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Leadership in Action

Leadership in Action

eoleadershipinaction

Welcome to Leadership in Action, the podcast where host Mark Stiles engages in candid conversations with the resilient entrepreneurs of EO’s Boston Chapter. If you're an aspiring business leader, an established entrepreneur, or just someone fascinated by the journey of success, this podcast is your guide to the inspiring world of leadership in action. New episodes drop every other Tuesday, giving you a bi-weekly dose of motivation and valuable insights. Subscribe now to Leadership in Action on your favorite podcast platforms or visit us at leadershipinaction.live.
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Top 10 Leadership in Action Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Leadership in Action episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Leadership in Action for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Leadership in Action episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Leadership in Action - No-one’s a Natural Born Leader - Clemencia Herrera - Leadership in Action- Episode #030

No-one’s a Natural Born Leader - Clemencia Herrera - Leadership in Action- Episode #030

Leadership in Action

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04/05/22 • 48 min

There has been a massive myth built up around the ‘natural born leader’ and what specific traits define someone as one. Clemencia Herrera is breaking down that myth and giving everyone some great advice on how to think about themselves and their teams. You’ll learn what you need to do to become a better leader, what leadership really means, and the importance of being willing to learn, no matter what your title is.

Takeaways:

  • Anyone can become a great leader, regardless of personality, it just requires lots of practice. There is no such thing as a natural leader.
  • It’s important to be open to trying new things, without the fear of failing because regardless if you succeed or not, you will learn something from the experience.
  • Being a good leader is about being able to motivate people to accomplish the team’s goal and getting others to buy into that goal.
  • Becoming a great leader requires a lot of self awareness and a great willingness to not only learn about yourself but also to work on yourself.
  • Leadership is not just about creating a process and then never changing it. You as a leader need to adjust to the evolving needs of your team and the business.
  • As a leader, you need to take the time and expend the effort to work on yourself and develop your own mental toughness.

Links:

Quote of the Show

  • “If your team is feeling good about what they’re doing day-to-day, then you are a good leader” - Clemencia Herrera

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Leadership in Action - Driven by the Data - Chris Borduas - Leadership in Action- Episode #020

Driven by the Data - Chris Borduas - Leadership in Action- Episode #020

Leadership in Action

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01/18/22 • 46 min

For so many people today, anything to do with data management or analysis is seen as something for IT to do or very math intensive. However, Chris Borduas, the Owner of Tillerman, LLC., knows a much more accurate and vibrant side of data management which he is here to share. Learn about how the creative elements and the data analysis mix to make more informed decisions, the importance of understanding your end-users, and how to avoid some of the all too common traps in analyzing data.

Takeaways:

  • Data management is much more than just a function of IT, at its core data management is about understanding a need, figuring out how to serve that need, and how to get the information that you need. It’s really a creative exercise more than anything.
  • There are three components of data management: 1. Where do you get the data; 2. What do you do with the data; 3. How do you make it into something you can use to help run your business.
  • In data management, you should really be trying to simplify the process for people so they can more easily understand and use the data. If you want to drink a glass of water, you can’t drink a single glass of water if it’s coming from a fire hose.
  • To simplify the process for people, there are three steps and questions you have to ask: 1. What’s out there and what do we need; 2. How do we consolidate it into something you can use; 3. Understand the end-use of it.
  • Before you start analyzing data make sure you know what question you’re trying to answer. For example, know what KPIs are going to tell you whether something is a good investment or a bad investment to you.
  • Avoid falling into the ‘Perfection Trap’ of getting caught up in chasing down a >1% variable. Don’t let perfection get in the way of strong directionally accurate information because perfection doesn’t exist.
  • Directionally accurate information is very valuable, especially when you have the ability to make quick decisions based on the directions shown in the data to get ahead of trends, etc.

