Category Archives: Career

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442: Your Most Important Work is Always Ahead of You with Cynthia Covey Haller

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Stephen M. R. Covey has been one of my most favorite authors to interview. I’ve had that opportunity now three times! So when he suggested I talk to his sister about the book she was finishing up, a book co-written with their late father, I didn’t hesitate to say “yes.”

cynthia covey haller

That new book, out today, is called Live Life in Crescendo: Your Most Important Work is Always Ahead of You.

This is the final book from the late, legendary leadership expert Stephen R. Covey of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People fame, offering inspiration and optimism about living your best life.

He and Cynthia began working on it over ten years ago and it’s finally here!

Near the end of his life, Stephen felt there was a final component to his work:

  • How to live your best life no matter your age?
  • How to best respond to life-challenging experiences and setbacks?
  • How do you approach the challenges and opportunities of middle to later life, like staying on top of your career, leading and inspiring others, expanding your role in your community , and what follows next?

Live Life in Crescendo is his and Cynthia’s answer to these questions, outlining his vision for every age and stage of life.

Click the play button below to learn more Cynthia, the late Stephen R. Covey, and their book.

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441: The 4 Key Components to Taking Smart Notes

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When it comes to effective note-taking—or what I like to call note-making—most of us have never been properly trained.

Jeff Brown

In today’s episode, I walk through the four key components you need to understand in order to turn your useless notes of the past into your smart notes of the future.

Simply put…

If you want to improve retention and comprehension of the content you consume for learning and growth…

If you want to be the go-to person for ideas and insights when everyone else gets stuck…

If you’d like to see the outputs that result from your content consumption efforts lead to new connections, well-deserved promotions, and opportunities that were previously out of reach…

…then your notes—your Personal Knowledge Management system—is the difference maker…the one thing that, all else being equal, will give you the edge…a crystal clear advantage.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about the keys to effective note-taking. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

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438: How to Engage Your Employees and Drive Organizational Excellence with Patrick Veroneau

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Some might say it’s a publisher’s dream. Others might suggest it’s a technique that is overused. When it comes to an author’s use of acronyms to help illustrate their methods, I am an absolute fan.

Patrick Veroneau

In the book featured on the podcast today, there are no fewer than four (maybe even five) acronyms used to describe the author’s ideas. And in my view, every single one is a winner.

Why? Because they help make the concepts stick. And if they stick, then it means we’re much more likely to put them into practice.

And isn’t that the point of reading a book in the first place?

My guest today is Patrick Veroneau, and he’s written a book called The Leadership Bridge: How to Engage Your Employees and Drive Organizational Excellence.

Patrick believes that leaders who align their leadership behaviors to satisfy the needs of their employees will build cultures that are both engaging and profitable.

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

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437: Got Years of Notes Scattered All Over the Place? Let’s Fix That!

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When it comes to effective note-taking, the kind that leads to breakthroughs, to new ideas, being able to remember where you stored a specific thought, connecting new ideas to existing ideas and more, understanding your note-taking archetype, or style, is a key first step.

Jeff Brown

I first learned about note-taking archetypes from Anne-Laure Le Cunff over at NESS Labs.

In their simplest form, they are:

  • Architect
  • Gardener
  • Librarian
  • Student

An Architect likes structure, and the ability to—I would assert—majorly customize their note-taking environment. They may even want something they can build from the ground up. For them, the app Notion is a great choice.

Gardeners (like myself), enjoy allowing their notes to breathe a bit more, giving them the opportunity to go wherever they may; to take on a life of their own, perhaps. We Gardeners thrive on serendipity when it comes to our note-taking. Our app(s) of choice tend to be either Roam Research or Obsidian (my personal favorite).

Then there are the Librarians, arguably the largest consortium of note-takers. Librarians tend to thrive on order and hierarchies. They often relish the typical folder structures we see as a part of most digital organizational systems. Many in this group tend to prefer the popular Evernote app.

All of us play the role of Student on occasion, maybe because we are one, maybe out of necessity, we don’t favor a particular style, we just want easy, the info we’re capturing will only be used temporarily, etc. Depending on the computer ecosystem you’re in the most, you might leverage Apple Notes (iOS), Google Keep (Android), or an app like Drafts.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about note-taking styles and the best apps suited for each. I’d love to hear from you and learn about which note-taking style you most identify with.

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435: How Anyone Can Turn An Unsolved Problem Into a Breakthrough Success with Danny Warshay

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There seem to be a lot of college professors writing books these days; or at least I’m interviewing my fair share of them. That many are writing their first (or in some cases second, third, or fourth) book is for good reason. Their research and experiences testing their theories in the classroom is something few of us have the ability to do.

danny warshay

My latest guest is a professor at Brown University. His name is Danny Warshay and he’s written a new book called See, Solve, Scale: How Anyone Can Turn an Unsolved Problem Into a Breakthrough Success.

Entrepreneurship, he says, is not a spirit or a gift. It is a process that anyone can learn, and that anyone can use to turn a problem into a solution with impact.

Danny overturns the common misconception that entrepreneurship is a hardwired trait or the sole province of high-flying MBAs, and provides a proven method to identify consequential problems and an accessible process anyone can learn, master and apply to solve them.

In short, you’ll learn how to find and validate a problem, develop an initial small-scale solution, and scale a long-term solution.

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

Join in on our chat below

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