9 Podcasts That Will Make You 10% Smarter
A list of my favorite podcasts and episode recommendations.
The results are in! Thirty-one percent of podcast listeners earn upwards of $100,000 per year and monthly listeners have increased from 21% to 24% according to Edison Research. Listening to podcasts during my commute or while walking my dog has turned downtime into productive learning. Listening on iTunes on my iPhone has been my preference, but you can also find podcasts on apps like Stitcher and SoundCloud.
These are nine podcasts I subscribe to. They're non-fiction, interview formats where interesting people are sharing their experiences. Between these shows are thousands of episodes, I'm going to recommend my favorites to give you a road map:
The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk
Ryan has interviewed over 200 of the most fascinating leaders ranging from athletes, business, academia, and the military. You'll find him comparing notes with leaders ranging from Seth Godin to Simon Sinek. His podcast has exploded on a global scale with listeners in 112 countries. Terrific podcast for aspiring leaders or current leaders who are looking to elevate their game.
Recommended episodes:
Episode 78: Kat Cole - From Hooters Waitress to President of Cinnabon
Episode 162 Adnan Virk - ESPN Broadcaster: Why You Should Always Say Yes
Episode 170: Simon Sinek - Why "Together is Better"
NPR's How I Built This with Guy Raz
Guy deconstructs how some of the most notable businesses were built. His guests are legendary and Guy's interview style is entertaining because he helps the guest tell a story and he's not afraid to ask tough questions. Often times, they were on the brink of disaster before reaching a tipping point.
Recommended episodes:
Southwest Airlines: Herb Kelleher
Atari & Chuck E. Cheese's: Nolan Bushnell
Jamie Foxx has coined Ferriss "The Oprah of the internet." His podcast, where he deconstructs world-class performers, has surpassed 100 million downloads and is often the #1 ranked business podcast on iTunes. He's a NY Times Bestselling author of multiple books including the The 4-Hour Work Week. He recently published Tools of Titans which organizes his podcast interviews into Cliff Notes.
Recommended episodes:
Episode 60: Tim Ferriss Interviews Arnold Schwarzenegger on Psychological Warfare (And Much More)
Episode 157: The Importance of Being Dirty: Lessons from Mike Rowe
Episode 167: Jamie Fox Part 2 - Bringing the Thunder
The Unmistakable Creative with Srini Rao
He's interviewed over 600 creatives. You've probably never heard of many of his guests and they turn out to be some of the most jaw-dropping interviews I've ever heard. Srini himself is also a master interviewer which makes for thought-provoking conversation. He's also the author of the WSJ Bestseller, The Art of Being Unmistakable and Unmistakable: Why Only is Better Than Best.
Recommended episodes:
Become a Rockstar on Whatever Stage You Touch with Sekou Andrews
Confessions of a Bank Robber with Joy Loya
The Neuroscience of Goals with Srini Pillay
NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross
Terry Gross has had intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries. Her voice has been a staple in legendary interviews over the last several decades.
Recommended episodes:
Tom Hanks Says Self-Doubt Is 'A High-Wire Act We All Walk'
Johnny Cash: The 'Fresh Air' Interview
'Fresh Air' Remembers Author Maurice Sendak
Magic Lessons podcast with Elizabeth Gilbert
I've never seen or read Eat Pray Love, the book and movie that catapulted Elizabeth onto the moon. This podcast is an extension of her latest book, Big Magic. Elizabeth digs deep as she connects with her guests about traumatic experiences in their lives. She guides her guests to overcome their biggest fears. Each episode is well-crafted and is the result of months of work. This show is a masterpiece.
Recommended episodes:
Ep. 201: "You Have a Screaming, Not a Calling." featuring Sarah Jones
Ep. 206: "Dancing From the Heart" featuring Amy Purdy
Ep. 207: "Living the Dream and Facing the Nightmare" featuring Neil Gaiman
Recode Decode with Kara Swisher
Kara has interviewed just about everyone in Silicon Valley. She commands the respect of tech giants and influential business leaders with her insightful reporting and straight-shooter interview style. This should be required listening for any MBA candidate.
Recommended episodes:
LeBron James's manager, Maverick Carter: Athletes become kings when they control their own message
How to beat Amazon (Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy)
Keith Rabois says winter is coming for wasteful startups
Revisionist History with Malcom Gladwell
The acclaimed author and speaker launched Season 1 of his podcast last year. It's as intriguing as his work in The New Yorker. Although he hasn't released a large volume of episodes, they're worth a listen.
Recommended episodes:
James is an author and entrepreneur. His podcast is first-class with a lineup of guests that mirror a Hollywood guest list. His vulnerability and transparency is something you'll appreciate.
