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

Today’s guest is a writer and speaker committed to fighting for social justice. He has written over one hundred essays and articles about racism, mass incarceration, politics, gender, tech, and business. 

His latest book, “Straight Dope: A 360 degree look into American drug culture” explores why drugs are so entrenched in America’s society.

He is a three-time TEDx speaker, his first talk, “How I overcame my fear of stuttering,” has been viewed over 320,000 times. His work has been featured in Salon, Black Enterprise, Harvard Business Review, and Al Jazeera.

Please join me in welcoming LeRon L. Barton. 

In this episode, we discuss the following:
His thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is being able to inspire, being able to listen, and being able to usher people towards a positive direction. It’s being a model for people.”
When he knew he was a leader.
The people who influenced him at a very young age.
His early dreams of being a stuntman, an astronaut, a race car driver, and a writer.
Who inspires him in his career, mainly ballet dancers and race car drivers, and why that connection makes sense to him. “I am not envious of writers because I can do what they can do.”
His journey into IT because his mom was worried about his future if he pursued writing.
Studs Terkel has had an incredible impact on his life and how he shows up as a writer.
His connection to Cheryl Crow and how his early journey could be described by her song “Every Day is a Winding Road.”
His dream of wanting to do a TED talk.
How delivering a TEDx led him to hire a coach and the effect of that decision.
How he nurtures and sustains his network. “Relationships need to be nurtured.”

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

Today’s guest is a people sculptor.

Bringing an innovative, straightforward approach, she pushes individuals to leave their “Subject Matter Expert” mindset behind and become relationship-oriented leaders that drive their organizations into the future. With a keen talent for anticipating and responding, she helps her clients create actionable plans that mitigate risks and open new avenues of opportunity.

She has worked in operational risk management as a health & safety advisor and in financial risk management at a derivatives trading desk. Today, she centers her career around transformational risk management, where she partners with clients to develop leadership resilience and design foresight strategies for deployment.

Please join me in welcoming Ebony Smith. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “A leader is a person who knows the next best move.”
• The difference between being the leader in the hierarchy and being the subject matter expert.
• The importance of respecting the people in the industry, predominantly your team, and how that can change the working experience.
• How spending the summers at her grandmother’s developed her leadership at a young age. Her grandmother had a rule that you were responsible for yourself and the kid directly younger than you.
• Her mother gave her independence over her grades and education when she was eight years old, which made her a planner.
• How she ran experiments with young children to get them interested in science.
• Your clients and colleagues will always tell you something you can’t see about yourself.
• The very apparent impact of her mother in her life.
• Her first coaching client was while she was still in coaching school.
• Why the concept of reciprocity is essential to her. “When you give, give, give when you have an ask, they will joyfully help you.”
• How she nurtures and sustains the outer levels of your network as an introvert.
• What she’s looking forward to in the year ahead.

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

Today’s guest is known as the LinkedIn Whisperer.

An experienced sales trainer, she has extensive knowledge of traditional sales techniques and has adapted them for LinkedIn. As CEO of Social Sales Link, she guides professionals to establish themselves as a thought leader with a subject matter expert brand. She helps them find and engage their target market by leveraging clients and networking partners for warm introductions to qualified buyers.

She is the co-host of the Making Sales Social podcast and author of “The LinkedIn Sales Playbook: A Tactical Guide to Social Selling.”

Please join me in welcoming Brynne Tillman.

In this episode, we discuss the following:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is leading a group of people from a business perspective, a family perspective, etc.”
• She selected to go into training because she didn’t want to be a leader.
• All of the things she wanted to be when she grew up. “Who wouldn’t want to be a dolphin trainer?”
• Why she enjoys running her business by allowing someone else to run it for her.
• When she officially became a salesperson.
• Her desire to be valuable and helps others rather than make sales.
• The difference between actual social selling and ‘connect and spam’ selling.
• Her start in banking and how that led to launching a training company.
• How one can feel entrepreneurial while working in sales.
• How she landed a contract with Aramark by using a shared connection on LinkedIn, by leveraging the same tool she wanted to teach them. That led to being introduced to someone at Comcast, who also became a client.
• Her definition of social selling.
• QUICK TIP! 85% of your LinkedIn connections are weak ties.
• How she nurtures and sustains her network, including the weaker ties and connections.
• What she’s looking forward to in the year ahead.

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

Today’s guest believes you can achieve anything you want in life with the right strategy.

