Finding Brave

Thank you for listening to our Finding Brave show, ranked in the Top 100 Apple Career Podcasts! “You absolutely can claim space, because you don’t have to feel fearless. You just have to do the thing that will make you feel like a more empowered human being.” - Eliza VanCort We all have a right to claim space – which means to live the life of our choosing unapologetically and bravely. Today’s Finding Brave guest provides inspiring practical tips and guidance on how to claim our space, but also urges each of us to think about intersectionality, bravery and anger as useful tools in claiming space for ourselves and others. Eliza VanCort is an in-demand consultant, speaker, and writer on communications, career and workplace issues, and women’s empowerment. The founder of The Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca, she is also a Cook House Fellow at Cornell University, an advisory board member of the Performing Arts for Social Change, a Diversity Crew partner, and a member of Govern For America’s League of Innovators. Eliza has led a life that any Hollywood studio would immediately dismiss as being too hard to believe. Her incredible, breathtaking journey of overcoming extreme challenges, in childhood and later as an adult, inspired her to dedicate her life to helping people of all races, genders, and backgrounds empower themselves to claim space. Her first book, A Woman’s Guide to Claiming Space: Stand Tall. Raise Your Voice. Be Heard., hit shelves May 11, 2021. Eliza’s story is a powerful reminder that it’s so important to keep persevering as best you can, even though you may want to fall down on your knees at times. Recognize your bravery and your immense value in this world, and let it help you claim your space, because this is the pathway to being heroically brave, and it will inspire and uplift so many others around you as well. To learn more about today's guest, visit: https://www.elizavancort.com/ 

Thank you for listening to our Finding Brave show, ranked in the Top 100 Apple Career Podcasts! “Everything you do in life is about serving another human being, and as long as you stay focused on that, you’ll never burn out. You may get tired, we all get tired, but you’ll never get bored of it because you’ll always understand what you’re here to do is to help other people. That is always energizing.” - Howard Behar You may have heard of servant leadership and the transformative power of it in our organizations, careers and lives, but for most people, they’ve never seen it in action so it remains a vague and elusive concept. To address this important topic and to help us learn specifically how to embody servant leadership in our lives, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to speak with an individual who has dedicated his entire life to servant leadership, and embodies it both professionally and personally. Howard Behar's career in business spans over 50 years, all in consumer oriented businesses covering several industries. He retired from Starbucks Coffee after 21 years where he led both the domestic business, as President of North America, and was the founding President of Starbucks International. During his tenure, he participated in the growth of the company from 28 stores to over 15,000 stores spanning five continents. He served on the Starbucks Board of Directors for 12 years before retiring. Hailed as “a hero of conscious capitalism,” “a passionate advocate for leading with purpose,” and a devoted student and teacher of the Servant Leadership Model, Howard’s motivational message inspires everyone to be a servant leader and to lead with and from their values first. As a renowned leader, speaker, author and mentor, Howard’s wisdom, generosity, and level of integrity have had a profound impact on thousands of people who have been touched by his example, books, and speaking. As the ultimate servant leader, Howard is known for such memorable lessons as “The Person Who Sweeps the Floor Should Choose the Broom” and “Only the Truth Sounds Like the Truth.” Howard is also the author of the classic book It’s Not About the Coffee, a guide to leading by putting people first, and The Magic Cup, a parable about the power of personal values, and he now travels the world speaking to leaders, organizations, and students. In today’s episode, Howard reveals the steps you can take to become a servant leader yourself, along with his powerful “6 P’s” that can become a powerful framework for the way you live. Living these traits will make a profound impact not only on your own life, but in the lives of every other human being with whom you interact. To learn more about today's guest, visit: http://howardbehar.com/ 

