Category Archives: Career

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472: Arguing for the Good in Bad English with Valerie Fridland

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If you’ve ever wondered if I geek out over anything besides books, today you get your answer.

valerie fridland

It’s a related topic, as it involves a form of communication. Language.

Mind you, I was not a particularly strong language student in school (though I could diagram a sentence pretty well). But I scored a measly 405 on the language side of the SAT (okay, so I also got a 405 on the math half). Yep, a whopping 810. Yikes!

But my love for language, or at least learning about it as an adult, dates back at least 20 years when I read a book by John McWhorter called Doing Our Own Thing.

I remember thinking to myself at the time, “I don’t personally know a single other person who would enjoy this book the way I have.” 🙂 Us language nerds are weird that way, I guess.

But if you’re anything like me—and I’m guessing you because you enjoy this show—you’re in for a real treat today. My guest is Valerie Fridland. She’s written a book called Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English.

Language change, Valerie argues, is natural, built into the language system itself, and we wouldn’t be who we are without it. Her book celebrates the dynamic, ongoing, and empowering evolution of language, and it will speak to anyone who talks, or listens, inspiring them to communicate dynamically and effectively in their daily lives.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Valerie and her work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

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471: The Microstress Effect with Karen Dillon

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One of my favorite authors is Clay Christensen, who has written books like The Innovator’s Dilemma, Competing Against Luck, and How Will You Measure Your Life?.

karen dillon

One thing several of his books have in common is a coauthor by the name of Karen Dillon. She’s now cowritten another new book, this time with Rob Cross, called The Microstress Effect: How Little Things Pile Up and Create Big Problems—and What to Do About It.

Karen says there’s a force we encounter every day that we aren’t aware of—and it threatens to derail otherwise promising careers and lives: microstress.

This hidden epidemic of small moments of stress has insidiously infiltrated both our work and our personal lives with invisible but devastating effects. Microstress doesn’t trigger the normal stress response in our brains to help us deal with it.

Instead, it embeds itself in our minds and accumulates daily, one microstress on top of the other. The long-term impact can be debilitating. Unregistered microstress weighs us down, damages our physical and emotional health, and contributes to a decline in our well-being. What’s more, microstress is baked into our lives. The source is seldom a classic antagonist, such as a demanding client or a jerk boss. Instead, it comes from the people with whom we are closest: our friends, family, and colleagues.

The good news is that once you understand microstress, you can fight back. Rob and Karen share the secrets of a small set of people who’ve endured their share of microstress but have still managed to cultivate relationships that enable them to thrive both at work and in life.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Karen and her work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

Join in on our chat below

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470: Turn Your Biggest Fears Into Your Leadership Superpower with Morra Aarons-Mele

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At the beginning of the year, I identified the six books I was most looking forward to in the first half of this year. My goal is to interview the author of all six books.

morra aarons-mele

With today’s guest we’re officially three out of four on that front. I’m talking about Morra Aarons-Mele. Her latest book is called The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears Into Your Leadership Superpower.

Turns out anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in the world. But in our workplaces, anxiety has been a hidden problem—there in plain sight but ignored. Until now.

The Anxious Achiever is a book with a mission: to normalize anxiety and leadership. As leadership expert and self-proclaimed anxious achiever Morra Aarons-Mele argues, anxiety is built into the very nature of leadership. It can—and should—be harnessed into a force for good.

Whether you’re experiencing anxiety for the first time or have been battling it for years, The Anxious Achiever will help you turn your stress and worries into a source of strength for yourself, your career, and the people you lead.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about James and his work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

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469: Optimizing Learning and Development in the Workplace with James McKenna

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If there’s one thing in life I’ve grown to love, it’s learning. That hasn’t always been the case. But ever since I fell back in love with books in 2003, I’ve been on a learning journey that has no end in sight (and that’s A-OK with me).

james mckenna

I see myself today as a lifelong learner. That you’re here probably means you see yourself in much the same way. One thing I’ve enjoyed learning more about lately is learning itself. In other words, learning how to learn.

That’s why I am especially excited today for you to hear from author James McKenna.

His new book offers an accessible guide to understanding and applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to the workplace. Using exemplars from across sectors and industries, James highlights how learning and development professionals can redefine the goals of learning in the corporate environment – not only for the benefit of the organization but also, and perhaps more importantly, for the individual.

His book, Upskill, Reskill, Thrive illustrates how to create and sustain learning and work environments that honor and empower individuals in ways that promote knowledge generation and sharing.

It’s a book that will help L&D educators and corporate leaders motivate their teams from the inside to improve performance and become part of an inclusive culture across an organization.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about James and his work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

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468: Stop Writing Books Nobody Reads with Debs Jenkins

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Networks are an amazing thing. And to think I never even considered what a boon this podcast could be to my own network when I launched it nearly 10 years ago.

debs jenkins

There is Dan Horowitz of LinkedIn. He read my book and invited me to speak to his employees. Later, he introduced me to author Ann Latham. Ann would appear on the podcast twice in less than three months.

Ann, then introduced me to the person I have the privilege of speaking with today. Debs Jenkins.

Debs is a book writing coach, and author of Stop Writing Books Nobody Reads: The Dangerously Effective Way to Write and Publish a Book That People Read and Refer.

Debs says that you don’t need a long book published by a traditional publisher to get what you need. You need to get short valuable ideas out to your market in a professional way, as quickly as possible.

Many people, Debs says, don’t get their ideas turned into things (books written) because they skip an element in the process, reinvent the process or don’t even have a process to start with. When you have the process you can turn your thoughts into many different things. This book gives you the process so you can write your book that will be read and referred!

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Debs and her work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

Join in on our chat below

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