Breakfast Leadership Show

Featured Interview with Blank Check Author Aaron Smith

Repeat guest Aaron Smith joins Michael to discuss the new book Blank Check: 
This intriguing, inspirational Young Adult novel takes place on a fictional U.S. island, but the story that evolves could help reshape public schools in America.
Challenges young adults to think outside the box and care enough about how children are educated to participate in re-imagining public education
Shares a discussion as to how education is currently viewed and the cultural impact on how one learns
Asks the reader to think about what graduates should look like upon completing high school and how they should be prepared for a career
Helps the reader understand why public education is not working for all students
Allows the opportunity for readers to have empathy for the frustration educators face on a daily basis
Inspiring young adults to reimagine public education, Blank Check is a novel about young people and a generation that is prepared to step in and re-engineer public education.
The problem with gathering the forces of educators and businesses to advance the process of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) with Career and Technical Education (CTE) education is not that it is unworthy of their attention.
It’s not that it’s unimportant to the future kids coming through public schools.It’s not that people do not get cheered when they champion new standards.It’s ALL of these.
STEM and CTE education need a story. Today’s culture advances things through storytelling. It needs a context. That’s what happens when there is allowed incremental advances to nonchalantly lead the way. It fails to inspire. Blank Check is that story. It’s a fictional tale grounded in pure reality. It is an intriguing, inspirational Young Adult novel that takes place on a fictional U.S. island, but the story that evolves could help reshape public schools in America. So here, for the first and hopefully not the last time, there is a tale offered that can inspire people because when the destination can be seen in the distance, it quickens one’s pace.
https://aaronsmithphd.com/blank-check/

Interview with Jude Charles

Jude Charles is a story-driven filmmaker, brand strategist & speaker.For over 13 years, he has been producing exponential returns for purpose-driven entrepreneurs through documentaries & videos.He lives and breathes YOUR brand. He digs deep to find the compelling stories that no one else knows & then leverages those stories to scale your business. http://judecharles.co

Surviving COVID-19 Financial Stress with Jennifer Luzzatto

Jennifer has some great insights for how families can survive and thrive afterward with respect to COVID-19, including:
If you have cash sitting in a savings account, consider whether to add to your investment portfolios.  A market correction is an excellent opportunity to put cash to work.
If you are actively adding to your portfolio already, through regular investments, whether through 401K plans, your IRAs or taxable portfolios, rejoice!  You are being presented with a buying opportunity..
If you need an unexpected distribution from one of your investment accounts, sell bonds, or mostly bonds, depending on the composition of your portfolio, so you are not forced to sell into a down market.
https://www.summitfinancialpartnersrva.com/our-team/

COVID-19 Check In with Michael

Michael touches base on COVID-19, asks people to only buy what they need at grocery stores, to allow people with limited income to get what they need.
Book a call to discuss your burnout:  https://www.meetingbird.com/l/bfastleadership/Intro

Interview with Jules Pieri

Jules Pieri is Co-Founder and CEO of the product launch platform The Grommet. The company’s Citizen Commerce™ movement is reshaping how consumer products get discovered, shared, and bought. Jules started her career as an industrial designer for technology companies and was subsequently a senior executive for large brands, such as Keds, Stride Rite, and Playskool. The Grommet is her third startup, following roles as VP at Design Continuum and President of Ziggs.com. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan and people tell her she is the first designer to graduate from Harvard Business School, where she is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence. Jules was named one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs in 2013. In June, 2014, Jules was invited to the White House Maker Faire to launch The Grommet Wholesale Platform, connecting Makers with Main Street Retailers. She writes a personal blog at jules.thegrommet.com, and the “CEO Unplugged column on Inc.com. She posts as @julespieri on Twitter and Instagram.

How COVID-19 Has Created Withdrawal with Brenda Cross

Here's Brenda's article on coping mechanisms:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/youve-been-stripped-your-usual-stress-coping-mechanisms-brenda-cross/
Brenda Cross is the founder and Chief Transformation Officer for CrossCraft Consulting. CrossCraft Consulting is a Learning and Development consultancy specializing in interpersonal communications and sales training.Brenda is a transformational facilitator, coach and business development consultant with extensive experience in the financial and real estate sectors. She has been training throughout her 15-year professional career. Six of those years where on Wall Street including a final project serving in the Office of the Chairman at JP Morgan Chase before she got the entrepreneurial call.Brenda then went into real estate and had a successful career as a real estate broker with a top luxury firm in Manhattan and affiliate of Christie’s International. Her success as a broker invited speaking and training opportunities both internally and externally. She launched her consultancy and has been training and coaching ever since.Brenda has consulted and trained for several international training companies serving corporate, start-up and small business clients and she’s facilitated throughout North America, UK, and SE Asia. Brenda specializes in experiential learning using gamification and simulations to put theory into practice, so people leave with hands-on experience and applicable tools.  She is skilled in many assessment tools including: BANK, DISC, MBTI, and Values Determination. Her passion for studying and understanding human behavior lends well to helping others build skills in Sales, Team Productivity and Communication, Negotiation, Performance Management, Personal Brand and more.Brenda has earned several coaching certifications and maintains accreditation with the premier ICF - International Coaching Federation. As a coach for executives, teams, and entrepreneurs, Brenda uses her extensive experience and perspective to help identify strategic solutions while aligning personal and organizational priorities and values. By fostering additional capabilities and understanding, Brenda helps companies and individuals reach their desired results.
 
https://www.crosscraftconsulting.com/

Interview with Jay Gabrani

After his first child was born in 2005, Jay jumped into the world of real estate investing. Despite several challenges along the way, he built a multiple seven-figure real estate portfolio. That portfolio helped him take a multi-year sabbatical to deal with heartbreaking personal tragedy when his wife passed away in 2014. This experience lead Jay to reevaluate the purpose of his life while taking a multi year sabbatical. Before his wife passed away, Jay thought he was financially prepared. After going through the experience of being the executor of his wife's estate, he realized he wasn't.
Today, Jay makes an impact raising his three children and empowering Fathers to secure their Family's Financial Future as the founder of Prepared Fathers. He achieves this through his one-on-one and group coaching programs and his daily podcast A Minute with Jay.
He is a frequent podcast guest and does a limited number of speaking engagements. You can learn more about Jay at jaygabrani.com.

How COVID-19 Killed Sudden Coffee: An Interview with Founder Josh Zloof

COVID-19 has the potential of permanently closing 30% of small businesses.  One business where that happened is Sudden Coffee.
This powerful and vulnerable interview with Josh Zloof, founder of Sudden Coffee will shed light on the challenges that many small businesses face.
Per Josh:Unfortunately, the COVID outbreak hit us pretty bad and we're permanently closing Sudden :-/ I'm in the midst of it as we speak.For a little more context - we actually had our best revenue months on record in Jan & Feb, we were getting strong traction/ product market fit. However, we needed additional funding and feedback from the VC world was that they did not want to fund food manufacturing because it was a physical goods business. Amidst all of this of course, the outbreak happened.I'm planning on writing a retrospective on it once the dust settles - its a strange case to have 'product market fit' but are forced to shut down because its difficult to capitalize.  Framework for Determining What Career Opportunities to Pursue - Josh tried out 10+ different business ideas over 1.5 years. It wasn't until he identified his values (Purpose, Community, Growth, and Excitement) and matched them to his ideas that he shut down all of the companies that didn't align and launched Sudden Coffee.https://www.suddencoffee.com/pages/products