Black Faces in White Places: Interview with author, entrepreneur and Apprentice winner Randal Pinkett

Every entrepreneur knows the hustle of getting tax information together to prepare for end of year tax returns.

While in the middle of gathering documentation and receipts each year, you often mutter "next year this will all be automated!" Yet taking the time and figuring out the process to do so can seem overwhelming.

In this 30 minute interview, Pamela Slim talks with Micky Deming from Kahuna Accounting about the ways that entrepreneurs can get over the hurdle of disorganized bookkeeping so that they can focus on growing their business. 

We discuss:

-Why you don't need to wallow in shame or guilt if your bookkeeping is disorganized

-The key things you need to prepare for a stress-free tax season

-The power of cloud-based bookkeeping

-What organized financials can help you do in growing your business

To find out more about Micky and Kahuna Accounting, go here:
http://kahunaaccounting.com/community/

I have long been a fan of Malcolm Gladwell's book Tipping Point, in particular, the "Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen" chapter where he talks about different personality types that impact social change.

So imagine my delight when I met Erica Dhawan the author of Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence, with co-author Saj-nicole A. Joni.

They have spent years delving into research about what they term "connectional intelligence" -- arguably the most important skill currency of the 21st century.

In this conversation, Erica and I discuss:

• 3 types of connectors -- Thinkers, Enablers and Connection Executors
• How people are using connectional intelligence to solve complex problems and start movements
• How organizations can develop connectional intelligence

 Exerpts from our conversation:

"A lot has changed since Gladwell his book came out in 2006. When he framed that term (connector), he framed that there were three personality traits: Connector, Maven and Salesman that play a central role in the creation of social epidemics. From my research, to be successful, to get noticed, to start a movement, we ALL are entering the category of Connector. The question is not if we are connectors, but which type of connectors are we?"

You can connect with Erica Dhawan here: http://ericadhawan.com or Twitter @EDhawan

Buy the book on Amazon: Get Big Things Done

Whenever we set out to make things better in our lives -- improve our career, grow our business, get in shape, make a bigger impact in the world -- fear and doubt creep in.

In her work coaching women and in her own personal life, Tara Mohr saw a pattern emerge, a problem she describes as women "playing small." Women are sitting on their big ideas rather than sharing them, holding back their most provocative questions instead of asking them. They are having a collective hallucination that they aren't "ready" for that bigger role or next step. 

She made it the focus of her work to help women start playing bigger -- pursuing their dreams for their lives and careers, and sharing their voices more boldly.

Join me and Tara in this conversation where we explore these themes, and discuss ways to help women (and men) overcome barriers to playing bigger in the world.

When I first started writing about small business marketing many years ago, one of the first people I heard about was John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. John had a great reputation, a solid business and a well-respected and highly trafficked blog.

I referred many clients to his first book, Duct Tape Marketing. Then to his second, The Referral Engine, and his third, The Commitment Engine.

Through the years, we became good friends, and he has been a very trusted and valued mentor in my own business.

I was thrilled that he wrote a new book, this time about selling, called Duct Tape Selling. I could not think of a more perfect person to talk about the new world of marketing and selling than John.

In this 27 minute conversation, we talk about:

• The recent dramatic change in sales and marketing
• How to use well-tested inbound marketing techniques to drive and close sales
• The different skill set required for marketers to sell, and salespeople to market

Check out John's new book, Duct Tape Selling here. It is a powerful resource for entrepreneurs, marketing and sales professionals: http://amzn.to/1ipwavs

Many entrepreneurs dream of starting a business in their garage, scaling it, then selling it to Google for a billion dollars. 

Such things rarely happen.

But scaling happens every day, in our career, our business or our workplace. We are constantly trying to improve ourselves, share our ideas, and put in systems and infrastructure that will grow our organizations without destroying that which made them great.

Stanford professors Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao describe in their exceptionally well-researched and readable new book, Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less that knowing how to scale is a critical skill for the 21st century workplace.

And they have 7 years worth of research, analysis and case studies, consolidated into this great book.

In my lively conversation with Bob Sutton, we discuss:

• Scaling excellence in your own career
• Scaling up competence as startups get past bootstrapping
• Looking for hot causes and cool solutions
• Why big teams suck
• Scaling excellence in large companies: Why change should happen in pockets of excellence, not be spread like peanut butter across an organization
  
  

Bob has been my "adopted professor" and High Council of Jedi Knight member for the last 8 years. I respect his work so much, and hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did! 

Read more about the book and order it here: http://scalingupexcellence
Give Bob a shout out on Twitter @work_matters

I have always been a huge fan of underdogs.

Josh Shipp started his life without a safety net. Abandoned at birth by his mother, he spent most of his youth bouncing between foster homes, growing increasingly disillusioned and angry.

He finally landed in a home with a family who gave him the kind of support and encouragment he needed.

He then built an amazing speaking business, reaching more than 2 million teens with live presentations.

