Archives: Podcast Episodes

Parenting has so many parallels with team leadership and after today’s episode, you’ll be better equipped to raise healthy, emotionally connected kids AND be a stronger leader that enables your team to collaborate and perform more effectively. Today, my guest parenting coach Sarah R. Moore shares insights from her new book Peaceful Discipline: Story Teaching, Brain Science, and Better Behavior. 

Sarah is the founder of Dandelion Seeds Positive Parenting and today, she shares her story of leveraging more than 20 years in Corporate America and had no idea how well her executive negotiation skills would serve her in parenting!  We discuss what peaceful discipline means, why empathy in parenting is more important than people realize, and why brain science tells us that punishments or punitive leadership fails or backfires and doesn’t help you achieve your goals. We also talk about the power of vulnerability and why it may look very different from what you may think. Throughout, we talk about the parallels between applying these principles as parents and as organizational leaders.  

To access the episode transcript, please click on the episode title at http://www.TheEmpathyEdge.com 

Key Takeaways:

• For children and adults, it is only possible to learn when there is a sense of emotional safety in the body. 
• There are ways to set our children and employees up for success with empathy, no matter what age they are. Speaking with curiosity and neutrality rather than accusation can help to foster the feeling of safety. 
• Every human on the planet wants to be viewed positively and have a sense of belonging and community. 
• Story can give people a sense of safety, even in business. And everyone can tell those stories, even if they don’t feel creative or like they’re good at it. 

 

“If we lead with punishment, the learning part of the brain shuts off. So (they) might be able to go through the motions in the moment, but there’s not going to be any lasting change in behavior because they’re literally not in a place where they can assimilate new information.” —  Sarah R. Moore

Episode Reference: 

Brand Story Breakthrough course to help you craft a clear, compelling brand story  – includes weekly office hours with Maria!

About Sarah R. Moore: Parenting Coach, Speaker, Author, Peaceful Discipline

Sarah R. Moore is best-selling author of Peaceful Discipline: Story Teaching, Brain Science, and Better Behavior, and the founder of Dandelion Seeds Positive Parenting. She’s a public speaker, armchair neuroscientist, and most importantly, a Mama. She’s a lifelong learner with training in child development, trauma recovery, interpersonal neurobiology, and improv comedy. As a certified Master Trainer in conscious parenting, she helps bring JOY, EASE, and CONNECTION back to families around the globe. Her work has been featured in HuffPost, Scary Mommy, Motherly, Yahoo!, Her View from Home, and The Natural Parent Magazine, among others. She worked in corporate America for 20 years and had no idea how well her executive negotiation skills would serve her in parenting.

Connect with Sarah R. Moore:

Dandelion Seeds Positive Parenting: https://dandelion-seeds.com/

Book: Peaceful Discipline: Story Teaching, Brain Science, and Better Behavior

X: https://twitter.com/DandelionSeeds5 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-r-moore-b0535b7/ 

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

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

Join the tribe, download your free guide! Discover what empathy can do for you: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

 

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria and her work: 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

X: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Threads: @redslicemaria

Your customer is the lifeblood of your company. We hear this over and over again. Yet, companies don’t do a great job of crafting a customer experience that actually meets our needs, values our time, and helps us achieve our goals. 

Customer experience is all the rage – why do so many companies get it wrong?

Today, Aransas Savas and I discuss the myths of customer experience strategy: where companies go wrong in aligning the entire business around the customer’s experience and why those end-of-call automated surveys just give you useless data. She shares her own experiences with brands on creating shifts in how the company views customer needs. Aransas shares the concept of “Jobs to Be Done” as a useful way to segment what customers need from you, why journey mapping and Net Promoter Scores don’t give you a holistic picture of customer experience, and why it’s far more useful to consider modes instead. We discuss how measuring Time Well Spent, Time Well Invested, and Time Well Saved helps both B2C and B2B brands more effectively understand what customers perceive as valuable. Finally, she shares the important highlights from Stone Mantel’s recent 2023 Customer Experience Trends Report.

 

To access the episode transcript, please click on the episode title at http://www.TheEmpathyEdge.com 

Key Takeaways:

• Customers are not robots – they will not likely follow the journeys you lay out in an idealized situation. You need to consider the customer every step of the way. 
• The wrong questions are being asked during traditional data collection – as we change the questions and how they’re being asked, you will be able to gather more valuable data to move forward in understanding your customer’s experience. 
• While AI can help to identify trends, it does still require a human touch to interpret the data for best use. 
• Having a company purpose does not mean you understand your customer’s purpose. 

