My Favorite Mistake: Navigating Business and Career Pitfalls for Leadership Growth and Innovation

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My guest for Episode #232 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Annie Krall, an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. She is also a radio news anchor for WLS-Radio (890AM) in Chicago and comes home to the Windy City after being an on-air TV reporter for ABC in Green Bay, WI (WBAY-TV). 

After earning her bachelor's and master’s degrees from Northwestern, Annie covered breaking news in Green Bay, the Ryder Cup international golf tournament, as well as the Green Bay Packers. Host of her own weekly medical investigative series “Your Health Matters” Annie was accepted to medical school before pursuing journalism. Prior to WBAY-TV, Annie wrote and produced for ABC NEWS in New York City on the medical and business units for shows like Good Morning America, World News Tonight with David Muir, and 20/20.

Sharpening her golf skills as a competitive golfer starting at the age of six, Annie is now the entertainment golf correspondent for the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). She helps spotlight celebrity women who either play or have had their lives changed by the sport.

In today's episode, Annie shares her favorite mistake about a time when she didn't hit “send” when needing to send video back to the newsroom. What perspective did she gain from this mistake?

While unpacking her story, Annie shares her unique perspective on journalism education, especially regarding the famous ‘Medill F.' This single grading policy has sparked debates amongst students and educators alike, highlighting the ever-present tension between tradition and change in academia. Tune in to this fascinating episode for an in-depth look at one woman’s journey through the fast-paced world of journalism.

Questions and Topics:

• Northwestern people don't want to admit mistakes?
• Did it ever feel like a mistake not to pursue med school? Did you worry that it would be?
• What are your thoughts about dealing with mistakes live on air? Or the risk of that?
• Why do the Chicago traffic reports insist on using the names, not the freeway numbers?
• The Medill F — the debate about whether that’s helpful or not??
• So giving a Medill F *is* a choice not a requirement from the Dean
• J.A. Adande – Episode 138
• Does it really work?? Do Medill graduates make fewer mistakes than Mizzou and Syracuse grads?

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My guest for Episode #231 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Sara Lohse, the founder and president of Favorite Daughter Media, a creative agency dedicated to helping mission-driven businesses and entrepreneurs use their outside voices.

Join us today as we venture into the captivating world of podcasting, storytelling, and personal growth through the lens of renowned businesswoman Sara Lohse. Sara, the president of Favorite Daughter Media, highlights the influential power of podcasting as an effective platform for entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of using one's “outside voice”. With an amusing tale about a questionable tattoo during a solo trip to Ireland, Sara beautifully illustrates how mistakes, no matter how embarrassing, can act as catalysts for transformative learning experiences and career advancements.

Sara also discusses the key role podcasts play in sharing compelling narratives and valuable knowledge, rather than using them as a sales pitch. As the industry expands, Sara provides helpful input on common mistakes to avoid, and the importance of an authentic approach when reaching out to potential hosts. Moreover, she explains how every mistake or wrong decision can bring about invaluable life lessons, shedding light on how this unique tattoo incident played a pivotal role in shaping her professional journey.

Questions and Topics:

• Origin of your company name?
• How did you get into podcasting?
• How can hosting (or guesting) on podcasts help your business?
• Common mistakes guests make?
• Mistakes when pitching themselves (or others) to be a guest?
• Working on a book — “Open This Book…”
• Finding and extracting the most value from the story? Telling the story well?
• Free eBook — Build Your Brand: 8 Components of a Brand that Sticks

Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or your favorite app — that helps others find this content, and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also financially support the show through Spotify.

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This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

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My guest for Episode #230 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Ken Snyder, Executive Director of the Shingo Institute and Senior Lecturer at Utah State University. 

Ken has been the executive director of the Shingo Institute since 2015. He developed an interest in Japanese business practices while living in Japan during the time he was a student. His interest led him to major in Japanese history from the University of Utah and then to pursue an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business for the purpose of working with a Japanese business expanding to the United States.

He joined the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business in 2008.

Before joining the Huntsman School, Ken was president of Marketing Communication Inc., an operating division of Taylor Corporation, where he directed a group of six companies while growing revenues from $25 million to over $80 million.

In this episode, Ken shares his favorite mistake story about his time at Taylor Corporation, when he thought he had made an improvement in their process for collecting data from 6,000 dealers — but everybody went back to the old way. Why did the change fail to stick? What did Ken learn from this? How does this influence his teaching today? We discuss that and more!

• Questions and Topics:
• General question: When is it a matter of backsliding or the change was never adopted?
• Tell us about the Shingo Institute and its namesake Shigeo Shingo…
• Lean Blog Interviews podcast with Ritsuo Shingo
• Is it hard for companies to sustain performance after being awarded the Shingo Prize?
• Not just tools, but Principles
• The Shingo Model
• Learning and improving — not just you but the Institute

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My guest for Episode #228 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Marc Lesser.

He is the CEO of ZBA Associates, an executive development and leadership consulting company – and he’s a Zen teacher and coach. He founded and was CEO of three highly successful companies and has an MBA from New York University. Prior to his business and coaching career, he was a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for ten years, and director of Tassajara (Tassa-hara), Zen Mountain Center, the first Zen monastery in the Western world.

Marc helped develop the world-renowned Search Inside Yourself program within Google – a mindfulness-based emotional intelligence training for leaders which teaches the art of integrating mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and business savvy for creating great corporate cultures and a better world.

Marc’s most recent book is Finding Clarity: How Compassionate Accountability Builds Vibrant Relationships. His podcast is called “Zen Bones: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times.”

Having spent a decade steeped in the teachings of Zen, Mark highlights his experiences, from living the life of a monk to taking over as the director for Tassahara Zen Mountain Center. But, the shift from Zen life to the corporate world was not seamless. Despite successfully launching a publishing company, Mark shares his ‘favorite mistake' of avoiding difficult conversations that led to his departure from the company he built from scratch. Is it a mistake to refer to him as a “former monk”?

Questions and Topics:

• Using a better relationship to small mistakes as a way to prevent big catastrophes?
• What causes the fear of conflict?? What exactly are we afraid of?
• What advice would you give your younger self about that? Courage? Safety? 
• Avoiding a repeat of that mistake at the next company? 
• How do you choose which difficult conversations to address?
• The risk or danger of deciding to avoid a difficult conversation or not?
• R.D. Lang – “The Politics of Experience” book
• Buddhism and the view on mistakes?
• “Buddhists don’t sweat mistakes”??

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In this captivating episode, #227 of the 'My Favorite Mistake' podcast, host Mark Graban is joined by the transformational speaker and coach, Bobbi Kahler.

From a flourishing career in personal development spanning over two decades to catalyzing growth in more than 3000 individuals, Bobbi stands as a beacon of self-improvement and human thriving. Through her popular podcast, The Unyielded Show: Thriving No Matter What, Bobbi explores the core elements that breed a winner's mindset and a rewarding life. In this insightful conversation, she reveals the profundity of her learnings gathered from a mishap during the initial phase of her speaking career.

She is the author of Travels of the Heart: Developing Your Inner Leader, and she was a contributing author to the Amazon and NY Times best-selling book, Masters of Success.

Delving deeper into the episode, we unfold a valuable lesson, a testament to the idea that our ways of confronting errors can greatly shape our path to success. On a day of staff training at a credit union, Bobbi was given the opportunity to conduct two 90-minute sessions. The two experiences stood in stark contrast. The first was well received with audience engagement validating Bobbi's skills as a facilitator. However, it was the second one, with less participation and ending early, that became a tipping point in redefining Bobbi's approach to public speaking.

Why did she label this as her mistake instead of blaming the audience or the circumstances? And how did she adjust when facing similar situations in the future?

Questions and Topics:

• Didn’t have a backup plan?
• Did you run into the same situation again?
• What are some of the common roadblocks that keep people from moving forward – how do we get unstuck?
• How to get past the fear of mistakes?
• PQ – “Positive Intelligence”
• What’s the worst that could happen? An exaggerated sense of that?
• Why do we need to “help shine a light on the value of mistakes?” And how can we do that?
• Why do you believe that there is always a way forward?
• Pfeffer / Sutton – “knowing-doing gap” book

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My guest for Episode #226 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Dr. Eli Joseph. He is an author, educator, and 3-time TEDx speaker who currently serves as a faculty member at Columbia University, New York University, and UCLA.

Using rejection to fuel his professional achievements, Dr. Joseph earned his bachelor’s degree at the age of 20, a master’s degree at the age of 21, and earned a doctorate degree at Felician University while teaching at Columbia University at the age of 24, and became a Quest Diagnostics business partner at the age of 25.

He’s the author of the book, The Perfect Rejection Resume: A Reader’s Guide to Building a Career Through Failure (February 22, 2022).

In this episode, Eli shares his favorite mistake story about being rejected for an internship with JP Morgan Chase in 2015. How did this inspire him to write a book on rejection resumes? Why share rejections publicly? We discuss all of that and more.

Questions and Topics:

• So that “favorite mistake” rejection is on your rejection resume??
• What inspired you to write the book on rejection resumes?
• Why share failures or rejections publicly?
• What does it mean to get vaccinated by failure?
• Failures, rejections, mistakes — get back on direction or a new direction??
• Gianis Antetokounmpo — failure question — link to the video
• Book: “addressing the lessons learned from our failures”?
• How to make sure we really learn?
• Why do we love to blame others?
• Time management — future book, mistakes around that?

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My guest for Episode #225 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Suzy Siegle. She is the author of, most recently, the book, Chief Energy Officer. Suzy currently serves as the ninth President, CEO & Chief Champion of Walsh College in Troy, Michigan. 

Suzy’s academic and professional background blends her passions for business, law, and higher education, focusing on the value and importance of business and technology education in today’s rapidly changing world.

