Productivity Mastery

In episode #122 of Productivity Mastery, we welcomed Hedi Mardisoo - an energetic and inspiring individual with whom we talked about Attracting and managing an effective (startup) team. Hedi shared a lot with us, including: 💡 How to make people want to stay and grow with you, 💡 Views on the Estonian economy, 💡 Team culture and values when your team grows, 💡 Advice for founders who want to build amazing startup companies, and much more! Hedi Mardisoo is the co-founder and CEO of Cachet, a financial services ecosystem on a mission to create a better platform economy. Cachet has been listed two years in a row among the top 100 Insurtech in the world. Hedi is passionate about designing services that help people to be smarter about and benefit more from their data. In 2020, Sifted listed her among Europe’s “Women to Watch in Fintech”. Enjoy listening and stay #productive! #leadership #startupfounder #productivity

In episode #121 of Productivity Mastery, we welcomed Hanan Cohen - the Head of International Sales at NielsenIQ Activate. He shared with us his philosophy about professionalism and how he mastered B2B sales. Hanan shared a lot with us, including: 💡 A recipe for professionalism, 💡 Being professional in everything you do, 💡 How to change your perspective on sales, 💡 3 rules without which you’ll never make a sale, and much more! Hanan is a seasoned business executive, building trust and generating value with people and companies to eventually resolve real-life business and operational problems (compelling events) with effective enterprise technology solutions. Hanan and his team achieve results through critical thinking, avoiding the “follow the stream” approach and instead examining, embracing and resolving challenges through different perspectives, understanding the context, creativity, innovation and putting the prospect, customer and our company in the first place. Constant “hunger”, high energy, drive for excellence, planning and preparation before execution and focusing on doing the right things (effectiveness) and then doing these things right (efficiency), are KEY elements. Hanan is a true believer in the “Trust and Value” foundation and maintains a healthy balance between strategy and day-to-day need for financial, delivery and customer satisfaction results. Hanan’s first professional decade was all about software engineering, R&D and delivery and the over the last 2 decades, Hanan has been leading regional and global enterprise SaaS/PaaS/IaaS, complex sales(buying)-cycle, sales and account management, through well-orchestrated processes and a focused “understanding of the required achievement” and “the WHY?” approach. Enjoy listening and stay#productive! 🤗 #leadership #podcast #business

In episode #120 of Productivity Mastery, we dive into the deep waters of How we can #PERFORM in Uncertain times. And luckily we’re in good hands, as Yael Rozencwajg is our guest today. She’s a very inspiring woman, with a vast background in entrepreneurship and technology. Keep in mind that she founded her first startup only at the age of 20! Yael shared a lot with us, including: 💡How her first starup failed & how to know when to stop, 💡 Not everybody can be a leader, but everybody can take ownership, 💡 Mental toughness in uncertain times for leaders, 💡 Building a strong team that can put up through a crisis, and much more! Yael Rozencwajg is the Founder and CEO of The Road to Sustainability, and Nevelab Technologies, a purpose-driven platform for large enterprises. She is 20+ years serial entrepreneur in tech, working with corps, startup advisor. And last but not least, she is running a podcast. 🚀 I'm looking forward to hearing more about her passions, the businesses she runs, and most importantly, HOW SHE PERFORMS IN UNCERTAIN TIMES. 😎🤗 Enjoy listening and stay #productive! #leadership #podcast #creativity

In episode #119 of Productivity Mastery, we cut the fluff and talk about a really important topic - Using Failure as a Tool for Growth. And the best person to discuss it with us is the incredible Nina Mueller, a Global Program Director at Butchershop Europe, who invented a whole method for preventing failure. Nina shared a lot of practical advice and tools with us, including: 💡Using failure as a tool and not a hurdle, 💡 The Big Failure Method, 💡 The opposite of Success is Lack of clarity, 💡 The three Ps of a company - Play, Plan, Produce, and much more! Nina Mueller is the Global Program Director of Butchershop® Global, a growth and transformation company with offices in the US, Europe, and Mexico. Butchershop connects consulting, creativity, and technology to help brands break into emerging markets or break out to lead them. Services include five core offerings: Strategy and Consulting, Brand and Content, Digital and Product, Performance and Media, and Venture and Incubation. Throughout her 10+ year career, Nina has worked with some of the world’s most successful brands, ranging from early and late-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies. Nina and the Butchershop team have turned an unwavering emphasis on clarity into the Beat Failure™ methodology, helping leaders steer through the challenges of inflection points ᠆ whether they be at a moment of growth, scale, evolution, transformation or launch. Nina was born and raised between Germany and Silicon Valley, and kicked off her career in Product Marketing at Cewe HQ in Oldenburg. After spending 7 years in San Francisco working at creative branding agencies, Nina returned to Germany in 2020 with her husband Felix. They recently welcomed their first child, a son named Leander. Enjoy listening and stay #productive! #leadership #podcast #creativity