Thank you for listening to our Finding Brave show, ranked in the Top 100 Apple Career Podcasts! “I think one of the important things is not to make the other person wrong for the way that they are reacting. We respect people, their emotions, and the way that they respond.” - Paul Marciano Now more than ever, it’s important for all of us to learn how to talk more effectively with each other, especially around emotionally-charged topics. Although we often know that there are conversations that need to be had, many of us just can’t find a way to have them or if we have them, the discussion ends badly. Today’s Finding Brave expert guest reveals specific skills and strategies that will help anyone become more effective in dealing with these difficult conversations, and I’m so excited to introduce him to you today to share his wisdom all around effective communication. Dr. Paul Marciano earned his doctorate in clinical psychology from Yale University and has worked in the field of human resources and relations for over 30 years. His best-selling book Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work: Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles of RESPECT™ has been translated into several languages and received many accolades, including being named one of the 100 Best Human Resource Books of All Time by Book Authority. Dr. Paul’s newest release, Let’s Talk About It: Turning Confrontation into Collaboration at Work, provides readers with the skills necessary to have straightforward and productive conversations around even the most emotionally charged issues. On a personal note, Paul lives on his family’s 100-acre horse farm in the one bridge town of Three Bridges, NJ and is the proud grandson of Ludwig Bemelmans – author and illustrator of the classic children’s book Madeline. Paul is a leading expert on employee engagement and retention and helps leaders, managers and organizations reach their fullest potential through focusing on enhancing respect, collaboration and successful communication. I’m thrilled to share that Paul is now also a member of my hand-selected Coaching Team! Both Paul and I would love to hear how you use the specific strategies he shares to have the difficult conversations that you need to have, both in your personal and professional life. No matter how it goes, just by talking with the other person you will feel better about yourself and the situation, and as a result, be more empowered. To learn more about today's guest, visit: https://paulmarciano.com/ 

Thank you for listening to our Finding Brave show, ranked in the Top 100 Apple Career Podcasts! “The work is our compassionate ability to connect and live rich, real lives. Men just have to make the choice to live a good life and to stop living this hierarchical caricature of being a human being.” - Mark Greene In our world today, there is a dominance-based man box culture of masculinity that is resulting in isolation, violence and early mortality for men and deep, lasting challenges for all those whose lives they impact. However, there are men and women who are breaking out of the man box culture, and helping others do the same, and today’s Finding Brave guest is one such person. Our inspiring guest offers an invitation for each one of us to look at all of the ways we have been programmed to live, and to explore how we can escape these dangerous limitations society has reinforced in us. Keynote speaker and author Mark Greene writes and consults on relational practices, diversity/inclusion and masculinity for organizations worldwide. As a co-founder of ThinkPlay Partners and as a Senior Editor for the Good Men Project, Mark has spent over a decade deconstructing our binary-riddled dialogues around manhood and masculinity. He is uniquely positioned to help men, individually and in organizations, create a healthier more connecting vision of masculine culture and identity. Mark’s newest book, The Little #MeToo Book for Men has been called “a blueprint for men’s liberation.” He is the founder of the Remaking Manhood community, which is dedicated to expanding the conversation about healthy masculinity. I’ve rarely spoken to someone who has such a deep conceptualization of the work that absolutely needs to be done for our world to shift in a more positive, healthy way of perceiving and understanding human beings. Not only that, but Mark has lived what he speaks about, and the insight he provides about our society today was both fascinating and enlightening to learn from. I’m grateful to Mark for the work he’s doing in the world. To learn more about today's guest, visit: http://remakingmanhood.com/ 

Thank you for listening to our Finding Brave show, ranked in the Top 100 Apple Career Podcasts! “I think the problem is that a lot of people don’t see the grunt work and the long process to get to what it is they see as success. They just see someone’s success and haven’t been following along the whole time.” - Jeremy Levy As a singer and lifelong lover of music, I am so excited to bring you today’s Finding Brave episode. I have a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s really like to make a living in the creative arts, while bringing the world our special talents and being of service to others. Our special guest today is thriving in the world of music composing/orchestration, and he reveals the tenacity and drive that it took to get to where he is today. Grammy-nominated composer and orchestrator Jeremy Levy has worked in nearly every medium in Los Angeles for over 10 years. He recently received his first Grammy nomination for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Capella for his track, Uranus: The Magician off his album The Planets: Reimagined, a modern big band jazz reinterpretation of the famous classical suite by Gustav Holst. He’s also a well-known orchestrator for some of Hollywood’s biggest films and TV series, including The Queen’s Gambit, Frozen 2 and Ant-Man. Jeremy’s inspiration for The Planets: Reimagined came from Afro-Cuban rhythms, classic swing, the Buddy Rich Big Band, progressive rock fusion, acoustic guitar-driven jazz - all mixed with his love of symphony orchestra and his experience touring with Rockabilly legend, Brian Setzer. If you have a passion of any kind, you are sure to glean some valuable strategies and tips for bringing that passion forward in a lucrative way, from the personal story that Jeremy shares today. To learn more about today's guest, visit: https://www.jlevymusic.com/ 

