Today’s guest is a dynamic leader and social justice advocate.

She is a highly sought-after social justice thought partner recognized for her passion, activism, and unapologetic talk around anti-racist community building and healing. 

With a diverse background spanning industries like college administration, media, public relations, government service, television/radio production, and entrepreneurship, her work has touched countless lives - locally, nationally, and internationally in Ghana and South Africa specifically.

Melannie is the Creator and Executive Producer of both The People's Gathering: A Revolution of Consciousness Conference and The People's Golf Gathering: Out of Bounds Conversations About Race - both professional development learning experiences that focus participants on anti-racist skill building.

In 2018, she was awarded the Greater Tacoma Peace Prize for her lifetime achievements in racial reconciliation. Her documentary about her trip to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, "Peace Queen," won a 2021 National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Northwest Emmy®.

Please join me in welcoming Peace Queen-Melannie Denise Cunningham.

In this episode, we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “When I think about leadership, I think about followers. Who wants to follow me? I am thinking about creating possibilities to inspire people to follow me.”
• Her experiences with leadership while in high school with community building and crossing cultures.
• Why she’s having a blast “making stuff up” as she goes along.
• How she came to be a founding member of Delta Sigma Theta Inc.
• How she started the first indoor celebration for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s life in Tacoma (and now it’s still the most prominent indoor celebration of its kind).
• Different ways to maximize the use of every single day.
• How we can all center ourselves and our actions around joy.
• Her initial goal of being a pediatrician, and when she decided that was not for her, and switching her major to General Studies.
• Her experience of heading down to the unemployment office and getting hired at General Electric’s marketing department (and getting fired from that job for being a few minutes late a few times).
• How she negotiated herself into being laid off in 1997. She didn’t know what path she needed to take, but she knew she was not on it.
• How she helped open the first McDonald’s in South Africa (and the second and third)!
• The awakening and how she stays focused and determined on anti-racist work.
• How she repurposed the boxes on the US Census form to gather people and start healing through race and knowledge.
• The difference between offering a “safe space” vs. a “supportive space.”
• How working with me as their Zoom Producer has added a relational component to The People’s Gathering.
• How she nurtures and sustains her network.
• Her chile farm in Ghana!!

Listen, subscribe, and read show notes at www.OnTheSchmooze.com

Today’s guest is an expert in developing relationships for strategic success. 

He is the world's leading authority in maximizing customer loyalty through radical generosity. While becoming the #1 performer out of 1.5 million sales reps for one of the world's most recognizable brands, he developed a system of using generosity to gain access to elite clients and generate thousands of referrals. He and his firm, Giftology, now help automate this process for individuals and organizations like UBS, Keller Williams, the Chicago Cubs, and Caesars Palace.

He is the author of “Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention” and has been featured in Fox News, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., and New York Times. 

Please join me in welcoming John Ruhlin. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• his thoughts on leadership: “Leadership starts with self-leadership. Leadership is creating the future for others.”
• His goals of wanting to go to medical school and taking a sharp left into sales with Cutco Cutlery.
• When he found his ability to influence others using sales.
• His “typical” upbringing as a farm kid and how he achieved good grades in school.
• His uncommon skill of being able to ask for help.
• How he joined a country club in his early 20 “through the back door” and how that helped increase his Cutco sales.
• The importance of leaning in and being open to new opportunities.
• Why you should surround yourself with people that are not afraid to fail.
• Why the things that were the most painful in his life were the most important to him.
• How he started closing 9 out of 10 sales, and each sale provided him with 10-12 leads.
• How he wowed CEOs and why he spent six months getting “punched in the face” to get there.
• The importance of gifting the right gift, and how he got people to remember his name without using it.
• How he nurtures and sustains his network.

Listen, subscribe, and read show notes at www.OnTheSchmooze.com

Today’s guest is passionate about helping coaches, authors, and speakers leverage their expertise. She uses simplicity as a growth strategy.

She is the creator of Coaching Genie, a coaching platform that allows coaches to deliver programs and scale their businesses with simplicity. She is the author of two books, “Coaching Millions” and “Simplicity Entrepreneurship.” 

Please join me in welcoming Milana Leshinsky. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• Her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership before meant being on stage and people listening to me, respecting me, and recognizing me as the authority.” As an introvert, she couldn’t picture herself as a leader.
• How she discovered a new definition of leadership– she could lead through ideas. She could inspire others by sharing her ideas (channeled through Seth Godin).
• Finding her confidence as a kid through music.
• Growing up under the threat of Communism, finding music as her outlet, and shining through that confidence.
• Her dream of becoming a music teacher, instead of working in a factory, was the only option she could see growing up in the Soviet Union.
• Becoming the first web designer in her city and being featured in her local newspaper.
• Having her computer programming goals dashed by a colleague and received his advice that she would make a great manager away from computers.
• Her pivot into coaching and how she could leverage her internet and computer skills to create a large coaching community.
• Her credit on Wikipedia for coining the term “telesummit”. Yes. Seriously. Check that out here.
• Why she created Coaching Genie and the impact she wanted it to have in the world.
• Deciding how to market her software to the people that could really use it– her “perfect fit customer.”
• Her best advice for introverts– “If you don’t like going to events, create your own.”

Listen, subscribe, and read show notes at www.OnTheSchmooze.com

Today’s guest dreams of a world where email marketing is fun and everybody wins.

She teaches email marketing skills to online businesses, digital course creators, and freelance service providers. She came up in her career writing copy for popular programs in the online marketing space. She very soon created her own programs teaching business owners how to write story-powered emails and sell using the principles of persuasion.

For the last three years, she has been slowly dismantling her 7-figure boss-babe empire and unlearning the systems of influence and indoctrination taught her as a new business owner. She is keenly aware of how the use of Cialdini's principles of persuasion can cause harm, especially in the coaching industry. She has now dedicated her work to undoing that harm and teaching sales strategies that leave space for conversation and critical thinking.

Please join me in welcoming Tarzan Kay. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• Her experience leading a mastermind and realizing she was not a leader. “I thought that I had a right to be leading these people. It was privilege.”
• When she learned writing was going to be her future, so she went to music school, then law school.
• The importance of really wanting something as the base momentum to achieving it.
• Why she left school while on a trip to visit her sister in Australia.
• The origin story of her business as a copywriter.
• Her strategy about taking courses and enrolling in programs.
• The importance of her early hire of her virtual assistant.
• Why she talks to her virtual assistant before making a spending decision.
• The concept of persuasion being weaponized as an online business owner.
• Her laying off all her employees and only keeping her virtual assistant.
• How she nurtures and sustains her network.

Listen, subscribe, and read show notes at www.OnTheSchmooze.com