He went from being a person who was afraid of public speaking to becoming a certified Google Trainer and training 10,000 business owners. He is the CEO of Ajax Union, a company he started in January 2008 and grew to number 178 on the INC 500. Currently, his focus is supporting B2B companies with marketing funnels, sales enablement, and lead generation.

He is the author of 6 books, including “High Energy Networking: Get anything you want in life while building meaningful relationships that last a lifetime.”

Please join me in welcoming Joe Apfelbaum.

In this episode we discuss:

• his thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is about taking responsibility. What you do, what you say, and how you behave matters.”
• How he learned the balance of leading through coaching and action and listening to others and leading himself.
• His most recent endeavor of becoming a poet.
• His six little side hustles in his twenties were based on his curiosity and being obsessed with learning more and more things.
• Not being able to go to college due to being part of a big family.
• His love of building businesses and supporting other people. “The secret to living is giving, not waking and taking.”
• His transparency through all his “side hustles” and businesses.
• His first product which brought him recurring revenue and how that changed his life.
• Why the equivalent of the original version of SEO is LinkedIn.
• How he became a Google trainer and the journey to learn how to bust through his limited beliefs and understanding how his brain worked. This led to Joe developing himself.
• The bad advice he received from a life insurance guy to spray and pray his business card at an NYC bar during a networking event.
• How he nurtures and sustains his massive network.
• What he’s looking forward to in 2023.

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

Today’s guest is a sought-after speaker and writer. She works with people and organizations that want to lead with authenticity to create happier, more effective teams.

Described as the confidence fairy godmother we all need, she has worked with Fortune 500 companies and professional associations from across North America. She has shared her insights in over 150 articles in publications including Huffington Post, Forbes, and Harpers Bazaar.

Her book “You Got This: The Ultimate Negotiation Guide for Professional Women” provides a fresh and instantly applicable toolkit for anyone ready to develop their authentic voice in negotiation.

Please join me in welcoming Lelia Gowland.

In this episode we discuss:

• Her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is about authenticity and getting increasingly clear about who I am and how I want to show up in the world.”
• How talking about really difficult things in her life is not something to be ashamed of but the universal human experience.
• “You never misbehaved.” We learn about what Lelia was like when she was a kid from the source, her loving parents.
• How she learned to quiet the people-pleasing voices in her head.
• The three factors that help her define the alignment of her strengths and figure out how she wants to live her life.
• Her being a strong, curious kid AND also being aware of what people wanted from her.
• All of the things she wanted to be when she grew up and the song she created to help her remember. YES! She sings it on the show.
• How she achieved all of her life goals while wanting to “be a doctor during snack time.”
• “I only cry once a day, I think I’m doing great.” The justification she gave her college boyfriend to describe how she was thriving in college.
• How the New Leaders Council affected her life and life trajectory.
• Her first speech in Florida and how successful it was even with a huge tech glitch.
• How she made space to grow and serve the people she is called to serve.
• How she came out to her newsletter community with the fear that she would lose her community.
• How her business evolved when she came out.
• How she nurtures and sustains her network. 
• What she’s looking forward to in the next year.

Today’s guest can help you network your way to more friends, more adventures, and way more success. She knows two key things–the people you meet will change your life and networking is how you meet those people.

She is a motivating, high-energy speaker, teaching the importance of networking, and why you are your best business development tool. 

She is the author of “This Sh!t Works: A No-Nonsense Guide to Networking Your Way to More Friends, More Adventures, and More Success”, a book dedicated to making networking easy, accessible, and fun, as well as the host of This Sh!t Works a podcast dedicated to all things business development.

Please join me in welcoming Julie Brown. 

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is up to each person to define. Anyone can be a leader. It’s not a title or years of experience. You can be a leader every day by influencing others, empowering others, and taking risks.”
• Her dream job of being in GLOW - Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.
• Her desire to be seen, heard, and respected.
• Her college experience was wanting to be a lawyer, she got a degree in science with a minor in business.
• How the world led her to architecture and business development.
• How she met her classically trained architect husband, I promise it’s not what you think!
• When she decided to be in charge of her employment after losing a job and an impending pandemic.
• How she discovered the parts of entrepreneurship that she enjoyed.
• The ability for a business to change. “Just because you’re doing this now doesn’t mean you have to keep doing this forever. Your business can change.”
• How she found the National Speakers Association.
• The challenges she faced trying to speak on stages.
• Why she invested in a videographer to record her initial speeches to learn from them.
• Why she encourages others to make mistakes, “That’s how you learn from them.”
• How she nurtures her network.

