Best-selling author, world renowned customer service expert, founder of the DiJulius Group, business success – John DiJulius III has tapped into something special. On this podcast, John discusses applying his methodology beyond business, and why his life purpose is to “live an extraordinary life, so that others will.”

Stating your purpose isn’t enough. You have to deliver what you say and what you declare happen. “We all have seeds of potential,” John asserts, “and the seeds of potential that we don’t grow to their fullest potential...cheats all the people that are dependent on us.” Many people just say that they want to live an extraordinary life, but they don’t do the things that can get them there.

John reveals why he tells his employees, “I don’t want your best…,” while sharing inspirational tips and perspectives. “When each of us chose to be...a leader, we gave up the right to make excuses.” Their best is not needed. The only thing that is needed from an individual is to make a difference.

For John, his personal purpose statement is there “to remind me of my obligation,” in both his professional and personal life. Whether dealing with business colleagues or family and loved ones, it’s always important to remember those who work behind the scenes to help with a leader’s success, and to never run over them.

“Great leaders set high expectations for their teams, but even higher expectations for themselves,” says Mandy Burage, Director of Operations at Petra Coach. She explains that through the course of her childhood and early career, she encountered many personal and professional disappointments stemming from the fact that she set very high expectations for herself, while others did not set the same expectations for themselves, and as a result, team successes were adversely impacted. Later, Mandy realized that when leaders, especially entrepreneurs, set high expectations for the team, and even higher goals for themselves, it leads to success.

“When recruiting and hiring, I look for team players who possess motivation and high expectations,” says Mandy. “However, they also must be self-starters who follow through on tasks without needing to be ‘managed’ constantly. If a team member can’t fulfill their role independently, it slows the progress of every team member and hinders overall success.” Mandy also notes that collaboration is best when everyone brings something to the table.

True leaders have walked the walk. Hands on experience is a key element of being a good leader. “If I ask an employee to work late, or travel on a Saturday, they know that I also work late and travel on Saturdays.” Petra Coach succeeds because of a strong culture, with six core values that employees and candidates adhere to in the quest for success. One of the core values is Please and Thank You. Petra Coach teammates write and send thank you cards to one another. When employees are appreciated, and appreciate others, it increases morale, and fends off burnout.

DICS is also part of the Petra Coach culture. It is a big part of the way Mandy views herself professionally and personally, and how she operates as part of the Petra Coach team, as well as her home team (wife and mother). DISC stands for: Dominance (D), Inducement (I), Submission (S), and Compliance (C).

Learn more about great leaders leading great teams, with Mandy Burage, on this episode of Leading Behind the Scenes.

How are you doing on your goals for the year? Your New Year’s Resolutions? Do you even remember what they were?

So many times we’re hard on ourselves for the early misses.

We say we’re going to eat low or no carbs, three weeks in we’ve eaten some delicious pastry, fries, or even cake and abandon ship.

We say we’re going to work out every morning, wake up earlier, go to sleep earlier, read more, watch less TV, connect more … whatever.

Whatever it is, it’s important enough to declare and make a goal around, but behavior change is harder than that. It can take HUNDREDS of days to break a habit that you’ve had for many years.

So here’s an idea – celebrate NOTICING that you’ve repeated the habit you want to change. Smile and give yourself a pat on the back for noticing that you’re repeating it and change then. Don’t beat yourself up … don’t get down on yourself.

Celebrate catching yourself doing something you wanted to change and change it.  Sometimes you have to celebrate getting it wrong so that you can create the momentum to get it right.

The best time to have caught yourself may have been before, but the second best time is right now.

Attach powerful positive feelings with the act of catching yourself and conquer new heights with your goals for this year.

Let’s work together to make this year the best one yet.

I want to help you. Please go to www.PaperNapkinWisdom.com and sign up, we’ll send you the e-book that contains the secret structure that will build more scalable, even exponential results than you had thought possible.

You have so much to give, you had better start now.

Take Action is a short podcast, usually between 3 to 5 minutes long, and the focus is on the small, 1% improvements we can make in our businesses and lives. Small changes make a big difference!

This podcast will help you make small changes that will change your world, so we can together save the world one entrepreneur and small business at a time!

Based on The Book Paper Napkin Wisdom: Your 5 Step Plan to Life and Business Success ? get yours now on Amazon or at Paper Napkin Wisdom.

Subscribe to both our podcasts Paper Napkin Wisdom and to Take Action by Paper Napkin Wisdom now.

The goal of Carey Anne Nadeau, founder of Open Data Nation, is to “bring expertise in open data and data science to bear on the most pressing urban issues.” What compelled her to start the company was that she “wanted something to exist that just didn’t exist.” She was frustrated, dissatisfied, and complaining. The industry tended to be a “boys’ club,” and she experienced this firsthand when she was getting paid significantly less than a male peer. “The structures that already existed were not supportive to my growth,” she says. When told by a friend she should just “do it herself” she found the inspiration to start her own business. She chose to focus on using data science for societal benefit – to improve health and safety in cities – and become a female role model.

At one point, her entire company was female. This did not occur intentionally, but because it was mostly women who were motivated to do data statistics for the betterment of our society. Hence the title, “the future is female.” Carey Anne sees “a lot of opportunity for women to have a greater role. When they do, businesses see a lot of benefits.”

However, because her industry is still a “boys’ club,” Carey Anne is very aware of how she can be perceived. When she meets with new clients, talks about her value proposition, and lets her audience know she’s an MIT data scientist and city planner, they are often taken aback. Their reaction is, “What? That can’t be.” Knowing that have people have questioned or doubted a young, female entrepreneur’s standing in the industry, she suggests that one be very aware of people’s possible predispositions with respect to race, age, ethnicity, etc. – even whether a man has a beard.  

