In today’ uncertain world of the pandemic, business as usual has a new meaning.  Many people are now taking the opportunity to launch their consulting careers as their business has turned into just “another job.”  Working remotely as a consultant creates more freedom, but brings more challenges, resulting in people getting exhausted from trying to navigate sales and marketing in order to generate a sustainable income, especially now since the majority of interactions are virtual.  In this episode growth specialist Jessica Yarbrough talks about her success in help entrepreneurs overcome these challenges, as well as how her business has evolved to cope with the pandemic.Jessica Yarbrough has quickly developed a reputation of being one of the best business strategists and marketing and sales consultants for entrepreneurs who want to sell high value products and services.  Her background is in international business and she has built multiple companies.  She travels the world teaching and inspiring entrepreneurs and helping them grow their influence and make the income and impact they desire.How to reach and stay connected with Jessica Yarbrough:LinkedIn:  Jessica YarbroughWeb Site:  https://jessicayarbrough.com/Case Study:  https://jessicayarbrough.clickfunnels.com/casestudyFacebook:  https://www.facebook.com/JessicaYarbroughConsultantYouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNyoWO_PHyyuJMZ2-XvpxGA  About PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

Business Performance Podcast

Growing a Business, Working Remotely

One of the biggest challenges faced by local businesses is successfully marketing their products and services while simultaneously growing their business.  This push-and-pull effect is essential to creating visibility, customer engagement, and accessibility, but requires RIGHT industry expertise.  Thanks to digital marketing, today’s business moves forward in leaps and bounds.  For many local business owners, keeping up with the challenges of staying visible and accessible can force them to rethink their marketing strategies.  This often presents an obstacle that can leave them behind.  In this episode, one of Yahoo’s Top 12 2020 Entrepreneurs to Watch Ryan Mason talks about his journey to success and how he learned these effective strategies by the age of 26.Ryan Mason is the Founder & CEO of Luxe Brand, Americas leading luxury shoelace provider, featured on Good Morning America, NFL Network, Foot Locker stores, and over 30 athletes and celebrities; and BizBuzz, providing integrated marketing automation software and services for over 250 small and medium-sized businesses.How to reach and stay connected with Ryan Mason:LinkedIn:  Ryan MasonWeb Site:  https://ryandmason.com Web Site:  https://luxe-brand.comWeb Site:  https://bizbuzzdigital.com  About PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

People – Process - Platform

Where does the time go?  Do you find yourself wondering about this more and more?  Especially in these pandemic days?  Do you wish that there was a way to get some of that time back and be more productive?  The problem is that everyone is thinking about productivity all wrong.  Over the years we’ve been led to think that we have to get better at managing our time, but to live the lives we really want to live, what we actually need to do better is managing our attention.  In this episode international speaker, consultant, training, and author Maura Nevel Thomas talks about her journey to gain work-life balance and manage attention. Maura Nevel Thomas is dedicated to helping busy people discover attention management as the new path to productivity.  Maura has a passion for productivity, and she has had the pleasure of helping individuals and teams at companies of all sizes achieve significant results and live a life of choice for over two decades.  How to reach and stay connected with Maura Nevel Thomas:LinkedIn:  Maura Nevel ThomasWeb Site:  https://maurathomas.com/Web Site:  https://maurathomas.com/attention-management-assessment/  About PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

Managing Your Attention

By now most everyone has been in at least one Zoom meeting, if not on a daily basis.  And you’ve most likely noticed things that people do when on camera that detract from the meeting, from looking up someone’s nose to background photo bombs.  There are some very simple things you can do that will make you appear more professional and engaging from putting your laptop on a stack of books so you are looking straight at the camera to smiling and taking to the camera instead of the person you see on the screen.  In this episode Kim and Mike Barnes talk about how they went from being TV news and sports reporters to onscreen coaches. Kim Barnes was a news anchor and reporter in Austin for 15 years and then formed Barnes Team Media specializing in On Camera Training, Media Training, and-Presentation Training.  Mike Barnes was a sportscaster in Austin for nearly 30 years and then joined his wife at Barnes Team Media where he serves as a communications consultant, motivational speaker, and a media advisor How to reach and stay connected with Kim and Mike:LinkedIn:  KIm BarnesLinkedin:  Mike BarnesEmail:  kim@barnesteammedia.comEmail:  mike@barnesteammedia.comWeb Site:  https://barnesteammedia.com/ About PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