Today’s guest is living proof that one can pursue one’s passion in life, and do so while making a profit.

He’s worked with some of the top companies and entrepreneurs on the planet such as Shark Tank’s Kevin Harrington, Tony Robbins, Dean Graziosi, Kim Walsh Philips, Ryan Levesque, Michael Hyatt, Claire Diaz-Ortiz, Lewis Howes, Brian Tracy, Jeff Walker, and more.

He’s here to help you on your quest to turn your passion and message into a profitable and growing business. He’s been through the startup phase multiple times in the past two decades and has built a following from scratch. Today, he lives out his passion for helping others find their purpose, passion, message, and path to profitability.

He’s the host of The Affiliate Guy Podcast, your source for affiliate marketing news, tips, and strategies to take your online business to the next level.

Please join me in welcoming Matt McWilliams. 

In this episode we discuss:

• his thoughts on leadership: “Leadership isn’t easy. It’s being one step ahead of your audience and understanding that you don’t need to be 2 miles ahead.”
• His belief that leadership has nothing to do with you and everything to do with your avatar, ideal client.
• Why he considers himself an “acting extrovert” and how he recharges after social interactions.
• How his social life changed when he began living with his mom, then his dad.
• His realization while visiting Dolly Parton’s house at 12 years old.
• His dreams of playing professional sports as a career.
• The love of his first job at 22, working with his dad, and how that developed his love of networking.
• How he discovered network marketing and realized its impact after a $7,000 sales day while watching TV.
• When he decided that he could teach what he had learned about marketing and networking.
• His experience running for public office and what he learned about people.
• How he ran his first affiliate program when there was nothing in the world that existed about affiliate marketing.
• How he became a recognized expert in affiliate marketing.
• What he’s looking forward to in the year ahead.

Today’s guest helps launch new companies, create new brands, and refresh existing identities by bringing strategic expertise to design and marketing.

Her studio, Agency Bel, helps companies launch and grow by creating their identities, from strategy to logos, websites, and social media.

She is known for coining the concept of Conscious Branding, helping her clients succeed by focusing on being responsive and responsible to their customers and communities. She has worked with both Fortune 50 companies and startups.

She served 10 years on the Boston Board of Directors of AIGA, a professional design organization. And currently serves as the executive officer of the board for the New Art Center and as the marketing chair for a national health advocacy organization.

Please join me in welcoming Laura Sauter.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is really plugging in. It’s wanting to be at the source of the action. It’s a connection between playing (engaging) and moving things forward.
• Why she feels comfortable being part of the group that moves things along.
• The influence her mom had on her upbringing as a single mom and head of household.
• How she landed a prestigious internship right out of high school and how it prepared her for new opportunities across the world.
• How she wasn’t discouraged by the stack of “no, thank you’s” she received very early in her career.
• The importance of doing internships in different places and how learning and experiencing different areas and cultures can be so enriching.
• How her 6th grade English teacher opened her eyes to advertising.
• Finding her “home” in advertising in high school and making commercials.
• Her first job working with Town & Country in an advertising world that had only just begun to transition to computers when she had graduated college.
• The roots of her entrepreneurship journey.
• How she found her first clients through the people she already knew in Boston.
• Why she has chosen to focus on clients who are from health and home.
• How she nurtures and sustains the outer layers of her network.
• Why she feels that professional and personal development are so important.
• Her nimbleness moving through the world.
• What she’s looking forward to.

Today’s guest believes that healing, awareness, empathy, and engagement are critical in today’s increasingly connected, yet polarized world. Her work aims to support deeper connections and mutual understanding among different groups, toward a more equitable society.

She is a diversity, equity, and inclusion specialist, coach, and international keynote speaker. She has worked with organizations across all sectors on DEI, intercultural communication, supplier diversity, and employee engagement. Her expertise has been featured in media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, NPR, and the Washington Post.

Her latest book “The Power of Employee Resource Groups: How People Create Authentic Change” shares how to build ERGs to empower underrepresented employees and positively impact diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts within organizations and society.

Please join me in welcoming Farzana Nayani. 