 

“There’s a functional job to be done, and there’s an emotional, social, and  aspirational job. If I can understand what all four of those are, I create a much more valuable product than if my product experience is strictly based on the functional job to be done.” —  Aransas Savas

About Aransas Savas, Coach & Experience Designer

Aransas Savas is a coach, an experience designer at Stone Mantel, and the co-host of the Experience Strategy Podcast.  Drawing on over two decades of experience, Aransas combines behavioral science and coaching to partner with experience strategists at leading consumer brands, including Weight Watchers, Best Buy, Truist Bank, and Clayton Homes to create meaningful, and often, transformative, customer journeys.

Based in Brooklyn, she is a 20-time marathoner, a wife to a newscaster, and a mother to a 200-year-old sourdough culture, a fluffy pup, and two-spirited, creative girls.

References: 

Stone Mantel’s 2023 Experience Strategy Trends Report

80-page report of the latest must-know Experience Strategy Trends for 2023, a deep analysis of cultural and customer trends based on insights collected from more than 3,200 customers and over 200 experience strategists over the course of 20 months.

The Empathy Edge Podcast, Melina Palmer: Why Your Customers Can’t Tell You What They Want

Connect with Aransas Savas

Stone Mantel: https://www.stonemantel.co/ 

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

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

Podcast: The Experience Strategy Podcast

Join the tribe, download your free guide! Discover what empathy can do for you: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

 

Connect with Maria:

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria and her work: 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

X: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Threads: @redslicemaria

The reports are in. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are hearing more and and more about how having an attitude of gratitude enhances our lives – and our performance. In this November Hot Take episode, Maria shares about how embracing gratitude will not only strengthen your empathy, but how it can help you to improve your life. 

To access the episode transcript, please click on the episode title at http://www.TheEmpathyEdge.com 

Key Takeaways:

• Despite the misinformation surrounding the Thanksgiving season, it is so valuable to step back and be thankful for what we do have. 
• Pausing is essential to building empathy – it allows us to see, hear, and notice them in a way we can’t when we are always rushing about. 
• Going fast makes us less productive and less effective  – by slowing down we are able to have more of an impact than we realize. 

“Steadying yourself to think about what you can be grateful for enables you to slow down enough to notice who and what is around you.” —  Maria Ross

 References Mentioned: 

Studies on gratitude: 

• Emotional Intelligence and Gratitude, Wharton Healthcare
• Mindful: How to Practice Gratitude

The Empathy Edge interviews:

• Paul Marobella: Leading Through Crisis
• Chris L. Johnson: When Leaders Pause, They Win

Brand Story Breakthrough course to help you craft a clear, compelling brand story  – includes weekly office hours with Maria!

Join the tribe, download your free guide! Discover what empathy can do for you: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

 

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria and her work: 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

X: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Threads: @redslicemaria

When we think of making big asks that will catalyze us into a new role, more funding, or higher pay, we tend to ask small for fear of hearing a dreaded NO. But today’s guest, Dia Bondi, explains the role empathy plays in making big asks – and why you actually want to reframe the value of getting a YES by actively seeking out the NO so you can achieve your goals.

Today, Dia shares her incredible journey of working with high-profile leaders and then making the decision to go to auctioneering school. She talks about the mental models of auctioneering and how they can help us reframe our asks in a way that gets us closer to our goals. We talk about her 6-step framework for building your ask, how to step into your zone of freaking out and see it as your zone of potential, why we need to “order off the menu” more, and how we make the mistake of conflating worth and worthiness.  Her work has personally benefited my life and business and I know it will do the same for you.

 

To access the episode transcript, please click on the episode title at http://www.TheEmpathyEdge.com 

Key Takeaways:

• The ask isn’t about one person – it is something that should be mutually beneficial to both parties. 
• The zone between the “yes” and the guaranteed “no” is a world of possibilities. If you ask for the “no” and then work down, you might get more than you ever thought possible. 
• Find out if the person you’re speaking with is the decision maker – if they are not, offer support and tools that might help them advocate more easily on your behalf. 

