Archives: Podcast Episodes

What exactly is Conscious Capitalism? It’s a way of looking at business responsibly, ethically, and mindfully. It’s a global movement that redefines how we look at business and asks us to look at not just shareholder value, but STAKEHOLDER value. Here’s a bit from the Conscious Capitalism Credo:

We believe that business is good because it creates value, it is ethical because it is based on voluntary exchange, it is noble because it can elevate our existence and it is heroic because it lifts people out of poverty and creates prosperity.

Today, I talk with Frank Smith. Frank is the founder of Mosaic Personnel, a recruiting firm in Oklahoma City but he’s also a leadership trainer and the leader of Conscious Capitalism’s Oklahoma City chapter. Frank shares the definition of Conscious Capitalism and its four core tenets – and you won’t be surprised to learn how empathy fits in nicely when it comes to leadership and culture. We discuss the relationship between recruiting and culture development, and some ways that companies big and small are creating intentional business cultures rooted in conscious capitalism. 

Key Takeaways:

• Even if someone has the same credentials, they may not fit at different companies. Conscious Capitalism is about elevating life through work, both internally and externally within an organization. 
• Younger generations want to feel like they are making an impact in the world. Conscious Capitalism resonates with them as it gives them an environment where they can feel seen and heard and know they are making a difference. 
• Curiosity is an underrated skill. It is the number one trait of empathetic people.

“If, as leaders, we do this the right way, we actually are a force for good in the world, and not somebody that’s creating more and more of the problems in the world.” —  Frank Smith

About Frank Smith:

Founder, Mosaic Personnel and Chapter Leader, Conscious Capitalism

Frank has been a business owner for 30 years in various industries. He is the founder of Mosaic Personnel and the leader of the Oklahoma City chapter of Conscious Capitalism. During this time his real passion was creating a workplace people want to come to work at. Whether Manufacturing, Retail, Distribution or Professional Services the same rules apply to accomplish that. Frank spends his time as a trainer and executive coach to help people create Intentional Culture in the workplace. Frank has been married for 33 years and when he isn’t working, he enjoys traveling, golf and car racing.

Connect with Frank Smith:  

Mosaic Personnel: https://mosaicpersonnel.com/

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/frank-smith-5b74795

Driving Happiness at Work: https://drivinghappinessatwork.com/

Other References Mentioned:

Conscious Capitalism – Global Organization: https://www.consciouscapitalism.org/

Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey

Firms of Endearment by Raj Sisodia

The Motive: Why So Many Leaders Abdicate Their Most Important Responsibilities By Patrick Lencioni

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: 

Red Slice

According to research, empathy, when combined with ambition, is the #1 trait of successful salespeople. If you’ve ever struggled with sales, if you lead a team of salespeople, or if you just want to get better at selling your ideas, this episode is for you! I got the chance to talk to my friend and sales expert, Leah Neaderthal, and she’s dropping all kinds of wisdom on what it takes to successfully make more sales and grow your revenue and impact. Today we talked about the link between empathy and successful selling, why some sales strategies fall flat if you don’t take an empathetic approach, how to help your clients sell within their organization on your behalf, preventing prospects from ghosting you, and how to get more comfortable selling, whether it’s enterprise software or just a new idea at work. 

Key Takeaways:

• The secret sauce to selling is a little bit of intuition, a lot of book learning, and your empathy.
• Put everything in terms that will benefit the client. There are opportunities to do that in every touch point, from setting up meetings, to requesting responses, to the meetings themselves.
• The sales experience contributes to the brand experience. All of it falls under the customer experience, even if they aren’t a customer yet. The sales process is a rehearsal for what it is like to work with you. 
• The best way to prevent ghosting is to start asking questions about how decisions get made, then you know what their processes are, and you will know better how to respond. 

“If you want to get better at selling, learn the tools of selling, but don’t change anything about you. Because the way that you show up, that’s the magic and you can layer that on to the tools. When you put those two together, that’s where the magic happens.” —  Leah Neaderthal

About Leah Neaderthal:

Leah Neaderthal is a sales coach for women who run B2B consulting and coaching businesses, the founder of Smart Gets Paid, and the host of The Smart Gets Paid podcast. A three-time business owner who started her career in corporate marketing, Leah didn’t learn to sell by being a commissioned salesperson. She taught herself everything she could about selling, overcame “selling shyness,” and created a sales approach that feels comfortable, builds strong client relationships, and gets results. Prior to starting Smart Gets Paid, Leah built, grew, and sold three businesses. 

