The Great Conversation

I was visiting a prospective client the other day. We went out to lunch at one of their favorite restaurants. The waitress came up to the table and, as always, I asked what her name was. She replied and I shared mine. I thanked her and asked about her day and then we continued the ritual of ordering our drinks and our meal. I did the same for the person who kept replenishing my water. The prospect...

Love it or hate it, the term “Holy Grail” is often used in life and business to describe something that has always been unobtainable. The pursuit of the “unobtainable” takes patience and indomitable faith. The pursuit of a leadership development program that can crack the code of an organization’s people, lifting them to a new level of engagement with the organization’s vision, mission, and purpos...

Who am I? We answer this question through different stages of our lives. And much of our life is in the business world. It is natural, therefore, that a great deal of our quest becomes learning a craft. And this is where many of us remain the rest of our working lives. This is not a bad thing. The best in us dive deep into this pool of knowledge and are found to be valuable in life and business as...

“Who dares wins” is a motto made popular in the English-speaking world by the British Special Air Service. The motto has also been used by twelve elite special forces units around the world that in some way have historical ties to the British SAS. But the title of this blog and this Great Conversation is different. It is used as a tag line by our guest after every one of his posts on LinkedIn and...

“It is said that what matters most is not your date of birth or your date of death but the hyphen that signifies the life that is between the two. We live in the - Between - a mysterious place to be, full of grace and surprise and unknowns.” So goes the introduction to Love Songs from the - Between - ; a daily journal through the year that helps you see the road; what is behind, what is ahead, and...

“Serve Honorably. Drink Honorably™” Inspired by a previous Great Conversation with author Michael Trott ( The Art of Protecting the Leader ), we caught up with his latest venture: Four Branches Bourbon . Imagine the heart, mind, and fortitude in launching a new company, and a new bourbon. It would take a Hall of Fame effort and Hall of Fame help to do it. We have a great conversation with the men...

You can learn a lot about life by studying how you and others make decisions. If you think about it, our life is a series of transactions of value. In a transaction, there is the possibility of a yes, a no, and the ever so dangerous maybe. Why dangerous? Because a “maybe” can indicate a problem with your criteria for value. It can speak to a lack of readiness. It can indict you for your lack of co...

We are largely motivated by self-interest. If we are acting as a buyer, we want the best product at the lowest price. But we also know that lowest price may not be the answer to our needs. If we are acting as a seller, we may be motivated to “win”. But how do we define this term? Now let’s pull back and see if there is a connection between these two notions and the behaviors of the buyer and selle...

In our Great Conversation Podcast, we begin with a statement: “Welcome to The Great Conversation where Ideas Matter. Ideas shape markets. Ideas can change the world.” I originally decided to open with this to reinforce my passion for pursuing people and ideas that ultimately impact our lives. But hidden in this opening is another premise: that a leader is needed to activate the idea. A leader is s...

Mark Ledlow is the Founder and CEO of Ledlow Security Group , that provides Physical Security, Site Security, Supply Chain Security, Disaster Response Teams, Executive Protection for High Networth Families and Executives. General Counsel support, and Risk Management He also founded the Fearless Mindset Podcast , His goal is to find captivating stories of leadership, courage, market leadership, and...

Humans created constructs that represent time. Consider it the canvas in which they have painted their origin stories as well as their stories of the future. As this pendulum swings, we also are exploring the depths of our understanding of the who and why of our being. We believe “truth” is in the data. But then the data changes. We need someone to help us understand the reader (us), and the story...

Many executives are asked by their boards to retain the services of a professional risk, resilience, and security firm that specializes in executive protection. The best ones find a way to become a part of the value proposition of the executive’s personal and professional space. Many do this by integrating their staff and expertise with the executive’s administrative and travel staff. The ultimate...

What is the future of human and machine? We all know. We sense it. We are on the edge of something that will reset the economy. Reset how we work and play. Reset our notion of what is true And the center of it all is the emerging cognitive capability of the machine (Artificial Intelligence - AI). And its ability to leverage the sensors (just like a human) that allows it to see, hear, touch, read a...

The care and feeding of a company creates a highly leveraged vehicle to optimize its path to value: personally, professionally, and within the context of a team known as a business. Great leaders know how to leverage different points of view that originate from disparate cultural backgrounds. This strengthens the vision, mission, and execution. We explore the terms diversity, equity, and inclusion...

Dylan Thomas's famous poem, Fern Hill , is based on his childhood experiences on a farm in Wales. The poem is a celebration of the wonder, magic, and joy of this world that many of us experienced and have a hard time remembering as we grow older. This conversation is about that young child growing older and continuing to see life through his once-child's eyes. The Editor in Chief of Centennial Med...

If you were entering a new market in a foreign country, where do you acquire the boots on the ground intelligence to navigate your risks and opportunities? And how would you consume the information quickly enough to make an impact on your strategies and plans? We reached out to a CEO who has created a company that provides this intelligence for Latin America. And, serendipitously, he had just post...

History can teach us a lot about the repercussions of change. The impact of change is accelerated by the confluence of events, crisis upon crisis. Imagine if you were able to imagine it before it happened thereby providing the white space to adapt and innovate mitigating the impact of the change. This is how this great conversation begins with an author that leverages research of our world and ima...

We are data driven. As leaders, we need the right data to make effective decisions. But most of the data that is provided to us only shows what happened. We are making decisions based by staring in a rear-view mirror. But what if we could forecast the future? What if the data we have collected can be leveraged to provide us scenarios that will provide us a glimpse into the impact our decisions wou...

As a strategic advisor to CEOs, helping to create the story that drives their organization and helping them achieve the promise of that story, I created The Path to Value. It was my way of learning. It was my way of teaching. And learning. And teaching. I have been able to see and feel first-hand, the attempt of leaders with a background in law enforcement, military, and agency, to become strategi...

“It is hard to breathe, and my heart is palpitating like a drum. I am feeling weak – I want to lie on the ground so the world stops spinning for a minute and I can catch my breath. A thousand thoughts cross my mind. What if this goes wrong? What if I can’t deliver that? What if I can no longer support my family and be there for them? What kind of example will I be to my children? I have everything...

Imagine there will be four eulogies at your funeral. One will come from a family member. One will come from a friend. One will come from someone you worked with. And another will be delivered by someone who represented how you gave back to the world (Perhaps a charity or ministry). Now write what they might say today. You might discover something about yourself. It might change the course of your...

Are you a diminisher or a multiplier? Do you bring all the answers to the table, or do you help others solve problems? Do you believe you are the best voice in the room? Our guest learned the hard way, that he was a diminisher. He would take a great idea from his staff, acknowledge it, and then suggest how to make it better. After all, that is what great leaders do; make them better. Bob Tiede is...

Words are real things. When conveyed through the written word or articulated in a speech, they have the power to direct and shape individual behavior and markets. With this mind, I would like to discuss what it means to be a professional. I believe we can agree that it infers a ranking conferred by education, skill, or training. Markets show their maturity by the establishment of formal standards...

If you were known to be trustworthy. If you engendered trust from others, how would it change your life and your world? Our great conversation with a global credibility expert, Mitchell Levy, is really about saving our humanity and changing the trajectory of our lives. Mitchell is an international bestselling author of over 60 books , and an executive coach at Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches. Aft...

The power of story. It influences our lives. We have a personal story, fed by the evolutionary stages of story from our culture, our tribes, and our family. Story describes our core values and the why of our journey. If you built a business model to help people, companies, and governments understand their identity through story as well as the stories of others you might be able to create a powerfu...