Episodes

What is the Eisenhower Matrix? It helps you prioritize your tasks. It's useful because it sorts tasks into categories based on urgency and importance. Dwight D. Eisenhower was America's 34th president from 1953 to 1961. Before leading the country as President, he served in the United States Army and rose to Supreme Commander of Allied Forces to win World War II. He also later became the first supreme commander of NATO. Having to make tough decisions regularly while juggling many competing ...

Have you felt stuck? In a rut, with no idea how to get out of it? Well, then this episode is for you! Discipline and consistency, combined with action. This “magic formula” causes opportunities you could have never dreamed of to present themselves. Few things are more satisfying than achieving a goal that you've been working towards for months or even years. With discipline, you’ll create a greater chance for your success. With consistency, you stay on the path that will lead you to that succ...

Self-confidence is not about how good you are, it's about how good you think you are. We are constantly bombarded with messages that tell us that we are not good enough. It's important to remind ourselves that these messages are not true. No matter who you are, what you do, or where you come from, you have the ability to learn new skills and also to make mistakes. Mistakes are part of life and of learning. So let's stop putting ourselves down and start building up our own self-confidence!

Our episode today is about crafting a complaint email that gets results. Cristina has a rant about her returns issue with the discount boutique Ruelala that is hilarious. Amazingly, a powerful email outline emerges that will work for you every time! There are few things more frustrating than receiving a product that doesn't match our expectations. Imagine Cristina's disappointment when she wanted to return those items, only to be told she exceeded her return allowance! The horror! That's when...

Have you ever sat through a meeting that could have been an email? Ever ended a meeting with no clarity around what is to happen next? Too often, meetings are called without true purpose and intent wasting our most valuable resource - time. A great meeting brings the right people together with an established intent and clear understanding of what success looks like. Meetings are a vital tool that establishes consensus, inspires innovation, and advances initiatives forward. When appropriately ...

Effective communication is about how you exchange information with others. It’s about understanding the emotion and intent of the message rather than just the content.

Trust refers to the belief that someone is fair, transparent, and honest, among other attributes. The most important thing about building trust is that it starts with you. You need to believe in what you are doing and what you are trying to accomplish. That sense of trust helps create a safe environment where your team members, friends, and family feel comfortable asking questions or sharing ideas. Trust in the workplace is a must-have, not a nice-to-have. You can create a workplace that a...

Ghosts in the Machine is not just an idea. The term "ghost" describes the insecurities, fears, memories, and attachments that haunt us. Our past experiences can impact how we approach present-day situations. These ghosts that we live with may create false assumptions about how other people see us and judge our actions.

As we begin this New Year, we thought this the perfect time to talk sales predictions for 2022 and beyond. Whether you are in the sales business or not, you are in the sales business! Don’t believe us? Have you looked for a new job? Have you tried promoting a great idea you have? Have you tried to buy something without getting ripped off? Well, guess what? You were, in fact, selling or a part of the sales process. Understanding sales is a skill you’ll want to cultivate to reach the potenti...

The Holidays are over with one notable exception: New Year’s Day. This is the day that many people make some sort of resolution. People have been making New Year’s Resolutions as far back as the 1600s. Perhaps even longer than that. Why are we so set on making resolutions when they often don’t last? What’s really happening is people do so much of what they shouldn’t in December. They then resolve to change all of that on New Year’s Day, just to fall back into their bad habits later in January!...

The Holiday’s are a special time of the year. We take time to gather with family and friends, time to appreciate what we have, splurge on gifts, and indulge in all of our favorite foods. What about your work, your job, or your business? How do you stay effective during the Holidays? How do you use this time when people are taking a pause to set yourself up for success in the new year? In this episode, we dive into the realities of business during these last weeks of the year. The slowing down,...

It’s easy to think of business challenges as separate and distinct from our personal challenges, yet the two so frequently go hand in hand. Running a business, large or small, consumes a large part of one’s day, and also a large part of one’s emotional capacity. Khris Reina, a father of 5, a successful commercial real estate investor, entrepreneur, and the owner of The Oakley Kitchen + Cocktails, a popular restaurant and bar in Nutley, NJ shares how the past two years challenged him in ways h...

Resilience is often learned and developed through early life experiences. As we continue this resilience series, we are joined by a very special guest known as Laura Graziano to most, but mom and wife to us. Not only is she the woman that keeps the heart of our family beating, she also has an inspiring story of resilience. Growing up with a mother afflicted with mental illness, Laura learned from an early age to accept what is, use writing as a creative outlet, and spend time outdoors. These ex...