Connect with Leah Neaderthal:  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahtn/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smartgetspaid/

Smart Gets Paid Podcast: https://www.smartgetspaid.com/podcast/

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

Take my LinkedIn Learning Course: Leading with Empathy

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

What does it mean to leverage your culture as a competitive advantage? What does culture even mean, and why is it so important that an organization articulate and live out its values? This episode will answer all your questions, especially if you’ve ever thought culture is “just HR’s problem.” My guest, author, educator, and culture expert Josh Levine, founder of culture design consultancy, Great Mondays, shares his expertise on why you need to intentionally design a culture that helps you innovate, perform, and win. Today we define modern company culture and discuss why culture is the ONLY sustainable competitive advantage. Josh shares how to turn the tide on the great resignation, how to evaluate if your company values are helpful or harmful, and how the proliferation of communities in modern business has led to the consumerization of the employee experience – and what you can learn from that to attract and retain top talent. 

Key Takeaways:

• The larger the company, the further removed the leaders are from the day to day culture of the organization. Working with culture ambassadors within your organization can help you to understand what is happening on the ground. 
• Organizations should reevaluate their culture every 2-3 years. Values are not indelible. They can evolve, and they should do so.
• Your values are your priorities. While all may be important, you can’t work on 40 things at once. You have to understand what are the most important values to your organization and understand what they mean. 

“Culture is the cause and effect of every decision that we make. It’s not just an input and an output, but it’s a cyclical reinforcing system. It’s about decisions and behaviors.” —  Josh Levine

About Josh Levine:

Josh Levine is an educator, designer, and best-selling author, but above all, he is on a mission to help organizations design a culture advantage. He’s the founder of Great Mondays, a culture design consultancy. Josh’s book Great Mondays: How To Design A Company Culture Employees Love was selected as one of BookAuthority’s best culture books of all time.

Connect with Josh Levine:  

Website: https://www.greatmondays.com/agency

Company Culture Design Consulting. We help companies find, tell, and live their story. We call it culture design, and believe that when employees know why they work, they are more motivated, more invested, and are happier doing it. And damn it, we believe even Mondays can be great. 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/akajoshlevine

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akajoshlevine

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greatmondays_culturedesign/

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: 

Red Slice

Why so many brand communities (and even social cause communities) fail is because they are not truly communities. They are simply a collection of people. For a community to thrive for the long term, you need mutual concern, ongoing stewardship – and yes, empathy. If you build it without that – I promise you, they won’t come. My guest today, Carrie Melissa Jones shares how to build a successful community – and also how to avoid costly failure. Today we talk about why most brands fail at community building – please don’t repeat these mistakes! Why empathy is the key to community design, and how we can cultivate empathy for those we interact with online. She even outlines the first step you need to take if you are building a community from scratch. So many great gems in this episode, and you can check out her book for even more.

Key Takeaways:

• Social networks or social media are not the same as community. The key to community is mutual concern with trust as the cornerstone.
• Research is important to understanding what your desired community needs. Connect individually or in small groups with those key people who can help you understand what is important.
• Building a community does require design thinking with empathy, because you’re building a community of humans.
• If the community is not helping people make progress and connection, they will stop participating.

“What makes community really unique is that unlike watching a webinar where you could learn something and solve a problem on your own, some problems can only be solved by collective organizing and collective action.” —  Carrie Melissa Jones

About Carrie Melissa Jones:

Community Builder & Researcher, Author, Founder and Chief Strategist, Carrie Melissa Jones Consulting

Carrie Melissa Jones is an author, community builder, and researcher of online communities. Her work has influenced the world’s leading online brand communities including the American Medical Association, Patreon, Google, and two U.S. presidential campaigns. She is the author of the award-winning book Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging with Charles Vogl and a student, teacher, and researcher of virtual communities at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Connect with Carrie Melissa Jones:  

Website: https://www.carriemelissajones.com/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/caremjo

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carriemjones/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carriemelissajones/

Book: https://www.buildingbrandcommunities.com/ 

Courses: https://www.carriemelissajones.com/training 

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Do you know what your risk fingerprint is? Like your actual fingerprint, your risk fingerprint is unique to you and based on your biology, but also your experiences and environment. Your risk fingerprint shapes what you see as risk or what you don’t believe is risk. It shapes how you make decisions, connect with people, and live your life. Understanding the risk profiles of others is what my guest today, Michele Wucker, calls “risk empathy.” It’s yet another factor you will want to consider when creating a high-performing team but also helps you better understand where someone is coming from, rather than making assumptions. Today we talk about how to assess your risk fingerprint, what risk empathy means, and why the term “risk averse” is a destructive stereotype. We also talk about why ensuring you have risk diversity on your team will help you make better decisions. 