In episode #118 of Productivity Mastery, we present to you Heather Mills - an amazing lady with extremely inspiring stories. Despite having a challenging childhood, Heather didn't let it discourage her. Instead, it triggered her on her journey. Heather shared a lot with us, including: 💡 How your business becomes your life, 💡 A few things to do before starting a business, 💡 The all-in or all-out attitude, 💡 How to make a great difference in the world, and much more! Heather Mills is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, activist and world-record-holding athlete. Her main mission in life has and continues to be, the creation and supply of healthier, sustainable, plant-based alternative food, nutrition, and cosmetics. This is coupled with tireless charity campaigning that embodies her vehement passion to support those negatively impacted by war and other forms of oppression or physical debilitation in 'overcoming adversity'. Heather has manifested these goals through the creation of market-leading plant-based businesses and numerous charities across the globe. Having suffered the amputation of her left leg in 1993, Heather adopted veganism to aid her recovery, which subsequently gave birth to the VBites Food business. VBites is now one of the world's largest manufacturers of meat-free, fish-free, and dairy-free plant-based alternatives, currently servicing 24 countries. Expanding on her plant-based mission, Heather has also created a vegan algal oil business, V-Omega3, vegan makeup business, B@One, as well as investing in numerous plant-based start-ups as part of her 'VBites Ventures' portfolio. Heather is most proud of her work in the charitable sector, which includes the founding and patronage of 'Adopt A Minefield' which cleared 21 million square metres of landmines in war-torn areas around the world. Heather is also the originator and patron of many amputee clinics around the world and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in the face of atrocities such as the Twin Tower attacks and the Gujarat earthquake in India. Heather has also found time to pursue her sporting passion of ski racing and at the age of 47 became the only disabled skier ever to achieve x3 world records in downhill, skeleton, and ski-jumping disciplines. Heather also holds x4 gold medals for downhill and slalom skiing at the skiing world championships. Enjoy listening and stay #productive!  #productivity #podcast #HeatherMills

In episode #117 of Productivity Mastery, not only that we officially start SEASON 3 of the podcast, but we welcomed Rob Napoli - an energetic and inspiring individual with whom we talked about How you can Leverage Your (Personal) Brand as a Founder. Rob shared a lot with us, including: 💡Founders should have a personal AND a company brand, 💡 Engagement in social media is more important than content creation for you, 💡 Many tips and ideas on how to reach out to people, 💡 The three most important things for a successful personal brand, and much more! Rob Napoli is an accomplished trainer, speaker, entrepreneur, podcast host, and Amazon Best Sellers List author based in Brooklyn, NYC. Rob's journey has taken him from the Midwest to New York City by way of Milan, Italy, where he received his Master's, scaled a global startup, and coached professional American Football. Rob is a continuous learner who creates engaging keynotes, programs, workshops, and curricula and is on a mission to find the best whiskey bar in Manhattan. Enjoy listening and stay #productive! #personalbrand #startupfounder #productivity

In this special bonus episode on the Productivity Mastery podcast, Stoyan Yankov presents the keynote titled "Why Caring for People is Good for Your Company" from his participation at the PODIM Conference (2022) in Maribor, Slovenia.  Podim is a nonprofit platform founded in 1980 to change attitudes towards innovation. Based in Slovenia, Podim has evolved into the most influential startup & tech event in the CEE region, where innovation meets business opportunities and capital, as well as knowledge and experience. It is a key regional platform for enabling learning and networking in the most valuable and time-efficient way. Podim aims at equipping founders and innovators with the right tools to solve the most meaningful challenges of society. Enjoy this special episode!