Carey Anne sees data’s role in business as helping think about, anticipate, and prepare for the future, not just as means of reviewing the past. For example, she will ask clients, “What pain points are you overwhelmed with?” to gain an understanding of how to get ahead of the problem.

Carey Anne does believe “the future is female,” but she is not saying the future is not male. It is not a zero-sum game. In her own experience, her male and female advisors offer divergent, but complementary, business-building help and insights. Where men are very focused on the current business and have opened boardroom doors, women have pushed more aggressively about how to make money. They “are really scrappy, looking for another angle, they don’t pigeonhole,” she says. At the same time, it is often a female characteristic to offer love, appreciation and support, and Carey Anne hopes that men, too, see themselves as “examples for others in the way we can all live our lives with more love and more happiness.”

A client is calling and they want a discount because something went wrong.

An employee is missing on targets and results are slipping, they need to be realigned.

The bank just called and a supplier took payment of a delivery early via automated transfer and there’s a cash crunch.

As a leader things come at us from all directions all the time – but how do we cope?

Well, usually we need a little help to resolve all of these … sometimes from the other party. We can’t get their help with a closed fist – with a fight. Sure, sometimes we can beat them into submission.

We can convince the customer that no – no discount that’s the way it is.

We can levy consequences on our employees and hold them accountable, force them to do better.

We can scream at the bank, or the supplier.

Or … we can do the uncommon thing and be kind. Being kind opens the door to handling challenges from a position of opportunity, with an open hand … also allows people around you to help.

Leverage is all about getting people to help you – especially in uncommon circumstances.

Be kind!

Let’s work together to make this year the best one yet.

I want to help you. Please go to www.PaperNapkinWisdom.com and sign up, we’ll send you the e-book that contains the secret structure that will build more scalable, even exponential results than you had thought possible.

You have so much to give, you had better start now.

Take Action is a short podcast, usually between 3 to 5 minutes long, and the focus is on the small, 1% improvements we can make in our businesses and lives. Small changes make a big difference!

This podcast will help you make small changes that will change your world, so we can together save the world one entrepreneur and small business at a time!

Based on The Book Paper Napkin Wisdom: Your 5 Step Plan to Life and Business Success ? get yours now on Amazon or at Paper Napkin Wisdom.

Subscribe to both our podcasts Paper Napkin Wisdom and to Take Action by Paper Napkin Wisdom now.

On this episode of Paper Napkin Wisdom, entrepreneur and author Damion Lupo makes his case for the gift of errors, “Mistakes are the universe gifting us wisdom, wrapped up inside the struggles in life.”  Damion further explains that throughout our lives, we make mistakes, and as we do, we are taught that mistakes are bad. As a result, we revere people, who we believe, do not err or who are perfect at what they do. In truth, perfection is a farce, a fabrication of society. To understand the depth of knowledge, and succeed in any endeavor, mistakes must be made and overcome.

“If you want to succeed, don’t make mistakes, and don’t challenge authority; go with what you’re told to do.” Damion notes that this philosophy teaches people to become robots and puppets. Those who truly succeed are the ones think for themselves, who make mistakes, and who are willing to venture into the dark and learn from that void.

From the corporate and entrepreneur point of view, Damion further discusses that people don’t always acknowledge when they have made mistakes, so they continue to err. For example, Damion’s friend refused to accept that he’d lost a small fortune. Instead of admitting his money investing mistakes, he hid them, and the financial failures continued. Nothing was learned.

“If you’re gonna be in motion, you’re gonna make mistakes.” Damion describes, as a leader, one must be willing to be bold and move forward, even in the face of adversity. Learn from mistakes and move on quickly. This top-down behavior sets a corporate standard. Employees must be confident to come forward with problems and mistakes, or a firm will never succeed.

At the end of the day, mistakes are a gift, that when accepted and acknowledged, lead to wisdom, progress, and success.

Life and leadership is a contact sport.

You need to make contact with people every day as a leader and in life. There’s no avoiding it.

So how do you build protection for the energy vampires that surround us? They are every where now. More and more.

In the sea of all of that – remember that you need to bring protection with you. But where do you get it? How does that start?

It’s starts when you wake up in the morning. Remember your bedroom is a no-cellphone zone. No electronics and blinky shiny lights to move you to the danger zone.

Start by thinking great thoughts – better yet, write them down. But start somewhere … and thinking about the great day that could be is a good step in the right direction.

Then, think about your intention for the day. Who do you want to … need to … show up as today? What can you give to the people around you via energy and intent? Set that mindset up with visualization, repetition.

Think, write, and FEEL gratitude in the morning – let yourself feel the momentum that will create.

Use the Paper Napkin Wisdom Simple Planner (get it at www.PaperNapkinWisdom.com) … it’s free. Or write on a blank page – your goals, and one thing that you can do to move closer to your goals today. Start now.

Take Action …

Focus on the one thing that you need to do today, right now, that you can do to move yourself forward. Do you know what that is? Focus on it now.

Go do it. Make it happen.

Let's work together to make this year the best one yet.

I want to help you. Please go to www.PaperNapkinWisdom.com and sign up, we’ll send you the e-book that contains the secret structure that will build more scalable, even exponential results than you had thought possible.

You have so much to give, you had better start now.

Take Action is a short podcast, usually between 3 to 5 minutes long, and the focus is on the small, 1% improvements we can make in our businesses and lives. Small changes make a big difference!

This podcast will help you make small changes that will change your world, so we can together save the world one entrepreneur and small business at a time!

Based on The Book Paper Napkin Wisdom: Your 5 Step Plan to Life and Business Success ? get yours now on Amazon or at Paper Napkin Wisdom.

Subscribe to both our podcasts Paper Napkin Wisdom and to Take Action by Paper Napkin Wisdom now.