A licensed attorney and member of the State Bar of Michigan, she holds a bachelor’s degree, a master of business administration, a juris doctor, and a doctorate in higher education leadership and management..

She is also the author of: The THRIVE Journal: A Step-by-step guide to help you create and accomplish your goals (2021), and Locus: Take control and change the direction of your life (2022).

In this episode, Suzy shares her favorite mistake story about an email she sent when in a leadership role with a previous college. Why was the feedback about the email a “gut punch”? What did she learn and how did she adjust her communication style after that? What is “styleflexing” and why is that an important strategy?

We also discuss her book, Chief Energy Officer, and why “leadership energy” is so important. How does a “chief energy officer” help others? Does that have to be the CEO’s role?

Questions and Topics:

• How do we make sure we’re learning from mistakes?
• Without feedback, we can’t learn?
• Ask permission to share more?
• There’s a time and a place for giving feedback? Sandwich it?
• What is “leadership energy” and why is that so important?
• HeartMath.org
• Energy in terms of positivity (we can do it) vs. skepticism or cynicism?
• How a “chief energy officer” helps others? Does that have to be the CEO’s role?
• Staying immune to perks and praise
• Tell us a little more about Walsh College… who’s a great fit?

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Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or your favorite app — that helps others find this content, and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also financially support the show through Spotify.

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This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

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My guest for Episode #224 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Mark Myers. Mark is the founder of Peak Profit Solutions and a Tax Savings Architect. He brings over 20 years of successful business operation and high-level consulting experience to the clients and financial professionals he services.

Mark employs the same discipline and tenacity in finding tax savings as he did serving his country as a former Marine Corps Sergeant in Bravo Company 4th Marine Division.

In this episode, Mark shares his favorite mistake story from a previous business, where he was “overconfident” — not getting mentors or help when working in the high-end health club industry. Why did he vow to never repeat this mistake? What does he do differently now?

We also discuss leadership lessons from the Marine Corps. We dive deeply into the world of tax strategies, including what are “red flags” of “unscrupulous” approaches? What mistakes are made when trying to understand or apply United States tax laws to a business?

Mark Myers Was Overconfident & Didn’t Have a Mentor; Vowed Not to Repeat That Mistake

posted on AUGUST 19, 2023FILED UNDER: MY FAVORITE MISTAKETAGGED WITH: CEO, COACH, ENTREPRENEUR, MENTORING, MISTAKES

Check out all episodes on the My Favorite Mistake main page.

My guest for Episode #224 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Mark Myers. Mark is the founder of Peak Profit Solutions and a Tax Savings Architect. He brings over 20 years of successful business operation and high-level consulting experience to the clients and financial professionals he services.

Mark employs the same discipline and tenacity in finding tax savings as he did serving his country as a former Marine Corps Sergeant in Bravo Company 4th Marine Division.

In this episode, Mark shares his favorite mistake story from a previous business, where he was “overconfident” — not getting mentors or help when working in the high-end health club industry. Why did he vow to never repeat this mistake? What does he do differently now?

We also discuss leadership lessons from the Marine Corps. We dive deeply into the world of tax strategies, including what are “red flags” of “unscrupulous” approaches? What mistakes are made when trying to understand or apply United States tax laws to a business?

Questions and Topics:

• What mentor or help did you look for or bring in?
• Thought he was indestructible
• Guarding against overconfidence now? 
• Tell us more about Peak Profit Solutions – why start advising business owners this way? Why this focus and this interest? 
• You are not a CPA but working with them and financial advisors? 
• Compliance questions for advisors vs. tax law?
• Tax efficiency or minimizing taxes without anything that’s illegal?
• What’s a red flag of “unscrupulous”?
• Black and white — IRS interpretation of that law?
• What questions should we ask an accountant to see if they are a good fit?
• Book a free consultation

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My guest for Episode #223 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Alisa Applewhite. She is the CEO of Top of the Line Healthcare Staffing, TOTLHS Heart of Gold Inc., and The Real Alisa Applewhite Consulting. Alisa describes herself as a Nurse, CEO, Wife, Mom, Child of God, Friend, Daughter, and Sister.

In this episode, Alisa shares her favorite mistake story about hiring 18 family members based on emotion, paying them too much. How did she discover performance issues and her mistake? Did she have to let some of them go?

We also discuss a number of issues in healthcare, including proper staffing levels, “travel” nurse staffing, and the mistake of not listening to the patient's family about how they're doing.

Questions and Topics:

• Working at the bed when Covid started? What was it like?
• The story of starting the staffing company?
• How Covid affected her mentally
• The business need for a staffing agency like hers?
• Staffing level mistakes in healthcare? What’s standard vs. what’s sufficient??
• Determining the “true” ratios for staffing?? What’s standard vs. what’s practical?
• The dynamics where nurses are increasingly wanting to be a “traveler” nurse? More to it than just higher pay?
• “Stigma” of travel nurses can be unfair?
• Videos — 5 nursing mistakes
• Mistake to NOT listen to patient’s family about how the patient is doing?
• A time your listening saved a patient’s life?

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My guest for Episode #222 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Indus Khaitan,  the CEO & Founder of Quolum, a company funded by Sequoia and Nexus.

Mark's new book - The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation

Indus has 20 years of business growth, product management, and SaaS experience. He has analyzed SaaS buying for 20+ companies with over $500,000 in SaaS spend and has been the leader of growth for a unicorn.

Indus grew up in a mining town where 2-3 homicides daily were a norm, and eventually escaped what he calls the “India Coal Mafia” that plagued his life and left for America. He made the most out of this move and became a founder, a father, and a pilot. He now aims to help others make the same growth in their business and life.

In this episode, Indus shares his favorite mistake story about selling a previous company “prematurely.” Why does he now think they should have persisted? What was the thought process at the time? What was the risk of not selling? We discuss all of that and more.

Questions and Topics:

• What's a unicorn?
• What do you mean by the “Indian Coal Mafia”?
• If everyone is telling you it’s a mistake… are you wrong or being a visionary?
• What positive comes out of a mistake?
• Lessons learned for next time? Trusting your gut? Putting your foot down as you said? Risk of overadjustment?
• Learning vs. agonizing over it
• This isn’t your profession, but I have questions for you as a Pilot – preventing mistakes?
• Difference between preventing mistakes in a repeatable process (like taking off and landing) vs. doing innovative things?
• Doesn’t mean anybody can fly a plane?
• Get there-itis may have killed Kobe Bryant
• Tell us about your current company, Quolum…
• Mistakes companies make with their portfolio of SaaS applications and spending?

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My guest for Episode #221 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Beate Chelette. Beate is the Growth Architect and Founder of “The Women’s Code” – she provides visionaries and leaders with proven strategies, blueprints and growth maps that provide clear steps to improve business systems,  strengthen leadership skills and teams so that their clients and audiences can maximize profits and scale their impact. 

A first-generation immigrant who found herself $135,000 in debt as a single parent, Beate bootstrapped her passion for photography into a global business that licensed content into 79 countries. She exited in a multimillion-dollar deal when she sold the company to Bill Gates. 

She is the host of a podcast, the Business Growth Architect Show. Her book is Happy Woman Happy World: The Foolproof Fix That Takes You From Overwhelmed To Awesome.

In this episode, Beate shares her favorite mistake story about losing a year of her life by engaging in a lawsuit where she was “right” but it “wasn't worth the time.” Why did it just lead to mental anguish? What did Beate learn from this and what can we learn from her? We discuss that and more.

Questions and Topics:

• You sold your business to Bill Gates, what was it that you sold?
• “If you think something’s off… you’re right”
• Did you consider dropping the case at different points?
• How did you get everything back on track with your career and businesses?
• How often are you helping business owners who are in a similar rock bottom situation?
• What are the most common blockers to business growth?
• Find out what your #1 Business Growth Blocker is
• How to clarify strategy and “what do you do?”
• Doing a bunch of random things vs. having a strategy?

Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or your favorite app — that helps others find this content, and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also financially support the show through Spotify.

You can now sign up to get new episodes via email, to make sure you don't miss an episode.

This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

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My guest for Episode #220 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Rich Sheridan, the co-founder, CEO, and “Chief Storyteller” of Menlo Innovations, a software and IT consulting firm that has earned numerous awards and press coverage for its innovative and positive workplace culture.

He’s the author of two books — first,  Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love, and then his latest, published in 2019, Chief Joy Officer: How Great Leaders Elevate Human Energy and Eliminate Fear.

I’ve interviewed Rich twice in my “Lean Blog Interviews” podcast, we’ve crossed paths at conferences, and I’ve been able to visit the Menlo Innovations office in Ann Arbor (2014).

In this episode, Rich shares two favorite mistake stories from his time as a senior leader at a previous company. Why did one mistake change his life? How did the second mistake help him put himself in the CEO's shoes?

Rich also kindly endorsed my new book:

“At Menlo Innovations, one of our favorite phrases is ‘Make Mistakes Faster!’ It’s not that we like making mistakes, we just prefer making small mistakes quickly rather than BIG mistakes slowly. The difference comes from creating a culture where we are safe to share our mistakes. In The Mistakes That Make Us, author Mark Graban teaches all of us how to do this and shares story after real story of the benefits. It would be a BIG mistake to ignore this wisdom!”

Questions and Topics:

• Why the title “chief storyteller?”
• How do you define “joy” in the workplace?
• What’s your role as CEO in helping others find joy or be joyful?
• Joy vs. happiness?
• Deming connections: pride, fear
• Why is eliminating fear so important to you and Menlo?
• You say, “one of your favorite phrases at Menlo Innovations is ‘Make Mistakes Faster!” — tell us more about that… 
• “Fear makes bad news go into hiding…”
• “Let’s run the experiment” — tell us more, “try stuff and see if it works”
• Being open to small mistakes as a way to avoid big ones? An experiment in working with you?
• “Without the stories, Menlo doesn’t make sense”
• Paired work

Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or your favorite app — that helps others find this content, and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also financially support the show through Spotify.

