Work From The Inside Out

Michael Freedman told me, “I didn't know what I wanted to do until I was 55. I was walking through life. I'm a reasonably intelligent, hardworking guy. ...nothing special. Right? I was good at communicating, collaborating. I was a project manager as an operational manager. None of that really challenged me or fed my soul. I liked the interaction and being productive. All that was good. Tha...

When she was 13 years old, EB Sanders worked her first job as a swim instructor. She enjoyed it so much she claimed that the teaching bug bit her. Her parents, who were not college-educated, were very supportive of her aspirations. She wanted to go to college and teach in higher education. She journeyed her way through a maze of several schools, eventually accomplishing her goal to become a teache...

Fawn Germer is the irreverent, beloved best-selling author of nine books including the Oprah book, Hard Won Wisdom . She has been a keynote speaker for more than 80 Fortune 500 companies and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize four times for her work as an investigative reporter. Fawn’s first book was rejected by every major publisher in the United States, but Fawn would not give up until it was...

Dean Wegner attended West Point because he was recruited to play Div I Hockey. Once there, he realized there was much more to it and began to have aspirations about becoming a high-ranking officer. In order to make that happen, he had to make the right choices upon his graduation in 1993. He opted to go the aviation route, even though the typical choice was infantry. Then a once-in-a-lifetime oppo...

From an engineering degree at Princeton to his first job at GE under Jack Welch to a Stanford MBA to the worldwide director of finance at Apple, Rusty Gaillard had walked the traditional path of success. Along the way, he learned that traditional success is not the same as being successful in life. Rusty left his finance role at Apple when he got more interested in developing his own InnerTech™ ra...

When Laura Gassner Otting was in fourth grade, her teacher said, “you’re pretty argumentative… you should become a lawyer.” Laura says she was a serious young person. At only nine years old, she would watch the news every night and with righteous indignation, make a mark on a pad each day the hostages were still in Iran. Determined, she decided that she would have to solve all the problems. Laura...

Jennifer Fondrevay told me something that I have never before heard from a guest. As a young child, she wanted to become the Ambassador to France and even more remarkably she continued to have that goal throughout her college years into graduate school. Jennifer’s father is French and her grandmother lived with them until she was three years old, so she learned French first, English second. She ma...

Darcy Roberts wants people to love their work. For more than 20 years she held administrative roles across a variety of industries, including the arts, law, finance, banking, and executive search, working with people at all levels of the corporate world. Darcy had a natural gift for the work, but she didn’t actually like doing it. She had some interesting experiences during those decades, sitting...

Jenean Merkel Perelstein is a social-cultural anthropologist, who has studied behavior change across many cultures, from the markets and prisons of India to the boardrooms across America. She has implemented change strategies that have saved lives and made fortunes. This work is supported by her book, Finding Your Lighthouse, a Leadership Guide to Navigating Change. Jenean is no stranger to change...

Mike Smith still keeps in touch with his boss from Deloitte, his first employer after college graduation, 25+ years ago. How many of us can claim that? We know that most people, when they resign from a job, are actually leaving a boss. Remarkably, Mike's next move was to follow his boss as he became the CFO at the local NBC Philadelphia TV station. By the time he was 28, his boss was elevated...

Manbir Kaur’s first job after graduating from a prominent university in India was in banking, yet her degree was in computer applications. She felt wholly unqualified at first. And, she was starting out at 19. Manbir credits her father’s influence as he was an action-oriented, focused, hard-working, very positive, optimistic person who encouraged her to “grab the job and make your career”. He was...

Jacqueline Wales is a motivational speaker, professional coach, and the author of three books. She has helped countless people become more empowered, confident, and resilient. Her work focuses on leaders who dig into self-discovery, take accountability for their actions, and responsibility for their decisions. Jacqueline challenges herself daily to be better and challenges her clients to break thr...

