[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Three, Episode #5 – Anne Sawyer

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Three, Episode #5 – Anne Sawyer, Executive Director-Southern California Mediation Association,

Passionate Mediator, and Entrepreneur

[powerpress]

The real trouble with mediation is capitalism. But our guest today has a way around that by using collaboration, mentorship, and an animated adherence to the core principles of mediation.

Peace builders of all stripes need larger fulcrums to move a conflict ridden world. Championing peace at the earliest stages is the hard work. The hard work comes because Peace builders must persuade, convince, and sell to a skeptical, conflict comfortable public.

Marketing and business development, mentoring and networking, and training beyond just the academy, will grow the filed organically over the next few years.

But there’s one area that mediators—and all peace builders— struggle with (and sometimes mightily) and that’s in getting the “ask.”

All sales are relational in nature, but, in order to “sell” peacebuilding, the peace builder must become a champion of peace. This requires a changing in the thinking of the peace builder around the sales process. The second step after marketing then becomes, not the “ask,” but the process of building a fulcrum to demonstrate value, and then leveraging that value to grow the revenues of relationship, trust, and money.

The only way for the peace builder to sell ethically is to build a fulcrum (from Seth Godin and his book Free Prize Inside) and to become a champion for peace. Through such a process, the peacebuilder becomes the “free prize” inside the value they add to the client.

The practical steps in building a sales fulcrum involve:

Determining if the customer you’re selling to as a peace builder thinks the work of building peace is worth doing.
Determining if the customer you’re selling to as a peace builder thinks that you are the person to build that peace.
Determining if the customer you’re selling to as a peace builder believes that the outcomes of work of building peace are actually an added benefit to them, their organization, or their lives.

By definition, all of these practical steps are hard for the peace builder to answer, because they are based in assumptions, ideas, and a worldview that is unproveable, unknowable, and unquantifiable, until after the work of building peace is already in progress—or already completed.

But Anne has a plan for all of this. And she’ll talk about laying the first steps toward building a fulcrum with the help of the Southern California Mediation Association in the podcast today.

Check out all the ways below to connect with Anne, and the Southern California Mediation Association, today:

Anne’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annesawyer1
Anne on Twitter: https://twitter.com/annesawyer
Anne’s Website: http://mediate2resolve.com/
SCMA’s Website: https://www.scmediation.org/
SCMA’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scmediationassn/
SCMA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCMediationAssn

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Three, SPECIAL EDITION – David Burkus

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Three, SPECIAL EDITION – David Burkus, Author of Under New Management, Associate Professor at Oral Roberts University, Podcast Host of Radio Free Leader, Owner of the Hottest Website on Leadership Right Now!

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I’ve interviewed book authors before on the podcast, but never any as prestigious—or as accomplished—as this one.

David Burkus is the author of the 2013 book The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas. He has a new book out this month, Under New Management: How Leading Organizations Are Upending Business as Usual.

He is Associate Professor of Management at Oral Roberts University where he teaches courses on creativity, entrepreneurship, and organizational behavior. He is also the founder and host of Radio Free Leader, a podcast on leadership, innovation, and strategy.

There are myths that drive us. Myths from the past that create stories that we still tell to our children. There are myths that we tell to other adults, huddled together around the flickering glow of the movie screen—or smart phone screen these days—that drive us to tell more stories.

There are myths that we tell each other to drive each other to greatness, to warn each other of dangers, and to keep each other in line.

Look, David, wrote an entire book about those last myths. The ones that we tell to keep each other in line. The myths that leaders tell their followers and constituents to drive them to produce more, be more, and do more.

Myths also trap organizations and leaders in false modes of thinking and doing, and gain repetitive power over time, becoming something else in the long run.

There are myths around creativity, there are myths around leadership, and there are myths around progress. All of these myths, David will address today. But I always think of the old Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

In the film that was once lauded by Woody Allen as one of the greatest films in American cinematic history, law abiding Ransom Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart) goes out to shoot the bad man, Liberty Valence, (Lee Marvin) in a duel that can only occur when law and order fail in the face of evil.

Except, Ransom can’t shoot worth a damn and he doesn’t take out Liberty.

And at the climactic moment of truth, Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) shoots Liberty from the shadows, thus ending his reign of terror over the town and ensuring the rise of civilization and law and order.

It’s a great film but what’s the point of bringing it up?