Leveling Up Your Zoom Skills

Do you ever find yourself, especially in today’s remote work environment, attending meetings lasting an hour or more and then feeling like you accomplished today was sitting in meetings?  If you are like most people, you don’t have a great relationship with meetings, and using the word itself can fill you with resistance and a predetermined notion of what to expect.  When we bring people together just to give status updates, no work gets done in the meeting; it’s not a productive meeting at all.  Don’t you wish there was a way to make your meetings more productive?  In this episode Douglas Ferguson discusses unleashing your meeting potential. Douglas is an entrepreneur and human-centered technologist with over 20 years of experience. He is president of Voltage Control, an Austin-based workshop agency that specializes in Design Sprints and innovation workshops. How to reach and stay connected with Douglas:LinkedIn:  Douglas FergusonWeb Site:  https://voltagecontrol.com/Blog:  https://voltagecontrol.com/blog/author/douglas-ferguson/  About PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

Unleashing Your Potential

Have you ever thought of starting your own business?  Maybe you already have a business — but you are stuck at a certain level and do not know how to grow it.  Or maybe your growth has been hindered by the global pandemic.  The economic fallout from the global pandemic has been unprecedented.  Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.  If history teaches us anything — this is an event that will change the world at a fundamental level.  We are just at the beginning of this cycle.  The whole saga may last for about 2–3 years and the recovery and reconstruction of the world may take up to a decade.  In this episode C-Suite Mentor/Advisor Manuj Aggarwal talks about how he learned to cultivate meaningful relationships, moving from an income of $2/day to the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies and how these lessons can help recover from the pandemic.Over the last 30 years, Manuj has worked with startups and Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Pearson, and IBM.  He also is the host of the entrepreneurial podcast “Bootstrapping Your Dreams.”How to reach and stay connected with Manuj:LinkedIn:  Manuj AggarwalEmail:  manuj.aggarwal@gmail.comWeb Site:  https://tetranoodle.com/About PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

Cultivating Meaningful Relationships

In the fight against the COVID-19, social distancing has proven to be a very effective measure to slow down the spread of the disease.  While millions of people are staying at home to help flatten the curve, many people still have to go to work every day to make sure their basic needs are met.To help ensure proper social distancing protocols are followed in the workplace or any public place, Swedish civil engineering firm AFRY has developed an AI-enabled social distancing detection tool Flowity that can detect if people are keeping a safe distance from each other by analyzing real-time video streams from the camera in a GDPR safe way!  In this episode AFRY’s Prajit Datta talks about artificial intelligence, social distancing, and quality concerns.Prajit is an AI research scientist, Blockchain evangelist, a TEDx speaker, and author with the vision to develop intelligent systems using principles of artificial intelligence, which will change the way we look at the world.How to reach and stay connected with Prajit:LinkedIn:  Prajit DattaEmail:  prajitdatta9@gmail.comWeb Site:  https://www.prajitdatta.comAbout PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

AI Social Distancing Checker

Digital and social media marketing has grown to be a very sophisticated skill that many companies have not mastered.  It has turned marketing on its head with the vast amount of available data that can now be consumed and analyzed.  In this episode Apogee Results founder William Leake talks about these issues, his passion for digital demand generation, and the impact of COVID-19 on marketing.William is a recovering former McKinsey and Company consultant who started online-focused, direct- and metrics-oriented marketing services firms, growing them successfully since that time, to where his current venture, Apogee Results is now the most respected digital demand generation, search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) firm in Austin, TX.My favorite quotes from William:“Know your customer and where they are”“The software code needed to get to a minimum viable product is far less risky today”“The most important piece is how are you going to scale”How to reach and stay connected with William:LinkedIn:  William LeakeEmail:  leake@apogeeresults.comWeb Site:  www.apogeeresults.com About PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