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is finding yourself and knowing who you are and using that to reach people.”
  the importance of being a model of leadership to those around you.
• how sports played a large role in her leadership journey and how that experience even helped her get comfortable around other genders.
• her path from grad school to becoming an entrepreneur.
• the traumatizing moment as a mom that catapulted her decision to be an entrepreneur.
• the impact of all that she is on her business.
• why she considers herself as a cross-pollinator with her clients and the benefit of being industry agnostic.
• the impact that the murder of George Floyd had on her business and how it inspired her to write “Raising Multiracial Children.”
• the importance of strategic volunteering.
• how she builds connections and maintains that to grow her network by speaking pro-bono or at a lower rate.
• how she nurtures the outer levels of her network.
• what she’s looking forward to in the year ahead.

Today’s guest works with organizations to design relationship marketing strategies that are measurable and implementable.

He is a technology trends expert who uses his passion for technology, sense of history, and business strategies to help organizations use remote video and streaming technologies to build marketing that achieves business goals. He is a communicator who shares his knowledge as a speaker, virtual presenter, interviewer, author, and coach.

Since 1983 he has been a marketing and communication advisor. He earned his Certified Speaking Professional designation and is a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame. He also received the National Speakers Association's highest award, The Cavett—given to only one recipient per year.

Please join me in welcoming Terry Brock.

In this episode we discuss:

• his thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is bringing out the best in the people around you. It’s inspiring them to be the best that they are willing to be.”
• when he learned to focus on other people’s goals and how he could play a role in their achievement of those goals.
• his inquisitive nature and how that serves him now, even though it may have annoyed his parents in his childhood.
• the many things he wanted to be when he grew up.
• what prompted him to get his MBA while he was working in a radio station.
• how he navigates technological advances and where he thinks the speaking industry will be very soon.
• how he secured a computer lab before he had a computer and taught himself how to use spreadsheets and later leveraging them to work with real estate professionals.
• the years he spent being mistaken as a CPA.
• his early speaking engagements and how that fueled his desire to be an entrepreneur.
• how he joined the NSA and what sparked him to immediately volunteer to make the organization better.
• how he started Stark Raving Entrepreneurs.
• the three words he uses to make decisions.
• how he shifted his audience and transitioned to entrepreneurship.
• his tools to nurture his network.
• Terry’s Costco approach to marketing.
• What he’s looking forward to in the year ahead.

Today’s guest knows that no one ever wishes they'd spent more time at the office or pines for work that didn’t inspire them.

Her specialty is making sales fun as she helps women heal their relationship with money. She has spoken at women's conferences all over the world and has helped hundreds of women start and grow businesses they LOVE.

She spent 15 years navigating the male-dominated world of tech. Along the way, she worked at Lifetime Television's New Media department, worked hand-in-hand with Marianne Williamson on her community site and digital offering—The Miracle Matrix—and worked at IAC where she managed a P&L worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

She’s the voice behind the Game On Girlfriend Podcast, and she's known for her weekly "Sarah Uncut" TV show on YouTube and LIVE "Coffee With Coach" streaming video conversations on Monday mornings.

Please join me in welcoming Sarah Walton.

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is anything that inspires action.”
• growing up Mormon in Utah and how that shaped her upbringing, and how she broke the mold of possibility.
• her being the first girl student body president in middle school.
• how she went from Utah to attending UCLA and living in NYC.
• how volunteering to build houses and tutor differently-abled children in France opened her eyes to diversity and possibility in her life.
• her first job in a bank and how she was offered the opportunity to build websites that later turned into a really strong technological skill on top of her English degree from college.
• how she was ‘coaching’ people on how to have great relationships with their colleagues before she knew what coaching was.
• showing her boss how to fire her so that she could become an entrepreneur.
• starting her business while seven months pregnant and in the middle of a recession.
• how she predominantly works with women although she has coached a few men.
• how she nurtures and sustains the outer levels of her network.
• what she’s looking forward to in the following year.

Today’s guest believes inclusion is more than a moral obligation; it's a competitive advantage. Her presentations on “blameless” inclusion spark not just inspiration but action as well.

Her firm has extensive experience and a proven reputation for driving better business

outcomes through innovative and inclusive strategic planning. They bring deep expertise in improving profitability and innovation, boosting team and organizational performance, and optimizing inclusion strategies.

She is the author of “The 7 Simple Habits of Inclusive Leaders” and has been featured in publications such as Forbes Magazine, Smart Meetings, and The Meeting Professional.

Please join me in welcoming Melissa Majors.