 

“We can ask for the thing we think will get us a ‘no’, and then negotiate down. Then you’ll know you’ve not left any money or opportunity on the table. —  Dia Bondi

 

Episode References: 

• Elisa Camahort Page’s substack This Week-ish: 2% of venture capital goes to solely women-founded start-ups. Same as in 2007

About Dia Bondi, Communications Catalyst & Author, Ask Like An Auctioneer

Dia Bondi is a Communications Catalyst for high-impact people. In her private coaching and programs, she works with professional C-level leaders, VC-backed founders and ambitious professionals guiding, helping them find their voice and lead with it. Her workshops and talks are hosted by corporations including Quartz, Salesforce, Google’s X.team, and Dropbox. In global sport, she helped Rio de Janeiro secure the 2016 Summer Olympics. After attending auctioneering school for fun, she translated the techniques she learned into a program that prepares ambitious professionals and especially women, to ask for more and leave nothing on the table called Ask Like an Auctioneer. She’s been featured on CNBC Make It, Forbes and Fast Company. Her book, Ask Like an Auctioneer, will be published in 2023. Listen to her podcast Lead With Who You Are.

Connect with Dia Bondi 

Dia Bondi Communications LLC: https://www.diabondi.com 

X: https://twitter.com/diabondia 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dia-bondi/ 

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

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

Ask Like An Auctioneer: https://www.asklikeanauctioneer.com 

Purchase the book:  https://www.amazon.com/Ask-Like-Auctioneer-How-More/dp/1637744129/ref=sr_1_1 

Lead with Who You Are podcast: https://www.diabondi.com/podcast

Dia’s TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFtHKTgyjyU

Join the tribe, download your free guide! Discover what empathy can do for you: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

 

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria and her work: 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

X: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Threads: @redslicemaria

Much of the AI you hear about these days is about large language models trained to look for commonalities and best next guesses. This causes a lot of fear around how AI will be abused – Will the bots take over? Are the inputs unbiased and accurate? Will my teenager cheat on his school essay?

But we can take a more thoughtful and opportunistic view of AI, specifically in areas where we can teach AI empathy. Yes, I said teach AI empathy. My guest today, Dr. Michelle Zhou, and I discuss how cognitive AI is different from large learning model AI, how these systems learn empathy, and how they empower both companies and individuals without the resources for expensive solutions. We discuss why empathy is actually even more necessary, not less, in the age of AI. And most importantly, we chat about why everyone needs to get involved in AI – why we need to “democratize it”, as Dr. Zhou states, in order to be more inclusive and learn how to respond to a variety of needs and people. Dr. Zhou reveals why she believes basic customer service chatbots are one of the worst uses of AI out there!

To access the episode transcript, please click on the episode title at www.TheEmpathyEdge.com

Key Takeaways:

AI currently looks for commonalities in people and data, as it learns to be more empathetic, we need to teach it how to recognize differences, not just those similarities. The more we all interact with AI, the more that AI is going to be smarter about understanding individual differences.There is a time and place for canned responses by a ChatBot, but often people will respond better if there is a specific response to their unique questions and needs.

“In order for AI to be inclusive, then we need more people to be there. If there are more people participating, then you have more diversity. The more involvement from a human side, the more inclusive AI can be.” —  Dr. Michelle Zhou

About Michelle Zhou, Co-Founder & CEO, Juji Inc.

Dr. Michelle Zhou is a Co-Founder and CEO of Juji, Inc., an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company located in Silicon Valley, specializing in building cognitive conversational AI technologies and solutions that enable the creation and adoption of empathic and empathetic AI agents. Prior to starting Juji, Michelle led the User Systems and Experience Research (USER) group at IBM Research – Almaden and then the IBM Watson Group. Michelle’s expertise is in the interdisciplinary area of intelligent user interaction (IUI), including conversational AI systems and personality analytics. She is an inventor of the IBM Watson Personality Insights and has led the research and development of at least a dozen products in her areas of expertise. Michelle has published over 100 peer-reviewed, refereed scientific articles and 45+ patents. Michelle is the Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems (TiiS) and an Associate Editor of ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology (TIST). She received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Columbia University and is an ACM Distinguished Scientist.

Dr. Zhou has been featured in Axios, Fortune, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and spoke at Fortune Brainstorm Tech last year.