Ep. 151 - Daymond John: Do This When Success is Your Only Option
Ep. 159 - Derek Sivers: The Zen Master of Entrepreneurship
Ep. 195 - Joshua Foer: The Explorer's Code
This list isn't exhaustive and many of these podcasts have other great episodes not mentioned here. What are your favorite podcasts? List them in the comments section below.
8 Tips to Ignite Your Personal Brand at Work
Tips to make investments in your personal brand at work.
It helps you launch your career. It increases your upside for a promotion, and it’s what helps you keep your job during a tough economic climate. Often times it’s why past colleagues reach out to tap you for future opportunities. It’s your personal brand. It can take years to build, and it can self-destruct over night.
Here are eight tips to ignite your personal brand at work:
1. Network Over Lunch
Your company has an org chart. Find it, and determine who to have lunch with based on your interests. Is there team you’re interested in joining in the future or someone that could be an influential mentor? Send them an email, but do your homework first. Review their internal profile. I once received advice from someone whose profile listed that they were open to mentorship. Secondly, review their social profiles to see what they are interested. In a recent study, 1,000 cold emails were sent to executives to see how many people would respond. The 1,000 emails yielded a 1.7% response rate. You will shatter those results because you’re an internal employee. People feel obligated to respond.
2. Help Others
Setup 30 minute coffee meetings with people you don’t normally engage with. Don’t ask them how you can help. Instead, find out what they’re working on and see where you can add value.
3. Write A Thank You Note
In his book, A Simple Act of Gratitude, John Kralik set a goal to write 365 thank you notes over the course of the year. He's written over 2,000. Your goal is to write one thank you note. It could be a note to your colleague, boss, or even someone who often goes out of their way for you like your office assistant. They usually don’t feel as appreciated as they should be and a small note of appreciation will be something they will remember forever.
My example note to our office assistant:
I appreciate your help as it seems I'm often forgetting things or needing to do something last minute. I'm working on that habit. Thank you for booking rooms for me, reminding me to get my mail, and all the other the little things that mean a lot.
4. Start A Book Club
Send an email to your office-mates. Announce that you’re starting a book club and ask them if they’d like to join. Survey your peers to see what they’re interested in so you can select books that are industry specific or general business books. Guide the meeting by asking the group questions to warm up the conversation, but keep the dialogue as an open discussion for everyone to get involved. This will ignite your personal brand tenfold.
5. Ask Intelligent Questions
I was speaking with a chief marketing officer at a supplement company who makes protein powders about their digital marketing. I asked him what percentage of his business came from Bodybuilding.com. He was blown away and I had instant credibility. That specific retailer is the largest online store in the world, so by asking that question he knew I had domain expertise. Next time you’re in a meeting ask questions that subtly show you’ve done your homework.
6. Get Involved In A 20% Project
At Google, we were encouraged to spend 20% of our time working on a project we were passionate about. It was also the Trojan horse for joining a new team and gaining experience outside of your role. If your company doesn’t allow that, find a project you can work where you can contribute outside of your normal working hours.
7. Be Charismatic
In The Charisma Myth, Olivia Fox Cabane explains a study done by MIT Media Lab that concluded it could predict the outcome of negotiations and business plan pitches with 87% accuracy merely by analyzing the person’s body language. Cabane says that it doesn’t matter how great your pitch is, if your body language is wrong you won’t be charismatic. In turn, with the right body language you can be charismatic without saying a word. This book helps you better your communication skills which elevates your charisma.
8. Be Noticed For The Right Stuff
Being late to meetings, bad hygiene, and working on your laptop during meetings all negatively affect your personal brand. As important as it is to make deposits to build your personal brand, you want to avoid things you don’t want to be noticed for.
11 Unconventional Lessons in Sales I Wish I Learned 10 Years Ago
These are invaluable lessons I've learned over the years from being in sales.
I've spent 10 years in various sales roles at Verizon, BlackBerry, Google, and now Gartner. I've done many types of roles like inside, outside, and channel sales. Some were short sales cycles and others were long-term relationship based roles. I've learned a lot and I'm continuously learning every day. I've read the classics and enjoy reading new books on the subject, it boils down to bettering your communication skills. I wish I knew what I know now 10 years ago, but some lessons are learned first-hand. Here are 11 of them:
Ask Yourself This Question Every Morning: What has to happen in order for me to have a successful day? It’s usually anywhere from three to five things you need to get gone. Look at your calendar to see if your meetings or the time you’ve blocked reflects those initiatives. Tim Ferris recommends writing those things down on a post-it note. I like sticking that post-it note on my laptop so it’s visual at all times. It's easy to get distracted by colleagues pinging you or the new message alert popping up in Microsoft Outlook. You can turn it off with five quick steps in this article.
Make The Tasks You Don’t Enjoy Fun: There’s only one thing I hate more than cold calling, and that’s washing dishes. One way to spice up cold calling is to grab a friend and hop in a conference room together. Be sure to prepare your call list ahead of time. One person starts cold calling while the other person takes notes to provide feedback later on. Once that person hangs up, the other person must take the phone and place the next call. It’s going to be the most fun cold calling session, ever.
Be Indispensable: When a client asks, “Is there anything else we should be doing?” There’s a level of trust they have in you. In his book, The Sales Acceleration Formula, Mark Roberge describes how the new way of selling is consultative. Imagine that you are a doctor and your prospect is the patient. They want your expertise, but you can’t diagnose them until you’ve asked them the right questions and understood their unique situation. After a $1M pitch a CEO of a large vitamin company leaned over and said, “Omaid, what else should we be doing?” I recommended they have a strategy around Pinterest for the product they are selling because that’s where their target audience is spending their time. I didn’t work for Pinterest, but I knew it was important in order for them to succeed.
Co-pitch To On-board Fast: I’ve found co-pitching deals as the most effective way to learn and ramp up in a new role. You’re not shadowing a top performer, you’re working with one. You learn the talk track and your confidence is uplifted ten-fold by doing rather than watching. Organizations should not split deals to incentivize the seasoned rep. The top performer should reward the new rep in good will.
Put Your Clients Interest First: Sounds obvious, but if you look around you’ll see most salespeople put their own interests first in order to close a deal. In the near-term you may generate less revenue, but you’re likely to have a fruitful relationship over the long-haul. By doing this, you’re more likely to become indispensable to your clients; and that is the ultimate success.
Have Good Salesforce Hygiene: Record everything in your Customer Relationship Management tool so you don’t have to rely on your memory. Besides, if you use tasks in Salesforce you’ll go to bed in peace knowing your to-do list is already in-tact. This also makes it more effective for your management team to pull reports that are an accurate reflection of your productivity.
Use Parkinson’s Law: It’s the adage that work expands as to fill the time available for its completion. If you block off 2 hours on your calendar to prepare for a presentation, you’re highly likely to complete the task in those 2 hours. If you tell yourself to get it done on Friday, you’ll spend half the day or forget to start preparing in the first place.
Celebrate Your Wins: Imagine if you have a quarterly quota. Four times per year you’re either going to achieve or miss your goal. Four times per year you’re going to be happy or feel miserable. Create the rules of the game in your favor so you have better odds of winning. Set weekly goals around revenue targets and behavior metrics. For example, if my quota was $500,000 for the quarter I’d aim to close $42,000 in revenue every week (if there’s 12 weeks in a quarter). I’d also want to understand how many calls it takes for me to land an appointment, and how many appointments turn into closed deals. If my close rate is 50% I’d want 4 appointments each week (if my average deal size is $21,000) in order to achieve my quarterly goal. It’s a great feeling to celebrate every Friday rather than once every 12 weeks.
Be Less Social: Social selling is overhyped. I’ve yet to close a deal over Instagram. Do I think you should follow your customers on Twitter to be informed? Absolutely. But like a balanced offense in football, a team should have both a solid running and passing attack. There’s a time and a place for communicating over social channels. Remember, people buy from people. Next time you have an important message for a client, think about picking up the phone instead of sending an email. Human interaction over the phone or in person speeds everything up and customers understand the context of the conversation.
Continue To Learn: My wife always says that if it’s important to you, you’ll make time. If you play fantasy football, put in the time to be successful, but don’t put in all your time. I was in a coffee shop in Long Beach 6 years ago with an executive and was describing a CEO study she recently read. She said the constant theme for every CEO was that they all continued to educate themselves. Whether it’s taking classes, e-learning sites like Lynda.com, or reading books. Take the time to make deposits in your skill set because it will pay dividends.
Find A Mentor: It’s important to find a mentor at your company early on. Someone who can guide you through your current role and be a sounding board for your future interests. A friend of mine worked at a hot startup in the Bay Area and I asked him if he had a mentor there. It’s a great company with incredible leadership. He said he did not. When you work at the company, leaders are more likely to respond from your email because you are an internal employee. The approach is very important (which is a conversation for another day) but my friend ended up getting mentored by a VP who reports to the CEO of a 10,000 person company.
Jesse Katz: #3 The Unconventional Story of How the Roots of Fight Clothing Brand Went Viral
Jesse Katz is the co-founder of a clothing brand that pays tribute to legends in sports. He shares how his brand went viral and vital business lessons he's learned through his journey.
Jesse Katz is the co-founder of Roots of Fight, a clothing brand that's gone viral. He's brokered licensing deals with legendary fighters including Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, and Bruce Lee. The brand shines a light on athletes who paved the way for the contemporary fighters that came before them. Jesse tells the story about how Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson helped build their social media platform, the purpose behind the brand, and key lessons for anyone starting a business.
Check out Roots of Fight online.
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