Links:

Quote of the Show

  • “We're trying to get the right people, the right information they need to make the best decisions they can” -Chris Borduas

Book Recommendation:

  • Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon

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Leadership in Action - No More Silver Bullets - Dale Bertrand - Leadership in Action - Episode #019

No More Silver Bullets - Dale Bertrand - Leadership in Action - Episode #019

Leadership in Action

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01/11/22 • 53 min

Businesses new and old are all looking to digital marketing to provide the one cure-all solution to all of the company’s challenges. Here to shatter this wistful illusion is Dale Bertrand, the founder and president of Fire&Spark, who has a lifetime of experience with digital marketing. Learn how to assess and approach digital marketing for businesses of all sizes, why you always need to be talking with your customers, and how to experiment with and implement digital marketing tactics

Takeaways:

  • It may not be what you want to hear, but there is not a single silver bullet digital marketing tactic that will fix all of your business woes. If digital marketing is even right for you the approach you take is entirely dependent on your company’s unique situation.
  • For young companies, it’s more important and valuable to focus on finding where the first customer is going to come from than where the millionth customer comes from. Try to think about just one customer and what you can do now to really wow them.
  • It’s a myth that if you use a digital channel, you won’t have to talk to any customers and you can still be successful. Talking with customers informs you on the effectiveness of your messaging, what interested them in the product and why they bought it.
  • For companies that are just starting out, call your customers and understand why they bought, and listen carefully to what they say and what words they use. This can help you understand the ‘why’ behind the story of the data you’re seeing.
  • Established companies have more mature marketing, however, they should constantly be improving their messaging, targeting, and product or service so it’s remarkable within that space.
  • In established companies, try out $500 experiments that run for two weeks each. Try different channels, regardless of how they performed in years prior as your messaging, targeting, and product offerings have improved since then.
  • Don’t attribute the failure of a $500 experiment to the channel, the failure is likely more because the combination of messaging, targeting, etc. was not optimized. Find what worked in the campaign and what didn’t and apply those lessons in the future.

Links:

Quote of the Show:

  • “Let’s think about where’s customer number one going to come from, not customer one million” - Dale Bertrand

Book Recommendation:

  • The Thought Leader’s Practice - by Matt Church and Peter Cook

Shout Outs:

  • Bureau of Digital
  • Carl Smith
  • Entrepreneurs Organization
  • EO Accelerator Program

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Leadership in Action - Building to Scale - Eric Crews - Leadership in Action- Episode #018

Building to Scale - Eric Crews - Leadership in Action- Episode #018

Leadership in Action

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01/04/22 • 52 min

To many, running a successful business is scaling their business, but these two ideas are not the same. Eric Crews, the president and founder of Crews Consulting Group, has a lifetime of experience with not only running successful companies but also scaling those companies. Eric shares the three keys to building a successful company and a checklist of five things to make your business scalable.

Takeaways:

  • To actually scale a business, there is much more than just having good operations. Running a successful, profitable business is different than making a business that can scale. While it’s good to make sure the business runs well, it’s not the key to scaling.
  • There are three keys to scaling a company: 1) Your customers must love what you offer and they must love doing business with you; 2) Your employees must absolutely love working with you; 3) You have to make money while doing it.
  • Customers love business regardless of how well they are run, they really just need to love the product. Eg: Apple makes good products but interacting with the company is dreadful for most customers.
  • There is a checklist of five things to make a company that can scale: 1) Get your business operationally strong; 2) Have an extremely strong senior team; 3) Figure out your place in the market; 4) Get sales, marketing, and operations functions all lined up with your uniques; 5) Adopt a red light customer service culture.
  • A “Red Light Customer Service Culture” means that if the customer has a problem and the company can control it then the company has a problem. Clients must feel as though nothing else matters more to the company than them.
  • If you really want to scale, you need to hire people who are smarter than you. You need people in your business who are going to take it to the next level.
  • Even more so than commodity-type businesses, unique strategy businesses must have a firm grasp on both their target market and their TAM (total addressable market).

Links:

Quote of the Show

  • “If you're going to truly scale a business, you're going to need to have much more than good operations to be able to make that happen.” - Eric Crews

Shout Outs:

  • Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great

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Leadership in Action - Superior Speaking Skills - Kerri Garbis - Leadership in Action- Episode #010

Superior Speaking Skills - Kerri Garbis - Leadership in Action- Episode #010

Leadership in Action

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11/09/21 • 49 min

Public speaking is a massive hurdle for so many today. Overcoming the nervousness, the filler words, and the dread of being in front of other people is something a lot of people feel they can’t do. Kerri Garbis, the founder and CEO of Ovation and a long-time speaking coach, joins host Casey Cheshire to provide effective and practical ways to overcome stage fright, remove filler words, and deliver better and more impactful presentations.

