On the Brink with Andi Simon

The more diverse your organization, the more successful it will be Today I bring to you a most fascinating and consequential woman leader, Melissa Andrieux. Born and bred in Queens, New York, Melissa became a prosecutor, then Queens District Attorney, then civil litigator. She is now Chief Diversity Officer at the law firm Dorf Nelson & Zauderer. She is also Chief Client Relations Officer, and is...

Learn how to escape or even avoid crushing student debt  I am beyond thrilled to bring to you a remarkable young women, Bri Franklin, who co-founded the non-profit  The Prosp(a)rity Project  to help others avoid the massive amount of debt she incurred by attending an expensive college and being ignorant of the student loan consequences. She could have let the financial burden she experienced after...

Hear this incredible story of steadfast bravery and human kindness I am truly honored to bring to you today a very special guest, Panos Manias. A self-made entrepreneur who started his own industrial company in aluminium packaging materials, Panos is an inspirational and visionary businessman. But what we focus on in our interview is his personal story of how kindness and moral obligation saved li...

Hear how to open yourself up to a world of infinite possibilities As you know, I like a fresh lens. That's what we do as  anthropologists . We go out and help you see what's all around you, and sometimes you can't see what's right here. Today, I have a wonderful woman, Roberta Fernandez, who's going to help you do the same thing. Together, we're going to help you realize that change is painful in...

Roseann and Clara Sunwoo—How Did Roseann And Clara Sunwoo Build A Successful Women's Fashion Brand?   POSTED ON  JANUARY 20, 2024 Hear how a great idea and hard work made this dynamic duo succeed  This is one of those amazing stories that you've heard 100 times but it never ceases to make me smile. Clara Sunwoo and her husband came to the United States from Seoul, Korea in 1975 with two suitcases...

Hear about perseverance, pivoting, and putting yourself out there In today's podcast I bring you Gemma Toner, former media and telecommunications innovator and one of the 102 amazing women leaders featured in our new book,  Women Mean Busines s : Over 500 Insights from Extraordinary Leaders to Spark Your Success , co-authored by Edie Fraser, Robyn Freedman Spizman and myself. Gemma and I talk abou...

Learn how to nurture your unique gifts for a career you really love. I bring to you today Lorraine Hariton, a brilliant women with a brilliant career who shows us that success doesn't have to come in a straight line, it can have many twists and turns. As one of the 102 women featured in our new book,  Women Mean Busines s : Over 500 Insights from Extraordinary Leaders to Spark Your Success , co-au...

Hear how a family firm can remember its roots while focusing on the future  As they say, family is family and business is business. But in many cases, the two can coexist, often quite profitably. Did you know that almost 80% of the businesses in the U.S. are owned and run by families? As a  corporate anthropologist , a  culture change expert  and a daughter raised in a family business, I have a pa...

Learn how to be your own boss and the power of saying no   Those of you who are wondering whether it's time for you to leave that corporate life and start your own business, you're going to love my guests today, Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau. They're freelance writers and translators and the authors of the new book  Going Solo: Everything You Need to Start Your Business and Succeed as Your O...

Hear how to create a workplace where people love to work I first had the pleasure of interviewing Konstantinos (Kon) Apostolopoulos for this podcast  in July 2020  as the pandemic was raging around the world. He and Dr. Elia Gourgouris had just co-authored the book,  7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis: A Practical Guide to Emotionally Dealing with Pandemics & Other Disasters . Now Kon has written anoth...

Learn how to let go of worry and fear by learning new habits Today I bring you Joanna Hardis, a beautiful woman whom you're going to love listening to. Joanna is focused on helping people with anxiety-related issues and obsessive compulsive disorders, so this is a person you really might like to know more about if that's something that is in your life. She can give you strategies to help you break...

Hear how to keep your seat at your own table that you build for yourself What I love about my guest today, Nori Jabba, is that when she hit a brick wall—in her case, a series of job rejections—she pivoted and wrote a book about the whole job-search process and dealing with mulltiple rejections, called  Keeping Your Seat at the Table . Now she's writing a second book but actually she's not writing...

