424: Deep Purpose is the Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies with Ranjay Gulati

When you end an interview with a Harvard Business School professor and he tells you your questions made him think, it kinda makes your day (or maybe your week, your month, your year, or, perhaps your life)!

Though we may not see eye-to-eye on all the issues he presented, I consider the chance to chat with him extremely rewarding and fulfilling.

The professor I’m talking about is Ranjay Gulati. He’s written numerous books, his latest of which is called Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies.

He says few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent years than the notion of corporate purpose, and for good reason. Too many companies deploy purpose, or a reason for being, as a promotional vehicle to make themselves feel virtuous and to look good to the outside world.

Some, he says, only have foggy ideas about wha tpurpose is and conflate it witih stratgy and otehr concepts like “mission,” “vision,” and “values.”

Ranjay takes readers inside some of the world’s most purposeful companies to understand the secrets to their successes.

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

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410: Creating the Most Persuasive Presentations of Your Life with Dan Roam

My guest today is someone I’ve learned a ton from when it comes to creating and delivering better presentations.

dan roam

His name is Dan Roam. I was first impacted by his first book called The Back of the Napkin (links to his books below). Then, it was Show and Tell and Draw to Win. Later, I had the chance to see him present in person and even got to meet him afterward. He is incredibly gifted at what he does.

His new book, which was released in October of last year, is called The Pop-Up Pitch: The Two-Hour Creative Sprint to the Most Persuasive Presentation of Your Life.

In it, Dan outlines a fast and practical visual storytelling method that puts a powerful new toolkit into the hands of leaders, innovators, salespeople, teachers, and anyone who needs to quickly make an impact on increasingly distracted audiences.

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

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395: How Leading Organizations Blend the Digital and Physical with Robert E. Siegel

One of the perks of hosting a show like Read to Lead, of course, is the chance to sit down with some pretty incredible authors. And, sometimes, those same authors are lecturers at prestigious business schools.

robert siegel

In the past, I’ve had the chance for sit-downs with Dr. Richard Shell and Jonah Berger of the infamous Wharton Business School.

Today, we move across the continent to the other coast, as I chat with Robert Siegel, lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

His work there includes teaching graduate and Executive Education classes and doing extensive research on such companies as Google, Schwab, AB InBev, Stripe, and SurveyMonkey. He’s also a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firms XSeed Capital and Piva, and he sits on the boards of several startups.

His new book is called The Brains and Brawn Company: How Leading Organizations Blend the Best of the Digital and Physical.

Business leaders, according to Robert, are continually told they need to embrace digital disruption wholeheartedly to thrive in the 21st Century. Legacy companies, we’re told, are all doomed to fail unless they double down on the latest digital innovations, and disruptors are ordained to take over the world. Digital innovation is the answer to everything.

That’s not true, Robert says. Nothing in life or business is ever that simple. Wanna learn more?

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

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378: The 8 Step Blueprint To Building A Profitable Personal Brand Business with Mike Kim

I first met Mike Kim at the first-ever Podcast Movement conference in 2014, and I liked him immediately. Unassuming, humble, but incredibly smart and well-spoken. My kinda guy.

Mike Kim

But that ain’t the half of it, as they say.

Mike is someone I have so much respect for. Everything he does, he does with absolute class. He’s an amazing teacher and a fantastic and confident public speaker.

And I love the fact that after meeting him nearly 8 years ago at that “little” conference, he’s finally coming out with a book (just one month before me), making it possible for me to have him on Read to Lead.

Mike’s new book, releasing next week, is called You Are the Brand: The 8-Step Blueprint to Showcase Your Unique Expertise and Build a Highly Profitable, Personally Fulfilling Business.

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

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363: The Common Path to Uncommon Success with John Lee Dumas

On the day Read to Lead was launched back in July of 2013, I had prepared three interview episodes to release on that day.

john lee dumas

One of those interviews was with a guy who makes his first visit back in nearly 8 years. His name is John Lee Dumas, and if you’ve enjoyed listening to podcasts for any length of time, you’ve no doubt heard his name.

Since 2012, John has released over 3000 episodes of the award-winning Entrepreneurs on Fire, interviewing some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. In fact, for nearly the first 6 years, he released an episode every day of the week!

He’s earned millions helping others do the same with membership sites, courses, mastermind groups, and more.

His new book is called The Common Path to Uncommon Success: A Roadmap to Financial Freedom and Fulfillment, and it’s been hailed as the modern-day version of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.

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

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