With 25+ years of experience in the leadership, sales, and financial services sphere, Finka Jerkovic realized that PEOPLE are the secret sauce to business growth. Now being the founder of Finka Inc., she pours into corporate companies and their teams through programs that support leadership development, team building, and skills advancement. She’s worked with esteemed brands like Lowes, Toyota, Nestle Purina, Merck, and Edward Jones. Her signature program, Your Brilliant Difference™,...

New York Times bestselling author and ghostwriter Michael Levin is the most prolific ghostwriter in the industry, having written, edited, published, or consulted on more than 1,000 books. Levin’s own books have been published by Simon and Schuster, Random House, Penguin, and a variety of other top publishers. He has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, HuffPost, LA Times, Boston Globe, and many other top outlets. His ghostwriting clients include Boeing and Ford CEO Alan...

Do you want to be a thoughtful, effective communicator? In his latest book, Carlos A Alvarenga illuminates insights from research and classical writings to outline The Rules of Persuasion. On today's episode Carlos and Andrea discuss the chemistry between communicators and their audience that leads to people taking action on a message. They also explore differences between coercion and persuasion, and sentimentality and authentic emotion.   Read the show notes here:   ...

  Are your company policies and cultural norms creating unnecessary roadblocks for people? Neurodiversity is a term that recognizes the differences in all people, and is often used to refer to different thinking and behavior patterns in the context of the autistic spectrum. In this interview Andrea taps the experience and expertise of an autism specialist to help us all learn what we can do to be more accommodating to the diverse needs of people at work, giving them a chance to bring their...

There's an underutilized leadership skill that we're highlighting today in our 300th (woot, woot!) episode of the Voice of Influence podcast, and that's the skill of acknowledging significance of what people contribute and achieve. We're not talking about giving pats on the back or gold stars. Instead, we're talking about finding meaning and sharing authentic acknowledgement of why something matters.    Andrea shares about a key leadership lesson she learned from Alice Atemo of Overcoming...

Expermination is a core element of building a Collaborative Learning Culture. Have you ever put out an idea or initiated in some way as a leader and people just bought in and went with it? They went with your initiation and they're like, "Yeah, let's try this!?" On today's episode Andrea talks about the value of goodwill and how to build that in your team so as a team, you're more willing to buy-in to little experiments and see how things go.    Mentioned in this episode: Amy Pohler's...

When you're the leader of a fast growing company, the growth of the team is exciting and daunting at the same time. While it's vital to get everyone on board with your brand promise, it's not a simple process. It comes down to the dynamics of influence - are people growing in personal agency and alignment to the structure of the company?     In this live coaching session, Andrea works with Margie Remmers-Davis to help her grow a collaborative learning culture in her team so they can...

Dr. Barb Daubenspeck heads up Bellevue University's master of science in clinical mental health counseling. Nearly 250 Nebraska students are enrolled and more than 450 Nebraskans have graduated from the CACREP-accredited program. The Nebraska Counseling Association just honored the Bellevue University professor who heads the university's fast-growing clinical counseling program as its "Counselor of the Year."   In this interview, Dr. Daubenspeck shares insights about how Gen Z approaches...

LTC (R) Marci Toler is a retired Officer for the United States Army and holds the Human Resource Manager functional area (43B), specializing in organizational team development, operations, and strategic planning. Awarded the Bronze Star, Toler has served as a senior staff member for several Combatant Commands, a trainer, advisor, and mentor to tactical, operational, and strategic (combined, joined and allied coalition) staff officers and civilians for planning and operations. In this...

Do you have ideas that would make your company better? Leaders want the input and perspective of others, but sometimes those ideas fall flat, discouraging leaders from asking  and keeping others from sharing. Newer team members with ideas need to know how to share their ideas and energy without triggering defensiveness and resentment in those who invested in the company before.    Listen in as Andrea describes why Voice of Influence is focused on helping companies develop Collaborative...

How do people change? Our guest today has studied the topic extensively and created the Fisher Curve to help explain the emotional journey people go through when experiencing change. John Fisher, CPsycol., AFBPsS, MSc. is a constructivist psychologist and coach. John has spent the last 25 years working in change management, personal development and coaching. He has a unique blend of experiences across a a range of sectors and companies from SME to Multinational helping people develop their...

Donna Serdula is the founder and president of Vision Board Media, a professional branding company that helps individuals and companies tell their unique stories on LinkedIn and beyond. Bringing dynamic brand storytelling to the masses and empowering people to dream big – that's the ink in her pen.   It's her Website LinkedIn-Makeover.com where she and her team of over 20 writers and coaches help people collide with opportunity and transform their lives via future-forward career branding....