Well, the titular line at the end—from the mouth of a newspaper editor—has come down in American cultural history: “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

How many legends of creativity that that have stuck in your organization—be it a church, a workplace, a nonprofit, a school—have become truth, long after the facts of how creativity happens have been misremembered.

What shifts a creativity story down the line to creativity legend all the way to a creativity myth, is the old schoolyard game, Whisper Down the Lane.

When the story of creativity, which is personal and meaningful, becomes calcified into legend, which is impersonal and dogmatic, no amount of training is going to change the creativity culture.

And then the legend gets printed, over and over again, gradually becoming operating myth, which becomes codified in the worst phrase possible in an organization that OD folks here, corporate trainers hear, and even employees hear…

“Well, we’ve always done it this way.”

David will unravel all of that when it comes to creativity and talk about his new book, Under New Management on the podcast today.

Check out all of the places you can connect with David—and buy his two books—below:

The DAVID BURKUS WEBSITE | DavidBurkus.com
THE NEW BOOK | Under New Management
DAVID BURKUS ON TWITTER | @davidburkus
DAVID BURKUS ON FACEBOOK | /drdavidburkus

And join David’s email list and STAY UPDATED | Join 12,000+ People Who Get Regular Updates and Exclusive Resources from HIM

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Three, Episode #4 – Ruth Henneman

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Three, Episode #4 – Ruth Henneman, Leadership Development, Coaching People, Enriching Human Resource Consulting

[powerpress]

The next three episodes of this podcast are all about leadership, from three different perspectives, so let’s all hold on for the ride.

Leadership is the capacity to get groups of people to go in a direction they don’t want to go, to accomplish goals they’re not quite convinced have merit, and to keep them intrinsically motivated while doing it.

Our guest today, Ruth Henneman, works at the intersection of all of this and she coaches leaders in how to lead, why to lead, and how to start with leading themselves first and everyone else second.

There are myths about leadership. Thousands of them. There are thousands of volumes published each year (366,000 volumes on the Amazon.com website alone) that can tell you how to be a leader and why that’s important. There are blogs, podcasts, trainings, classes, and on and on about leadership.

But really, at the end of the day, leadership is about three areas all human beings struggle with: responsibility, accountability, and credibility.

I’m teaching a class on this stuff this year and I don’t have any answers, for any questions that are raised in these next two podcast episodes.

I don’t know why “bad” leaders seem to get rewarded and “good” leaders get assassinated either in their character or with their lives.

I don’t know why all great leaders who fail in the public and private sphere, seem to have a moral or ethical failing at their core.

I don’t know why it’s so hard for average people to choose to lead, because I believe that not only is leadership a choice, but it is also a skill.

But I hope that by bringing them to you, you’ll come up with some answers for yourself.

Check out all the ways below to connect with Ruth today:

Ruth’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruth-henneman-aa17769
Ruth’s Website: http://www.ruthhenneman.com/
Ruth’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RuthHennemanCoachingConsultingLLC
Ruth’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/ruthhenneman

HIT Piece 2.16.2016

Here’s an update…

I listen to a lot of podcasts. A LOT.

One of the better ones out there for entrepreneurs, thougth leaders, and others that isn’t filled with Silicon Valley hype, or “unicorn” nonsense is the Stanford Entrepreneurial Podcast series. This podcast allows real entrepreneurs to advance their ideas, and increasingly has been a platform for venture capitalists and others to come to Stanford.

Mitch Joel continues to care about his industry, marketing, the changing nature of work, and innovation. His Six Pixels of Separation podcast is beyond interesting and it drops every Sunday. Oh, and he just had his 500^th episode. Talk about longevity in the podcast medium…

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is actually trying some revolutionary things with their branded content in the podcasting space. From Science Fridays to Stuff You Oughta Know, they have managed to brand their sound, their host approach and interview style, and even the types of questions that they ask. Public radio may be on the decline in cars, but it will survive (in one form or another) on the Internet. The podcast I listen to—and am consistently fascinated by—is Death, Sex, and Money. Hosted by Anna Sale, the podcast cuts to the heart of things left out of polite conversations.

Adam Carolla is building a pirate ship. All that means is if you don’t like his podcast, then it’s not for you. This is the best possible approach to building content with the tools that the Internet provides, particularly if you don’t want to be beholden to corporate sponsors, the whims of mercurial audiences, and the dictates of “good” taste. Listen to the Adam Carolla Show and find out what I’m talking about.