Thank you for listening to our Finding Brave show, ranked in the Top 100 Apple Career Podcasts! “The exact same things that will get you from seriously subpar to normal, will get you from normal to Superman. Peak performance is nothing more or less than getting our biology to work for us rather than against us.” - Steven Kotler As individuals we are all capable of so much more than we know, and everyone is hardwired for peak performance. Unfortunately our potential is often invisible, especially to ourselves, but today’s Finding Brave expert guest reveals the way peak performance can be used to literally do the impossible. Steven Kotler is a New York Times-bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. He is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance. Author of ten bestsellers (out of thirteen books total), including The Art of Impossible, The Future Is Faster Than You Think, Stealing Fire, The Rise of Superman, Bold and Abundance. Steven’s work has been nominated for two Pulitzer prizes, translated into over 40 languages, and appeared in over 100 publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, TIME and the Harvard Business Review. He is also the cohost of Flow Research Collective Radio, a top ten iTunes science podcast. His new book is The Art of the Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer, which came out this January. Luminaries and some of our world’s most noted figures have praised Steven’s work including Elon Musk, Arianna Huffington, Bill Clinton, Sir Richard Branson and many more. Almost everyone I meet, in some way or another, wants to fulfil his or her highest potential but has very little idea how to do it. Listening to this conversation with Steven is a wonderful place to start, as his life itself is a lesson in achieving the impossible using peak performance. To learn more about today's guest, visit: https://www.stevenkotler.com/ 

Thank you for listening to our Finding Brave show, ranked in the Top 100 Apple Career Podcasts! “If you’ve got the highest salary in the room because you’ve been there the longest, and you’re delivering less value than a fresh graduate or a Millennial who will work for half of what you’re getting, you’ve got a problem.” - Fawn Germer Millions of accomplished professionals are killing their careers by accidentally slipping into irrelevance. They can’t figure out why they’ve sputtered out, been pushed aside or pushed out. Today’s Finding Brave guest interviewed more than 300 CEOs, senior executives, workplace experts, academics, lawyers and professionals and found out that we must immediately stage a career comeback – even if we continue to do our best work and are the best person for our job today. Best-selling author and Pulitzer nominee Fawn Germer shows how to stop blaming everything from millennials to the pace of change to age discrimination and take doable steps to get back in the game and win. This acclaimed leadership speaker asks: "What if your greatest success hasn't even happened yet?" In today’s episode, Fawn shares actionable strategies for being flexible and resilient in the face of a quickly changing work environment. She even reveals ways in which she has needed to be brave and “figure things out” in her own career, and these lessons show the importance of just starting to learn essential new skills, and having fun in the process. To learn more about today's guest, visit: https://fawngermer.com/ 

Thank you for listening to our Finding Brave show, ranked in the Top 100 Apple Career Podcasts! “It’s almost like reading a resume, a quick 60-second scan. I think the same thing goes for some of these pitches. You need to be relevant, you need to be specific, you need to be personal in your approach and you need to show how this person is going to bring value to a conversation.’ - Maureen Carrig If you’re looking to promote a new program or book, or if you’re a public relations professional who is looking to get the right media for your clients, taking the right approach to get that exposure is key. Today’s Finding Brave guest is a public relations expert who specializes in securing top-level press coverage that moves our business and work forward, which is why I’m so excited to be introducing her today and to having her share her wisdom and strategies with listeners. Maureen Carrig is a media relations expert and principal of Carrig Communications. She started her own firm after more than 20 years working for some of the largest companies in travel, technology, recruiting and financial services. She specializes in executive communications and national media relations, helping her clients build awareness, grow their businesses and demonstrate their subject matter expertise. In this episode, Maureen reveals how to not only make a good impression with reporters and media outlets, but the ways that we can build on that good impression to form lasting relationships, which is where true growth can come. What Maureen shares here is a reminder that it’s really not all about you, but rather the benefits that you can offer the reporter, listeners and viewers, to help them experience more success and reward in their lives and work. To learn more about today's guest, visit: http://carrigcommunications.com/ 