This is the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day. We decided to step out of the resilience series to say thank you. We thank you, our listeners, and we express just how thankful we are for all that we have and how far we have come. Joining us this episode is Joe’s beautiful wife, and Cristina’s Mom, Laura. Laura has been with us every step of the way with this Podcast, so we brought her on to chat, and reminisce about some of the early podcast planning. Curious how we came up with the name? We’ll pla...

Life is unpredictable. This week we are joined by a very special friend, Sam Morovati. Sam is a customer experience leader in big tech, an avid car collector, father, husband, and SURVIVOR. This week’s episode tells the story of the accident that almost killed Sam Morovati on October 18, 2020. That accident is just the beginning of a long journey to recovery and resilience. Sam shares how the experience of fear, pain, and trauma has impacted his outlook on life for the better. You’ll hear about...

We are joined this week by Pete Radigan, a husband, father, author, entrepreneur, and Heart Transplant Recipient, along with his friend and editor, Jim McGrath. Our previous episode focused on a family that turned to organ donation as a means of coping with the tragic loss of their son. This week’s episode delves into the perspective of the recipient of the ultimate gift: life. Pete shares insights from the book that he wrote with Janet Mauk, whose son Tom was tragically killed in a motorcycle...

A seven-year-old boy from California, Nicholas Green, was killed by highway robbers in 1994 while vacationing in Italy with his family. His parents agreed to donate his organs and corneas, which went to seven Italians waiting for transplants. Reg and Maggie Green spoke openly to the media, with no bitterness, about their loss and decision. The world took the story--and the Greens--to its heart. Organ donations in Italy have tripled since Nicholas was killed so that thousands of people are alive...

The noun resilience stems from the Latin resiliens, “to rebound, recoil.” Resilience is a person’s ability to recover from unfortunate circumstances or illnesses. What’s important about resilience is knowing what YOUR capacity for resilience is. Think about the little, micro rebounds you’ve made. Then think about the times you perhaps did NOT rebound. What will happen when a major event occurs? In this episode, we introduce our new series on resilience. These episodes will delve into the topic...

Innovation can be described as “the creation, development, and implementation of a new product, process or service, with the aim of improving efficiency, effectiveness or competitive advantage.” People have innovative thoughts all day long as they go through their routine activities. Joe’s work in consulting and process improvement has shown that almost every employee has an idea for a “better way” to do things. Why is it so rare then for those ideas to be shared and put into practice? Do they...

How many of you feel guilty when you take time to do nothing? Sounds silly, but Leisure time, relaxation, even just doing nothing, is important. Equally important is making sure the way you are spending that precious downtime is truly recharging your batteries. In this episode, we take a look at Leisure time and share some of the ways we like to relax. We also dig into ways that downtime can drain us if we aren’t using it thoughtfully. Cristina and Joe certainly have different concepts of rela...

Selling, like dating, takes insight, intuition, and discretion to know when a prospect is interested. Will they return my calls? Are they telling me the truth? Have they been open about their selection process? Do they seem willing to take the next step? Are they leading you on? Further complicating this is the type of opportunity…is it an RFP, or a query from your company’s website, or a cold call you made? All of this needs to be part of the decision-making criteria. There is no clear formul...

Human beings are naturally social creatures. Being in a business setting doesn’t change that. Good relationships with colleagues will make our jobs more enjoyable. In the episode, we interview Martina Davitkova of Coconut Software. Martina discusses the topic of Professional Relationships. As you listen, you’ll notice her genuineness and sincerity. Martina reveals these traits and gives you the tools she uses that have led to her and Coconut Software’s success. So, if you’d like to deepen ...

Joe certainly has his phobias! You’ll hear him talk about them while Cristina also shares one of hers. As usual, Cristina’s phobia has some merit. But Joe’s? So what’s the difference between a fear and a phobia? Fear is a natural emotion that protects people from harm when they face real danger. A phobia is an excessive fear or anxiety, out of proportion to the actual danger they might present. In this episode, you’ll hear from Cristina and Joe how to handle your phobias so they take their pro...

A visit with Your Advocate Alliance (YAA)- Entrepreneurship, fatherly wisdom, and auto advice Join us this week as we visit with Ray and Zach Shefska, founders of Your Advocate Alliance (YAA), a father-son duo that is revolutionizing the auto industry as advocates for everyday consumers through the car buying process. They are a pair that inspired us as we began our father-daughter journey with Morning Coffee and Mimosas. The excitement we have for this episode is hard to contain. Listen with...