John Newtson, Co-Founder of the Financial Marketing Summit has built a B2B business development ecosystem that takes a fundamentally different approach to event marketing. For him, it always been around focusing on others’ needs, helping to shake people out of their me-centered mindset and breaking through the business inertia by doing more together.

Breaking through the noise in today’s multi-channel, 24/7 news cycle is a challenge. Media Relations experts Keith Blackman and Chris Blackman help you understand what it really takes to create buzz for your company from strategy to execution.

What’s the  science of altruism and why is mission and purpose  more than just trendy? To learn more, I talked with Dr. Richard Shuster, a former IT executive turned licensed clinical psychologist and the host of the popular, internationally downloaded podcast, The Daily Helping.

What does it take to develop a sound business strategy? Kevin Garton, Chief Operating Officer of Context Capital Partners walks us through what it takes and just as important, the misconceptions many people have around what a strategy actually is.

The idea of creating a strategy may sound simple, even obvious, but as you’ll learn in this episode, the choices you have to make almost never are.

Steve King, Partner at Emergent Research, joins us to talk about the trends in the independent workforce and the impact that independent workers are having on businesses.

In business development, it’s all about the “value exchange” – so to help break through the inertia that may exist in organizations, you have to understand that BD involves so much more than sales. John Keeling, SVP of Business Development at The Motley Fool, joins us for this episode.

Dana Cavalea spent 12 years with the New York Yankees Organization, including many years as the Director of Strength and Conditioning and Performance Enhancement. Today, Dana brings those same performance optimization techniques to business leaders, and we discuss the parallels between optimizing for sports and business.

Dan Yu is the Founder of FastBook Advisors, a new kind of talent agency that focuses on strategic consultation in sales and marketing, organizational structure and design, talent acquisition, and human capital management. We discuss the biggest challenges faced by both hiring managers and job hunters in identifying the best talent and roles, and how both can more effectively navigate their way through this process with a strategy.

WGN Morning News is the #1 morning news show in Chicago. As a station that has been around for 70 years, they have a unique brand that people trust – a brand that today’s guest, Executive Producer Aline Cox, strives to maintain. She shares how they continue to evolve, every day, testing and learning to determine what makes good TV while staying true to their brand.

Stephanie Balderrama, President of Consumer Insights Group shares her perspective on why it’s now more important than ever to be plugged into your consumers’ needs and behaviors. Because of their ever evolving behavior, companies need to reconsider how they approach the way they gather learnings about them particularly in today’s agile environments.

What does it take to implement artificial intelligence to create business momentum? Steve Brown, Director of Einstein Analytics Specialists at Salesforce, says being agile is the key.

Beth Freedman is the Managing Director of gyro:UK, a leading global B2B creative agency, and has spent her career working for some of the biggest agencies in the world, including Saatchi & Saatchi and Fallon.

Beth believes real business momentum happens when service-based businesses invest in the growth and development of their people. It’s the human part of the business that agencies often forget. She attributes her own upward mobility to those who nurtured her talents throughout her career. And  as a result, it is an imperative that she is championing in her leadership role today.

In this interview, Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo, renowned social psychologist, gives us a look into the foundation and purpose of his latest initiative, The Heroic Imagination Project. The project explores everyday heroism and how to train “ordinary” people to be heroes, with the rallying cry: “Stand Up, Speak Out, Take Action Against Injustice.”  

Joanie Rufo, Founder of Initiate Consulting, shares why the key to effectively leading others is, first, learning to effectively lead yourself – a concept she calls Leading Self.

In today’s world of shrinking attention spans and decentralized work forces, Scott DiGiammarino, CEO of MovieComm, believes that how you communicate your message makes all the difference in the world.

His desire to impact not just thousands of people but millions and millions of people, is what drove him to ultimately start MovieComm, a technology company that helps leaders harness the power of Hollywood movie clips to communicate, engage, and inspire their organizations more effectively.

Scott shares his journey when transitioning from leading a large organization to launching his solo venture, how he persevered to break through the business inertia, and how he identified the ideal audience, positioning, product experience, and pricing that led MovieComm to where he is today.

Scott DiGiammarino is the CEO of MovieComm, a SAAS- based technology company that helps leaders lead through the power of movie clips. Prior to MovieComm, Scott was a senior executive at American Express. During his tenure, he turned around one of the worst performing offices and achieved the top ranked spot in a year, then held that spot for 20 years. He grew the business significantly, and in the process, applied creative solutions such as movie clips to motivate and engage a geographically distributed, expanding, and increasingly younger workforce.

Lee Sommers is the owner of Purpose Personal Fitness, a leading strength and athletic training company. He’s been involved in the fitness industry for almost 20 years and has worked with athletes of all levels, including Olympic champion Katie Ledecky. He has seen the industry evolve over that time with a primary focus on profit over people, which Lee believes is a mistake, in the long term.

Returning guest Dr. Mary Lamia is a psychologist who has spent her career studying and encouraging emotional awareness. She is the author of numerous books for kids, teenagers, and adults, including What Motivates Getting Things Done and the upcoming The Upside of Shame.

Greg Johnston, SVP & Creative Director of AgencyQ and a returning guest to the Strategic Momentum podcast, attributes this to fear – a company may have a fear of doing something different or a feeling that the wrong type of message is going out.