Podcasting is a medium of relationships, engagement, collaboration, and a place to build a brand, drip by drip. Thank you to all who are out there putting out their craft.

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: jsorrells@hsconsultingandtraining.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Three, Episode #3 – Gianna Putrino

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Three, Episode #3 – Gianna Putrino, Fine Artist, Emerging Artist, Energetic Advocate of the Artistic Process

[powerpress]

As I’ve said before, I am driven by artists, the art making process, and the connection between getting paid and getting to do what you love.

I go to art shows sometimes. Last summer I attended an art show that featured the art of our guest today, Gianna Putrino. Now, Gianna is a contemporary artist, which means she draws large scale work. But her work is figurative, not abstract.

Now, I’m not saying that abstract pieces aren’t artwork or artistic, but I am saying that I am tied philosophically to the figurative tradition in the fine arts. I can’t tell you the struggles that I had in art school at college.

Well…there are a few people who can.

Nick Jackson who we interviewed last season could definitely tell you about it…

Gianna is as well, and her drawings led me to immediately going up to her, and asking her to come on the show.

And then, life happened for both of us…

She’ll tell you her entire story and lay out her compelling artistic journey, but suffice it to say, the world has opened up in many ways for this talented young woman and, much like Emperor Palpatine in the Phantom Menace (which, in light of Star Wars VII no one even THINKS about anymore—thanks J.J. Abrams), I look forward to seeing all that she will produce in the upcoming years.

So, let’s all go over and become Jedis—or Siths—or whatever and listen to what Gianna has to say…

Check out all the ways below to connect with Gianna today:

Gianna’s E-Interview: http://ragazine.cc/2015/08/gianna-putrinoemerging-artist/

Gianna’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gianna-putrino-a6733568

Gianna’s Art Profile: https://giannaputrino.com/portfolio-2/

Gianna’s Broome County Arts Council Profile: http://www.broomearts.org/gianna-putrino/

Gianna’s Instagram Profile: https://www.instagram.com/gputrino/

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Three, Episode #2 – John “Jack” Amoratis

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Three, Episode #2 – John “Jack” Amoratis, iOS Swift and Linux Developer, AWS fan, Theologian, Cutting Edge Deep Thinker and Educator

[powerpress]

I’ve known a lot of people in my life but none have lead such a life filled with twists and turns–and considerations about both the here and now, and over there and later–as has our podcast guest, John “Jack” Amoratis today.

The higher things often aren’t talked about, like theology, philosophy, and spirituality. Instead, we tend to focus a lot of our rhetorical firepower on religion, rules, and rituals.

Which, I guess is more comfortable for us because theology, which is the study of the nature of God and belief, continues to stymie modern man with how complicated and complex it really is.

Don’t get me wrong, we have arguments about religion—which is all about the rules: say this number of Hail Mary’s, or position yourself that way when saying a prayer—but that’s all ritual and, for the most part, ruled by humans.

We also have arguments about relationships—who’s up, who’s down, who’s in control—and, just like religion, those arguments consist of many ritual and rules, made up and enforced by humans.

But every great theologian, from Thomas Aquinas to Soren Kierkegaard has wrestled with the nature of God and what that means for us down here on Earth. Because, at least to my knowledge, only one person in the history of humanity has ever claimed to come back from the dead to tell us what comes after all of this.

Two other thoughts about this are covered in this episode as well:

Technology is advancing by leaps and bounds these days, and the nature of what is possible is going to be limited by our collective imaginations. Transhumanism is this idea that humans and machines will join at some point and transcend even the nature of God.

The second thought is that with all we are gaining in advancing technology, we are forgetting the truly radical things that we had to do to get here. I don’t care what you think about Jesus, Mohammad, or even Confucius, you had to go through those guys to get the IPhone you’re listening to me on right now.

As usual, I have no answers for any of this. It’s too complicated and interdisciplinary. And by the way, Jack doesn’t either. But we give it a good shot, and we find out more about how a theologian comes to the technology space and what he would like to see happen next.

Check out all the ways below to connect with Jack today:

Jack’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackamoratis

Jack’s Stack Overflow: http://stackoverflow.com/users/3078326/jack-amoratis?tab=reputation

Jack’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/jackamoratis

Jack’s GitHub: https://github.com/jamorat

Jack’s website: https://www.jackamoratis.com/

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Three, Episode #1- Travis Maus & Ryan Berkeley

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Three, Episode #1 – Travis Maus and Ryan Berkeley, Entrepreneurs, Cutting Edge Financial Planners, Trailblazers for Your Money

[powerpress]

People often remark that money makes people act funny. And not in the “haha,” Heath Ledger Joker way either. We talked about charging people for art last season in our ninth episode conversation with Nicholas Jackson, and we talked about charging people because art is valuable.

