Finding The Upside

I have learned and gained key insights that I share with my clients in building an exceptional customer service experience and getting loyal customers and creating raving fans. It’s pretty basic understanding that a lot of us talk about and subscribe to  - creating raving fans and keeping customers happy and loyal… But the truth is many companies fall short. In this episode, I’m highlighting...

Everyone is trying to find the secret sauce to finding and keeping talent in a challenging labor market. Everyone's talking about how difficult it is to find staff. In terms of where the issues lie,  there’s more than meets the eye. In this episode, I am addressing the current labor situation and I'm giving it to you straight. A lot of what's happening now is that we have reached the t...

To listen is to give attention to a sound, action, or communication. Listening is important in leadership, important in business, and so important in our personal relationships. Do you hear and do you understand what's being spoken to you? Are you comprehending the full message that is being told? We could talk all day about what happens when listening fails… Because there's miscommunications, mis...

The beauty and value lies in the reality that we are all different…we all have different strengths and weaknesses…we come from different places and we’ve had different experiences…we all have different skills and natural abilities. These days that is often overlooked as many attempt to devalue anything or anyone that is different, purporting that we should all be the same and anyone that is outsid...

What are demand relationships and what is the connection this has to leading teams in business? I hadn’t heard of demand relationships before until I heard a speaker explain this concept in personal relationships. In a demand relationship, a dynamic exists where power is being exerted over another person where they react to the power over them and it results in negative outcomes opposite to what i...

Starting before you're ready…it's a concept and a phrase we hear a lot these days. It’s common for entrepreneurs and businesspeople to suffer from the obsession to make something perfect before we let it go —whether it be a business project or new initiative. Sound familiar? And that perfectionism is something that definitely holds us back. It holds us back from making progress and getting started...

Success is measured in different ways in different cultures. In our American culture, success is measured so much by what we have, in terms of materiality, what we do, rather than who we are, and our life experience in totality. But there is more to success than just these elements. As an entrepreneur that has built a business, I want to elevate the concept that you can change how you work and sti...

Training people is an investment in your business…it addresses everything that has to do with your company's success. NOT training your staff is like not investing in your own business. And as an entrepreneur, you really have to think about the cost of not doing it. Training is the key to ensuring the outcome you want for your staff’s well being and the health of the business - they are interconne...

There is power in having a deeper understanding about the foundational principles of leadership that leads to whether or not you are able to create an environment that is conducive to high performance.  There are so many things that are a part of that that many leaders aren’t aware of, and truthfully some ignore. Leadership is an area that I spent a lot of time in my own life on, leading othe...

Throughout my life and career, mastering and fine tuning the art of communication was and still is always a focus. As I navigated many situations, I needed to get a better understanding with the words I was choosing, how I was saying things and how I was being perceived. Was I connecting with someone in a way that aided the communication or hindered it?  There’s so many things that come into...

Having a mindset that allows us to find the opportunity in any challenge is important in every aspect of our life. Today on the podcast, we're going to focus on how we find that and keep ourselves in that space to be able to find opportunity no matter what is happening around us. The bottom line is that it definitely is something that starts with your approach and your mindset. Even though we know...

Making decisions in business always involves considering the cost of resources, whether that’s dollars or time. But far too often, when we are only thinking about the cost of doing something, it stops leaders from moving forward because they haven’t thought through the cost of NOT doing it.  That always leads to short-sighted decisions that can be costly, and cause us to miss an opportunity a...

Have you ever thought about how leaders get into leadership?  Most are promoted into a managerial role or leadership role because they were good at their job, not because they had the skills or experience.  Isn't that crazy how any other field requires some experience or qualification at the entry point?   The most important skills for the job are overlooked and sadly, many tim...

What if we constantly were looking at ways to innovate, if that was our thought process all the time.  Believing that every opportunity that came our way, or with any challenge that we were presented with, we found a way to make it work instead of complaining? In this episode, Maria talks about how being able to see two sides of the coin and look at things from different perspectives allows us to...

In business and in life there is always an upside…finding it is often the challenge. Having a mindset that looks for it, sees the glass half full and embraces problems as opportunities is the key to thriving. Successful business owners LOVE disruption. But the MOST successful look for it. It's what keeps their business on the cutting edge and able to adapt to any circumstance without missing a win...