011 Armin Molavi - Transparency and leading distributed teams, travel industry post covid

06/21/21 • 54 min

Authentic Leadership for Everyday People

Our guest today is Armin Molavi, Principal of Amolavi Consulting, a Marketing Strategy firm, and CEO of Hotel Business Magazine. We talked about finding the balance between being your authentic self and fully embracing who you are, and being able to work with a diverse group of stakeholders - peers, direct reports, bosses, clients.

We also discussed his experience managing a distributed team while working remotely for 3 years, and how those lessons apply to managers who are navigating the new post-pandemic hybrid model.

Given his experience at the heart of the hospitality industry as the publisher of a business to business magazine for the sector, Armin also shared the industry perspective and expectation for the return of travel.

Armin has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and advertising. After coming up through the ranks in two of the best advertising agencies in the country, Armin spent almost 3 years running global media for Hilton. In that capacity, he managed a distributed team of 70 people, scattered all over the globe. And he did that working mostly remotely.

We also discussed his experience managing a distributed team while working remotely for 3 years, and how those lessons apply to managers who are navigating the new post-pandemic hybrid model.

Previous Episode

010 Kasey Jones - Surviving Trauma and Resetting Your Life

Today we delve deep into authenticity, vulnerability and the power of resetting your life. Our guest is leadership mentor and branding coach, Kasey Jones. Kasey helps entrepreneurs to gain clarity on what they are doing and where they’d like to go. In June of 2020, was almost killed by a dog attack. Today, she opens up about the experience how it changed her, and the incredible gifts that came from her overcoming this challenging time. We speak about trauma, living life without fear and what we all can do to be better versions of ourselves. We also talk about how the experience informed her work with her clients, and how when tackled the right way, personal branding is actually a way to become a better and more focused leader.

Key Takeaways:

01:59 – Introducing today’s guest, Kasey Jones, who speaks to the work she does as a business coach and shares her harrowing near death experience

10:51 – Kasey recalls what went into the decision to speak publicly about her experience

16:56 – Kasey talks about living life without fear and things in her life that now move her to tears

20:32 – I share a story connected with my own bout with depression

23:55 – How Kasey helps her clients discover their own superpowers

26:19 – Kasey provides best practices for making positive changes in your life

30:34 – Kasey speaks to her passion for personal branding

33:34 – The business practices that drive Kasey absolutely crazy

35:22 – Kasey shares some food for your body and food for your soul

40:25 – And now here’s ‘Carried,’ a song written and performed by my wife, Susan Cattaneo and featuring Jenee Halstead

Tweetable Quotes:

“As I got through it, I felt like I had been given this second chance. It felt like I had this reset button on life. And I’ll be honest, it’s very hard for people to understand this, but this experience turned into – and I am not exaggerating – the greatest blessing of my life.” (08:38)

“I remember having this ‘Aha’ moment where I realized that if I didn’t start talking about this, it would become exponentially harder for me every single day to talk about it at all.” (13:50)

“I’m not afraid anymore. I’m not afraid of things. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have little fears that come up but I have a vision for the kind of life that I want to lead, and the kind of business that I’m building and the kind of impact I want to make. And it makes whatever little fears that come up feel like nothing.” (17:15)

“Yeah, there’s a rawness. But what that means is that I connect more deeply with people, I feel more deeply, I am inspired more easily. I am connected to life and to others in a way that I think I avoided for so much of my life. And to me it’s the greatest gift that I ever could have asked for.” (19:28)

“For me, there is no greater purpose than helping somebody else feel the strength and the courage to show up authentically and holistically as themselves.” (23:24)

“I am a big believer in treating yourself to a decadent meal and savoring every single bit of it.” (36:13)

Links Mentioned:

Kasey Links

LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/abetterjones/

Kasey’s Twitter – @abetterjones

Instagram: @abetterjones

Kasey’s Website – abetterjones.com

Kasey's 5 Easy Steps to Unapologetically Build a Powerful Personal Brand: go.abetterjones.com/ppb

Authentic Leadership for Everyday People

Email: [email protected]

Website: al4ep.com

Facebook - facebook.com/al4edp

Twitter: @al4edp.com

Instagram: @al4edp

Ted Lasso – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10986410/

‘Carried’ – https://susancattaneo.bandcamp.com/track/carried-feat-jenee-halstead

Next Episode

Holiday Special - Best of Business Jargon That Drives People Crazy

This is a special episode for the 4th of July holiday. It brings together all the answers from the previous episodes to the question: which business expression or cliche or jargon drives you crazy? In addition to the answer from previous episodes, this also includes a preview of episode 12, as well as my own personal answer to the question!