Thank you for listening to our Finding Brave show, ranked in the Top 100 Apple Career Podcasts! “We realized, as we were sitting around thinking in the aftermath of that first book, that we really think there is something here. When we started to dig into it, we started to see some of the data and we realized there is a gap worth writing about.” - Claire Shipman “Claire and I have become confident women through the choices and the risks that we’ve taken and the hurdles we’ve overcome. We’ve kept going with things and mastered them, and that’s how you do it. The vast majority of your confidence is in your hands, and it’s what you choose to do right now.” - Katty Kay We are at a pivotal cultural moment for women’s leadership and representation—a time, for instance, when all eyes will be on the first-ever female and woman of color Vice President of the United States—and it’s clear that role models matter. Today’s Finding Brave guests are not only fantastic role models themselves for women of all ages, but they have written a new book called Living the Confidence Code: Real Girls. Real Stories. Real Confidence that highlights extraordinary girls who took risks and made a big impact. Their subjects sometimes doubted themselves, and even failed, but through it all discovered what matters most to them and found the confidence to accomplish their goals. Katty Kay and Claire Shipman (along with JillEllyn Riley), are the bestselling authors of The Confidence Code for Girls and The Confidence Code for Girls Journal. Katty and Claire, longtime friends, have been writing books together for over a decade. They’ve also co-written the New York Times bestsellers Womenomics and The Confidence Code. Katty Kay is the anchor of BBC World News America, based in Washington, D.C. She is also a frequent contributor to Meet the Press and Morning Joe, and a regular guest host for The Diane Rehm Show on NPR. In addition to her work on women’s issues, Katty has covered the Clinton administration sex scandal; four presidential elections; and the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. She was at the Pentagon just 20 minutes after a hijacked plane flew into the building on 9/11 and of her most vivid journalistic memories is of interviewing soldiers still visibly shaking from the attack. Claire Shipman is a journalist, author, and public speaker. Before turning to writing, Claire spent almost three decades as an award-winning television journalist. For the last 14 years Claire was a regular contributor to Good Morning America and other national broadcasts for ABC News. Before that she served as White House correspondent for NBC News where she regularly reported on presidential policy and politics for NBC Nightly News and TODAY. I’ve been heavily influenced by Katty and Claire in my own work, and what they’ve done is given research and factual data to what so many of us have suspected about how confidence is curtailed and diminished, but also how it expands in the lives of girls and young women around the world, and why that matters. Their mission, along with the stories of those girls they feature, is deeply inspiring and motivating and is helping motivate a whole new generation of female leaders. To learn more about today's guests, visit: https://www.confidencecodegirls.com/ 

Thank you for listening to our Finding Brave show, ranked in the Top 100 Apple Career Podcasts! “As we learn to think the best of others, when we learn to become comfortable affirming them and when we become comfortable working for ways to serve them, then they respond and that connects us.” - Mike Stallard Today’s Finding Brave guest is someone who has played a pivotal role in the support of my coaching career, and he is one of the most kind and generous people I know - a true mentor and giver at heart, and a perfect person to explore the themes of today’s show. In this episode, we look at ways to help people cope with the current environment where stress, loneliness, social isolation, and its harmful consequences are all on the rise, and he reveals how boosting human connection can not only be an antidote at home, but in the workplace as well. Michael Stallard is an author, keynote speaker, and workshop leader on how leaders create and maintain cultures of connection that help individuals, teams and organizations thrive for a sustained period of time. He is cofounder and president of Connection Culture Group, a leadership training and consulting firm. Michael’s recent clients have included Costco, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Turner Construction, Qualcomm, U.S. Air Force, and Yale-New Haven Health. Texas Christian University founded the TCU Center for Connection Culture based on Michael’s work. Michael is the primary author of Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy and Understanding at Work, now in its 2nd edition, and Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team's Passion, Creativity, and Productivity. Connection Culture was recently named one of the “best of the best” books by getAbstract. Michael also recently launched a popular online course with LinkedIn Learning titled Creating a Connection Culture. In our conversation, shares his best tips and strategies for building and fostering connection, as a leader, manager, team member and individual contributor. If you are struggling with stress and loneliness, please know you’re not alone. Feel free to reach out to both Mike and myself, and we’ll provide you with some resources to help support you through these challenging, ever-changing times. To learn more about today's guest, visit: https://www.connectionculture.com/