Learn how you can fight gender bias so women leaders can succeed  As you know, I do a lot of work around women leadership. The title of my second book is  Rethink: Smashing The Myths of Women in Business ,  and I have recently co-written with Edie Fraser and Robyn Freedman Spizman a third book,  Women Mean Business: Over 500 Insights from Extraordinary Leaders to Spark Your Success , due out Septe...

Hear how pure contentment is available to all of us, right now Believe it or not, we're approaching our 400th podcast. Along the way, I've talked with some amazing people: business leaders, entrepreneurs, futurists,  anthropologists  (like myself),  Blue Ocean Strategists ® (again, like myself), and on and on. They've all been extraordinary, but sometimes I've interviewed someone who really made m...

Hear why robust, targeted marketing is the wisest investment you can make Want to get energized about how to effectively market your business and present it to the world in the best possible light? Listen to my interview with Melea McRae, a "fractional chief marketing officer." What's that, you ask? According to Melea, it's when companies like hers ( Crux ) "joins with an in-house team to execute...

Hear how you have a huge say over how and when you work. I just love the fascinating people I have the pleasure of bringing to you. One of them is Marcey Rader. She first appeared on our podcast in  March of 2020  as pandemic lockdowns were just beginning (doesn't that seem a long time ago?) and I found her insights on wellness and selfcare so important that I had to have her back. What struck me...

Learn how what we're really doing as we go through life is work on ourselves. What makes an inspiring leader? According to my guest today, Dr. Srikumar Rao, it is to be personally inspired by a vision which brings a greater good to a greater community. As a leader, you are in the business of helping everyone you run across improve their position in life and raise their level of consciousness, beca...

Hear why a big part of life is having a life worth living, even at work. Today I spoke with Lori Pine, a 25-year corporate VP turned certified executive leadership coach. What Lori teaches us is something we maybe all innately know but often don't recognize: that a big part of life is having a life worth living. To many executives on that hamster wheel, this is a big statement. Yes, moving up the...

Are you on LinkedIn? These days it seems everybody is. Even if they're not using it correctly, they're on it, so much so that it's now become a platform of constant self-promotion. But that's not how it started in 2003 when it was launched as a networking platform for professionals. So how can we use LinkedIn more correctly, and productively, and not fall into the trap of just using it to sell our...

Hear how anthropology helps you see your business through a fresh lens It was truly a privilege and a pleasure to interview Dr. John Curran on our podcast. We met by way of LinkedIn, and I knew I had to share his story. Dr. Curran is one of the pioneers of organizational anthropology. Now remember, I branded myself when I launched my business as a  corporate anthropologist  who helps companies cha...

Hear why strategy without accountability doesn't work! I met Aviva Ajmera when she invited me to speak to her groups of CEOs in Kansas City. We hit it right off and had an exceptional time learning about each other and the type of work we love to do to help companies grow. Working with teams, CIOs, CEOs and C-suite level executives, Aviva knows how to bring out the best in them, their collective w...

Learn how to discover who you ARE, not just what you do There are moments when I meet someone on our podcast who truly takes my own breath away—and I hope it does yours as well. Elizabeth Rosenberg is one such woman. We talk about her journey filled with trauma and burnout that led her to rethink her life. Rather than keep pushing herself within large corporations, she shifted her focus and launch...

Hear how planning for the future means loving change I worked with Jennifer Kluge several years ago on a  Blue Ocean Strategy  workshop. Her organization, the  National Association for Business Resources , was focused wholly on businesses in Michigan, offering important services from insurance products to support with accounts receivables. As CEO, Jennifer has catapulted NABR into a national initi...

Learn how to really and truly end gender bias at work Despite extensive and costly diversity initiatives, little progress has been made in recent years in ending workplace gender inequality. I reviewed Andie Kramer's new book,  Beyond Bias: The Path To End Gender Inequality At Work , and was so excited to read about a process for change that might actually work. Remember, we are  corporate anthrop...

Hear an incredible story of courage, kindness and resistance Mimica Tsezana-Hyman is our guest on this podcast today. It is difficult to tell you about all that we discussed in a short paragraph. I encourage you to read the transcript and listen to the entire podcast, or watch it, which is even better. Mimica has a great story to tell which will move you deeply. The question is, how does an entire...