In episode #115 of Productivity Mastery, we present to you Ieva Treija! If you have ever felt invisible or that your business can never be noticed by the world and more importantly, the press, Ieva has some great advice for you. With her experience with PR, tech companies and journalism, Ieva provided us with valuable lessons, including: 💡 The first steps in PR for a business, 💡 The hate between startup founders and journalists, explained 💡 How to build relationships with the media and the press, 💡 Different PR approaches and strategies, and much more! Ieva Treija, a PR & Communications Consultant for Tech Companies, has been studying journalism, and later - also marketing. After working 10+ years in marketing, she came back to creating content - but this time for her clients, not the media. Although Ieva is doing PR and communication consultations, her work sometimes appears also in the media. Ieva is an active participant in the local startup community and editor of "Labs of Latvia" - an online platform that is focusing on local startup success stories as well as technologies, science, and commercialization. Ieva is also a Certified Facilitator in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method. Enjoy listening and stay #productive! #productivity #publicrelations #startupfounder

In episode #114 of Productivity Mastery, we welcome Masami Sato - a radiating and inspiring personality with a mission to help businesses around the world make a positive impact through their daily business activities. Masami Sato shared a lot with us, including: 💡 How to create a community with a shared mission, 💡 What are the foundations of a giving and caring world, 💡 What are some secrets of Japanese efficiency, 💡 Japanese leadership styles, and much more! Masami was born in Japan, but her desire to expand her horizons took her on a global journey. She became deeply concerned about the inequalities and other challenges that existed in the world. Since then, she has endeavored to create real WIN-WIN connections across all cultures, people and organisations to realise a different world. She has been a serial entrepreneur since 2001, starting and running several commercial enterprises, all aiming to transform the way businesses are operated today. And by taking a completely new look at the power of giving, she founded B1G1 (Buy1GIVE1) in 2007. Masami’s approach to life is very different. She brings a new, almost upside-down strategy to everything she does. And she also radiates it through her writing and speaking. She has authored four books including, ‘JOY - The gift of acceptance, trust and love’, ‘GIVING BUSINESS – Creating the maximum impact in the meaning-driven world’ and ‘Better Business, Better Life, Better World’. Masami’s career has followed her diverse talent and skills having been a teacher, translator, natural food chef (and a farmer!), author and award-winning entrepreneur as well as a mother of two teenage children. She is a two-time TEDx speaker and is frequently invited to international events, podcasts and interviews. Tune in! 

In this special bonus episode on Productivity Mastery, Stoyan Yankov, the co-founder and co-host of The Leaders Who Care podcast and community platform, interviews Jakob Modéer, Regional Manager of the Swiss Entrepreneurship Program. Tune in and discover:  ✔️ Opportunities and challenges in the Balkan region from the Western perspective, ✔️ The role of culture in the country’s economy, ✔️ Why an economic system would need plurality, ✔️ Using the entrepreneurship as a vessel to massively help, ✔️ How to practically support less developed countries, and more! Swedish by origin, American/British by education, and Balkanite by marriage and life! 30+years of living, working, failing, surviving, and succeeding in southeast Europe. Factory-owner, exporter, job creator, motivator, storyteller and now, startup ecosystem supporter with the Swiss Entrepreneurship Program. Being born and raised in Sweden, a country that scores in the top 10 of any global development index, made for a wonderful and worry-free childhood. As a teenager, with restlessness with life in a society of collective conformity and completion, Jakob applied to study for a high school year in the US, which was followed by BA studies at Lewis & Clark College out in Oregon. At the American university, Jakob was struck by the openness of the discourse, the closeness of the professors and their push for well-argued cases to improve the status quo, and the equal rejection of unsupported complaining. Graduation coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rush for societal change in East Europe and the USSR. Jakob got a job in Moscow, constructing the first golf course in the USSR. The encounter with the negative effects of totalitarianism and the planned economy was eye-opening. Finding a way to operate and get a job done in a completely different culture was an incredible challenge, a learning journey that Jakob now treasures very much. Today, 30+ years later, he recognizes that those months in the Soviet capital were his watershed moment, he knew at that moment, that this is where he wanted to be – on the front lines of the re-introduction of individual freedoms, free market, and free-thinking. During the last three decades in the lands of southeast Europe aka The Balkans, Jakob has started and failed as a factory owner, succeeded as an exporter of multiple products, worked as a consultant on job creation programs, and advised national and local governments on the art of creating jobs (often in deprived geographical areas) and most recently managing a program which puts entrepreneurs first, as the primary change agents, in a transitional society. Enjoy this special and very insightful episode, and learn more about the podcast via theleaderswhocare.org!