Takeaways

  • Picturing people naked does not actually help with stage fright or nervousness, it’s just something perpetuated by an episode of The Brady Bunch.
  • To combat nervousness effectively, you must reset your thinking to something that is more rational than emotional, such as, “what is your goal for the presentation?”
  • The first way to “get of your head” is to use physically targeted thoughts. Try standing or sitting in a neutral position with equal weight on both feet and your arms by your sides. One trick is to put a coin in one of your shoes, this takes your mind off of the presentation and keeps you present in the moment.
  • The second way to “get out of your head” is practicing prior. Practicing is not just thinking the presentation through in your head, you have to say it out loud and it helps if you can say it to another person, an animal, or a listening device.
  • To practice more effectively, try running through the presentation three times with a different goal each time. These goals could be focusing on the story structure, refining your body language, going through the whole thing without pausing, etc.
  • The third way to “get out of your head” is by finding and implementing a “Pregame Ritual” that works for you. This could be anything that gets you in the right state of mind to present well. Examples include: breathing exercises, physical warmups, “speaker” warmups, vocal warmups, “speed racer” (saying the whole thing as fast as possible, listening to music, etc.
  • Pauses are a great way to remove filler words. Start by trying to stop using filler words in small chunks, such as your next phone call. Pauses also help recapture the audience’s attention.

Links:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerrigarbis/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/kerrigarbis?lang=en
  • Company website: https://www.getovation.com
  • Her book: Presentation Skills for Managers: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H62G8FK/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Quote of the Show

  • Practice with accountability

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Leadership in Action - Strength in Authenticity - Avery Williams - Leadership in Action - Episode # 075

Strength in Authenticity - Avery Williams - Leadership in Action - Episode # 075

Leadership in Action

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03/05/24 • 32 min

The week’s guest is a client focused marketing strategist with a deep rooted passion for businesses to succeed. Introducing Avery Williams, Founder & Marketing Strategist at New England Paradigm! Avery sits down with host Mark Stiles to share her experiences with the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), her passion for continuous learning, travel, and wine, and the impact of spirituality on her personal and professional life. Mark and Avery also touch on the significance of purpose and impact, as well as their shared excitement about the future of EO Boston. It’s an exciting episode you don’t want to miss!

Takeaways:

  • Lean into the lifestyle of "everything happens for you, not to you.” This positive mindset helps in dealing with challenges and having grace with the process of business growth. It's important to have faith and patience, allowing things to develop before expecting immediate results.
  • Surrendering to the uncertainties of entrepreneurship and embracing vulnerability can lead to positive relationships and personal growth. Being authentic and accepting imperfections can strengthen relationships with clients and team members.
  • Building strong relationships with clients, team members, and mentors is crucial for success. Surrounding yourself with the right people who lift you up and being conscious of the impact you have on others can create a supportive and empowering environment.
  • Differentiating from traditional agencies, the focus is on being adaptable and providing personalized marketing and design services at a more affordable cost. Marketing plans should be living documents that evolve as the business and market landscape change.
  • EO provides a supportive network of like-minded entrepreneurs who can provide guidance, share experiences, and offer a non-judgmental space to discuss business challenges. EO accelerates personal and business growth through learning events and access to resources.
  • A key hobby for Avery is continuous learning through reading books, listening to podcasts, and expanding knowledge. There is always something new to learn and it helps in personal and professional growth.
  • The idea of unity and making a positive impact in both personal and business aspects is essential for personal fulfillment and success. It involves finding purpose, being present, and understanding the importance of relationships.

Links:

Quote of the Show

  • “Everything happens for you, not to you.” - Avery Williams

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Leadership in Action - Education And A Good Sense Of Humor - Sandra Batakis - Leadership in Action- Episode #55

Education And A Good Sense Of Humor - Sandra Batakis - Leadership in Action- Episode #55

Leadership in Action

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01/24/23 • 36 min

Welcome back to another episode of Leadership In Action! Joining the show this week is an IT visionary who started her journey into Information Technology over 20 years ago.