You can now sign up to get new episodes via email, to make sure you don't miss an episode.

This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

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My guest for Episode #216 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Cathy Fyock, The Biz Book Strategist. 

She leads her own consulting/coaching/speaking practice and has been a member of the National Speakers Association for more than 20 years.  Cathy has been a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) since 1993. Since starting her coaching business in 2014, she’s helped more nearly 200 professionals become published authors — including me!

She coached me through the writing and publication of my 2018 book, Measures of Success, and she has been coaching me on the book I’m currently finishing up, The Mistakes That Make Us. The Kindle version is available tomorrow!

Cathy has written books including On Your Mark: From First Word to First Draft in Six Weeks, Blog2Book: Repurposing Content to Discover the Book You’ve Already Written, The Speaker Author: Sell More Books and Book More Speeches, and the WSJ, USA Today, and Amazon best-seller, Authority. Her upcoming book, which I've endorsed, is Writer Crisis Hotline.

In this episode, Cathy shares her favorite mistake story about leaving a business she had started to take a job where she could be “part of a team.” Was it a mistake to take a job with that particular team or to take a regular job anywhere? Did it become easier to move on from jobs over time? What led Cathy to start her latest business based on what she had learned, including what she learned about herself?

We discuss that, along with common mistakes that book authors make when writing and/or publishing their books. We also discuss the choice between traditional publishers, “self” publishing, and “hybrid publishers.”

Questions and Topics:

• Tell us about starting your current business…
• Writing – following a passion?
• Understanding the business model around your book?
• A book is like a startup?
• The learning that happens while writing a book
• Ethical situation when it comes to ghostwriting (by a human) or new AI tools?
• Common book writing mistakes?
• Mistakes related to the publishing phase?
• Mistake titles? Mistake covers?
• The connection between writing and speaking
• Book pricing – finding the sweet spot?“Self publishing” vs. traditional publishing? How to choose?
• Hybrid publishing? – hire a general contractor

Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or your favorite app — that helps others find this content, and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also financially support the show through Spotify.

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This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

This originally appeared as a LinkedIn Live, hosted by John Saunders.

Book website pre-orders of signed copies | Amazon Kindle version pre-order / order

Description of the event...

Join us for a new segment of “Meet the Author LIVE.”

“Meet the Author LIVE” is an opportunity to learn everything valuable there is to know about the author. Plus, we can answer your questions live in the chat so be sure to drop them in there.

This episode will feature Mark Graban, and we’ll chat about his June 2023 book, "The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation" and talk about how he compiled stories and lessons from over 220 episodes of his podcast, “My Favorite Mistake,” and his own career.

Mark has hosted guests on his podcast, including best-selling author Daniel Pink, Shark Tank’s Kevin Harrington, two sitting members of Congress, and more. He has over 518,000 followers on LinkedIn and has earned a LinkedIn "Top Voices" status.

Mark ​​is an author, speaker, podcaster, and consultant. He serves as a consultant through his company, Constancy, Inc., and is also a Senior Advisor for the technology company KaiNexus. He earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and an M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Leaders for Global Operations Program.

Join us on June 23 at 12:00 PM ET to meet Mark Graban and hear a chat with host John Saunders, and learn how leaders can cultivate a culture of learning from mistakes — and how that leads to innovation and greater success.
Plus, hear answers to questions:

• Why they really wrote this book?
• What the author truly hopes readers take away.
• What did they learn from writing their book?
• How did they fit book writing into their life?
• What are their goals for 2023?
• What’s your “favorite mistake”?
• What are some ways you help organizations learn and practice these concepts?
  

• Book: http://mistakesbook.com/
• Linkedin: https://lnkd.in/ejTGHhA5
• Twitter: https://lnkd.in/eTc5dCRv
• Instagram: https://lnkd.in/eb4-BcA2
• Facebook: https://lnkd.in/eAQvn3ZQ
• Website: https://lnkd.in/e9dnw_fP
• Podcast: https://lnkd.in/eq6qT4kT
  

Check out Mark’s book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation.

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My guest for Episode #215 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Congressman Adam Smith (D-WA). I'm very honored to have him here.

Rep. Smith represents the 9th District of the State of Washington. He was reelected to his 14th term in 2022 and has been the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee since 2011. He served as chair of the committee from 2018–2022 when the Democrats controlled the majority in the US House. 

The Congressman is also the author of a new book, available now, Lost and Broken: My Journey Back from Chronic Pain and Crippling Anxiety.

In this episode, Rep. Smith shares his favorite mistake story about his first-ever campaign and election, for Washington State Senate. What assumption did he make about what would make a successful campaign strategy? Did he adjust and recover in time?

Mark's New Book - "The Mistakes That Make Us"

We also discuss the journey described in his book, a journey back to physical and mental health. What mistakes did he make and what mistakes does Rep. Smith say are common in healthcare? How did he learn not to beat himself up for mistakes and why is sharing mistakes so important to him? How can the rest of us avoid similar mistakes related to health and healthcare?

Mark's New Book – “The Mistakes That Make Us”

Questions and Topics:

• Asked on June 1st: Is the U.S. avoiding the national mistake of a debt default?
• In the book, you share some mistakes… why is it helpful to do so?
• For readers to realize our elected leaders (like all people) make mistakes?
• How have you learned to not beat yourself up over mistakes?
• Is it a mistake to not want to see a psychotherapist?
• How do people know when they should seek help for mental health concerns??
• Tell us about the perceived need for a politician to keep mental health problems quiet… going back to VP nominee Thomas Eagleton… a year before I was born, getting replaced as the nominee after past bouts of depression were revealed…
• Is the public getting more accepting of admissions of mental health issues?
• Doctors failed to get to the root cause of your problems by just pushing pills?
• You CAN get better — it was a long journey to find the right caregivers?
• Tell us about your book Lost and Broken — how did it come to be?
• Did it help you process that stress?
• From the book: “My own reelection campaign in 1994 presented challenges, as I have described, but I learned from them. I made mistakes.” — what were those?
• Did it get easier to run as the incumbent over time?

Episode Page

My guest for Episode #214 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Zak Waddell. He’s a college success manager at Woolf — the first global, collegiate higher education institution allowing membership for qualified new colleges through their software platform.

A previous guest, Anthony Trucks, (Episode 97) was a contestant on American Ninja Warrior. Zak was a contestant on a show that might be even more grueling (at least mentally): The Bachelorette (Season 9)

In this episode, Zak shares his favorite mistake story about, as an entrepreneur, falling in love with a business idea instead of starting with the “voice of the customer” and their needs. In this startup, why was it so difficult to challenge the traditional commission-based real estate model? What assumptions turned out not to be true? What did Zak learn? How does the experience with that failed startup help him now?

We also discuss his experience as a contestant on The Bachelorette. Did he ever think it was a mistake to start that journey? What mistakes do contestants make? What mistakes might viewers make when watching a “reality” show? We talk about that and more in this most dramatic episode of My Favorite Mistake yet.

Questions and Topics:

• Falling in love with an idea
• Need to take a Iterative approach and listening to customers
• What assumptions did you have to test?
• What did you learn through cycles of learning…
• Pivot or Pull the Plug??
• Not vetting individuals… not stopping to think if it was the RIGHT team…
• How to manage in less hierarchical ways?
• Failed startup — really helped him for what he’s doing now
• Rigorous iteration — failing fast, failing forward
• Applying those lessons to future ventures or Woolf?
• The Bachelorette — Was there any point when you felt like it was a mistake to sign up for this — before or during?
• Do you try to learn from previous seasons or just do your own thing?
• Why does it backfire when a contestant tries to report bad behavior to the Bachelorette?
• A mistake as a viewer to think what you see is naturally occurring vs. stirred up by producers? And editors?
• Is it by design that more couples from the show are getting married now?
• Tried to apply entrepreneurship concepts on the show? Fall fast, fail often?
• If asked to write a book about the lessons from the show for business?

Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or your favorite app — that helps others find this content, and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also financially support the show through Spotify.

You can now sign up to get new episodes via email, to make sure you don't miss an episode.

This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #213 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Susan Landers, M.D., a retired neonatologist, author, & speaker. She practiced full-time in the NICU for over thirty years and wrote a book about her experience: So Many Babies: My Life Balancing a Busy Medical Career and Motherhood. Susan is an expert in physician burnout, breastfeeding medicine, & donor human milk banking. During her career, she published over thirty peer-reviewed papers.

In this episode, Susan shares her favorite mistake story about a career decision that she thought was a mistake for years… but things turned out fine. But how did she get disillusioned with working in healthcare and how did that lead to burnout? How can we recognize burnout in ourselves (and others) and how can we help? How can we take better care of ourselves?

Mark's new book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation

Questions and Topics:

• What was it like to experience burnout?
• When and how did this happen to you?
• The symptoms of burnout?
• Tired vs. burned out?? 
• Is it generally true that others notice it before you?
• Speaking up if you see this in a loved one: alienating themselves
• Can you talk about how you recovered from burnout?
• How prevalent is burnout in healthcare?
• How much worse is it due to Covid?
• Systems thinking — how often do leaders make the mistake of blaming people for getting burned out?
• Read about the signs of physician burnout
• Get a checklist for signs of burnout in working mothers

Episode page with transcript, video, and more.

My guest for Episode #212 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Matt Shoup. In 2005, Matt was laid off and then founded M & E Painting, which grew quickly — and has produced over $30 million dollars in revenue since 2005. Matt and M & E Painting have received dozens of business awards.