Digital Customer Acquisition

Because companies across all industries have been thrust into digital customer connections, it is imperative to leverage these customer touch points proactively and achieve sustainable digital customer conversion.  And the key to making the conversion is operations excellence.  In this episode Global Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer and Consultant Lisa Wardlaw talks about her passion for excellence.Lisa is an executive global leader focused on creating new, sustainable revenue streams that fuel competitive positioning by helping reinvent business strategy, leveraging technology, and abstract thinking.  Lisa will be presenting at the Business Transformation and Operations Excellence Summit (BTOES) 2020 in November on the Women in Operational Excellence Leadership panel.“We believe a passion for excellence also carries a price, and we state it simply:  the adventure of excellence is not for the faint of heart.”  Tom Peters and Nancy Austin A Passion for Excellence:  The Leadership Difference 1986My favorite quotes from Lisa:“Business processes should spark joy.”“You have to immerse yourself in the technology and speak their language.”“Build a big audacious business vision and understand it to make it digestible.”“Be ready to pivot.”How to reach and stay connected with Scott:LinkedIn:  Lisa WardlawEmail:  lisa.wardlaw@gmail.comSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

A Passion for Operational Excellence

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted business to a great degree.  Conferences, speaking engagements, and symposia have been cancelled right and left, causing professional speakers to innovate and pivot in order to survive, much like start up entrepreneurs.  In this episode Scott Carley, the Change Energizer, talks about the actions he has taken to continue energizing his clients, overcoming his fears of speaking to a camera and a virtual audience, and finding success.Scott is a former pastor with a passion for public speaking and energizing stalled leaders to focus and take action on their goals and priorities.  Scott is also the Austin Chapter President of the National Speakers Association.My favorite quotes from Scott:“The brain thinks in categories”“It is important to have a courageous conversation”“Almost any action is better than no action”“When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit, Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.” – John Greenleaf Whittier How to reach and stay connected with Scott:LinkedIn:  Scott Carley Web Site:  http://changeenergizer.com/Email:  scott@ScottCarley.comAbout PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

Professional Speaking in a Virtual World

How many different loyalty programs do you belong to?  Have you ever wished that you could easily combine your rewards to purchase an item?  Well, startup company Bakkt is launching an app this fall that will help you do just that by unlocking the value of your digital assets.  In this episode Ravi Venkatesan, Head of Innovation at Bakkt talks about digital innovation, the business impacts and challenges from COVID-19, and how Bakkt is moving forward.Ravi is a product and technology leader specializing in driving business and technology alignment.  He has 20 years of experience in consulting, technology and telecommunications, including 6+ years with Accenture deploying large-scale Enterprise systems for Fortune 100 clients, 4 years with Cbeyond deploying technology to power Cloud and Communications products for SMBs, and 5 years with Bridge2 Solutions developing industry leading Loyalty SaaS products. My favorite quotes from Ravi:“Disruption is always a threat”“With COVID-19 we have started holding virtual hackathons using three groups:  hipsters, hackers, and hustlers”“COVID-19 is forcing us to invent and innovate”“I am a big fan of simplifying as much as possible, articulating, and educating” How to reach and stay connected with Carrie:LinkedIn:  Ravi Venkatesan Web Site:  https://www.bakkt.com/Email:  ravi.venkatesan@gmail.com About PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

Cashing in on Loyalty Programs

With all the shutdowns and unknowns surrounding COVID-19 swirling around us, it can easily feel overwhelming, frustrating, and stressful.  Or in Carrie Vanston’s vocabulary, a proverbial alligator pit just waiting for us to fall into.  In this episode Carrie talks about her eight tips to help you stay out of the alligator pit of fear and stress, and move on to an energized, growth mindset.Carrie is a motivational business coach with a long career helping organizations and people deal with  too many demands and frustrations. Her popular “Energize Your MIndset Programs” help individuals and teams move on from the “pit” of fixed mindset to one of an energized growth mindset increasing engagement, productivity, and sustainability.My favorite quotes from Carrie:“We get stuck in compromise and if we can get by the compromise, we can achieve a win-win situation.”“People want three things.  They want to be cared about.  They want to know that what they are doing is important.  They want to have some way of measuring it.”“There is always a win-win solution.”How to reach and stay connected with Carrie:LinkedIn:  Carrie Vanston Web Site:  https://www.carrievanston.com/Email:  carrie@carrievanston.comFacebook;  https://www.facebook.com/carrie.vanston Twitter:  https://twitter.com/CarrieVanston Telephone;  (512) 740-9089About PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