Gary Ireland is an employment attorney. He helps executives in the areas of finance and banking, law, media technology, healthcare, and higher education maximize income and benefits when joining a company and enhanced severance, and asserting legal rights when leaving. He supports small businesses seeking to start and build companies saving money and solving legal problems by making strategic and...

In high school, Keith McCormick drove his math teachers crazy because he never got his homework done on time yet he did very well on standardized tests. As he put it, he was the classic ‘over underachiever’. Keith’s teachers accused him of being lazy, yet unlike most teens who might have absorbed it as a strike to their confidence, he got more curious and started reading education theory books to...

As a 5 year old, Todd Cherches would tell adults he wanted to be Superman when he grew up. His backup plan? To be Batman. He loved television, describing himself as a ‘TV Guide’, memorizing everything he could. By the age of 18, he had read the complete works of Shakespeare. As he says, “that’s one of the good things about having OCD, you don't give up on something until you're done.” In c...

Scott Perelstein is a change management specialist who closes the gap between strategy and implementation by guiding teams of planners and doers to move in the same direction. As a facility specialist for over 20 years, he has been in the facilities world as a contractor and owner, and a director. Scott specializes in bringing about change, focusing on inclusion from the highest level of administr...

Dr. Lynette Reed says it’s time for a reality check. Her mission is to help people and organizations feel more connected to the world around them and the relationships that are most important to them. She believes that when your expectations and reality connect, you will see an increase in personal self-awareness, improve relationships with others, and expand your understanding of how humanity imp...

From tracking criminals and terrorists on the dark web to creating marketplaces and new authentication systems, Mark Herschberg has spent his career launching and developing new ventures at startups and Fortune 500s and in academia. He helped to start the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program, dubbed MIT’s “career success accelerator,” where he teaches annually. At Harvard Business School,...

At nine years old, Jenny Lisk wanted to be Perry Mason. She loved the books and watched the TV show, imagining herself as a lawyer and doing something meaningful. In college, still aiming for a legal career, Jenny studied political science and economics and enjoyed Washington, DC-based internships in both Congressional and Senate offices. After graduation, Jenny secured a policy role with the Cham...

Like many young people, Dayna Del Val went off to college to fulfill dreams and ambitions. For her, it was to earn a theater degree, move to LA and become a movie star. There was no question in her mind that this was her plan. Instead, she ended up back in her hometown of Fargo, North Dakota giving birth to a beautiful baby boy. She was in the depths of despair, a young, single mother who had neve...

Sher Downing, PhD is an EdTech strategist who loves bringing people, learning, and technology together. As CEO of Downing EdTech consulting, her company provides eLearning design for entrepreneurial programs, affiliate partnerships with leading vendors, and professional coaching for those in the EdTech industry.  Sher is a pioneer with over 32 years of experience in the digital arena during the ev...

Andy Lopata has been a specialist in professional relationships and networking for over 20 years. He was called one of Europe's leading business networking strategists by the Financial Times, and a true master of networking by the Independent and Forbes.com. He is the author of five books. Andy is a fellow and a board member of the Professional Speaking Association UK and Ireland, and a fellow...

Jeff Wald has been frustrated with the way people talk about the future of work for quite some time. He says, “ Too many so-called experts make predictions outside the evidence available in the world of work; specifically, the history of work, the data trends and patterns, and how companies actually engage workers. Predictions made without this ... can be, in many cases, harmful. I wanted to provi...

Like many young boys, Harsha Boralessa dreamed of playing professional sports and in his case, that was cricket. When he was nine, he played for one of England’s professional teams and by the time he was 19, he was playing top-level cricket at his university. While he thoroughly enjoyed cricket he knew that moving into another career would be best as he had no future in the sport. Yet, Harsha cred...

At 26, Perry Marshall had a lot to look forward to in life. He was happily married, anticipating the birth of his first child and working as an engineer. Then, one day he was called into a meeting and was laid off. Perry quickly transitioned into a sales job as he didn’t want to “start all over” in another engineering role and felt it would be the easiest path to supporting his young family. Two y...