Allen Williams is a boom operator in the TV and film industry. He's worked on projects like The Vampire Diaries, Spider-Man Homecoming, Stranger Things, and Cobra Kai. In January 2020 he emptied for an unexpected house problem, just before losing work for 9 months to the pandemic. Then his wife got COVID, on bedrest for 2 months. When most would become cynical, Allen kept his family afloat by being more generous and giving than ever before.

Elisse Glennon is the founder and Executive Director of the New Jersey Sharing Network Foundation. When COVID threatened the entire national healthcare system, Elisse and her team had to navigate incredibly shaky seas. The big question was, would donations plummet, devastating the chances of everyone on that list, desperately in need of a transplant?

Dan Cockerell made an extensive career at The Walt Disney Company that spanned 19 different positions, including vice president of Magic Kingdom® Theme Park. After 26 years, Dan retired to start a consulting and speaking business teaching business leaders how to be more malleable, adaptable, and innovative, so they can let the sun shine in their organization’s culture. In this episode, you’re going to learn about the power of staying on message, the No. 1 mistake most companies make that lead...

Jesse Cole is the owner of the Savannah Bananas, a collegiate summer league baseball team based in Georgia. You’ll learn how Jesse’s “fans first” philosophy inspired the most innovative period of his entrepreneurial journey, how he and his wife Emily’s history of crushing setbacks prepared him for this historic moment, and how you can lead your business, community, or family with selflessness and generosity.

I've had the pleasure of being a guest on some wonderful podcasts lately. Here's a "best of" compilation from the first quarter of 2021. Topics include my 2020 pivot, loneliness in the pandemic, story telling tips for life and business, how to connect with sales prospects, and the most difficult speech I ever gave.

Tyler Anderson is a chef and owner of multiple high-end restaurants. He’s also a James Beard award-nominee and appeared on both The Food Network and Top Chef on Bravo. In this episode he teaches us how to turn chaos into profits... and dine-in greenhouses.

Stefanie Faye Frank is a neuroscience researcher. She specializes in translating complex scientific concepts into real-world language to help people find new ways to use their talents, discomforts, failures, and challenges as pathways to growth and evolution. In other words, she helps people Pivot by transforming negatives into positives.

Pam Paydos is a beloved Connecticut-based entrepreneur and restaurateur. When everything shut down, restaurants were the first and most visible industry to pivot. In Pam’s case, it was even trickier. Her current restaurant is a bistro and bakery, designed around a small-town ambience and community tables in a very tight space. She didn’t have the systems or staff to do take-out. But almost a year later, Popover Bistro and Bakery remains a pillar of the community.

Hana Jung is the founder of Re:Boot Experiences, a set of programs designed to help people stop being machines, and start being human, again. When COVID hit Hana was already in the midst of personal tragedy and family emergencies. You’ll hear how being a first generation child of immigrant parents shaped Hana’s philosophy on life, how she previously Pivoted away from a miserable career in corporate America, and what it means to Re:Boot your life.

Sandra is the Director of Drama for the College of the Albemarle in North Carolina. Tasked with finding a way to safely put on a theatrical production in the middle of a pandemic that even shut down Broadway, Sandra turned to the obvious solution: puppets.

Dr. Deborah Gilboa is a practicing family physician. She is also an expert on resilience. In this conversation she teaches us what resilience is, how some individuals and organizations were able to successfully pivot in response to the stress of 2020 while others were not, and what you can do to stop stressing and build resilience.

Stuart MacDonald is a rare bird. He’s a magician, but he’s really a character actor who happens to be a magician. When the world went into lockdown it wiped out the live event industry. Unlike most Pivoters this season, Stuart did not immediately turn to virtual in order to salvage his career. In fact, he hung up his magic act and started searching for a normal 9-5.

Carolene Méli spent 10 years traveling the world with Cirque du Soleil as the Head of VIP Events and Concierge, until COVID wiped out the global live entertainment industry and Cirque declared bankruptcy, eliminating 3,500 jobs overnight. This is her Pivot story.

What pivot have you made in your life or career? How resilient are you? Do you have the capacity for existential flexibility? Here’s to your next Pivot.

Show up with kindness and offer the gift of connection. How they choose to receive or reject that gift is not for us to predict.

Here are four reasons it may be worth buying information you could otherwise find for free online, or learn how to do yourself. This is a guide for making better buying decisions.

We know it’s not simple, and we really can’t change the world. Maybe everyone can’t change the world. But you can certainly change your world.

Attention can be bought, but trust cannot. Whether in your businesses dealings or in your personal relationships, get creative, sure. But in your quest for relevance, always be sure to honor the audience.

Put kindness and generosity into the world and, even if no one ever writes back, recognize that you’re still making a connection. Not with everyone, but with someone.

Cal Fussman is an award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author. He is the Writer at Larger for Esquire magazine where he interviews legends upon legends, including Mikhail Gorbachev, Jimmy Carter, and Kobe Bryant. We spoke about his fear of technology, the 2008 recession, how tennis and surfing taught him everything he needed to survive the current pandemic (even though he doesn't do either), and The Magic Question you can ask anybody if you need to quickly make a connection.

Far worse than failing at the finish is failing to start. There’s always going to be one more thing you need to learn, one more book to read, one more course to take, one more TED talk to watch, and then you’ll finally be ready.

Dominic is a cybersecurity expert and an absolutely wonderful conversationalist. We talked about cybersecurity and who's most at risk these days, the value of mentors, entrepreneurship, how to prevent top talent from leaving or fleeing your organization, and of course his chance encounter story. Plus, Dominic gives us the top two things every individual and organization should be doing to protect themselves from cyber criminals.

Find something outside your job that sets your soul on fire. Then give it everything you’ve got, and share it with others. The world needs more generosity. And we all need a little more joy.

Matt Zinman is a personal success trainer, author of the new book Z-Isms, and founder of The Internship Institute, which bridges the gap between education and employment. In this episode we discuss earned confidence, how to prove yourself to yourself, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Internships and what students can do now, recognizing the flow of energy during interactions, gratitude as a daily practice, and how to turn difficulties into opportunities.