Change Your Mindset

“In rapidly changing times, dexterity to speed is your key to adaptability.” Rod Collins In today’s episode, we are joined by Rod Collins, a returning guest. Rod’s initial episode was released on February 14th, 2022. The topic of conversation was ‘The Benefits of Flat Organizational Structures.’ Today, our discussion focuses on the strengths of running a collective intelligence workshop when you'r...

“Go write those stories, prepare and practice. And then if the occasion calls, go off script.” Peter Margaritis This excerpt from the book “Off Script: Mastering The Art of Business Improv.“ The Silent Killer of business is ultimately a lack of financial acumen. The death knell of a company comes from having leaders who are empowered to make important decisions and who don’t understand the fundame...

“There is a real direct application to being human with what you learn in theatre and Improve.” Robert Bendetti Today, our guest is Robert Bendetti, Jr., CPA, who is the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Life Cycle Engineering. As CFO, he is responsible for all financial operations of the company and accounting contracts, purchasing, Process automation, and IT. Before Life Cycle...

We are in the people business and we need to treat our people and customers with the respect that they deserve.” Peter Margaritis Saving a few pennies is not worth losing a customer. In this era of social media, bad reviews, pictures of disappointing meals, and word of mouth can significantly impact your business. While we must always watch our costs in order to make a profit, it is important to r...

Leadership has many attributes associated with it, such as perseverance, vision, inspiration, motivation, and service, to name a few. A leader is there to serve, and my uncle Dean was a great leader who served his country. Retired Colonel Dean Danos passed away on January 27, 2022, after a valiant and brave battle with pancreatic cancer. He served in the Vietnam war, where he flew over 300 combat...

“When it comes to cybersecurity, the effort level on the part of the bad guy is not any different, regardless of whether it is a large entity or small entity.” Chris Barber My guest today is Chris Barber. Chris is the Chief Nerd at Cheaper Than A Geek IT service provider. They have demonstrated a history of providing award-winning support in the IT service industry. Cheaper Than A Geek helps small...

“It's really about understanding what is your way that you uniquely contribute to your business, and most of the time, it's not going to be where you're spending most of your time.” Courtney DeRonde Today, my guest is Courtney DeRonde, a CPA and managing partner of TDT CPAs and Advisors— the boutique advisory and accounting firm for small businesses and nonprofit organizations. The company helps o...

“Higher education needs to change how accounting is taught and align it with the critical power skills required to succeed in today's business climate.” Peter Margaritis As an accountant, understanding how to sell yourself, both in an educational setting and in the workplace can help you succeed professionally. Technical accounting skills are the foundation of accounting education. However, in tod...

“I truly believe that every person you meet has the power to change your life, and you have the power to change theirs.” Jen Nash My guest today is Jen Nash, The Connector in Chief. Jen helps people add more meaning to their lives through connection. She's a master facilitator, passionate about masterful storytelling, corporate training, and an author and sought-after executive coach. With over 20...

“Learning how to listen effectively is a critical part of communication and building stronger connections.” Peter Margaritis  Being an active listener creates many advantages in life and work. However, mastering the art of active listening is easier said than done. Active listeners pay attention to what others are saying without thinking about how they will respond or how the conversation might af...

“If you are leveraging collective intelligence, respecting diversity, and inviting dissenting ideas, you are going to uncover the unknown unknowns more quickly and likely come up with better results.” Rod Collins My guest today is Rod Collins. Rod is a leading expert on digital transformation and the future of business. He's the host of the Thinking Differently podcast on the C suite Radio Network...

“Everyone should be involved in developing solutions to customer problems.” Peter Margaritis The traditional hierarchy organizational structure has been around since the 1950s, and so have many of the strategies developed to make it work well. As time goes on though, some of these strategies are becoming less effective, while others are simply out of date.  A flat organization is a company that do...

“The type of person that we had to look for to be a virtual CFO is completely different than the type of person that we looked forward to being an accountant.” Jody Grunden My guest today is Jody Grunden. Jody is the CEO and co-founder of Summit CPA Group, a fully distributed virtual CFO firm. He has authored two books, Digital Dollars, Cents, and Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud. He won...

Leaders need to remember that all eyes are on them at all times. They are being watched for how they manage pressure and conflict. Leadership in action is setting the fear, panic, negative and reactive emotions aside at the moment and responding with calm and confidence. When an organization hires you, you become part of that brand. In and out of the office, your actions, words, behavior, and atti...

“Your clients will like you better if you just show that you know them, and you're listening to them more than telling them how much you are an expert.” Tom Wadelton My guest today is Tom Wadelton. He earned his bachelor's degree in computer technology from Purdue University and an MBA was a finance minor from Indiana University. He's a CPA who's licensed in the state of Indiana. Tom is a member o...

Sometimes we have a hard time defining what good or great leadership is, but we also know what bad leadership is. I believe in Improv leadership, which is more about the team and less about an individual. No matter what business we are in, people are our most important asset and we need to begin to treat them better. The firing of 900 employees by the CEO of better.com via a zoom call is a tragic...

"When we have compassion and empathy for ourselves, we will radiate that to other people." Kathy Klotz Kathy Klotz-Guest is a speaker, author, comedian, and founder of Keeping It Human. Kathy started Keeping It Human after 15 years leading tech marketing and communications. Her mission is to help leaders, teams and companies use Improv and humor principles to be happier, healthier, and more creati...

For the first time since I launched Change Your Mindset in 2016, I’ve decided to take the month of December off to pause and reflect. This podcast is very near and dear to me, and I want to put the time and care necessary into making the next evolution of it with intentionality. From podcast length to formatting, I spend this episode rehashing the past and brainstorming what’s to come. This podcas...

“When you see a turtle on top of a fence post, chances are he did not get there on his own.” Joey Haven starts off a recent blog post with this old saying to illustrate how leaders only get to where they are because others helped them get there. Joey serves as the managing partner of strategic growth for the CPA firm HORNE, writes the beBetter blog, and is an active member of CPA Practice Advisor’...

Growing up, I worked in a family restaurant – I am Greek American, after all. My father took a different approach and purchased a liquor store. In both cases, providing excellent customer service was the standard because that is the formula to success in business. But if that’s true, what the hell happened to excellent customer service? You want to be the firm that everyone raves about because you...

Kon Apostolopoulos is the founder and CEO of Fresh Biz Solutions, a human capital management consulting group that provides performance improvement and training solutions to help organizations develop people, improve business results, and benefit from a comprehensive talent management strategy. He’s also the co-author of the timely book, 7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis, and a regular contributor to...

Today’s guest is… Peter Margaritis! Huh? That’s right, we’re turning the mic around with a special guest host, Kate Colbert, President of Silver Tree Publishing, to celebrate the release of “Off Script: Mastering the Art of Business Improv.” I’ve documented much of the journey of writing this book directly through the podcast, and today we’re going to wrap things up to talk about the whole story:...

Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts and the author of several books, including Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams: A Manual on Benchmarking to Best Practices for Competitive Advantage. He joins the show to lay out just why we can’t rely on our guts to tell us how to approach bringing workforces back to the office. Through confirmation bias and the d...

One of the key features of improvisation is the ability to listen. When we listen, we park our ego and our agenda, and strive to understand what the other person is trying to say. It’s about listening with our eyes and our ears – but it’s also about the questions we ask. Even when we think we’ve reached the right answer to our questions, we need to pause and ask ourselves “What else could this be?...

Brian Comerford is a digital leader and serial entrepreneur – notably co-founding RadioValve.com, one of the first generation of online radio stations. He served as an adjunct professor at The University of Denver – his alma mater – in the digital media studies department. He currently serves as the co-chair of the CIO Working Group for the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, and is a board m...