Key Takeaways:

• Taking risks is like building muscle – the more you do it, the easier it gets. 
• Risk is a perception based on your own lens.The more control you have, the less risky you see something as being. 
• You’re going to have different risk tolerances in different parts of your life. You want to set up a good risk portfolio across your life.

“We talk about gender or race when we are looking at diversity, but I think it’s very important to look specifically at risk. Generations approach risk very differently because they’ve had very different risk experiences.” —  Michele Wucker

About Michele Wucker:

Michele Wucker, Strategic Advisor & Author, The Gray Rhino and You Are What You Risk

Best-selling author and strategic advisor Michele Wucker coined the term “gray rhino” for obvious, probable, impactful risks, which we are surprisingly likely but not condemned to neglect. A former media and think tank executive, she is founder of the Chicago-based strategy firm Gray Rhino & Company. She is the author of four books including the influential global bestseller THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore and the recently published sequel, YOU ARE WHAT YOU RISK: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World.

Connect with Michele Wucker:  

Website: https://www.thegrayrhino.com

Book: You Are What You Risk: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wucker

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wucker/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MicheleWucker

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelewucker/

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

In order to be the best leader you can be, you have to be present and attuned to what your teams are going through. That requires regulating ourselves and our own emotions. Things get even stickier when you throw trauma into the mix. You get triggered, or they get triggered, and ultimately nobody wins. But how do you recognize trauma in the workplace? And what can you do to ensure you create a safe environment where everyone can contribute and collaborate effectively? My guest, Charna Cassell, is an LMFT and a Certified Embodied Leadership Coach. Today we talk about her fascinating work with leaders and trauma survivors and how essential mindfulness, internal work, and consciousness are in being a congruent leader and communicator. We also share how you can recognize trauma in others and respond effectively. You’ll hear about the Window of Tolerance and why expanding yours as a leader enables you to more compassionately navigate traumatic situations with others. 

Key Takeaways:

• We all have our histories, and when we’re in stressful situations, those can take over unless you’ve trained your nervous system to do something different.
• If you have not addressed your own traumas and histories, it will inevitably come out in all of your relationships, both personal and professional. 
• Learning how to breathe is the most direct way to change your mood or state. 
• When the relationships have been built, you can check in with your coworkers and employees in a healthy, safe manner. But attunement is key and you want to make sure it is done in an appropriate time and manner. 

“Your own ability to feel your own emotions is directly correlated with how much capacity you have to be with other people’s experience.” —  Charna Cassell

About Charna Cassell:

Charna Cassell:  LMFT and Master Somatic Coach

Charna Cassell, an LMFT and a Certified Embodied Leadership Coach, helps people heal and find pleasure in their bodies. For over two decades, she worked as a sex educator and sex toy clerk at Good Vibrations located in San Francisco.  Then, as a Master Somatic Coach and bodyworker, and now, a trauma-trained psychotherapist.

Outside of private practice, she teaches sexuality education classes, leads body wisdom workshops, and offers trauma and resilience training in a variety of institutions, nonprofits, and therapeutic settings. 

As the host of LaidOPEN Podcast, Charna shares her own story, answers your questions, and offers practical exercises. She has conversations with inspirational survivors, trailblazers, and people just like you. Her guests are experts and authors in the field of somatics, trauma, healing modalities, mindfulness, and the arts. 

Charna’s work and expertise have been featured in Oprah magazine, TeenVogue.com, InStyle.com, Psychcentral.com, and Askmen.com. Currently, Charna’s focused on writing her book, The Authentic Yes: A Guide to Passionate Living  After Sexual Trauma.

Charna is in private practice in Oakland, California.

Connect with Charna Cassell:  

Websites:http://www.passionatelife.org and http://www.charnacassell.com.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laidopenpodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laidopenpodcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charna.cassell

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charnacassell/

Laid Open Podcast: @laidopenpodcast – https://www.laidopenpodcast.com

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

How well do you understand your own emotions? Do your emotions ever get in the way of producing quality work or collaborating effectively? Chances are, yes. This is why social-emotional learning, or SEL, is so important for us to teach children at home and at school. For us adults, we can still master SEL skills so that we, too, can be stronger, more compassionate leaders, colleagues, and citizens. My guest today, Dr. Lorea Martinez, and I discuss the positive impact that can have on your workforce, productivity, and performance. 