Connect with Michelle Zhou

Website: https://juji.io/

X: https://twitter.com/senseofsnow2011

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

Join the tribe, download your free guide! Discover what empathy can do for you: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria and her work: 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

X: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Threads: @redslicemaria

Leaders are crunched right now. Many are valiantly trying to adopt empathetic and Compassionate Leadership models to adapt to what employees on the market demand new models of leadership that are more human, but some still struggle to balance that with making tough business decisions, setting boundaries, and achieving high-performance standards – serendipitously, the subject of my next book.

Today, Dr. Rebecca Eldredge, a licensed psychologist who supports socially conscious leaders, changemakers, and organizations shares how leaders can identify signs of overwhelm and burnout in their lives and respond to compassionate fatigue. We discussed the huge financial costs to your organization of ignoring mental health, or pushing through when others are counting on you. We also talked about why allowing emotions at work is key to psychological safety, and how leaders who might be reluctant can get more comfortable making space and time for emotions in the workplace to increase engagement, performance, and retention. Take a deep breath and take a listen.

To access the episode transcript, please click on the episode title at www.TheEmpathyEdge.com

Key Takeaways:

The more familiar you are with the state of relaxation in yourself, the easier you will recognize when burnout begins and you are not in that state of calm. You don’t have to have days or weeks of calm to draw on, it can be even a moment of peace to recognize those calm, nervous system queues. Being empathetic doesn’t mean you don’t do the hard things, it means you’re deliberate and thoughtful when communicating and making those hard decisions. With the skyrocketing costs of healthcare (often as a direct result of stress and burnout), we cannot afford to not take care of our mental and emotional health.

“You’re much more equipped to make solid decisions when you are connected and when you are in an empathetic and compassionate role with others – and also with yourself.” —  Dr. Rebecca Eldredge

About Dr. Rebecca Eldredge: For the past 20 years, Dr. Rebecca Eldredge has used her commitment to mental health, cultural competence, and social justice to support individuals and organizations to cultivate compassion for themselves as they bring compassion and justice to their organizations and communities. She has been honored to work with corporations, university departments, and refugee resettlement agencies as well as hundreds of diverse clients. Dr. Eldredge completed both her M.A. and her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and has taught adjunct in the University of Houston’s and Our Lady of the Lake’s graduate psychology programs. She is also a Step into Your Moxie® Certified Facilitator.

Connect with Dr. Rebecca Eldredge:

Website: https://rebeccaephd.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-a-eldredge-phd/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.rebecca_feel_deeply

Chrysalis: https://rebeccaephd.com/chrysalis-small-group

Speaking: https://rebeccaephd.com/speaking

Facilitations/Trainings: https://rebeccaephd.com/facilitation

Join the tribe, download your free guide! Discover what empathy can do for you: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria and her work: 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

X: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Threads: @redslicemaria

You may not know this, but you possess a superpower.  One that helps you connect and engage with almost anyone and become a stronger leader, create a thriving culture and build business value.

And the great news is, this superpower is innate to us as humans. But sometimes, for some of us, well, the power atrophies – but it can intentionally be strengthened if you know how.

It’s called empathy.  Today Maria shares how she discovered this superpower not only to make our world better, but how it drives organizational success – and why we are called to embrace empathetic leadership right NOW in order to move forward and solve our world’s complex problems together.

To access the episode transcript, please click on the episode title at www.TheEmpathyEdge.com

Key Takeaways:

Binary thinking in leadership is hindering our success  – it is BOTH/AND with empathy and ambition.Empathy has been named the most crucial leadership success skill for the 21st century to solve our complex problems together. And those who don’t get it, will be left behindEmpathy is not just a soft skill, it is the key to greater impact (both in the world and to your bottom line) and requires great strength to practice. We have to be able to collaborate, to understand, to hear diverse opinions and points of view – without fear or anger. We have to let everyone have a seat at the table because we cannot solve these problems with our old ways of thinkingWe all need to work on our empathy muscles – where better than at work, where we spend the bulk of our time?

“We cannot park our humanity at the office door. We are complex, emotional beings – and when we’re seen, heard, and valued for who we are, we thrive. And so do our organizations.” —  Maria Ross

Episode References:

Check out my course!  Brand Story Breakthrough Thought Leader

Join the tribe, download your free guide! Discover what empathy can do for you: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria and her work: 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

X: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Threads: @redslicemaria

If you’ve been with me a minute, you know that leadership paradigms are changing. Yet it’s causing an unspoken crisis for male leaders in particular. Being empathetic and showing vulnerability are not consistent with how men have been socialized or how many women leaders were advised to lead. But that ain’t gonna fly anymore in today’s market or with today’s talent! Leaders disrupting this status quo need to be strong against the push back and show the great results.