He's the author of books including his latest, Painted Baby: Connect with Clients through Brave and Vulnerable Storytelling.

Click this link to receive Matt's free tool kit packed with resources to build your business and advance your leadership

Matt was named one Colorado Biz Magazine's Top Five Most Influential Young Professionals (2010), one of 40 Under 40 Top Business Leaders by the Northern Colorado Business Report (2013), amongst other awards.

Matt has founded 6 successful companies and grown them all from the ground up. All of these companies are being run by extraordinary people!  Along the way, Matt received his Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt.

In this episode, Matt shares his favorite mistake story about the time employees of his company accidentally painted a baby due to an equipment mishap. What happened and why did he end up writing a book about it to encourage business owners to own and share their mistakes to connect deeper with clients?

Questions and Topics:

• A potential client asked him — “Tell me about a time you screwed up and what you did about it…”
• How you reacted to the mistake? Had time to think while driving over there? – Reaction vs. response
• Learning from that accident to prevent it?
• Not painting a picture of perfection…
• Tell us about the time you met Kevin Harrington… Episode 1
• Using that story to sell more painting jobs?
• Effective in sharing the story proactively?
• What’s your secret – what’s your painted baby story?
• “I thought selling was telling…”
• Right color on the wrong house – how did that happen?
• Mayor of Colleyville – demo-ed wrong house
• Starting companies and handing them off to be run by others?
• “Can the business run without you?” — “Can it grow without you?”
• Lessons from jiu jitsu – practicing and teaching it?




Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or your favorite app — that helps others find this content, and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also financially support the show through Spotify.

You can now sign up to get new episodes via email, to make sure you don't miss an episode.

This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #211 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Ellen Poole, author of the new book ‘Network’ is Not a Verb.

Ellen teaches people at all levels of their careers effective strategies to build networks and nurture relationships for professional success. After graduating from the George Washington University Law School, she became the fourth woman in U.S. history to be chosen as CEO of a state bankers association and was named by the Phoenix Business Journal as one of its ten most influential people under 40. More recently, Poole spent almost 15 years as a multi-state government relations executive for Fortune 100 company USAA, where she built a professional network spanning the country.

In this episode, Ellen shares her favorite mistake story about the time she blew a job interview by giving a “smart-ass” answer. Was it a blessing in disguise because the organization might not have been a fit. Does the need to be authentic trump all else? What did she learn about being more customer focused, in interviewing and in general?

Questions and Topics:

• Was this mistake a blessing in disguise in terms of fit?
• What did you learn? “Don’t be a smartass in job interviews…”
• Being more customer focused?
• Did anyone ever bring up that interview again?
• What are some common mistakes people make in the name of networking?
• Tell us about the book — ‘Network’ is Not a Verb.
• There’s an implied mistake… to think network is a verb… tell us about that…
• LinkedIn as a networking tool?? Sales platform?
• “How to solve the problems of everyone you come into contact with…”
• Use discount code MARKGRABAN on her website

Episode page with transcript, video, and more

My guest for Episode #210 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Mike Kaeding, the CEO of Norhart. They design, build, and rent apartments. They are transforming the way this is done by incorporating technologies and techniques that have revolutionized other industries. This has resulted in improved quality and reduced cost of housing. Ultimately, they are committed to solving America’s housing shortage and affordability crisis. And in doing so they hope to improve the way we all live. 

In this episode, Mike shares his favorite mistake story about not realizing that paying well to hire the best was well worth the investment. What opened his eyes to this as a new CEO and how did he adjust? We discuss that and the power of intentionally creating a culture that attracts and retains great employees who are aligned with Norhart's mission and goals.

Questions and Topics:

• How old is the company? You took over from your father…
• Tell us about some of the history and culture
• Your company — rare to design, build, AND rent?
• Is it a matter of speed, efficiency and quality?
• You’ve brought techniques from manufacturing? Tell us about that and who is helping you?
• Partnership with Toyota – TSSC
• You talk about building an attractive culture — Why is that? And how?
• The connection to employees and how it resonates with them?
• “Best in the world” is their goal…
• Life is so short — don’t waste it doing work you don’t enjoy, with people you don’t enjoy working with
• Norhart values
• Norhart Invest — interest-bearing accounts
• Podcast – “Becoming a Unicorn, ” launching soon

Episode page with transcript, video, links, and more

My guest for Episode #209 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Shirley Novack, Owner and Interior Designer at her firm, S. Novack and Assoc.

She originally graduated with a degree in Laboratory Science.  After marrying and having three children, she went back to school and has run her successful interior design business for almost 40 years. 

As a first generation daughter of Polish/Russian parents, she has recently published her first book, a Historical Fiction novel called The Story Of… — This book is loosely based on the life of her father, a Russian immigrant…

In this episode, Shirley shares her favorite mistake story about being in the wrong place at the wrong time — taking a wrong turn in a van at Boston's Logan Airport and getting surrounded by Secret Service. We also discuss her novel and mistakes made running her interior design company, and more.

Questions and Topics:

• Not the only time she was suspected of being a terrorist? 
• Was getting that degree as a medical technologist a mistake?
• Your initial message to me said, “still running my design practice trying to keep from making any more mistakes.”
• Do you have methods for trying to prevent mistakes? Or prevent repeats?
• Also said, “making mistakes is human, as long as I'm not the surgeon operating on the wrong appendage.” It’s good to remember that right?
• David Mayer, MD — Episode 70
• Dealing with mistakes that employees might make?
• Her “most expensive mistake…” in the interior design business
• Firing her officer manager of 20 years — why?
• Interior design mistakes that clients are driving??
• Is the customer always right?
• Tell us about the book… what inspired you?
• What’s a “Hybrid publisher”?
• Next book? – working on the next one…

Episode page with transcript, video, and more

My guest for Episode #208 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Wendy H. Steele, the founder and CEO of Impact100, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to uniting and empowering over 30,000 women to create a transformational impact in their communities has today collectively granted more than $123 million to worthy nonprofits across more than 65 local chapters and four countries.

Wendy's debut book, Invitation to Impact: Lighting the Path to Community Transformation, was released in April 2023.

Wendy brings the ideal combination of corporate leadership (SVP/Regional Manager in the banking industry), entrepreneurship (Successfully launched and led both non-profit and for-profit enterprises), and civic engagement resulting in keen business acumen and thought leadership. 

In this episode, Wendy shares her favorite mistake story about starting up her nonprofit and explaining what it did, but not why it existed. How did she come to see this problem and how did it affect the organization as it grew nationally? And how did Wendy adjust?

We also discuss some of her previous experience as a founder and CEO of a company that manufactured an innovative duct tape dispenser. How do we make sure we're moving the needle on results in a business or a non-profit?

• Assumed the why was obvious…
• What was the what?? To help women get involved in their community on their terms… thought it was designed for women in Cincinnati
• The leadership team understood the why at launch
• How did you realize people didn’t understand the WHY? It took a while
• What got off track? How did you adjust?
• How would you articulate the WHY? Did others make up their own why in the absence of that?
• Entrepreneurship trap of getting popular and growing too quickly before some of those foundations are sorted out, including systems, documents, training
• Your journey from banking to manufacturing CEO to banking to philanthropy? Lessons learned?
• Tell us about the new book Invitation to Impact: Lighting the Path to Community Transformation
• Iteration on the book writing and editing too?
• How to make sure our philanthropic activity has impact?

Mark's New Book – “The Mistakes That Make Us”Questions and Topics:

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #207 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Kim Crowder, the Founder & CEO of Kim Crowder Consulting, one of the country’s leading executive, leadership, inclusive marketing and communications firms.

Kim and her team work across industries serving global organizations. From leaders and executives at Adobe to Smugmug, the American Library Association, HarperCollins Publishers, and more, Kim and her team provide executives and leaders with actionable tools to build healthy, people-centered workplaces long term.

She is a certified DEI and Six Sigma Leadership CEO, strategist, speaker, and consultant featured or quoted by Forbes, The New York Times, CNN, and Business Insider, among countless others — she's a sought after commentator and voice.

In this episode, Kim shares her favorite mistake story about not “honoring red flags” during the process of interviewing for a job. Did she experience “micro-aggressions” or just flat out aggressions? Why does Kim say this was her favorite mistake in terms of the growth it provided for her?

Questions and Topics:

• Unwillingness to talk about money, or negotiate salary – could they have open dialogue on other things?
• Attacking you for reporting the problem instead of addressing… the problem
• That next job – I bet you were really on guard for red flags?
• The need to account for past experiences of employees from marginalized groups?
• Stay away from saying “toxic?”
• Is it easier for white men to admit mistakes? Do we have a certain amount of privilege?
• Low # of Black head coaches in the NFL — equality of the opportunity and also the situation?
• You provide support for “The Onlys” in organizations – tell us about that
• Hiring / Promoting Black men or women is not enough? 
• What does it mean to use data-driven approaches to understand team member experiences over time?
•  “We call social media the new accountability partner”
• Being authentic at work — you recently wrote about a double standard related to Angela Bassett and her reaction to losing out on the Best Supporting Actress Oscar

Episode page

My guest for Episode #206 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Ivan “Funkboy” Bodley. He is a bass player and music director for the stars. He has performed with 52 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees and counting (ranging from Elvis Costello, The Temptations, Bo Diddley, and Wynonna Judd. He's the author of the book Am I Famous Yet?: Memoir of a Working-Class Rock Star — and it's also a podcast.

He’s played in 13 Broadway shows, the President Obama Inaugural Ball, many late-night shows (including Late Night with Conan O’Brien), and morning shows, including Today and Live with Regis & Kelly. Funkboy is a magna cum laude graduate of the Berklee College of Music and an inductee into the New York Blues Hall of Fame. He has traveled to 31 countries worldwide and played to audiences of up to 82,000 people. 