In this episode, Lorea and I discuss what SEL means to both children and adults. We talk about the efforts around the world to embed this learning in our schools and how it helps kids become more aware of their emotions, leading to better problem-solving skills and collaboration. Lorea shares the psychology of emotions and how they impact our performance at work and our ability to learn. We discuss how trauma impacts learning and cognitive development in kids and adults, and finally how we create spaces where people can bring their full identities and truly belong.

Key Takeaways:

• We all have a voice and can make a difference in our communities. We all have a purpose in life and we can change the future generations as we learn, ourselves, and teach our children these social-emotional skills. 
• Emotions are part of our cognitive process – we cannot have thought without feelings and all decisions we make are based on emotions.
• One of the most important things is creating spaces where people can build their most authentic selves. 
• We are hiding from ourselves when we are not embracing the diversity in ourselves and around us. 

“Social and emotional learning is the application of emotional intelligence. It’s a lifelong process. It’s never too early or too late to start practicing and learning emotional intelligence.” —  Dr. Lorea Martinez

About Dr. Lorea Martinez:
Dr. Lorea Martinez, Author & Founder, HEART in Mind

Dr. Lorea Martínez is the award-winning founder of HEART in Mind, a consulting company dedicated to helping schools and organizations integrate Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in their practices, products, and learning communities. An educator who has worked with children and adults internationally, Dr. Martínez is a faculty member at Columbia University Teachers College, educating aspiring principals in Emotional Intelligence. Her new book for educators, Teaching with the HEART in Mind, is currently available. Previously, she was a special education teacher and administrator. She frequently blogs about how to incorporate SEL in teaching practices and parenting at loreamartinez.com

Connect with Dr. Lorea Martinez:  

Website: https://loreamartinez.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/loreamart

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loreamartinez/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loreamartinezSEL/

Book: Teaching with the HEART in Mind: https://amzn.to/394f5dO

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

If you have experienced disharmony in your workplace, it might not be because other people are evil and out to get you! It may just be that there’s a clash of different mindsets and a whole host of assumptions being unfairly made. How many great ideas are you missing out on because of this friction? My guest today is author, speaker, and consultant Karen Cornwell. Her goal is to give you the ability to peel back others’ behaviors and glimpse the underlying mindset so you can work together in a more meaningful way. This is how we can leverage differences to drive more innovation, growth, and engagement in the workplace.

Today, Karen and I talk about what gender harmony means, how it impacts mindsets, and how you can assess your own mindsets to better bridge divides and unlock innovation and collaboration. You will love her fabulous example of how empathy in action resulted in multi-million dollar wins for a pharmaceutical company. 

Key Takeaways:

• Our interpretation of events and situations is already colored before we are even aware of what we are doing. This interpretation is different from person to person and is where we either clash or mesh with others around us.
• Buried in our mindsets, our beliefs, assumptions, and values are what we think is most important about both how the world works and how people work together.
• Empathetic cultures boost innovation. If people don’t feel comfortable and listened to, your company will flounder and stagnate.

“It’s getting over your own assumptions and into what somebody else is thinking. Often they’re not the same, and in those differences and assumptions is where the miracles lie.” —  Karen Cornwell

About Karen Cornwell:

Karen Cornwell, Speaker, Consultant, Author

Karen Cornwell spent her career in tech; she lived it, learned from it, and now wants to change the tide for future technology aficionados. She cut her ‘product management’ teeth on designing services to make nuclear power plants more efficient and easier to operate, before moving over to improve services for the semiconductor equipment industry. After years of working in tech, Karen realized that we spend a lot of time tripping over “our differences” in the workplace.

Many of these differences are often thought of as “gendered,” as some originate from stereotypical behavior. You developed your mindset based on how you think. The problem is we don’t all think alike and when we judge others’ behaviors according to our mindsets, we often come up short and have trouble understanding others’ behaviors. This is why she wrote her book: You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See: An Eye-Opening Toolkit for Cultivating Gender Harmony in Business. Her goal is to give others the ability to peel back others’ behaviors and glimpse the underlying mindset. Once you understand the mindset, the behavior begins to make sense, and so does your ability to work with the other person in a more meaningful way. This is how we can leverage differences to drive more innovation, growth, and engagement in the workplace.

Karen delivers a wealth of experience in her stories both in her book and from the stage. She demonstrates an uncanny ability to combine aspects of neuroscience, psychology, sociology, and linguistics that leave you thinking, “that makes sense, now I get it.” She has a BS and MS in Engineering and an MBA from Santa Clara University. Karen lives in Silicon Valley with her Chef husband and their three boys.