Providing both consulting and training, she has over 200 video based courses available for purchase worldwide. Please welcome to the show, Founder and CEO of Sandra Network, Sandra Batakis. Host Mark Stiles sits down with Sandra to learn about the importance of having an easily communicable name, using education and humor to handle conversations with clients, and Sandra’s gardening setup in Maine.

Takeaways:

  • Many people are drawn to being an entrepreneur because you “get to make your own schedule”. You do get to make your own schedule, but that schedule revolves around running a business.
  • A lot of people view being an entrepreneur as not having a boss. While you don’t have a traditional manager, both your customers and employees end up being your boss as you have to meet their needs.
  • It is important to make sure your company name is easily communicable, and that people can spell it and find it easily.
  • When you face business challenges, it is tempting to first go to your spouse or friends for advice. While they may be great listeners, and incredibly caring, if they don’t run businesses their advice may fall a little short.
  • Imposter syndrome is more common than you may think. Those same feelings of inability can provide a powerful tool to help you identify areas to learn more about.
  • Despite strides made to improve the gender gap, networking IT still remains a heavily male dominated field.
  • Having recorded educational content provides value in multiple ways. That content can be used as a marketing tool, but it can also be used as an onboarding tool when implementing new processes at a client of yours.

Links:

Quote of the Show

  • “Anyone who thinks they are permanently on top, is wrong.” - Sandra Batakis

Ways to Tune In:

Transcript:

Mark Stiles: hey folks. Welcome back to Leadership in Action. This is your Boston chapter of EOS podcast. Today's. Is an IT visionary.

She started her journey into information technology over 28 years ago, providing both consulting and training. She has 200 video-based courses available for purchase worldwide. In 1999, she started her own company with the goal to combine great IT support with user functionality. She's been neo member for under one year. She's the founder and c e O of Sandra Network. Please meet Sandra Patak. Welcome to the show, Sandra.

Sandra Batakis: Thanks, mark. Glad to be here.

Mark Stiles: Cool. You ready to get right into it? Sure. Let's go. What is a common misconception about leader? Running a business and or being an entrepreneur to you?

Sandra Batakis: Ah, that's easy. Uh, that it is easy, actually. I guess that is a misconception, , um, that I get to make my own schedule and I seem to have endless vacation time ,

Mark Stiles: so it's easy at the top.

Look at me at the top, I'm at the top. I'm doing i...

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Leadership in Action - Growth By Acquisition - James Evans - Leadership in Action- Episode #53

Growth By Acquisition - James Evans - Leadership in Action- Episode #53

Leadership in Action

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12/27/22 • 42 min

Today’s guest is a local entrepreneur who comes from a financing and consulting background. He’s a landscaping legend, and the kind of leader that rolls up his sleeves and gets it done. James Evans is the CEO of Jim’s Landscaping, and Principal at Gladstone Capital LLC. Host extraordinaire Mark Stiles interviews James to learn more about his background, hear James’s tips for entrepreneurs, and explore the challenges of running a successful landscaping company.

Takeaways:

  • You don’t need to quit your day job to start a business. Having a steady source of income removes risk, and can make financing your business easier.
  • When you take on a side project while still holding a job, it is important to be transparent with your employer. Establish boundaries, and communicate clearly what your plans are.
  • As an entrepreneur, you need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Things go wrong, and it’s important to be able to adapt.
  • Landscaping companies offer a unique opportunity for acquisition. Many owners are looking to retire, but there are not many people looking to take up the mantle. These situations offer an easy way to acquire a business that is already running smoothly.
  • The ability to prioritize is important when you run your own business. You will be tasked with overseeing all aspects of the company but you will only have so much time to devote.
  • When starting a new landscaping company, growth can be slow and costly. Each employee will require tools and transportation, which can add up quickly.
  • When James acquired his landscaping company, he put a high focus on elevating customer service. He makes sure that a human always picks up the phone, that emails are responded to quickly, and has updated payment processes allowing customers to pay with credit cards.

