My Favorite Mistake: Business Lessons from Failures and Success

Mark Graban

Episodes

Mentioned books

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Feb 15, 2021 • 28min

Questioning a Business Leader’s Commitment: Adam Lawrence

Author of The Wheel of Sustainability Episode page with transcript, links, and more -- https://www.markgraban.com/mistake41 My guest for Episode #41 is Adam Lawrence, from his firm Process Improvement Partners. He is the author of the new book The Wheel of Sustainability: Engaging and Empowering Teams to Produce Lasting Results. You can also find a longer interview that I did with Adam about the concepts in the book, from April 2020, before he wrote the book. Adam has over 30 years of experience in process improvement activities, targeted at manufacturing and business processes and he started this company in 2018, based in Lancaster, PA. Today, Adam tells a story about a mistake that he made over 20 years ago, much earlier in his career. He was sent to a factory to do some improvement work and he wasn't getting much engagement or participation from leaders there. Adam made the mistake of questioning the commitment of the business unit leader, let's call him Carl. Adam reflects on this story and shares his lessons learned. “So, over the years, Carl and I developed a pretty good working relationship.” --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/favorite-mistake/support
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Feb 10, 2021 • 36min

Learning to Be a Stronger Patient Advocate: Krista Hughes

CEO of Hughes Advocacy, Birmingham, Alabama Show notes: ⁠https://www.markgraban.com/mistake40⁠ My guest for Episode #40 is ⁠Krista Hughes⁠, the CEO of her company ⁠Hughes Advocacy⁠, a private patient advocacy firm that helps patients and their families navigate the health care system and get the best medical care possible. She has over 25 years of experience working in the medical industry for Fortune 500 Companies like Cardinal Health.   She has also worked for CareFusion, C.R. Bard, and Karl Storz.  Prior to founding Hughes Advocacy, Krista worked as a medical device representative in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and the Florida Panhandle. She has worked for the last five years as a “patient advocate” and we have a chance to talk about that today. Krista's “favorite mistake” is related to a time when she was advocating for a patient. We'll hear what she did (or didn't do) and how she's adjusted her approach as a result — to be a more effective advocate. We also talk about our shared passion around what's often called “medical mistakes” — many of these mistakes are very preventable. We'll talk about systemic causes of these mistakes and how the system often falls back on a strategy of “delay, deny, and defend” which we all known gets in the way of learning and progress. We'll also explore this in a future episode with ⁠Dr. David Mayer⁠, the CEO of the ⁠Patient Safety Movement Foundation⁠, so please stay tuned for that. You can listen to or watch the episode below. A transcript also follows lower on this page. Please subscribe, rate, and review via ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ or ⁠Podchaser⁠! You can now ⁠sign up to get new episodes via email⁠, to make sure you don't miss an episode. This podcast is part of the ⁠Lean Communicators network⁠.
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Feb 8, 2021 • 27min

Pursuing an Acting Career After His MBA: Author Matthew E. May

Multi-best-selling author, former University of Toyota instructor, chief strategy at Stratechia Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake39 My guest for Episode #39 is my friend Matt May, he's a multi-best-selling author and he's Chief Strategist with his firm Stratechia. I've known Matt for a long time as a former University of Toyota educator, a Wharton graduate, and an amazing author. I've interviewed him many times before. I didn't know that he was formerly a theatre and television actor (including a stint on a soap opera — I don't have video clips of that). Today, we talk about a few of his favorite mistakes: Not taking the traditional high-paying job after completing his MBA Leaving New York City for Los Angeles in the pursuit of his acting career Matt and I also talk about mistakes more generally — when are they “happy mistakes?” Were there any acting gigs that were mistakes? How should we think about mistakes, as individuals and as organizations? This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network -- check it out! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/favorite-mistake/support
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Feb 4, 2021 • 22min

Emailing Every Professor in Canada — 40,000 of Them: Brenden Kumarasamy

Founder of Mastertalk, based in Montreal Show notes and more: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake38 My guest for Episode #38 is Brenden Kumarasamy, and he is the founder of MasterTalk, a YouTube channel that he started to help the world master the art of public speaking. Today, we talk about his favorite mistake, when he sent 40,000 emails out to “every professor” in Canada… and that did not go well for Brenden. What does go well for him is public speaking. Brenden shares his expertise about common mistakes that people make in public speaking (hint: it relates to practice) and mistakes that people make on YouTube. You can also find him on Instagram. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/favorite-mistake/support
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Feb 1, 2021 • 32min