In this episode, Ivan shares his favorite mistake story about getting fired by a certain “disco diva” because he asked for a raise. But what did Ivan learn from that situation? What could he have done better? Does he second-guess what he should have done before any of his “epic firings”? We discuss what it's like to be a musician who travels the world playing with household names and legends. We also talk about our mutual love of the film “This is Spinal Tap.” But, hey, enough of my yakkin'… Whadaya say? Let's boogie!

Questions and Topics:

• What was the audience of 82,000 you played for?
• Did you have the full range of relationships with the big name performers? “Can’t be overly familiar with the boss…” 

• Do you ever get bored playing the same music every night?
• You have a whole section on my resume/website and book called “Gigs I DIDN'T get and why.” Why do that? 
• Lessons learned — it’s often not your fault
• Do you try to find out why the last guy was fired?
• Sam Moore – Conan O'Brien video with him playing
• “Am I Famous Yet?: Memoir of a Working-Class Rock Star”
• Did you want to be famous?
• This is Spinal Tap??
• Favorite scenes or mistakes from that?
• Funniest “Tap” type moment that happened to you?

Episode page with links, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #203 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Bret Ridgway. He is a 25 year veteran of the speaking industry and brings a unique perspective handling the back of the room sales table at 150+ conferences, providing fulfillment services for some of the biggest names in the industry and speaking on many stages himself. He's also the host of the Spotlight on Speaking podcast.

He's the author of eight books focused on speakers, authors, information marketers and event promoters, including:

— 50 Biggest Mistakes I See Information Marketers Make

— Mistakes Authors Make

— 50 Biggest Website Mistakes

His latest book is How to Build a Profitable Speaking Business.

In this episode, Bret shares his favorite mistake story about not having the confidence in himself to get out from behind the scenes — helping authors and speakers — to get up on stage to share what he knows in a way that helps others. How did he discover this pattern? How did he take action and what adjustments did he make? We also discuss some of the biggest mistakes that speakers and authors make. And why write books about mistakes? How does that help others?

Questions and Topics:

• Working “the back of the room” to help other speaker / authors
• Writing and speaking fear — having the fear of sharing ideas in both ways?
• Taking baby steps to get started? Forced into it
• Fear – content-related or presence related?
• Not beating yourself up? Gotten better about that?
• Why write books about mistakes?
• Are some of the same mistakes being made now by information marketers?
• Doing a book as digital only – mistake?
• Mistake to not have an audiobook?
• Mistake to not do a paperback / Kindle?
• Book as a marketing tool – lead generator
• Working with publishers vs. “self publishing”?
• Some of the worst speaker mistakes?

You can now sign up to get new episodes via email, to make sure you don't miss an episode.

This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network: http://leancommunicators.com/

Author of "The Grey Choice" -- Episode page with links, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #202 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Shaun Hayes. He was the cofounder and former CEO of Allegiant Bancorp, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Shaun started multiple successful businesses, was involved in the casino business, and bought, owned, and sold hundreds of residential and commercial properties. He is an entrepreneur, an author, a speaker… and a felon.

He was a principal at three banks that failed in 2011 and 2012. Five years after selling a company for an enormous profit, Shaun committed a felony. He was incarcerated for his crime eight years later. Now out of prison, he’s the author of The Grey Choice: Lessons on My Journey From Big-Time Banking to the Big House (and Back).

In this episode, Shaun tells two favorite mistake stories. The first was about “going crazy and wanting to fire somebody” when he then realized that the problems were the result of his mistakes as CEO of the bank. The second story is about the mistakes and bad choices that led to his conviction.

Shaun discusses the impact of his experience on his personal and professional life and how he has worked to rebuild his reputation and move forward. The episode offers valuable insights into the challenges of entrepreneurship and the importance of taking responsibility for one's actions.

Shaun provides valuable insights into the challenges of entrepreneurship, discussing how his ambition and drive to succeed led him down a path that ultimately resulted in his downfall. He emphasizes the importance of taking responsibility for one's actions and not making excuses, acknowledging that he made mistakes and accepting the consequences of his actions. Despite the difficulties he faced, Shaun remains optimistic and determined to use his experience to help others learn from his mistakes.

We also discuss the challenges of being a CEO, the importance of transparency and honesty in business, and the need for forgiveness and second chances.

Questions and Topics:

At an early age – making decisions that are not illegal but grey in the “interpretation of the rules”?

How he justified it…

Why go forward with it even knowing it was illegal?

Did this lead to bank failures?

Why did the legal process take 7.5 years to play out before being indicted?

The dynamics / decision around pleading guilty?

Do you remember something early on that got you 1% off course?

The need to specifically define your moral compass?

What’s it like starting a business once out of prison?

Being a speaker today to help others?

Show notes with links and more

My guest for Episode #201 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Marché Pleshette. She is a skilled leadership coach who has been a FranklinCovey consultant since 2008. She’s a co-author of the book Change: How to Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity, available April 18th, 2023.

As a keynote speaker and facilitator, Marché’s work focuses on effective communication, leadership, professional change and transitions, employee engagement and retention, and the organizational value of human capital.

She has been the subject matter expert for The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People®  and serves on Franklincovey’s coaching team that ensures the quality of their world-class consultants. Before coming to FranklinCovey, Marché worked for a major health system in Atlanta as a manager of employee retention. She holds a B.A. in mass communications with a journalism focus, and is a certified coach.

In this episode, Marché tells her favorite mistake story about what happened on the first day of what was supposed to be her first job out of college. Was she an early example of “ghosting” an employer? Why did she have conflicted loyalties about wanting this job — but feeling pressure not to take it? We talk about her lessons learned and why having a champion inspired her to be a champion for others.

• Do most major change initiatives fail? Is some of the data / numbers overblown?
• Why/Where most change initiatives fail?
• Minimizing the dip… Giving up in the dip?
• “Move, minimize, wait, resist, and quit”
• The technical part of change and the people part…
• Not just logic and reasoning but emotions and feelings…
• Why does change trigger our “fight or flight” instincts?

Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts or Podchaser or your favorite app — that helps others find this content and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also become a financial supporter of the show through Anchor.fm.

You can now sign up to get new episodes via email, to make sure you don't miss an episode.

This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #200 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is… me, Mark Graban. It's hard to believe that the podcast has reached 200 episodes. If you forgive me for the other episode (#16) where I talked about my own mistakes, that's 198 guests who have shared compelling “favorite mistake” stories with me.

Enter to win a My Favorite Mistake coffee mug!

In this episode, I'm joined by my guest host, Tom Ehrenfeld. He's the editor who is working with me on my upcoming book, The Mistakes That Make Us. He's also the host of the WLEI podcast from the Lean Enterprise Institute. Tom asks me about my reflections and lessons learned from hosting this podcast, including some of the mistakes I've made as a host and producer. We also discuss themes from my upcoming book about creating a culture of learning from mistakes.

• Healthcare Kaizen book
• KaiNexus
• Donnis Todd and Dan Garrison episode
• David Mayer episode
• Mark's podcast mistakes:Didn’t always properly prep guests – especially through a 3rd party PR
  An experiment that didn’t pan out — recording via a web-based service
  Naming mistake – My Favorite Mistake vs. Our Favorite Mistakes?
  Almost lost some recordings (Ep. 16)
  

Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts or Podchaser or your favorite app — that helps others find this content and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also become a financial supporter of the show through Anchor.fm.

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This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

Episode page with links, transcript, and more

** Mark's Upcoming Book: The Mistakes That Make Us ** 

My guest for Episode #199 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Nicole Greer. She is a principal coach and CEO of Build a Vibrant Culture™, who specializes in helping individuals, corporations, faith-based organizations, and non-profits fulfill their mission and exemplify VIBRANT Leadership™.

For the last 20+ years Nicole has worked as a coach, marketing director, master of first impressions, and sales trainer in the many facets of business. Her experiences working with all kinds of people led her to found Vibrant Coaching. Nicole is a speaker, trainer, facilitator, life and business coach.

In this episode, Nicole tells her favorite mistake story about giving herself away and not realizing her value when she was in a property management job. Why did she agree to do what seemed like a second full-time job for free? How did Nicole realize this was a mistake? What did she learn and how did she adjust? What was “the big mistake” within the mistake story?

We also talk about change management, showing grace, and keeping employees vibrant through coaching them as leaders (which goes beyond reacting constructively to mistakes).

• “Master of first impressions”?
• How do you decide the value that you bring? What you’re getting paid?
• What does “vibrant” in terms of personality?
• How do you define “VIBRANT Leadership”?
• “Get LIT” Lead from within, Integrity, Transformation
• Nicole's LinkedIn article… “The Love Habit”
• What does “showing others grace” mean to you?
• C3: Circumstances Conduct and Consequences
• How have you coached leaders who struggle with how to react to mistakes?
• Book: The One Minute Manager
• Book: How Full is Your Bucket?

My guest for Episode #198 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Kevin Goldsmith, the chief technology officer at DistroKid, the world’s largest distributor of digital music.

** I WANT TO WRITE MY BOOK (ad) **

Kevin is an experienced leader of high-profile, high-performing product, research, and shared technology engineering organizations. An often-invited speaker on building strong engineering teams at conferences internationally – often talking about learning from failure. Has extensive experience building products using Lean, Kanban, Scrum, and Extreme Programming methodologies.

In this episode, Kevin tells his favorite mistake story about the launch of “Spotify Now” when he was an engineering leader at Spotify. Why was there pressure to launch? What mistake did Kevin and team make regarding data from a small group of initial users? How did Spotify leverage its culture of “handling failure well”? What did Kevin learn?