But what about managing money?

Nobody gets excited when you are talking about managing money.

As a matter of fact, eyes roll into the back of heads and people gradually slump down in chairs until their heads are the merest slivers above a table.

Then there’s the common situation where two adults hang out at the kitchen table talking about family budgeting every month…or they don’t

And then there’s the fact that there isn’t much education in school around the topic of money, money management of financial matters. And no, studying macroeconomics doesn’t count…

Case in point: My son was asking me about credit card use during the summer. He was on the cusp of turning 18 and wanted to know about credit scores, building a financial background and what the penalties and pitfalls would be with taking on more than he could handle.

After a 30-minute period where I laid out everything that I know about the wide world of credit creation, money management and fiscal sanity, he flopped onto the ottoman, held the cat in his hands, and asked:

Why don’t they teach us this stuff in school?

Why indeed…

In the kick-off to our third season of The Earbud_U Podcast, we talked with Ryan Berkeley and Travis Maus, partners and co-founders of SEED Planning Group, based in Binghamton, NY.

They are no-nonsense when it comes to managing your money, but they were plenty animated when it came to discussing why you should seed your financial strategies and goals with them, for both the long-term viability of your financial health, and for the long-term viability of the financial services industry.

So take a listen to Travis and Ryan, and take a little knowledge from our talk.

Check out all the ways below that you can connect with Travis and Ryan and S.E.E.D!

S.E.E.D Planning Group website: http://www.seedpg.com/

S.E.E.D Planning Group on Twitter: https://twitter.com/seedgroup

S.E.E.D Planning Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SEED-Financial-Strategies-288049794685377/

S.E.E.D Planning Group on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seed-planning-group-62410167

Travis Maus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-maus-15aa2429

Ryan Berkeley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanberkeley

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Two, Episode #9 – Pattie Porter

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Two, Episode #9 – Pattie Porter, Conflict Coach, Podcast Host, Entrepreneur, The Hardest Working Mediator in Texas

[powerpress]

Fear, avoidance, escalation and getting out of our own way…

In a conflict there are two primary movers: Fear and Power.

Fear moves a conflict forward, or backward, or to the side, through resistance, panic, aggressiveness, and avoidance.

Power moves a conflict forward, or backward, or to the side, through domination, aggressiveness, passive-aggressiveness, and outright confrontation.

Power over is sometimes confused with motivation and empowerment, especially by abrasive leaders.

In many organizations, departments, teams, committees and even individuals, make decisions about changes and innovations because of their perceptions about both fear and power.

Such perceptions (and misperceptions) within different organizations, sometimes leads to a lack of genuine leadership, work being done badly (or not at all), and innovation being stymied.

Unfortunately, as long as people are around to create hierarchical chains of command, fear and power will be the two prime movers of conflict.

Our guest for our show today, Pattie Porter, President of the Texas Association of Mediators and host of the Texas Conflict Coach Radio Show on the Blog Talk Radio network, faces these issues head-on. She works almost exclusively to address cultural clashes, abrasive supervisors and help HR departments in all types of organizations from NASA to higher education organizations.

The key thing to understand is that the party who uses fear and power as a primary mover in a conflict, is looking for a preprogrammed, evolutionary response from the other party: When a different response is provided, then the balance of fear and power shifts, from the instigator to the respondent.

This is the dance of conflict, driven by fear and power, and when the balance is successfully tipped—or shifted—the game changes.

Pattie knows about the game changing and she is tilling the field of that change in order to engage with conflict competency as a skill for leaders and a skill set for everyone.

Ironically enough, Pattie bookends the second season of Earbud_U and closes off our first interview that we did with Neil Denny, way back in Episode #1.

Check out all the ways below that you can connect with Pattie!