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is motivating others. Leaders are people who use their influence and power to help other people thrive.”
• Her predisposition to taking on leadership roles throughout her education.
• Her experience growing up as the youngest of nine children.
• The realization (right on the show) that her speaking career really began as the salutatorian in high school.
• Her desire, from a young age, to understand how people behave.
• The transformative moment when she learned that her dad did not know how to read and how that sparked her love of inclusive education.
• How she was recruited to join the Nationwide Insurance family before starting her own family.
• Why she feels so free and grateful to share her gifts with others.
• How the pandemic helped her rethink and repackage herself and the opportunities she found along the way.
• The importance of really understanding human needs in the context of business.
• How she nurtures and sustains her business.

Today’s guest believes being human is your competitive advantage.

He is a renowned business strategist, global keynote speaker, executive trainer and coach, investor, and Forbes contributor. As President and co-owner of PureMatter, a Silicon Valley global marketing agency and CEO of H2H Companies, he sparked the Human-to-Human H2H global movement that aims to humanize business through simpler communication, empathy, and celebrate our imperfections.

He’s the two-time best-selling author of “There Is No B2B or B2c: It's Human to Human #H2h” and “Shareology: How Sharing is Powering the Human Economy.”

Forbes calls him a “Zen Master to Digital Marketers” and his TED Talk featured a TED first allowing mobile devices during the event to illustrate his belief that even a small inspirational share holds the power to change the world for the better.

Please join me in welcoming Bryan Kramer.

In this episode we discuss:

• His thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is helping someone else grow. It’s not about yourself, it’s about others. If you’re not growing someone else, you’re not a leader. Full stop.”
• The influence his parents had on him, including encouraging him to put himself out there whether it was running for office through high school or becoming an eagle scout.
• How he mingled between all the cliques in high school as an ambivert. “I was able to hang out with everyone. I found it really neat to bring people together.”
• Why he doesn’t believe in popular vs. unpopular, people are either connected or not connected.
• Why he wants to surround himself with people who mean something to him, are good, and light him up.
• His experience being a firefighter and the class that turned him towards communications instead of the medical field.
• How an F on a jazz test changed the trajectory of his entire life. “Who knew an F on a paper was going to lead me down this road?”
• His out of college experience of building websites and computer programming and how that led to Bryan building his own agency.
• How he met his partner in both life and business.
• Why he believes marketing changes every 2-3 years.
• Why companies loved the creativity of personalized results and Bryan’s “Human 2 Human concept.”
• Why he maintains so many subscriptions to many different things.
• Why he loves Flipboard and how it helps him see the world the way he wants to see it.
• How a conversation with his 12-year-old son completely rocked his world and prompted him to close his agency.
• How he nurtures and sustains the outer levels of his network.
• What he’s looking forward to in the year ahead.

Today’s guest is a champion for women in sales.

She has spent her career helping Fortune 500, midsize, and SaaS-based companies grow repeatable revenue, hire better, and improve sales culture to one that is inclusive and healthy. She helps fix sales team issues as a master connector.

She is the founder of three brands created to improve B2B sales culture - Score More Sales, Women Sales Pros, and the She Sells Summit. She is the author of “She Sells: Attract, Promote, and Retain Great Women in B2B Sales” and host of the Conversations with Women in Sales podcast.

Please join me in welcoming Lori Richardson.

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is paving the trail. It’s knowing who you are and what you stand for even when you’re uncomfortable with the title.”
• Lori’s initial goals of wanting to be a teacher and her very early entrepreneurial endeavors like having a lemonade stand and selling girl scout cookies.
• her experience teaching two-year-olds and having to pivot to technology sales in order to support her family.
• the skills she learned from watching her grandmother sell clothes to people at a young age and how that coupled with her sales experience in selling cookies.
• the experience of joining a company as the first woman in field sales and being passed over multiple times for promotions.
• turning her former employer into her first client after she was forced out due to downsizing.
• her first company ‘Smile and Dial Revenue Generation Services” and why she changed the name to ‘Score More Sales.’
• how she widened the scope of her mission and reach with the murder of George Floyd and the pandemic.
• the importance and her passion for people not only talking about inclusion and equity but taking action to be more inclusive and equitable.
• how Lori stays in touch with her network.

Today’s guest can show you what to say, and when to say it, in a way that feels comfortable and confident to you and to your potential client.

With over 25 years of selling experience, entrepreneurs and small business owners now hire her to show them how to sell successfully and authentically. She is the CEO of Sales Maven and has the unique ability to positively transform the often misunderstood selling process.

Nikki has written 3 books including “The Selling Staircase: Mastering the Art of Relationship Selling” and hosts the Sales Maven podcast.

Please join me in welcoming Nikki Rausch.

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is holding the outcome in mind. It’s trusting the team and empowering them while keeping the forward momentum.”
• why Nikki thinks it’s so important to remove ego from leadership.
• her early responsibility of handling fundraising for her HS dance team so the team could go on trips.
• how she grew up with a misogynistic father and how that shaped her young life.
• the support she received from her dance teacher and her aunt and uncle during high school.
• her determination to not only attend college, but finish her education - something that was not expected of her.
• how having a “commission component” in a job at a mall kiosk, led her to think, “Wait, I can make money doing this?!”
  realizing that her effort in selling directly correlated to the amount of money she was making.
• how she found her mentors and why this has been an important part of her journey.
• discovering NLP and how that changed the way she showed up in sales.
• figuring out that she had built relationships and was surrounded by only people she knew and how that led to her wanting to meet new people.
• “Who would pay me money to teach them how to sell?” Nikki’s immediate response to someone asking her why she wasn’t charging for showing others her natural skill.
• Nikki being inspired by being in a room with 100 businesswomen.
• who Nikki wants to work with.
• how she stays in touch with her network.

Today’s guest is known as a “human development investigator.”

He is a strategist who shares how to use Adult Development Theory to dramatically change how you can effectively build connections with others, understand yourself more deeply, and positively influence those around you.

He is a best-selling author and host of the Disney+ Show "Family Reboot," who has spoken in 48 states and 5 countries to over 750,000 people. He has extensively studied human dynamics and relationships. He has been invited to speak at the White House twice and has been quoted in media outlets like The New York Times, USA Today, Forbes, Black Enterprise, Huffington Post, and is a contributor to TV shows like The Doctors.

He’s also a fellow dad joke enthusiast.

Please join me in welcoming Arel Moodie.

In this episode we discuss:

• his thoughts on leadership: “Leadership develops over time into different definitions. Leadership means something different at each stage. Right now, it means empowering people without becoming the bottleneck.”
• so many bad dad jokes!
• why he didn’t have the confidence to enter leadership roles until college.
• why he considered college as his way out of inner-city Brooklyn.
• his pre-college experiences really fed his desire to go to college.
• a book that changed his life, and not just because it was the only book written in English at the Shanghai airport.
• his introduction into entrepreneurship and his first business.
• his first steps into speaking and why he chose speaking about student success.
• the three key factors of speaking: the craft of speaking, the message of speaking, and the business of speaking and why you need all three.
• how he learned stage presence.
• the observation that we don't count ourselves and instead uplift others.
• the importance of curiosity and how that can lead to wonderful things.
• why he joined the NSA.
• how he nurtures and sustains the outer layers of his network.
• the importance of deepening connections with his network.
• why Arel thought a TV producer was going to steal his kidneys.
• his challenge to all On the Schmooze listeners.

Today’s guest has a mission; to inspire a more connected, compassionate and collaborative world.

She shows people how to have better conversations with themselves and others – so they can make an even bigger difference in our world. Through the power of authentic connection and strengthening our mental fitness, she knows we can build even better businesses, communities and nations together.

She is a mentor, speaker, and certified mental fitness coach. She’s written for regional and national magazines since 2006 and has published several books, including “DO Talk To Strangers: How to Connect With Anyone, Anywhere”, the “DO Talk To Strangers Travel Toolkit,” and “How to Talk to Strangers: to decrease anxiety, build confidence, and make a bigger difference in the world.”

Please join me in welcoming Kerrie Phipps.