• How do you balance the cost of lost customers vs. the cost of embarrassment?
• Being surprised by the results of experiments
• Was Spotify Now a problem of a bad concept or bad execution? Or Bad design?
• Losing customers as “the cost of learning”
• Organizational learning to not get into this situation again?
• Doing retrospectives on EVERYTHING to remove the stigma?
• The Forbes article that Kevin was quoted in
• People who strongly believe in “accountability” — punishing failures — can you change their minds?
• Failure vs. mistake? — how would you compare those words?
• Tell us a little bit more about DistroKid – strengthening this culture of learning from mistakes?

• Fail Fast, Fail Smart… Succeed! by Kevin Goldsmith
• Blog post version of the story at Spotify

Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts or Podchaser or your favorite app — that helps others find this content and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also become a financial supporter of the show through Anchor.fm.

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This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

Episode page with video, transcript, links and more

** I WANT TO WRITE MY BOOK (ad) **

My guest for Episode #197 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Kristen Carder. She is a serial entrepreneur and mindset coach for adults with ADHD. She's the host of a podcast: “I Have ADHD.”

In this episode, Kristen tells her favorite mistake story about spending $10,000 on a “mastermind” group that was not at all what she expected. Why was there a gap between her expectations and reality? When did she realize there was a problem? What did she do and how did she learn from this, as a coach-ee and a coach? We also talk about mistakes related to understanding ADHD and living with it — at work and in our personal lives.

As she always says on her podcast, she's “medicated, caffeinated, and ready to roll.”

• When did you realize it was a mistake? Did you ask for a refund? 3 reasons why not…
• When should somebody join a “mastermind” instead of getting 1×1 coaching?
• Lesson learned: explicitly lays out WHAT a mastermind is when she sells one
• Red flags that you’re getting bad info about ADHD?
• Why ADHD is not simply a “gift” or a “superpower”?
• How do you define ADHD?
• The inability to direct attention
• Trouble regulating impulse – attention and emotion?
• You were diagnosed in college… I was diagnosed last year at age 48… what led to you getting diagnosed?
• Causes? Differences in the brain?
• A mistake to tell people at work that you’re ADHD?
• Explanation not an excuse
• Her FOCUSED coaching program

Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts or Podchaser or your favorite app — that helps others find this content and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also become a financial supporter of the show through Anchor.fm.

You can now sign up to get new episodes via email, to make sure you don't miss an episode.

This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

To hear the entire episode with Kevin and his co-author Mark Timm, go to www.MarkGraban.com/mistake1

Episode page with transcript, links, and more

I WANT TO WRITE MY BOOK (ad)

My guest for Episode #195 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Ward Vuillemot. Ward is a seasoned C-suite executive with over six years of experience leading fully remote teams while building technology organizations from the ground up for companies with 150 to 650 employees in size and $50M to $125M in revenue across the Americas and Europe.

He is currently Chief Product Officer and CTO at RealSelf. He is a technical advisor with his own company, where he advises startup founders and CEOs on technical roadmap and technology organization along with lean approaches to finding market signals quickly.

I invited Ward because of this Forbes article about celebrating errors.

In this episode, Ward tells his favorite mistake story about launching “Amazon Tote” and why there was “too little friction” in user experience. What did he learn about understanding the customer experience? In a separate story, what was Ward's epiphany about seeing an ant on a bus?

• Innovation is doing something others haven’t done before
• Tell us about the Celebration of Error (CoE) concept – and practice…
• Chicken and egg between psychological safety and CoE?
• How much Psychological Safety is necessary and how does CoE build more PS?
• From Correction of Error (Amazon) to Celebration of Error?
• Are all errors created equally in terms of what to celebrate?
• Discovering mistakes that had been there for years
• As a person who is “high-functioning autistic” – is it ever a mistake to disclose something that personal?
• From mindset to document?

1. IMPACT of the error on business – send to whole company?… why it matters, not why it happened
2. RESOLUTIONS — short-term and long-term (countermeasures) – fire out, then prevention
3. ROOT CAUSE – “show your work”

• When to use a CoE?
• People “NEED” to make mistakes to hit ever-greater goals?
• Taking an impersonal, non-blaming approach — easier said than done? Fighting the instinct to blame?

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Author of the book YOU’RE THE LEADER. NOW WHAT? Leadership Lessons from Mayo Clinic.

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My guest for Episode #194 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Richard Winters, M.D., an emergency physician at the Mayo Clinic. And he’s the author of YOU’RE THE LEADER. NOW WHAT? Leadership Lessons from Mayo Clinic.

As director of Leadership Development for the Mayo Clinic Care Network and as an executive coach, Dr. Winters provides coaching for Mayo Clinic leaders.

Dr. Winters graduated from the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in 1994 and returned to Mayo Clinic in 2015.

Previously, Winters served as managing partner of a democratic physician group, department chair of an emergency department, and president of an 800-physician medical staff.

In this episode, Dr. Winters tells his favorite mistake story about being a little too transparent with physicians in a meeting at Mayo Clinic. Why did so many physicians get upset about this discussion about data around billing practices? Why did it help for him to admit the mistake? How did he adjust and what did he learn from this mistake?

We also talk about questions and topics, including:

• Was it a mistake to be so transparent?
• Breaking down hierarchy and hearing the perspectives of others
• Burnout in healthcare, not just doctors but nurses and others… bad before COVID, worse now?
• Psychological well-being — 6 dimensions
• What are key signs of burnout? How to recognize it and how to bring it up??
• Is burnout different than depression?
• A mistake to blame the person who is burned out? Resiliency training?
• Fix the person or fix the environment?
• Your book — the “now what?” Implies being thrown into a leadership role… is there enough formal leadership education, development, and mentoring in healthcare?
• How are physicians taught about leading — and being parts of care teams — during medical school and residency? Formal education or seeing the behavior modeled by others?
• Ronald Heifitz – technical vs adaptive challenges
• Key differences in the leadership style at Mayo Clinic?
• Responding to clinical mistakes… medical error, patient harm?
• To you, what are the ideal leader behaviors?
• There’s normally so much hierarchy in HC… what was the “democratic physician group” that you were a part of, what does that mean?

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This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

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My guest for Episode #193 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Kurt Wilkin, a co-founder and CEO of HireBetter and managing partner of Bee Cave Capital. His bio says he's “coach, mentor, entrepreneur… and proud mistake-maker.”

Prior to founding HireBetter, Kurt founded and led The Controller Group (TCG), a professional services firm focused on accounting, technology and recruiting, which was acquired by Tatum in 2006.

He’s the author of a new book, Who's Your Mike?: A No-Bullshit Guide to the People You'll Meet on Your Entrepreneurial Journey. You can learn more at WhosYourMike.com.

His quiz that he mentioned in the episode: WHOSYOURMIKE.COM/QUIZ

In this episode, Kurt tells his favorite mistake story about not having a complementary “execution partner” to help him run a business. How (and why) did he adjust? Why did he step aside from the CEO role and what did he learn from this entire experience that serves him well today?

We also talk about questions and topics, including:

• What does it mean to you to be a “proud mistake maker”??”
• How do you try to create a culture where people can also be proud mistake makers? Leading by example?
• Investing in people who are humble enough to learn…
• Learning from mistakes vs. avoiding company-killing mistakes?
• You’ve said that you saw your dad struggle as an entrepreneur. Were you able to learn from any of his mistakes?
• You joined a failed startup in the dot-com bubble… any lessons learned from that?
• Mistake to try to swing for the fences vs. lifestyle cashflow positive business
• TELL US ABOUT THE BOOK: A business book for people who hate business books?

Find Kurt on social media:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter

President of InQuasive, Inc.,

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My guest for Episode #192 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Michael Reddington, an expert forensic interviewer and the President of InQuasive, Inc., which provides businesses and leaders with the tools they need to improve their leadership by activating the truth in all of their business interactions.

In his new book, The Disciplined Listening Method:  How a Certified Forensic Interviewer Unlocks Hidden Value in Every Conversation (Per Capita Publishing, March 2022), Michael details his innovative listening approach for anyone looking to improve their communication and relationship-building skills. Using his background in forensics and his understanding of human behavior through interrogation, Michael teaches businesses to use the truth to their advantage.

In this episode, Michael tells his favorite mistake story about making assumptions about a client's readiness to work with him. Did “arrogance” lead to him not having a plan or a strategy? What did Michael learn and what did he start doing differently as a result?

We also talk about questions and topics, including:

• Making assumptions — Ellen Patnaude episode 141
• Started out working in loss prevention — Identifying shoplifters and dishonest employees?
• How you introduce yourself… and how has that changed?
• What is a Certified Forensic Interviewer (CFI)?
• TV and movie investigations — realistic or cliched nonsense? – Hollywood and “24”?
• How do you approach getting people to share information about their mistakes (or crimes?) when it might not be in their interest to be truthful?
• Leadership coaching, sales & negotiation training…
• Tell us about the book – who is this for?
• Consultant asking prospect about problems they need to solve? How to get them to open up?
• What is the “disciplined listening method” and what makes it “disciplined”?
• Tell us about InQuasive and the work you do… who hires you and to do what?

Find Michael and his company on social media:

• LinkedIn (personal)
• Twitter
• YouTube
• LinkedIn (company)

This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

Founder and CEO of NeuroHealth Partners, LLC.

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #191 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Julia DiGangi, the founder and CEO of NeuroHealth Partners, LLC.

Dr. DiGangi holds a Ph.D. in psychology and has worked in the field of neuroscience. She has published extensively in the scientific literature. She is known for her engaging, funny, and relatable communication style, which allows her to help others think about how the brain’s “wiring” affects workplace behaviors such as motivation, performance, and relationships.

She has also worked extensively in U.S. politics, including on presidential campaigns and at The White House Press Office, so she is accustomed to helping people gracefully navigate fast-paced, high-stakes professional environments. She has also given a TEDx talk on the relationship between our brains and stress.