The sentiment can't be ignored: 9 out of 10 leaders and managers I talk to are concerned about how they will integrate Gen Z into the workforce. And since Gen Z is replacing the retiring baby boomers and is about to overtake them in numbers (according to Glassdoor), the transfer of knowledge and culture weighs heavily on the minds of leaders.   In this episode, Andrea dissuades us from giving up on this generation and discusses the importance of mentoring Gen Z workers at the manager level....

Jim Vaselopulos is a C-level business advisor and executive coach with a proven record as a leader, strategist, rainmaker, and expert in new business development. With his principled leadership, visionary approach, and effective execution, Jim has successfully established new companies and transformed underperforming organizations. As the founder of Rafti Advisors, Jim assists early-stage businesses in launching successfully, growth-stage enterprises in accelerating their progress, and...

In this episode we hear why product and hiring experimentation are keys to successful startups, and why taking culture seriously helps people build influence in companies.    With over 20 years of experience in product management, design, and strategy, Paul Shustak is a multi-exit founder who loves building 1.0 products that push the boundaries of innovation. He is currently the co-founder of AsqMe, the leading Q&A platform helping creators aggregate, answer and monetize audience...

Steve Shenbaum is the founder of Game On Nation, a nationally recognized communication firm that employs game dynamics and improvisation to teach high-performance teamwork as well as communication, story-telling, public-speaking and presentation skills. Game On Nation provides authentic and down-to-earth courses, keynotes, and custom training programs that are widely accessible and extremely successful. For over 27 years, Steve and his company have helped people at the highest level of every...

Political and ideological tensions are running high across the globe. Is this impacting the way your team interacts? Are you noticing higher levels of anxiety and relational conflict? In this episode Andrea discusses the importance of personal reflection and reconciliation for leaders.     Read the show notes here:   https://www.voiceofinfluence.net/288 Give and receive feedback that makes a difference! Register for our 20 minute Deep Impact Method video course here:  ...

James Satterwhite brings over 36 years of industry knowledge, senior management and market building experience. His skills include global reach and abilities to address complex business development needs with a particular focus in façade constructs. Mr. Satterwhite is CEO of Advanced Glazings Ltd. with focus on domestic and international growth for the unique and timely light redirecting and highly insulation glazing units branded as Solera. He has served as Global Business Manager for Cabot...

  Mickie Kennedy believes that with some effort and a little money, the possibilities are endless. He is an expert at helping small businesses, authors, and startups increase their visibility and credibility. Mickie founded eReleases 24+ years ago after realizing that small businesses desperatelyneed a press release service they can actually afford, giving them access to the media and to a national newswire – all with a personal touch. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in...

Andrea Pacini is a presentation coach and Head of Ideas on Stage UK. He specialises in working with business owners, leaders and their teams who want to become more confident presenters.  Since 2010 Ideas on Stage has worked with thousands of clients around the world, including companies like Microsoft, Lacoste, The World Bank and over 500 TEDx speakers.  Andrea is on a mission to stop great ideas from failing just because of the way they are presented. His vision is to help hundreds of...

  Claudia Schabel, Founder, President and CEO of Schabel Solutions Inc., has been on a 20-plus- year mission to raise awareness and consciousness about social justice, race relations and equity. The Schabel Solutions team has over 25 years of DEI and human resources practitioner experience, largely with Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies. As a diversity and inclusion strategic partner, we combine our expertise with significant international experience and multicultural backgrounds to...

We can all learn a lot from professional performers because anyone can struggle with performance anxiety when they share a presentation or even just speak up in a meeting. Soula Parassidis is an accomplished professional opera singer and she has advice for us on the podcast this week. Greek-Canadian operatic soprano Soula Parassidis is an entrepreneur, anti-humantrafficking advocate, and producer. She has appeared on stage in the world's major performance venues and is the CEO of Living...

Rahier Rahman is the founder and CEO of Turn, an innovative HR tech company whose products are revolutionizing talent acquisition by dramatically speeding the hiring process and greatly reducing cost through autonomous data-driven sourcing and screening of the contingent and hourly workforce.  Read the show notes here:   https://www.voiceofinfluence.net/282 Give and receive feedback that makes a difference! Register for our 20 minute Deep Impact Method video course here:  ...

Kyle Shannon is a visionary leader with more than 30 years of experience innovating in storytelling and digital marketing. As the Co-Founder and CEO of Storyvine, he has revolutionized video storytelling with a Guided Video platform that automates production and empowers clients to create authentic, professional content at scale. Kyle's experience co-founding AGENCY.COM in the mid-1990s played a significant role in shaping the modern digital marketing landscape. As Chief Creative Officer, he...

Mark Malagon has over 16 years of experience in industrial refrigeration and mechanical contracting. Mark earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech as well as an MBA from Mercer University. He is also a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in multiple states and holds an active NCEES Record. Mark started his career as a project manager, quickly advancing to sales engineer. Soon thereafter he found himself in sales and engineering management, and after a successful run as a...