Expertise

How Latha’s Work Around Brain Health Connects to Leadership

Latha’s Inspiration for Writing Expansive Leadership

Practicing Mindfulness with Technology

Self-Reflection in Current World Climate

Shifting Mental Model to be More Expansive Rather Than Looking at Behaviors Alone

Finding Your Core Identity and Forgiving Yourself For Not Living It

Intentionally Developing Your Emotional Intelligence

Shifting From Reaction to Reponse

Mindfulness as a Collective Practice: From Individual, to Interpersonal, to Community

The Importance of Diligent Practice in What Works For You Individually

The Power of Breathing and Noticing Your Breath and Patterns

Management and Social Justice Conversation Series

Latha’s Cynicism Around Organizations But Optimism and Support of Individuals

Latha’s Book Recommendation and Daily Rituals

About Our Guest:

Latha Poonamallee is an Associate Professor, Chair of Faculty of Management, and University Fellow at the New School in New York City. Her scholarship, teaching, and practice centers generative organizing for radical change towards building a more just, equitable, sustainable, compassionate and prosperous world. Latha is also a tech entrepreneur and co-founded In-Med Prognostics, a neuroscience AI venture that brings affordable and accessible brain health tools to underserved markets. As Fulbright Fellow, she worked with the Botswana Civil Society, Botswana Government, US Embassy in Botswana, USAID, and the private sector to develop a social entrepreneurship ecosystem in the country. Her recent book, Expansive Leadership,

With over 30 years experience in both government and business, today’s guest has helped a myriad of clients navigate the murky waters of federal sales. Gene Moran is a fascinating individual having served in the US Navy in a commanding role of very large ships. While in the Navy, Gene became involved in administration, the political scene, and learned how the whole world of companies selling to government bodies worked. This eventually led to him leaving the Navy and becoming a lobbyist. This transition is an interesting one and his background offers a very unique perspective as he then shifted into setting up his own business helping organizations sell to the government.

Gene is also the author of the book Pitching the Big Top: How to Master the 3-Ring Circus of Federal Sales which we discuss in today’s episode. Gene explains the process of understanding, starting, connecting, making and strengthening your case, and the step by step how-to of becoming a vendor to the federal government. What are the 3 rings to this and why does it feel so much like jumping through hoops? Gene’s background plays a heavy role in his solid understanding of this process and in the end you’ll find that it all comes down to the relationship management that we come back to time and time again.

What We Talked About in This Episode:

Gene’s Background in the US Navy and in Legislation

What Surprised and Stood Out to Gene in Congress

Gene’s Shift to Being a Lobbyist

How Lobbyists Are Like Salespeople

The Process of Becoming a Vendor for the Government

Gene’s Experience and Unique Perspective

Knowing Your Customer Well

The Three Rings: Congress, Industry, and Agency

Taking a Holistic Approach to This Complex Process

Finding Allies to Avoid Working Alone

Understanding Why Something is Important

Getting the Timing Right

The Changes in Intelligence and Defense

Credibility, Integrity, and Ability to Communicate

Gene’s Book Recommendation

About Our Guest:

With over 30 years experience in both government and business, Gene Moran has helped many clients navigate federal sales. As the Founder and President of Capitol Integration and an active duty Navy Captain, Gene has established himself as an expert that consistently brings agility, creativity and results to companies of all sizes: small startup firms, prime and subprime contractors, and large multi-billion dollar public enterprises. He is a proven Navy Financial Manager, designated Joint Specialty Officer, and a certified lobbyist. Gene shares his wealth of combined knowledge in his first book, Pitching the Big Top: How to Master the 3-Ring Circus of Federal Sales.

To reach Gene, go to his website: https://capitolintegration.com/about/

Connect with Gene Moran:

Capital Integration

Gene Moran on LinkedIn

Pitching the Big Top: How to Master the 3-Ring Circus of Federal Sales by Gene MoranLinkedIn

Connect with John Murphy:

YouTube

Facebook

Brandy McCarley, today’s guest, is passionate and energetic about what she does and in this episode, we discuss how hiring the right person can make all the difference. Brandy works with organizations to help them find the right people for the right jobs and overall making sure they have the right fit. But how does she do that? Her promise for organizations is a big one but through the use of a non-biased assessment of a person’s traits, she is able to eliminate bias and truly focus on finding the right people for a team.

With a background in direct sales, Brandy has the resilience and urgency needed to guide organizations with hiring. She has managed many teams and her data-based approach has proved to be very successful. Listen on to find out how Brandy helps business leaders with the challenge of attracting and retaining top talent and how committed she is to develop high-performing teams and better employee experiences.

What We Talked About in This Episode:

Brandy’s Promise for Organizations and the Non-Biased Assessment

Eliminating Unconscious Bias in the Hiring Process

Counteracting Different Views of “Fit”

Brandy’s Resilience and Urgency

Fitting the Role Vs. Fitting the Team

The Challenge of Retention

The Surprising Growth Through Covid

Drive to Succeed During Times of Turmoil

Considering Individual Goals When Hiring

Brandy’s Drive and Passion For Her Consultant Business

Brandy’s Book Recommendation and Daily Rituals

About Our Guest:

Brandy McCarley is a business consultant who is passionate about helping organizations hire the right people for the right roles. One of the biggest challenges that business leaders face today is how to attract and retain top talent. Brandy provides CEOs the data to clarify their team culture dynamics and align team members in the right role. Employee alignment arms the leadership with the tools and resources to better manage, motivate, and communicate with each team member. Employee alignment builds diverse, high performing teams and creates a better employee experience. Organizations scale by reducing turnover and increasing productivity while driving top and bottom-line numbers.

To reach Brandy, go to her website: https://brandymccarley.com/

Connect with Brandy McCarley:

Brandy McCarley Website

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

Connect with John Murphy:

YouTube

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to subscribe, tune in, and share this podcast. Thanks for tuning in!

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A Life and A Living Podcast