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is showing up and being human. It means creating a ripple effect on those around you.”
• her experience growing up on her dad’s farm and inviting friends over, having to work hard in order to play hard.
• how a bullying experience as a young girl inspired her to protect people from bullies (even though she didn’t know how to stop the bullies).
• why she chose to leave school at 15 with a desire to begin her “grown up life”.
• her first job at a dental surgery office and then a bank where she discovered her love of helping teenagers.
• her experience being very sick and hitting a wall shortly after becoming a mom and dealing with chronic sickness.
• the global level of stress Kerrie experienced in the moment and how that compares to our global stress now.
• finding out her grandfather had studied the Dale Carnegie books as she was researching her coach training.
• the importance of getting coached even if you are a coach.
• how she broke into the new coaching industry and the experience of being compared to other well known coaches and the impact of her first coaching clients.
• how she began her author journey.
• when she stepped up and stopped being “just a country girl”.
• her travel to Singapore and speaking about coaching to large audiences.
• meeting veterans who found networking intimidating when they have charged into much harder situations.
• how shifting the shoulder is all it takes to be open to meeting new people.
• what she’s looking forward to in the next year.
• how she nurtures and sustains the outer levels of her network.

Today’s guest is The Referral Diva and has more than two decades of experience generating business by referral.

She is the founder of Master Connectors, Inc and the creator of Referrals On-Demand®, a program that teaches solo entrepreneurs how to turn their network into a referral-generating machine. She calls her process Referral Alchemy. When fully implemented, it can infuse tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars into your business without a single dollar in ad spend.

She is passionate about increasing prosperity across the globe and uses her business to further the efforts of Ten By Three, an international non-profit creating economies of scale in Third World countries by turning artisans into entrepreneurs.

Please join me in welcoming Virginia Muzquiz.

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is relationships. You manage processes but through the context of relationships.”
• her realizing the difference between being a leader and a manager through empathy and influence.
• how a children’s book she read to her daughters led her to becoming ‘the benevolent queen bee’ that allowed everyone to exist.
• her process of breaking generational trauma.
• her need for emotional connection and how that helped her development.
• when she self-diagnosed as a sociopath based on a leadership assessment (spoiler alert - she is not a sociopath).
• her love of Spanish and why that became her major and her job as a Spanish teacher.
• how she structured her Spanish classroom to provide choice for her students and taught them by creating novelas.
• the influence of her father who was an entrepreneur and the experience of living off the land.
• how she became the #1 salesperson in 90 days for Mary Kay after declaring she would not sell anything.
• how she found commonalities with influencers and how that helped her make a difference.
• how she landed attention from BNI (Business Network International).
• how she nurtures and sustains her network.
• what she’s looking forward to in the year ahead.

Today’s guest can be found at the intersection of impact and collaboration.

He is a consultant that works with institutions of higher education and their partners in communities, government, and business to achieve economic and social impact goals. He's worked with institutions like The Ohio State University, Indiana University, University of Oregon and others to develop strategies for collaborative community and regional transformation.

He is the founder of Venn Collaborative, a professional development, networking, and services organization that offers online courses and other opportunities to higher education leaders and to community, economic, and workforce development professionals.

Most recently he launched his podcast, The Collaborative Effect, to speak with people from all walks of life and work about how they want to leave an impact in the world.

Please join me in welcoming Jim Woodell.

In this episode we discuss:

• his thoughts on leadership: “Leadership listening more than telling and guiding more than directing. Leadership is being in service to others.”
• how moving a lot as a child helped him learn how to adjust quickly.
• when Jim found out while in college that he had skills that could be leveraged and how the roles he played gave him so much satisfaction.
• his initial plans to work in Hollywood but deciding not to be in it after experiencing shallow behavior from people in the industry.
• reaching his goal of working at PBS right after college and then deciding to go to Harvard for his Masters in education.
• Jim’s commitment to K-12 teachers and their lives in their careers.
• what led him to Penn State to get a PhD in higher education.
• how he learned how much impact universities impact their communities through talent, innovation, and place.
• how he adapted the way his systems were working as a “great observer” and how that helped him create more impact.
• where his business is going and his strategy of finding the smart people and building a network he can tap into to grow.
• the great opportunities that people can take advantage of to leave an impact.
• the importance of listening and why that is important for outreach.
• how Jim nurtures and sustains his network.

Today’s guest empowers the dreamers, partners with the doers, educates the thinkers, and inspires the aspiring.

She has the very unique bragging right of being Etsy’s first attorney and their 17th employee overall. For over nine years she helped Etsy scale from an inconspicuous startup to a publicly traded company. After that, she joined Vroom as its first General Counsel.

Apart from being a startup attorney, she is a jeweler, investor, board member, and speaker. She won The New York Law Journals 2018 General Counsel Impact Award and created America's Ugliest Necklace. She is a playwright with a hilarious new show, Dirty Legal Secrets.

Please join me in welcoming Sarah Feingold.