Links:

Quote of the Show

  • “What's dangerous is never taking a shot at something.” - James Evans

Book Recommendation:

  • Jim Koch - Quench Your Own Thirst

Ways to Tune In:

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Leadership in Action - Entrepreneurial Elegance - Pedro Nuñez - Leadership in Action - Episode #52

Entrepreneurial Elegance - Pedro Nuñez - Leadership in Action - Episode #52

Leadership in Action

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12/13/22 • 37 min

He’s an entrepreneur and business owner who uses his experiences to drive solutions for his customers. His company was featured in Inc. Magazine’s Inc 5000 for 2020 and 2021, and was named a member of the MSP 501 in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Pedro Nuñez is President & CEO at IT Management Solutions, and this week’s guest. Join host Mark Stiles on this episode of Leadership In Action as he interviews Pedro to learn about his background, the IT landscape, and the importance of visualizing your goals.

Takeaways:

  • Anyone can be an entrepreneur, but not everyone can be a leader. Anyone can open a business, but it requires a specific set of skills to convince people to follow your directions.
  • Everyone needs an end goal. If you don’t know what you are working towards, getting there is going to be a lot more difficult.
  • As a leader, your tone sets the ceiling for the rest of the organization. If you set your own goals low, you limit the capacity of your employees.
  • While tracking all the small details can be time consuming, it allows you to provide highly detailed and accurate offerings to customers.
  • The biggest threat to small businesses right now is cyber security.
  • While recessions are worrying, the best plan a business can have is to set clear goals and push towards them.
  • While many IT companies are solely focused on what they can fix for clients, the most successful ones are those that want to help clients increase revenue, mitigate risk, and help their clients achieve their goals.

Links:

Quote of the Show

  • “You don’t need to be talented, you need to be consistent and disciplined.” - Pedro Nuñez

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Leadership in Action - Don’t Skip The Training Wheels - Kristen Sweeney - Leadership in Action- Episode #012

Don’t Skip The Training Wheels - Kristen Sweeney - Leadership in Action- Episode #012

Leadership in Action

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11/23/21 • 33 min

Entrepreneurs are always trying to get their business out of its training wheels as fast as possible while experiencing the fewest growing pains possible. A successful entrepreneur in her own right, Kristen Sweeney, owner of Kristen Sweeney Consulting and copywriting extraordinaire, is this episode’s special guest. Learn about solving problems at every level of business, how to set expectations for growing your business, and the importance of going through those growing pains with your business and learning from them.

Takeaways:

  • Even with as much as you may learn about how to run a business in a classroom, you can’t skip past your business’ training wheels. The growing pains are an essential part of developing both your business and yourself.
  • If your company is truly operating really well, there’s nothing that will jump out at you and catch you off guard.
  • Just because your company is growing doesn’t mean that you can outgrow your problems. As your company grows, so do your problems.
  • You will never be able to get to a point where you have solved every single problem that your company has or could have.
  • The problems that your company faces will grow and evolve and you will have to stay vigilant to catch them and be open-minded to solve them.
  • The Great resignation has really shown that a lot of people are taking a step back and reevaluating what they want in life. It is important that you have a Personal/Professional Alignment between your work and your life outside of work.
  • A good way to wind down before bed is reading. It’s better to read fiction before bed than a business book because if you read a business book you’re more likely to be kept up by trying to figure out how to implement what you just read, leading to worse sleep.

Quote of the Show

  • “You have to grow up, your company has to grow up, You have to grow up as a leader. You can't go from being five to being 15, just because you hang out with a bunch of teenagers, you have to be seven first” -Kristen Sweeney

Links:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-sweeney-1209/
  • Crews Consulting Group website: https://crewsconsultinggroup.com/
  • Kristen Sweeney Consulting website: https://www.kristensweeneyconsulting.com/

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FAQ

How many episodes does Leadership in Action have?

Leadership in Action currently has 80 episodes available.

What topics does Leadership in Action cover?

The podcast is about Leadership, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Podcasts, Journey, Business and Inspiring.

What is the most popular episode on Leadership in Action?

The episode title 'Bridging the Digital Divide with Dylan Zajac - Leadership in Action - Episode # 071' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Leadership in Action?

The average episode length on Leadership in Action is 43 minutes.

How often are episodes of Leadership in Action released?

Episodes of Leadership in Action are typically released every 9 days, 23 hours.

When was the first episode of Leadership in Action?

The first episode of Leadership in Action was released on Sep 8, 2021.

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