He created a television show called Jump Shipp where he pairs a person with a big dream with a mentor and a challenge to make it happen.

His latest book is called Jump Ship: Ditch Your Dead-End Job and Turn Your Passion into a Profession.

In this episode, Josh and I discuss:

• His own journey, and how he turned a bleak childhood into a life of service and inspiration
• Strategies for finding more meaning in your life and business
• How to integrate all of your "ingredients" in your work - skills, strengths and scars

I was so inspired to talk to this young man who has done more with his short life than most people twice his age.

When you think about it, navigating your life is a series of negotiations.

In the course of a day, you may try to influence:

• Your new puppy to use the restroom outside
• Your customer to buy your product
• Your kid to brush his teeth
• Your neighbor to vote for your candidate
• Your boss to support your project

How can you undertake these challenges with integrity, not force, and make all involved (especially the new puppy) feel like they got a win too?

Bob Burg, the successful author of such classic books at The Go-Givers and Endless Referrals, tackles this challenge in his latest, and he argues most important book to date,  Adversaries into Allies: Win People Over Without Manipulation or Coercion.

In the book, Bob lays out a way to approach negotiations and differences in business, and life, in a way that is mutually supportive and respectful.

In this conversation, Bob and I talk about how our national political discourse (and resulting actions) might look radically different if we took the time to focus on the motivation behind our beliefs, rather than name-calling.

We also talk about how to set personal boundaries without being rude, and handle negotiations in a win-win manner.

Bob says this is his most important book to date, and I agree. I hope that millions of people buy and read the book, resulting in a kinder, more effective and productive society.

There are some people I meet who I instantly feel not just a connection with, but true kinship. Todd Henry is one of these people.

I first met him when he interviewed me about my book Escape from Cubicle Nation on his wildly popular podcast, Accidental Creative. I was intrigued by his work with creatives, where he acts, in his words, as an "arms dealer for the creative revolution." His ideas have inspired people from graphic artists to Hip Hop stars (LL Cool J is a fan).

But I really got to know him when we were both writing our new books for the same publisher (Portfolio) with the same editor (Emily Angell). Our late-night email chats were both inspiring and extremely effective for working through creative blocks.

After being close with Todd in the creative process, I was so excited to read his brand new book Die Empty. It got me tremendously fired up.

In this interview, Todd gives extremely clear, passionate, concrete advice on not only how to get your creative work out into the world, but why it is your obligation to do so. I was shaking my fist in the air during the interview. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

To get the new book:

Many years ago, when I was in the early years of blogging at Escape from Cubicle Nation, I heard about a young man named Dan Schawbel who was writing like crazy about personal branding and millenials in the workplace. His name and face were everywhere, as he wrote for his own blog, as well as grew an impressive byline in places like Fortune, Time and Fast Company.

Dan's first book, Me 2.0, became an international bestseller, and has been translated in 13 languages.

And yet, surprisingly as we discuss in this podcast interview, he had to work really hard to find the right publisher for his brand new book, Promote Yourself.

Listen in to our conversation, where we discuss:

• How the world of work has changed, and what you need to do to make sure you have sustained career and business success
• The necessary hustle required to make things happen in a crowded online world
• Expectations from millenials in the workplace, and how we can all learn to get along (Dan and I have healthy disagreement on a few items here, but that is what makes a good discussion, right?)

Promote Yourself: The New Rules for Career Success is fresh off the press this week, and not surprisingly with Dan behind the launch, has generated lots of buzz in the business press.

Pick up your copy here: http://www.amazon.com/Promote-Yourself-Rules-Career-Success/dp/1250044553

Imagine that you are driving down the road and you get a call from your office that a VC is interested in talking to you about investing in your business, but the only time they have to meet with you is tomorrow at noon. You have never put together a pitch before, and feel slightly panicked. But then you open an app, say "How to make a VC pitch" and immediately get 5 names of experienced VCs. You scan the list, see that one of them is Mark Cuban, and say "call Mark" and in 2 minutes you have him on the phone, coaching you through tomorrow's presentation (of course you scanned the list when you were pulled into a parking lot, because of course you would not text and drive). When you hang up, you would automatically be billed for 15 minutes of Mark Cuban's time.

This scenario is not far from the reality at Clarity.fm, Dan Martell's current company which connects entrepreneurs with questions with experts who have answers. He has the small goal of reaching one billion people with his platform in ten years (!).

In this interview, we talk about:

• Dan's personal journey to entrepreneurial life, which included drug addiction and jail time
• How he took this tough experience and made it a driving force in his vision for positive change
• His early startup history, including early failures
• The business model and vision for Clarity.fm and how it may change the way we learn
• How Dan survived my "I have never met a Canadian I didn't like" challenge by the end of the interview (I like him a lot)

Find Dan at http://www.danmartell.com/ on Twitter @danmartell and his company https://clarity.fm/home