Today Carol Vallone Mitchell answers the popular question of whether women leaders are “better at” empathy than men and what role gender plays in successful collaborative leadership. We discuss how empathy is a critical trait of collaborative leaders, and she shares how leadership effectiveness has traditionally been framed in stereotypical masculine terms – and why those are no longer effective for success today.

To access the episode transcript, please click on the episode title at www.TheEmpathyEdge.com

Key Takeaways:

Empathy is a foundation for collaborative leadership. Acquiescence, submission, and people-pleasing are not empathy.

If you are being burnt out by “empathy” then you’re probably not actually practicing empathy. 

Gender is irrelevant in being an effective leader, employee, or human being. It is how you choose to lead that really matters.

“Society teaches young men that to grow up and be successful, they don’t dare express their emotions- a lot of it is self-control. And I think that’s how empathy is perhaps a bit of a threat for men because that message is still very much out there.” —  Carol Vallone Mitchell, Ph.D

Episode References:

Amer Kaissi, The Empathy Edge podcast: Humbitious Leadership Equals SuccessDenise Roberson, The Empathy Edge podcast: Mistakes Leaders and Boards Make When Thinking About Purpose

About Carol Vallone Mitchell, Founding Principal, Talent Strategy Partners, Author Collaboration Code and Breaking Through “Bitch”

Carol Vallone Mitchell, PH.D. has an instinct and a passion for understanding what makes people tick. This has led her to focus her career on identifying and developing leaders who will build and nurture the right workplace culture and drive results. She co-founded Talent Strategy Partners in 2001 and has brought her expertise to numerous companies, including many in the Fortune 500. Carol is the author of two books based on her research. “Collaboration Code: How Men Lead Culture Change and Nurture Tomorrow’s Leaders” and “Breaking Through ‘Bitch’- How Women Can Shatter Stereotypes and Lead Fearlessly.” She has written numerous articles featured in publications including Fast Company, Chief Learning Officer, SHRM Executive, Workspan, Thrive Global, and Forbes; and, has been featured on various radio programs and podcasts.

She received her doctorate in Organizational Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania

Warm weather and swimming enthusiasts, Carol and her family are “honorary residents” of Hawaii, spending much of their time off over the last 25 years in Kona. She is an avid tennis fan and plays acoustic guitar.

Connect with Carol Vallone Mitchell, Ph.D.:

Talent Strategy Partners LLC: tsphr.com

Author Site: carolvallonemitchell.com

Collaboration Code rb.gy/tjjxel

Breaking Through “Bitch” amzn.to/2zmooDA

X: twitter.com/cv_mitchell

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carolvallonemitchell

Facebook: facebook.com/collaborationcode

Join the tribe, download your free guide! Discover what empathy can do for you: red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria and her work: 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

X: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Threads: @redslicemaria

Old School leadership thinking claims that work is work and personal is personal and never the two shall meet. However, how many of your friends resulted from work relationships? How much more joyful is the work when you know friends have your back? How much more engaged are you? After all, you often see coworkers more often in a given week than your partner or children!

My guest today is author and keynote speaker Shasta Nelson. We discuss the myths around work friendships, and how encouraging friendships at work and making intentional connections leads to not only higher performance, engagement, retention, and loyalty – but less absenteeism and better health for you and your employees. We discuss the epidemic of loneliness, how to balance personal relationships with tough business situations, and why it’s in an organization’s best interest to foster work friendships. Shasta shares what we learn as school age kids and how it applies to work and what healthy friendships at work look like.

To access the episode transcript, please click on the episode title athttp://www.TheEmpathyEdge.com

Key Takeaways:

• Work is to adults what school was to children. We never tell children to not make friends, yet many adults believe they should not make friends in the same type of environment.
• Being friendly with someone is different from being close friends with someone. There should be enough safety that everyone is, at minimum, friendly with each other.
• Proactively have conversations with your friends at work about challenges that may come up, whether because of conflict, discipline, or something else. It will strengthen your relationship as you open with one another.
• Consistency, positivity, and vulnerability are important for any healthy relationship.