Connect with Karen Cornwell:  

Book Website (including Blog & Podcast):  https://www.youcantfixwhatyoucantsee.com/

Consulting Website: https://www.attunovation.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenfcornwell/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CornwellKarenF

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gendersavvy/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GenderSavvy

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

How can poetry help a team better collaborate and connect? You’re about to find out! My guest is Michelle Kaplan, and today we talk about the important role that creativity plays in sparking conversation, breaking down walls, and building trust for better collaboration. We discuss the role poetry, and creativity in general, can play at work – and how it leads to empathy, vulnerability and trust in the workplace.  She’ll share how she uses poetry as a catalyst, even with skeptical teams. You will love the poignant original poem she reads to us, and how it helped a now-hybrid team recapture the spark they had when they were all in the office together. Finally, she’ll share some tips on how to do all this in remote or hybrid work environments. 

Key Takeaways:

• The doorway to understanding what’s important to other people and enabling them to be themselves is for you to start with yourself.
• Creativity creates empathy. While poetry works for some, creativity is a broad category – art, music, physical activity – any form of mental expansion will help to open and bring empathy to your team. 
• As a leader, it is about how you show up, and what you allow and tolerate in your group scenarios. How are you bringing everyone together?

“Incorporating poems creates a safe place where we can talk about some really sensitive, vulnerable issues in a safe way because you’re not talking about me versus you. We’re using the poem as a vehicle for having discussions that can clear the air, and create clarity about thoughts and feelings.” —  Michelle Kaplan

About Michelle Kaplan:

Michelle Kaplan, Leadership Coach, People Strategist, and Leadership Development Trainer

Known as the “Corporate Poet” Michelle Kaplan has worked for 30 years in corporate HR and 15 years as a Leadership Development and Organizational Effectiveness Coach and Trainer. Michelle incorporates her original poetry in her work with clients to foster inclusiveness, empathy and psychological safety in the workplace. This vulnerability work helps her clients to maximize their authentic leadership abilities. Michelle is the author of two poetry collections: And: A Love Story and Burst & Fleurish.

Connect With Michelle:

Website: https://www.burstandfleurish.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellejkaplan/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/398016800948461

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellekaplanpoet

Two poetry collections: And: A Love Story Within and Burst & Fleurish https://www.burstandfleurish.com/author 

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy 

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

How do we shift from an individualistic culture that incentivizes power grabbing and consumerism into a more community-driven culture where everyone gets their needs met – and yes, innovative leaders can still make money and succeed? It’s possible, if we get creative, build new systems, and create new incentives for a game we ourselves invented! Today’s very philosophical conversation with Raman Frey will have you thinking about how you can be part of the solution and still achieve your ambitions. We touch on everything from how community building encourages empathy, to making creativity and the arts more accessible to everyone to sharing our random thoughts on capitalism, Western culture, and how to shift society from ME to WE without feeling like we’re missing any opportunities – and in fact, how doing so will unleash innovation and allow all people to thrive on a massive scale.  Get ready to question your assumptions about creativity and our current form of capitalism – in a GOOD way – on today’s show.

Key Takeaways:

• We are all intrinsically creative. It is important to be bold in your engagement with other people’s creativity – which will also build your muscle to be creative yourself. 
• There need be no poverty in the world – right now, poverty is a political choice of the system we live in. 
• Civilizational transformation is usually the result of upheaval and catastrophe. It is rarely the result of a peaceful opt-in solution. It is our moral responsibility to be part of building and, then offering, those peaceful transitions.

“Community is intrinsically necessary for most people, even introverted people. Community is a sense of belonging that transcends the transactional. Transactions may come out of community, but they are not the point of community.”

—  Raman Frey

About Raman Frey, Entrepreneur, Speaker and Founder of GP Dinners and Camp Earnest.

For the last 20 years, Raman has built businesses and communities in the Bay Area, bringing people together around meaningful conversations about art, technology, religion, politics and philosophy. He was a founder or co-founder of Frey Norris Gallery, Epicenter Arts, Dispatch Labs, Good People Dinners, and Camp Earnest.  Raman has served on the boards of several organizations, including the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. As an event producer, public speaker, moderator, and interviewer, Raman enjoys improvisation and unscripted dialogues. Civil discourse, vulnerable conversations, and deep inquiry are common threads in all of his work.

Connect with Raman:  

Camp Earnest: https://www.campearnest.com/ Access code: earnestcampers

Ramen Frey website: https://www.ramanfrey.com/about.html

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RamanFrey

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramanfrey/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raman.frey/

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice