Amanda Setili shares a recent Fearless Growth podcast episode where she interviews the author of Right on the Money: New Principles for Bold Growth, Colleen Francis.  Colleen Francis provides a proven, realistic game plan to creatively adapt our sales and marketing efforts in a topsy-turvy world. Colleen is an award-winning speaker, consultant, and the author of Right on the Money: New Principles for Bold Growth. A successful sales leader for over 20 years, Colleen’s results have attracted hundreds of industry-leading…

In this concise and timeless post, Amanda Setili shares a few thoughts on uncertainty and risk. Some of our kiteboarding friends stayed, to take advantage of the pre-hurricane wind. Rob and I made the decision to evacuate with mom to a hotel in the small town of Waycross, GA. This experience brought me to consider how each of us thinks differently about risk and uncertainty. I’ve noticed that people who are comfortable dealing with uncertainty are more successful in the…

Amanda Setili shares an article on the pitfalls of comparison and a competitive mindset. Earlier this week, I was on a group Zoom with executive coach Marshall Goldsmith when he posed a particularly provocative question: why is it that incredibly affluent individuals continue to engage in insider trading? Marshall then offered a theory. The way income is distributed, the closer you get to the top of the heap, the further you are from the next person in front of you….

Start your week with the right mindset. Amanda Setili shares a perfect post for a Monday morning.  “Some beliefs become so ingrained that we don’t even question them. We just count them as truths. These unexamined beliefs can imprison us.” Key points include: We all do this We should learn to dismiss the negative thoughts that hold us back Trust that the integrity of our actions has the impact to carry us onwards and upwards   Access the link to…

Amanda Setili shares an experience and a reminder on the importance of preparing for unseen threats in business. We were kiteboarding last weekend off Sullivan’s Island, near Charleston. The wind was blowing hard, over 20 mph, and I was having a great time. Three hours into my session, I was jumping near a sandbar, because the water was so smooth and beautiful there. In other words, I was intentionally close to the sandbar and thinking that it was safe to…

Amanda Setili shares a short post on the problem of “placebo buttons” in the workplace and how to avoid using them.  Did you know that many “walk” buttons at intersections actually do nothing? Not because they’re broken, but because they were deliberately deactivated when computer-controlled traffic signals were put in place. Even now that I know this, I often find myself standing at an intersection with my bike, pushing “walk” repeatedly, hoping to nudge the traffic light into changing.  Placebo…

Amanda Setili shares a podcast from her series Fearless Growth where she interviews Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley,  the authors of the new book, Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust, on leadership. The world is in desperate need for a new model of leadership, say Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley. We have seen the results of self-centered leadership, the kind that loves power and status. They make the case that it’s just…

Amanda Setili shares insights on managing remote employees from her own experience of working remotely. Many companies are wrestling with how to best manage and motivate the many employees who want to work remotely on a permanent basis. It recently occurred to me that others might benefit from the lessons I’ve learned during the many years that I’ve spent working in a similar manner. While I’m not an employee of my clients, they do depend on me to handle complex…

Amanda Setili explains why the structure of a video game can be applied to business to attract and leverage top talent.  There’s a reason that the video game industry is larger ($179.7 billion according to IDC data) than the movie and music industries combined: playing video games makes players feel good, and for reasons that are easy to document. Todd Harris, founder and CEO of Skillshot Media, was the one who first made me realize this. For years, he has…

Amanda Setili provides business intelligence from a small business owner who found a solution to the issue of finding workers during the pandemic.  “Like many businesses, Dan & Whit’s General Store in Norwich, Vermont has been having a problem finding enough workers. Out of desperation, they came up with an out-of-the-box solution. One longtime customer recalls the email she received from the store’s owner. It said, “You want to do yoga? Come into Dan and Whit’s. Breath. Grab a can…

Amanda Setili shares how she started her podcast Fearless Growth with a little help from her friends and what she learned in the process.  When my podcast guest Ginger (Virginia) Bowman was a waitress right out of college, she went to see Jurassic Park and instantly had the desire to create animated imagery like the creatures in that movie. Although she lacked any training or knowledge relevant to the entertainment industry, Ginger started telling anyone who would listen, “That’s what…

Amanda Setili shares a concise post on the perception of risk and how it affects the team.  Karen perceives that competitors are moving very quickly, so she feels the leadership team has no option but to be even more aggressive. Jim sees the competitors as foolhardy, so he wants to take a slow and steady path while the competition defeats themselves. Curt keeps waffling back and forth; he wants to pump up revenue growth, but consistently balks at the price…