In this episode, Julia tells her favorite mistake story about the very painful mistake of leaving academia. When did it feel like a mistake that “ruined everything” and how did she reach the point of “post-traumatic growth”? We also discuss her expertise in how the brain and the body react to mistakes and how we can go from “avoiding pain” to “choosing the most powerful pain.”

We also talk about questions and topics including:

• Did you OVER in your academia work?
• Was there a time when it DID feel like a mistake?
• “Leaving the pain behind??” – “the brain is a pain detection machine” – the brain will generate pain
• How did you end up in politics? This was before academia
• What happens when you make a mistake — reaction in your nervous system?
• Perfectionism — fear of mistakes
• How do we move forward from those feelings?
• Leadership & emotional intelligence are key themes
• Are we OVERcomplicating E.I.?
• Understanding others vs. understanding ourselves?
• Upcoming book — tell us about that
• “From Pain to Power….”

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My guest for Episode #190 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Don Sandel. He’s a former executive turned leadership coach and is the founder of GoPositiv.

He’s been leading talent development efforts for small and large organizations for the last few decades and has transitioned those skills and experiences into GoPositiv and now to books as well. He’s the author of the book Positive Mindshift: Making Good Things Happen in Life and Work.

He began studying the brain and its effect on learning about a decade ago, and discovered compelling and irrefutable research around positivity.

In this episode, Don tells his favorite mistake story about a time when he was working for a large global company and he listened to self-doubt triggered by a comment from his boss. Why did he give the worst presentation of his life? And what did he learn from this experience in a way that inspired him to start studying positivity??

We also talk about questions and topics including:

• What sorts of positive self talk would you say before giving a speech??
• How to aggressively battle the negative self talk and change that to positive self talk?
• What prompted you to study positivity? How did you study this?
• Not being a “Pollyanna”?
• John Saunders, who introduced us — his episode
• Does positivity lead to better medical outcomes if you have cancer or another serious ailment?
• Weight loss and motivation — talking about positive motivations instead of negative / barriers?
• Losing weight vs. getting healthier??
• Is it too negative to think about mistakes? How can we be positive about mistakes?
• The definition of optimism – thinking things will be better
• “If dream it, you can do it” —- really?
• Is “toxic positivity” really a concern? What does that phrase mean to you?
• How would positivity have helped in your previous corporate jobs?  Were better performing organizations more positive? Experience vs research?
• Optimistic salespeople

Show notes, video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #189 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Sabrina Stocker, a tennis player turned entrepreneur, an international speaker, and a finalist for the BBC One show, The Apprentice.

She’s founded multiple businesses, and she is now a publicist and the Founder of Two Comma PR – a Public Relations firm. She wants to inspire and help others to become the best versions of themselves, specifically through helping start and scale their business.

In this episode, Sabrina tells her favorite mistake story about listening to somebody else's advice when she was running a startup tennis events business. Why was she “fueled by fire” when she returned from a long break and was that a mistake to be driven by frustration and a desire to beat a rival instead of an intrinsic drive to serve customers? Did she make mistakes on The Apprentice?

We also talk about questions and topics including:

• As a tennis player, what was your perspective on mistakes? Mistakes in strategy, when to adjust? Mistakes on a particular shot? Coaching players how to think about mistakes?
• “Unforced errors” as a phrase in tennis…
• As a leader — can’t blame… “human error is always going to happen”
• The Apprentice UK — tell us about Lord Alan Sugar
• Mistakes while on The Apprentice? Did you get fired because of a mistake?
• More room to recover from a career mistake at your age?
• You’ve done a lot at a young age… started your first business at 14 — what was that?
• Benefits of learning from mistakes at a young age? Was that anything you were aware of?
• Social media mistakes?
• Mistakes related to P.R.?
• Mistake to send repeated automated follow up emails on a pitch?

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #188 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Simon T. Bailey. He’s a keynote speaker, a success coach, an author, a television host, and philanthropist — he has worked with over 2,000 companies in 50 different countries.

SUCCESS magazine calls Simon one of the top 25 people who will help you reach your business and life goals.

He’s the author of books including Release Your Brilliance: The 4 Steps to Transforming Your Life and Revealing Your Genius to the World and his most recent book, Ignite the Power of Women in Your Life – A Guide For Men.

Before starting his company, he worked for the Walt Disney Company, including four years as the Sales Director for the Disney Institute. His degrees include a master’s from Faith Christian University and three honorary doctorate degrees.

His main website is SimonTBailey.com and his book’s website is IgniteThePowerofWomen.com.

In this episode, Simon tells his favorite mistake story from his time as a Disney executive. Why did he violate the rule of “never talk to the media unless authorized” — and why did his boss ask “what were you thinking?” Was that “career suicide” or did it “change the trajectory” of his future? What can we learn from his experience?

We also talk about questions and topics including:

• Your career transition?
• Tell us about your latest book, Ignite the Power of Women… what was the spark that led to it?
• How much do men need to help vs. getting out of the way?
• Why do you say this is now “the age of the woman”?
• “Coaching is not telling, it’s asking”
• You say gender equality benefits everyone… how does gender equality benefit men?
• Intersectionality — Different support for a woman of color?
• You wrote that it took 3 years to write the book — ten drafts, 3 title changes… tell us more about that journey and bringing it to the finish line?
• Your next book?
• Tell us a little bit about a non-profit that you support, Global Servants and what they do… globalservants.org

Find Simon on social media:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Facebook
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Twitter

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #187 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Martina Kuhlmeyer, the Founder of Power Up Your Team — and she’s the host of a podcast with that same name.

As Leadership Coach and Team Building Strategist, she is guiding CEOs and Founders in high-growth companies to build a resilient team so they can scale and win in the marketplace.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Martina spent 30+ years working for small and several fortune 100 companies, including General Electric, Textron, Fidelity Investments and Liberty Mutual. Martina held a variety of executive roles focused on continuous improvement AND driving large strategic change initiatives. As P&L owner, she managed the successful turnaround of a $1.3 billion asset portfolio management company.

Martina was born and raised in Germany.

In this episode, Martina tells her favorite mistake story about starting to use a management process called “strategy deployment” (a.k.a. "hoshin kanri") and how she overcomplicated it by having too many “high-priority” initiatives. Why did she and others on her team make that mistake? How did they recover? And how did they work to create a culture that adjusts and learns from mistakes?

We also talk about questions and topics including:

• We were introduced by Karyn Ross from Episode 3
• Karyn's foundation - the Love and Kindness Project
• “Strategy Deployment” (or “Hoshin Kanri“)
• What was the Impact of this mistake? – over processing
• What did you learn and how did you adjust? — “reflection and insight”
• A mistake to think you’re going to do something new in a perfect way?
• Mistake of having too many “high priority” initiatives?
• How do you create a culture in an organization where learning from mistakes is a reality?
• Mistake to use too much jargon around continuous improvement?
• “Strategy alignment” vs “strategy deployment”
• Mistake to have a large scale initiative (like Lean or Six Sigma) when the CEO isn’t full leading it?
• Tell us about the podcast

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #186 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is John Grout. He is the former dean of the Campbell School of Business at Berry College in Rome, Georgia.

He’s the current Chair of the Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Data Analytics Department and the David C. Garrett Jr. Professor of Business Administration. John has overseen the development, approval and implementation of Berry College’s Creative Technologies program and Berry’s makerspace, HackBerry Lab.

Dr. Grout has researched mistake-proofing extensively and published numerous articles on mistake-proofing. In 2004, John received the Shingo Prize for his paper, “The Human Side of Mistake-Proofing” with Douglas Stewart. John has also consulted with a large variety of firms to mistake-proof their processes. Check out his website, www.MistakeProofing.com.

He’s also published “Mistake-Proofing the Design of Health Care Processes” a book that’s freely available online.

In this episode, John tells his favorite mistake story about using early mistakes to learn and then win a tower-building exercise, defeating a number of “A students” in the process. From John's story, what does that teach us about learning from mistakes — early and often — in a way that propels toward success? Why is this an entrepreneurship lesson (or a human lesson) and not just an engineering lesson?

We also talk about questions and topics including:

• Surprisingly, it’s the A students” who think they know how the world works
• Knowing vs. Experimenting?
• “It’s all about the scientific method” — Lean Startup
• PDCA = Plan Do Check Adjust
• Others didn’t observe and learn from your mistake?
• Spaghetti building – kindergartners vs. MBA
• TED talk — the god complex, trial and error
• Small tests of change = mistake mitigation method
• Chick-fil-A, ThedaCare, and rapid prototyping
• ThedaCare stories
• Adam Savage – Every Tool's a Hammer book
• How do you define mistakes? Strict definition vs common definition?

mistakes —

1. (strict definition) conscious deliberation that leads to selecting the wrong intention.
2. (common definition) synonym for error. For example, the term mistake-proofing uses the common definition since mistake-proofing is used more to prevent slips than mistakes (using strict definition)

• Errors – breaks down then into mistakes vs slips
• Mistake – do what you intended to do
• Slips — right intent but not executed well
• How do you define “mistake proofing”?? Or Slip-Proofing
• How do we decide if mistakes or slips are preventable? “Different vocabularies” for each…
• Why are checklists the “weakest form of mistake proofing”?
• Some recent examples you’ve seen of mistake proofing in everyday life?
• Be careful signs…
• “How can I make this process fail? Make it fail in a benign way…”
• The language around “mistake proofing” or “error proofing” vs.  — is it a mistake to say things like “fool proofing” or “idiot proofing”??

