The Fast Leader Show | Strategy Execution & Systems Design

Kimberly Davis had an anxiety attack. Days before she was to give a TEDx talk about being brave she lost her brave. She began to fear the spotlight, failing to connect to her audience and missing out on capturing her opportunity. But Kimberly knew what do to squash her own anxiety. She retrieved her brave.

Peter Lisoskie bet his job on a new idea. After numerous failures, Peter finally obtained 7 patents for his effort. Since then, Peter has focused his innovation on artificial intelligence and emotionally connected user interfaces to create interactive conversational brand experiences to shape customer experiences for companies and their customers.

Kumar Mehta experienced a culture shock. After working for Microsoft for many years, he became the CEO of Blue Ocean Market Intelligence. The same people that used to respond to his emails and phone calls when he was at Microsoft, now would not talk to him. His calls and request became less important without the Microsoft brand. That’s when Kumar learned a hard lesson about innovation.

Vicky Oliver was working at an advertising agency on September 11, 2001. After that day, Vicky decided to do a career redirect. She set upon a path to use her skills in a different way that ultimately led her to write about Bad bosses, Crazy Co-Workers and Other Office Idiots .

Rick Brinkman knew he had to get better at presenting. While presenting to a large group, he was unable to understand why everybody began to laugh hysterically. But he learned one thing that has helped him to move on to delivering hundreds of successful presentations since.

Shawn Vij was just out of business school and he was given the responsibility of the accounting for a project. He spotted something shady in the books and began to ask questions. He must have asked too many questions because his boss terminated him. That’s when Shawn’s outlook took a turn for the worst.

Sean Hawkins worked for a company that had been acquired twice in a short period of time. Sean had to navigate the delicate balance of being transparent where he could while upholding his responsibly to the organization. Sean learned that one investment he made really paid off in the end.

Erik Seversen had a horrible string of hiring the wrong person. That’s when he needed to do something different. He decided to totally change the interview process and his leadership style. Erik started focusing more on using emotional intelligence to move forward and applying it to his new English as a second language startup.

Tim Perek carried his journey map and personas into a c-suite meeting with all of his research and data. He walked them through all of the ideation and through the prioritization. Then his moment of truth came when an executive asked a key question. That’s when Tim learned the key to delivering value with his customer experience program.

Steven Stein started a small business with his wife. He was responsible for doing many of jobs necessary to grow the company. But to grow, Steven had to learn a valuable lesson. He did and today they employ more than 170 people throughout the world and he’s become a leading expert on psychological assessments and emotional intelligence.

Jeff McManus started a new job in a new town and was trying to understand and learn everything. One night while driving home after his night class, Jeff wrecked his car after falling asleep at the wheel. In the hospital, he realized things needed to change. That’s when Jeff came to realize that he must totally shift his thinking. That’s when he enabled himself to move onward and upward faster.

Brian Biro was down on himself. He had a drive to be the best at whatever he did. He was very intense and was no fun to play with. That’s when he decided to change one word and it helped him to move onward and upward faster.

Josh Seibert was a successful sales professional. He was promoted to a sales manager and all he had to do was teach people to be like him. Josh then proceeded to take a mediocre sales team and turn them into a failing sales team. That’s when he learn his most valuable lesson ever.

Andy Molinsky really believes in the stuff that he does. He sees that it really helps people. But not steeping outside of his comfort zone was keeping him from making a difference. Listen how he had to learn how to be his own advocate to get over the hump.

Serena Smith was 31-years old. She was shepherding a huge transition at work and a lot of people were looking to her for comfort and stability in the change. And her superiors were looking for results. That’s when she found a lump on her neck – it was cancer. Listen as she shares how she got over the hump.

Edwina Cowell and her team began to work with a developer for their website. She began to witness the developer being disrespectful, defensive, and angry. But she ignored those signs and the situation began to escalate. She did finally get a website out of it that needed to be replaced in six months.

Kendall Lyman was a new consultant working in the oil industry. He was a strategist working with executives looking at the market and competitive analysis. As Kendall worked to implement change, he continually ran into problems at the individual level. That’s when Kendall analyzed something different that helped him get over the hump.

Jill Konrath was working with two big companies, consulting on product launches. Within three months, both of the companies eliminated outside consultants, due to pressure from Wall Street. Jill lost 95% of her work and after six months waiting for the work to return, Jill needed to get new clients. But Jill was unable to book any appointments. She lost faith in herself, lost her value proposition...

Cort Dial was working with the leaders on a capital project in Saudi Arabia. 3 years and 8 million man-hours where required to build this project. Cort asked the supervisors to go all in and sign up to build the project without harming anyone. After months of being told no, Cort had a break through and got over the hump.

Keith Pearce was a young manager working for a company that was in decline while living in Europe. He was given the corporate script to read as he told employees they no longer had a job. He practiced his speech and then he had to look people in the eye. That’s when his plan required a change.

Kelli Barabasz had the best team with the most sales. Then her manager asked her why her team performs. Kelli was shocked to hear her say that they perform in fear of her and not for her. Kelli refused to believe her and then she learned the truth. Listen to how Kellie was awakened and learn to move onward and upward faster.

Jonathan David Lewis and his company made the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies list. And as soon as they made the list, their growth stopped. They went backwards. Over the next three years they experienced almost 98% client turnover. But there was something valuable that came from it that allowed them to get over the hump.

Sophie Wade’s daughter complained that she never saw her. That’s when she decided to do research on how others managed being able to work less. She discovered that she could spend a year or more trying to persuade someone to give her the job she wanted, or she could just create it herself. That’s when made it her work instead of how she worked.

Dianna Booher found herself with only 10 days of cash flow. She made a huge investment in developing people and was now faced with making a decision to lay them off. She was able to avoid that decision and shares what she learned and how to prevent it from reoccurring.

Diana Oreck is a recovering type-A person that was so obsessed with work, that her body started breaking down. She went for extended periods of only getting 3-4 hours of sleep per night and it thrust her into the hospital with dehydration and lack of sleep. All because she was obsessed with work. Diana discovered the cause and her remedy that helped her get over the hump.