Runway to Lift-Off: Rapid Product Launch: Guest: Sushee Perumal
Do you have a revolutionary business idea but struggle with bringing it to market? Have you invested significant time and money into a product with no traction? As an entrepreneur and inventor at heart, Sushee Perumal has been in your shoes. After exiting his prior role, he was inspired to launch Flight Level 180 to provide startups and founders the capabilities in technology, marketing, and sales required to [...]
Stories Forge Trust, Vulnerability Connects People: Guest: Matt Heinz
Communication skills are invaluable yet often overlooked. In this episode, Susan sits down with Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing Inc. He's an established podcaster and marketing leader. They discuss practical ways we can become better communicators by creating and sharing our stories. They explore how opening up builds connection and trust—when we lead with vulnerability, we grant others permission to do the same. The resulting environment fosters [...]
The Digital Handoff: Digital Asset Transitions for Your Organization
Have you ever volunteered your time to lead a professional organization or community group, only to face a tangled transition handing everything over to your successor? Between forgotten passwords, outdated contact lists, and confusing file permissions, it's enough digital chaos to make you want to resign on the spot! Well, take a deep breath and lean in. In this episode, we'll untangle the mystery of smooth leadership transitions [...]
Marketing In Your Community – A Santa Booth
Growing up in a large Catholic Mexican family in Southern California, we had big traditions. Good Mexican food was not one of them, but my most memorable was each Christmas Eve, the entire extended family - up to 75 at our peak - would gather at my mom's house, which became my brother's house. The Santa of the Year (this rotated) would bang on the door promptly [...]
Invest the Money in a Porcelain Shower
When my husband became disabled due to an amputation in 2012, we had to make adjustments to the layout of our bathroom and have a can of hallway touch-up paint at the ready. Our front bathroom has a yellow porcelain tub circa 1968 with a matching sink. No matter what weird shampoos our daughter is currently using for bluing, purpling, etc., we can clean it up and remove [...]
Career Conversations That Drive Engagement and Success: Guest: Russell Kern
What if we viewed every employee as having untapped potential waiting to be uncovered? Russell Kern joins Susan in this episode to discuss how shifting to strength-based coaching can profoundly transform organizations and lives. Through focusing regular conversations on nurturing strengths, managers become empowering partners in their employees' career journeys. Employees feel recognized for their unique abilities and supported to grow as individuals. Imagine the ripple effects across [...]
Client Gifts That Can Change the World
As we are heading into the holiday season, businesses are planning ways to thank clients, vendors, and staff members for a year of work well done, trust appreciated, and great teamwork. We are heading out for our last camping trip of the season, and I'm reminded that not everyone has access to a forest. Some have lost their forests due to many disasters. A vendor had given me [...]
Templates are great but remember to change the properties
In Adobe Acrobat, PowerPoint, and other programs, we are frequently inspired by others and do a save-as of a previous document created by someone else, or perhaps download a free template. There is nothing wrong with this if you have permission to use someone else's work. The biggest problem is that there are typically a few missed steps to ensure the document has your information and not that [...]
Time-Saving vs. Think-Saving – AI Guideance for Students
During a recent trip for my 40th high school reunion, I spent a few days with my friend who works for CEO Leadership Alliance Orange County. We brainstorm over coffee and avocado toast when we are together. She wants to tackle the elephant in the high school classroom - how to reach high school students to talk about AI's role in their academic and professional future. We agreed [...]
Small Team? Long Name? Consider an Alias
Sometimes our names are really long, especially if we hyphenate. Sometimes our company names are really long when we tried a bit late in the game to secure a dot com. Sometimes our teams are really small, but we want to appear larger. This is where email aliases come into play. We host our mail with Google, so this is super easy to add. Check with your mail [...]
Checklist and Logic for Creating Your Onboarding Library – B2B
Staff turnover costs money. Adding headcount costs money. It isn't just about salaries, benefits, and commissions; it's about TIME. When we add new team members, we need to do it quickly so they can add to our team and not take a lot of time from team members as they are onboarded. This can be done through two paths: mentorship and onboarding libraries. Onboarding isn't just about sticking [...]
Preventing Management Failure: Immersive Simulations Offer Solutions: Guest: Rob Brodo
Intrigued by Advantexe's business simulations, Susan welcomes back Rob Brodo from Advantexe as they explores their focus on new manager training. They both acknowledge that management failure can lead to business failure but believe it is preventable and correctable. Susan asks Rob about the challenges faced by new managers and the motivation behind creating simulations. Rob highlights the overwhelming nature of transitioning into a management role without guidance. [...]