Carrie Vanston the Alligator Wrangler

Necessity is the mother of invention has never been more true than for Kindred Bravely’s founder and CEO Deanne Akerson.  Five years ago when her children were very young, Deanne was searching for some comfortable nursing pajamas that she just could not find.  After fruitlessly searching she decided that I can go into the maternity apparel business and make comfortable clothes that mothers really want.  So Deanne and her husband formed Kindred Bravely and they have been so successful that made it to position #20 on the 2019 Inc. 5000 list.  In this episode Deanne Akerson talks about the challenges of starting and growing a new business, especially in today’s world of COVID-19.A former high school math teacher, Deanne is now a successful entrepreneur with a customer focus.  They knew that they were not in control of their supply and pivot to start making PPE for front line workers.  But they did realize that they had inventory that front line moms could use.  So Kindred Bravely gave away thousands of free nursing and pumping bras to front line doctors and nurses to help ease the stress of working during these difficult days.My favorite quotes from Deanne:“If you have a successful product, other people are going to be watching and copying it”“If your business is about a product, then you are going to be sadly disappointed.”“Business is about falling in love with your customer over and over again, and meeting their needs.”“Quality means the garment exceeds the customer’s needs for the price point they purchased at.” How to reach and stay connected with Deanne:LinkedIn:  Kindred Bravely Web Site:  https://www.kindredbravely.com/Email:  hello@kindredbravely.com and ask for Deanne Facebook;  https://www.facebook.com/kindredbravely Twitter:  https://twitter.com/KindredBravely  About PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

Building a Kindred Connection - Moms Helping Moms

Have you ever wondered how on-line advertisers target specific ads for you?  Have you ever wondered how a web site can drive an audience to a specific product or service?  If so, then take a few minutes and listen to Kurt Donnell, CEO of Freestar as he talks about how Freestar has disrupted the on-line advertising business and become the fastest growing company in the US in 2019, according to Inc.Kurt Donnell is passionate about building things, solving problems and closing deals with smart people who appreciate a good laugh.  He has had the opportunity to lead teams for both private and public companies in a number of different areas, including business/corporate development, legal and digital audience growth.  Kurt is an attorney by training who now spends most of his time on the business side focused on driving growth and operational excellence.My favorite quotes from Kurt:“We only win when our customers win.”“Aways make sure you have the right people in the right place.”“One of my COVID-19 takeaways is the crazy way you can now connect with people.”“If you take care of your customers and you take care of your employees, everything else falls into place.”“Once you’ve had a beer with someone, it is hard to be mad at them."How to reach and stay connected with Brad:Email:  kurt.donnell@freestar.comLinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtdonnell/ LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/freestar/Web Site:  https://freestar.com  About PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

Changing the Advertising Landscape – A Conversation with Kurt Donnell

COVID-19 has disrupted life and business in so many different and terrible ways.  A critical element is the impacts on the supply chain.  Raw materials and finished goods are now stuck in limbo, waiting to complete their journey.  And an interesting aspect of the supply chain is that companies will sell out of their raw materials before the supply chain will be able to restart.  In this episode SwanLeap CEO Brad Hollister talks about transforming the supply chain, especially in the “new normal.” Brad Hoillister is the CEO of #1 fastest growing company in 2018 according to Inc.  SwanLeap delivered an unprecedented 75,660.8% revenue growth over three years catapulting SwanLeap to the number one spot for 2018.  SwanLeap has entered the ring with what Deloitte has identified as NextGen technology.  Through SwanLeap’s rapidly deployed, custom implementation of NextGen TMS and auditing services, SwanLeap is using AI and machine learning to automate many of the manual roles in a company’s supply chain.  These efforts are eliminating errors, increasing efficiencies, and improving customer relationships for businesses across the country.My favorite quotes from Brad:“We transform the way people ship and make decisions”“We provide better visibility, speed, and control and nothing else matters in our space at all”“eCommerce is exploding because of COVID-19”“You have to be able to plan for things you didn’t plan for, and that is not how supply chain works”“A lot of companies won’t be able to keep up with the changing needs of the customer” How to reach and stay connected with Brad:Email:  bhollister@swanleap.comLinkedIn:  Brad HollisterWeb Site:  swanleap.comTwitter:  https://twitter.com/theswanleap/ About PPQC:Process and Product Quality Consulting (PPQC) helps global executives tackle complex corporate challenges.To learn more about PPQC, visit www.ppqc.netSupport the show (https://ppqc.net)

Transforming the Supply Chain – A Conversation with Brad Hollister

The Business Performance Podcast is a monthly podcast dedicated to helping companies spread the word on their lessons learned from improving product quality, processes, and performance.

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Business Performance Podcast

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