“The goal isn’t to pull back and only stay comfortable. The goal is to say social health is on the other side of a little bit of relational sweat.” —  Shasta Nelson

About Shasta Nelson, Friendship Expert, Keynote Speaker, Author, The Business of Friendship

Shasta Nelson is a leading expert on Friendship who speaks across the country and facilitates events for connection. She’s been quoted in magazines and newspapers, online and print, including New York Times, The Washington Post, and Readers Digest, and has been interviewed live on over dozens of TV shows, including the TODAY Show and Steve Harvey Show. Plus, if you haven’t yet seen her popular TEDx talk then you’ll want to watch that later!

Her previous books include Friendships Don’t Just Happen! which is a guide for making new friends as an adult, and Frientimacy: How to Deepen Friendships for Lifelong Health and Happiness which teaches us how to make our relationships more meaningful. But it’s her newest book that we talk about today as she takes her expertise about friendship into the workplace in The Business of Friendship: Making the Most of Our Relationships Where We Spend Most of Our Time.

Connect with Shasta Nelson:

Website and Books: shastanelson.com

Instagram: instagram.com/shastamnelson

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shastanelson

Facebook: facebook.com/shasta.m.nelson

X: twitter.com/shastamnelson

Join the tribe, download your free guide! Discover what empathy can do for you:http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria:

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria and her work: 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

X: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Threads: @redslicemaria

There is a lot of talk about how creativity and collaboration “should” be done these days. Some say processes are stifling. Others say you have to all be in the same office to collaborate effectively. Today’s conversation will offer you a different take on how collaboration can actually lead to the most creative solutions on the planet.

Today, I spoke with Laetro co-founder and firmer Disney creative, Dave Zaboski! We talked about what Disney taught him about effective collaboration, including the idea of “plussing” to ensure the best outcome. He candidly shares how process and structure don’t stifle creativity but ensure it’s repeatable, and actually helps creatives get good work out into the world. We talk about the unique position we are in as humans to tell stories, the role mission plays in mobilizing a team, and how empathy is required by artists. Dave also gives his take on AI and creative technology and where the dangers and opportunities lie.

To access the episode transcript, please click on the episode title at http://www.TheEmpathyEdge.com

Key Takeaways:

• Solutions can and should be beautiful. Beauty is created when you add to others, not when you are negative to them.
• Empathy in creativity allows bridges to be built and connections to be made between different experiences of different people.
• Storytelling is a power – stories create our reality. What would happen if we stop telling the apocalypse stories, and start to use the technology in the stories to enable society to flourish.
• There is process and structure, even in creativity. It is not a bad thing, it is a way to get replicable results no matter what industry you are in. Rules are necessary for creativity to flourish.

“Creativity, innovation, the advancement of ideas and collaboration happen on both sides of the brain. In order to be able to create powerfully, it’s got to be the head, heart and hands.” —  Dave Zaboski

About Dave Zaboski, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Laetro.com

Dave Zaboski is the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Laetro.com, a tech-enabled community of the world’s finest creatives serving enterprise customers with best-in-class design services. He is a classically trained painter and was an animator at Disney, Sony, and Warner Bros. during the Second Golden Age of Animation. He worked on “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King,” “Pocahontas,” “Aladdin,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Hercules,” “Fantasia 2000,” and others. He has illustrated several acclaimed children’s books, including titles for Dr. Ken Dychtwald, Dr. Deepak Chopra, finance guru Ric Edelman, and actor Paul Michael Glaser.

Dave has created concept art for film and television, shown his fine art at galleries internationally, been the expedition artist in search of a lost temple in the Andes, and painted for the Dalai Lama. Along with teaching workshops at retreat centers like Esalen Institute, Summit, and Rancho La Puerta, Dave also contributed as a faculty member at Singularity University and NextMed Health Conferences. Dave teaches creativity, leadership, innovation, and collaboration to entrepreneurs, makers, and organizations around the world. He lives with his wife, Robin, and a small menagerie on a ranchette in Southern California.

Connect with Dave Zaboski:  

Laetro.com: Laetro.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davezaboski/

Instagram: instagram.com/davezart

Join the tribe, download your free guide! Discover what empathy can do for you: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria:

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria and her work: 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

X: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Threads: @redslicemaria