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is noticing the lightbulb goes out, replacing the lightbulb, and then ordering more lightbulbs just in case.”
• her origins being an art student and not feeling like a leader.
• when she knew that she wanted to work with artists but after a brainstorming session in a business class decided law was a better answer.
• what prompted her to reach out to Etsy to offer suggestions on their policies. This led to her booking a ticket from Rochester to NYC and telling the CEO that she was going to interview with them to be their in-house attorney.
• her reflection on the risks she was taking back then that she couldn’t imagine taking now.
• how she built a community of lawyers to network with in New York City.
• how she ended up joining a board after attending a seminar and being welcomed in by in-house attorneys at Macy’s while still being the new kid in town.
• how she ended up leaving Etsy for Vroom mostly due to curiosity.
• why she decided to collect legal stories and released them as a play.
• why she prioritizes her solo theater dates.
• the story behind creating “America’s Ugliest Necklace.”
• how she nurtures and sustains the outer layers of her network.
• what she’s looking forward to in the next year.

Today’s guest is on a mission to help small businesses and creative entrepreneurs tell better stories, find more customers, and create new revenue streams.

She helps small business owners craft video content to showcase their products and services and to grow their customer base with YouTube strategies designed to meet their business needs.

She left her job in marketing and advertising to build a company of her own. She is a bilingual podcaster (English and Mandarin Chinese), the creator of Feisworld Media (a monetized YouTube channel with 17K subscribers and over 50K views per month), Feisworld Podcast (with over 200K downloads worldwide), and Feisworld Documentary Series on Amazon Prime. She also teaches how to run better Zoom Meetings and Webinars and own and monetize content on YouTube via Feisworld Academy.

Dorie Clark has featured her in her best-selling book, “Entrepreneurial You” and Harvard Business Review.

Please join me in welcoming Fei Wu.

In this episode, we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership means kindness. It means empathy and the willingness to learn and to fail - to fail hard and get back up again.”
• how she was the “creative director” for her friends growing up - including making Transformer costumes for her friends out of newspaper.
• her dream to create her own private school with fantastic uniforms. This came out of her disappointment with how the schools did not teach everyone to be successful but instead focused on one bad grade setting the tone for the student’s future.
• how she came to the United States right before her senior year of high school and the shift at such an important year, academically, for her.
• the wonderful impact her mom has had on her being a successful artist in a world that did not support that dream.
• the jobs she had to take in order to be sponsored and stay in the United States and how this helped her really start focusing on the teams supporting these very large brands like Tom Ford and Burberry.
• the difference between active income streams vs. passive ones.
• how she designed websites for clients and started her business while consulting for her firm.
• the decision to launch her business as an LLC as a way to protect herself and her business.
• her biggest challenge in running her business.
  the myth of independence.
• the importance of community.
• how she nurtures and sustains the outer levels of her network, including the software she uses.

Back in the summer of 2015, when I first started to seriously work on this podcast, I had a goal of reaching 100 episodes. Since I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into, that felt like a big hairy audacious goal. By the time I reached episode 100 I loved this medium, but almost gave up the show and started a new one. Fortunately, I stuck with this show and today, I’m recording episode 300!

To help me mark this milestone, I’ve invited my friend Blake Fly to interview me. At his core, he believes that appreciation is rocket fuel to create lifelong business relationships and he has built his career around this single idea. I interviewed him in episode 258.

We always have a fun conversation, I’m really looking forward to this.

Blake, thanks for joining me from your place in Toronto. Where do you want to begin?

In this episode:

• we take a journey back to episode one and how Robbie’s bio has drastically changed since then.
• Robbie reflects on why he started On the Schmooze back in 2015 and the podcast that inspired him to do so.
• Robbie shares some unexpected surprises while hosting his podcast.
• Blake gives behind-the-scenes insight of what happened when Robbie interviewed him on episode 258.
• listen to Robbie’s secret about having a successful podcast.
• learn why Robbie numbered his first episode 000.
• we dive into Robbie’s work ethic and how he acted and reacted to the first few months of the pandemic.
• Robbie shares a few regrets about the people he’s interviewed already.
• Robbie explains why he interviews 2 women for every man.
• we find out what’s in store for Robbie and On the Schmooze in the future.
• listen to Robbie’s process of handling pitches.
• how his interviews dive deeper than what a guest has planned to talk about.
• Robbie’s advice to his future self when he reaches 400 episodes.