Not Listening to Her Intuition and Wasting $23,000: Monica M. Bijoux

CEO of "Decide to Move," military veteran, coach, author, and podcaster https://www.markgraban.com/mistake37 My guest for Episode #37 of "My Favorite Mistake" is Monica M. Bijoux, the founder and CEO of DECIDE TO MOVE. She has been coaching business owners, entrepreneurs, and individuals for almost 20 years. As a veteran herself, she has been working with veterans as they transition from active duty life to business owners and entrepreneurs for over 10 years. Monica has a Masters of Science Administration with a concentration in Human Resources and a Masters of Social Work. Monica is host of a podcast, also called “Decide to Move”, and she has co-authored three books: Fiercely Speaking; Teach Your Expertise; and Propel. In this episode, Monica talks about learning to follow her intuition and learning to value herself. What are some of the challenges that veterans face when transitioning to civilian life? And, we also talk about her coaching work and how not to be victim. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/favorite-mistake/support
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Jan 28, 2021 • 34min

Thinking He Could Sell His Way to Profitability with Stephen King

Founder, President, CEO of GrowthForce. Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake36 My guest for Episode #36 of "My Favorite Mistake" is Stephen King... no, not that Stephen King... but the Stephen King who is founder, President, CEO of GrowthForce, one of the nation’s largest outsourced bookkeeping, accounting and controller service for companies and non profits that use QuickBooks. He is also the host of the "Path to Profits" podcast. Today, Stephen talks about his favorite mistake of not billing what he was worth and thinking he could "sell your way to profitability." What good is more volume if the margin isn't good? He talks about the valuable lessons he has learned -- how a small pricing change can lead to a huge profitability boost, while still making the customer feel good about it. Stephen also shares how the "most important part of the culture" at GrowthWorks is "learning from mistakes" and being a "learning organization" as a core value. You'll hear how Stephen once had a "best mistake of the month" award and how they now use a Slack channel to share mistakes, even if there's no longer a prize. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/favorite-mistake/support
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Jan 25, 2021 • 35min

Using Shame as a Leadership Tool with Sabrina Moon

Engineer, founder & CEO of the Problem Solving Institute Show notes and more: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake35 Joining me for Episode #35 is Sabrina Moon, founder & CEO of the Problem Solving Institute. She's an engineer and a certified Dare to Lead™ facilitator. Today, we talk about her favorite mistake of using shame as a leadership tool, and we discuss what we were exposed to in our early days at General Motors -- the "command and control" leadership style (as Jamie V. Parker brought up in Episode #8). How did Sabrina learn to become more self aware about her leadership style and the impact it had? What was the transformation process that she went through? Sabrina also shares what she has learned from Brené Brown about leading. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/favorite-mistake/support
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Jan 21, 2021 • 31min

Mistakes Running a Chiropractic Practice with Dr. Kelly Henry

Chiropractor, entrepreneur, consultant, and author https://www.markgraban.com/mistake34 Joining me for Episode #34 is Dr. Kelly Henry, a chiropractor who has owned clinics, but now helps others in his role as "The Customer Experience Doctor." He is also the author of the newly-released book Define and Deliver Exceptional Customer Service: Proven strategies to maximize your profits. The book is currently the #1 new release in the Amazon "customer relations" category Enter to win a signed paperback copy of his book! In the episode, Kelly talks about his "favorite mistake," which was an underperforming chiropractic office in Phoenix. The business was "harder than he thought" and he reflects that he should have had coaches to help him. We talk about chiropractic schools don't really teach much about starting or running a practice (a problem that is common across various medical specialties). Kelly was later very successful when he purchased an existing practice with a built-in patient base. He's learned a lot about improving the customer experience and customer retention over time, which he shares in his book. We talk about why the employee experience and the customer experience go "hand in hand," how a small bump in customer retention leads to a big bump in profit, and what healthcare organizations can do beyond surveying patients on their experience. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/favorite-mistake/support
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Jan 20, 2021 • 29min

Bonus: Billy Taylor Follow Up Conversation on Episode #5

Billy was our guest on Episode #5 and it's our most-listened-to episode by far (by a factor of 5X). I hosted Billy Taylor on LinkedIn Live today, to do a "watch party" of his episode, followed by some additional conversation and I'm sharing that audio here. See the recording of the watch party and the follow up conversation. Billy's company: http://linkedxl.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/favorite-mistake/support
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Jan 18, 2021 • 28min

A CEO Mistakes in Filmmaking and College Basketball with ”Filmpreneur” Forrest Tuff

Forrest Tuff, the founder and CEO of One Vision Productions, professional speaker, business coach, author. Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake33 Joining me for Episode #33 is Forrest Tuff, the founder and CEO of One Vision Productions, an award-winning, multimedia production company. He does so many things... Forrest is a creative person who is also business savvy (he calls himself a “filmpreneur”). He has 180+ movie credits that include documentaries, indie films, and a major motion picture with Twentieth Century Fox. He is the host of the Tuff Talk Show… and he was also a Division I basketball player. Today, we talk about his "favorite mistake" of leaving a regular job (something others thought was a mistake). We talk about his views on the possibility of mistakes in making movies and taking three-point shots. We talk about his coaching through the SCORE program and how he defines servant leadership. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/favorite-mistake/support

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