Pattie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciaporter

Pattie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/txconflictcoach

Pattie on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TexasConflictCoach

Conflict Connections: http://www.conflictconnections.com/

Pattie on Podcasting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKip9iYd__s

Pattie’s Professional Profile: http://www.mediate.com/people/personprofile.cfm?auid=603

Pattie’s Interview with Dave Hilton: http://www.conflictengagementspecialists.com/blog/conflict-coaching-with-pattie-porter-texas-conflict-coach/

Pattie on The Culture of Empathy Series: http://cultureofempathy.com/References/Experts/Pattie-Porter.htm

Pattie’s Podcast, The Texas Conflict Coach Radio Show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/texas-conflict-coach

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Two, Episode #8 – Nicholas Jackson

[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Two, Episode #8 – Nicholas Jackson, Children’s Book Illustrator, Artist, Graphic Designer, Man of Faith, Entrepreneur, Thinker & Thought Leader

[powerpress]

Let’s talk honestly about the unmentionables.

When I was a child—and then as I transitioned into adolescence—I was warned by my parents to never talk about the three following subjects in “polite” company:

Sex
Religion
Politics

But, as the top of the world has blown off with the presence of social media and with everybody revealing everything from reality shows to magazine covers, no one—at least no celebrity anyway—seems to have time to follow this admonition.

It has almost become de riguer in our culture, and some on both the political right and the political left would claim that we are at the end of Western culture. Because the masses and the audiences seem to favor showing off rather than putting the work into becoming a person of substance.

Substance, some would say, is the appeal of showing up, being committed and consistent—but not if you’re wrong about something. Then, we don’t want commitment and consistency. And you better apologize quickly for being wrong before it gets out to Twitter and social media that you were wrong.

Others would argue that style is more important than substance.

But, for my money, style comes after hard work and is a by product of substance. And my guest today, Nicholas Jackson, is putting the work in and moving slowly and surely towards realizing his own, unique vision.

With substance, clarity and even a style that’s all his own.

Now, on unmentionables.

Look, we’re gonna talk about money on the podcast today.

Making money. Spending money. But most importantly, charging clients’ money.

One of the things that I have said to people in the past is that this work that I do—the corporate training, the consulting and coaching,—is not done for free. This isn’t the March of Dimes (apologies to them, they’re a great organization), and while it may seem that money—as well as sex—is something that the American public—and the marketers relating stories to the American public, seem to be something we can never shut up about, we often still sensationalize “money talk.”

Or maybe we don’t. I don’t know. Nick and I will hash it out in this hour and half long talk.

Check out all the places below that you can connect to Nick as he makes money, doing highly valuable, substantive and meaningful work that matters:

Nicholas Jackson Illustration: http://www.nicholasjackson.net/

Nicholas Jackson on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicholasjacksonartdesign/

Nicholas Jackson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nickjjackson

Hire Nicholas Jackson here: http://www.hireanillustrator.com/i/author/nicholas-jackson/

Read his Interview w/Freelance Fuse here: http://freelancefuse.net/2010/08/nicholas-jackson-how-his-drawing-allows-for-his-freelancing-lifestyle/

[Advice] On Distributing a Podcast

The issue with creating podcast content is the same issue that is apparent with all content creation: distribution is at the core of getting listener attention.

Just creating content is not enough—as is endlessly pointed out in blogs, essays and articles—there has to be a system created to make sure that the content gets from where it is, to the audience who needs to consume it.

Podcast content—or any other type of audio content—must have a distribution ecosystem arranged beforehand in order to be successful. In the case of The Earbud_U Podcast, our distribution system is as follows:

ITunes, Stitcher, The Blubrry Store, Player.FM and Google Play Music Store: These platforms are not places we built, but they act as locations for the audience to listen to the podcast, or subscribe.

The Earbud_U Podcast Page, RSS Feed, email list: These are platforms that are owned, rather than rented from other owners as the platforms above are, and as they are owned, they are the platforms that require the most attention from both the creator and the audience to grow.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google +, Instagram: These platforms are really for the marketing of the audio content, rather than acting as the location where content is located (similar to ITunes or Stitcher), or acting as the location where further “upselling” can happen (similar to The Earbud_U Podcast page). The content has to be marketed and driving the audience toward the content is the purpose of these social media networks.

Throughout any distribution system, is the possibility of feedback from the audience to the creator. Many podcast creators and producers have lamented the fact that there is little feedback available from the audience in regards to their content creation efforts (other than through downloads); though audience ratings on ITunes, and tracking page visits through Google Analytics, is a good start.

There are many issues with distributing podcast content. And with 250,000 podcasts, the distribution game is the one to be focused on after the content creation process is over.

-Peace Be With You All-