Episode page with video, transcript, links, and more 

My guest for Episode #185 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Dr. Monica Anderson, a.ka. Dr. mOe. She is a dentist… she is and does many things… including bestselling author, podcast host, dynamic “mOe-tivational” speaker, cancer survivor, and leader of the non-profit, Drop The Drugs, Inc.

She has been featured in numerous media outlets, including Parade Magazine, Fox News, and ABC’s Good Morning Texas. And now, here!

Dr.mOe couples her business and personal experiences, to share game-changing, powerful life lessons with both humor and passion. And, by the way, I didn't make a mistake in the capitalization of her nickname!

Dr. mOe has published several books, including her 2021 novel, Never Close Your Heart, and her most recent

Dr. mOe has published several books, including her 2021 novel, Never Close Your Heart, and her most recent book Launch Your Self-Publishing Journey: The Busy Author’s Guide to Write, Publish, and Sell Your Book Fast!

Her podcast is “Perpetual mOetion With Dr mOe Anderson.”

In this episode, Dr. mOe tells her favorite mistake story about signing a contract to take a job, without knowing the name of the organization! Why did it seem like a huge mistake to take that job (under those conditions) and how did it turn out to be a great learning opportunity for her through those challenges? What did she learn about the mistakes we can make when changing jobs?

We also talk about questions and topics including:

• Not a mistake to leave private practice?
• Mistake to accept a job not knowing WHO the client was, signed a contract…
• The non-profit she leads, Drop The Drugs, Inc.
• As a dentist – what are you taught (school or workplace) about dealing with possible mistakes as a dentist?
• Preventing vs. correcting mistakes in dental work?
• You've written multiple novels and then non-fiction books including that book about self-publishing — what got you started as a writer?
• Tell us about your podcast – “Perpetual mOetion With Dr mOe Anderson”

Find Dr. mOe on social media:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

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My guest for Episode #184 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Bryan Clayton. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of GreenPal, an online marketplace that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals. GreenPal has been called the “Uber for lawn care” by Entrepreneur magazine and has over 300,000 active users completing thousands of transactions per day.

Before starting GreenPal, 10 years ago, Bryan Clayton founded Peachtree Inc., one of the largest landscaping companies in the state of Tennessee, growing it to over 150 people and $10 million a year in annual revenue before it was acquired in 2013. Bryan‘s interest and expertise are related to entrepreneurism, small business growth, marketing, and bootstrapping businesses from zero revenue to profitability and exit.

In this episode, Bryan tells his favorite mistake story about outsourcing the development of an app, thinking all he had to do was the marketing. What went wrong and how did he discover the mistake? What did he learn and what did he learn about mistakes, leadership, and culture in an organization more broadly?

We also talk about questions and topics including:

• Where did you get the idea to outsource?
• When did you first start discovering that it was a mistake?
• Using “Lean Startup” principles?
• What was your Minimum Viable Product?
• What’s your mindset on mistakes that happen in the company now?
• From a culture standpoint, what did you learn from the first company that you applied to the second?
• “You get the company culture that you deserve as a leader”
• “I made every mistake you could make” – felt victimized
• “Took me a long time to self reflect about the mistakes I made.”
• Do you ask for feedback from employees about the culture?
• Mistakes people make when hiring a lawn care company?

My guest for Episode #183 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is psychologist Dr. Kristin Neff.

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

She is the author of the books Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, and the 2021 follow up book — Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power and Thrive.

Kristin received her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley and is currently an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. While doing her post-doctoral work she decided to conduct research on self-compassion – a central construct in Buddhist psychology and one that had not yet been examined empirically.

I learned about Kristin's work thanks to a mention of her by Dan Pink, my guest in Episode 137.

In this episode, Kristin tells her favorite mistake story about passionately defending one of her dissertation students who wasn't passed by a new assistant professor. Why was Kristin being a “mama bear” and why was she called on the carpet by her department chair? What did she learn from this experience and how did she apply “self-compassion” to herself in this instance?

We also talk about questions and topics including:

• Before talking about self-compassion, people might have mistaken definitions of compassion… how do you describe the true meaning of compassion toward others?
• HBR – self-compassion articles
• “Self-compassion vs. self-esteem”
• Finding the balance in acknowledging, reflecting, and learning vs. dwelling…
• “Having compassion also means that you offer understanding and kindness to others when they fail or make mistakes, rather than judging them harshly.” — can you share an example that illustrates that?
• How can we practice self compassion when we realize we have made a mistake in our work?
• Important to soothe ourselves before reflecting on our mistake? How we might do that?
• Does it help us be self-compassionate when others are compassionate toward us when we make mistakes?
• What Self-Compassion is not — mistaken views?
• Self-Compassion free survey

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #182 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Gene Rice, the Chairman and Co-Founder of Rice Cohen International. He's the co-author, with his daughter, of the book Grad to Grown-Up: 68 Tips to Excel in Your Personal and Professional Life. You can learn more at the book's website.

Gene has been in the recruiting industry for nearly 30 years and has been recognized as one of the top Executive Search professionals in the world. He has completed over 1,000 retained searches which have included 211 in the C-suite. Having also filled over 300 Partner, Principal, and Director level searches in the Management Consulting, Performance Improvement, and EdTech verticals, Gene is considered to be the #1 search executive in the space. He has even been recognized by Recruiter.com as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the History of the Executive Recruiting Industry.”

Gene also co-founded Rice Cohen Training & Consulting, the largest training firm focused on improving the skills of executive recruiters. Gene is very passionate about this space and believes in supporting the industry he loves. He has become an Executive Coach to the CEOs of many search firms.

As an active member of the community, Gene finds various ways to give back and contribute. After years of being involved with the Make-a-Wish Foundation and serving on the board, Gene and his wife Michele founded the Plant A Seed, Inspire A Dream Foundation. The 501 c-3 non-profit helps financially challenged youth to pursue their passions. Since being founded in 2008, the foundation has awarded over 700 scholarships and has been featured in People Magazine.

In this episode, Gene tells his favorite mistake story about quitting a job to start a competing live music venue on Long Island and how his “huge ego” led him to be “impulsive” in the decision to do so. Why does he say it “could have destroyed” him, why is it better to make mistakes like this when you're young, and how did he apply the lessons learned in his successful career?

We also talk about questions and topics including:

• Coaching young professionals who make mistakes?
• Mistakes in working with an executive retained recruiter as a candidate?
• Selecting C-level executives? — what helps make for a good match (3 things you really need)
• The importance of C-level executives also having personal success and professional fulfillment (not just a job) — get your arms around that as a young professional
• Coaching college interns — helping them the first time they fail… looking at failing differently
• Charity that he started in 2008 with his wife: “Plant A Seed Inspire A Dream Foundation”

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #181 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Pamela Kellert. She helps female professionals in STEM sectors transition to senior management roles by learning strategic non-technical skills.

Pamela is a seasoned Strategic Leadership Expert with over 16 year’s experience working in Strategy, Business Development and Project Delivery, heading diverse teams at leading organisations across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America.

She has managed complex engineering projects and profit & loss responsibility of over $100 million with a team of over 100 employees. Throughout her career, Pamela has coached professionals in their leadership journey and created a systemised online coaching program to help women accelerate their careers to senior leadership roles. Learn more via her website.

In this episode, Pamela tells her favorite mistake story about how she thought she needed to have all of the answers when she was promoted into her first management position. If she was promoted for being good at problem solving, shouldn't she be solving all of the problems as manager? How did Pamela realize this was a mistake and how does she help other women learn from her mistakes?

We also talk about questions and topics including:

• As manager, how should one integrate the ideas and solutions of others?
• When to delegate and when to intervene?
• Being promoted to senior leadership roles – what are the different challenges there?
• Moving into a new function? Challenges there?
• Do some executives never learn the lesson you did?
• Challenges / mistakes with STEM women who want to step up into leadership positions and then into senior management… ‘
• Is it important to have a female mentor? Also a male mentor?
• Getting along by changing behavior vs. trying to change the broader system? How others should react vs. how they do?
• Apologizing before saying something… diminishing language? — societal expectations?
• Making yourself smaller physically? Women vs. men…
• Different advice for women working in very male dominated environments?
• Finnish prime minister backlash — compare to Aussie prime minister or Boris Johnson
• Being aware of biases
• Systemic sexism vs. System racism

Host of the Business of Tech podcast, and owner of MSP Radio

Episode page with video, transcript and more

My guest for Episode #180 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Dave Sobel. He’s the host of the Business of Tech podcast, and owner of MSP Radio. Dave is regarded as a leading expert in the delivery of technology services, with broad experience in both technology and business. He owned and operated an IT Solution Provider and MSP for over a decade, both acquiring other organizations and eventually being acquired.

“The Business of Tech” is a leading IT services focused news and analysis podcast and YouTube show, with thousands of listeners and subscribers.  He also co-hosts of the podcast “Killing IT”, and authored the book Virtualization: Defined.

Dave holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the College of William and Mary. He lives just outside Washington DC with his wife and two cats.  His interests include travel and food, cheering the Washington Nationals and Capitals, and smoking barbeque… He was introduced to me by Jason Levin, my guest in Episode 161.

In this episode, Dave tells his favorite mistake story about “screwing up an acquisition really bad.” Why did he not really understand the full situation of the company? Was it too late to make adjustments to the business after buying it? How did he apply the painful lessons learned when he sold his company in 2011

We also talk about questions and topics including:

• Why did he start a company?
• What he learned about being laid off from startups as a tech person
• Spent more time on the “paper” and not enough on the “people”
• Was it too late to make adjustments?
• Did you acquire other companies?
• Sold his business in 2011
• Applied the lessons learned… was a complete open book instead of withholding information like his seller had
• Mistakes that small businesses make in choosing technology?
• Examples of companies choosing software or tech because it’s trendy?
• How often is the mistake about HOW they implement it?
• The *delivery* of the tech is super important