Cindra Kamphoff had just reached a personal best in the 2013 Boston Marathon. Exhausted but feeling on top of the world, she walked slowly back to her hotel. Suddenly her mind began racing as she started asking core questions about her life focus. As a mental performance consultant, popular keynote speaker and author, she works with professional athletes, executives and championship teams around the nation. She is the author of “Beyond Grit: Ten Powerful Practices to Gain the High Performance Edge.”
Jay Lucas—accomplished businessman, author, leader and philanthropist—believes in the power of positivity, patriotism, and community engagement. His bestselling book is “American Sunshine: Rays of Hope and Opportunity.” He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School, and his Law degree from Harvard Law School. He is now the Chairman and Managing Partner of The Lucas Group, focusing on the specialized needs of private equity investors and their portfolio companies.
Paula Brown Stafford and Lisa T. Grimes are two former competitors who discovered how well they complement each other. In a rare dual guest interview, they explain: Complementing Beats Competing—Women Supporting Women in the Workplace. Fierce competitors 20 years ago, Paula and Lisa eventually formed a friendship and now, as a team, speak to corporations and women’s groups on a number of topics including Complementing Beats Competing and The Juggling Act.
Brannon Beliso rebelled against his father by intentionally losing 17 martial arts matches in a row. He wanted to pursue his creativity. A hard punch in the face turned him around. Playing the hand life dealt him, he became a champion, first in martials arts, then in creating a life he wanted. He is dedicated to helping people live their best lives by helping them and businesses reach their full potential. He teaches leadership by example, by always being a student and never considering himself a master.
Delani Gianna is a young entrepreneur residing in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She comes from a long history of chefs, cooks, and restaurateurs. For the four years prior to this interview, she had dedicated her energy to creating Hecho Con Amor, a catering and private chef service that provides beautiful food and quality personalized service. Hecho Con Amor translates to "Made With Love,” and she continues to take tremendous pride her work.
Chef Charles Carroll is an author, speaker and recipient of over 80 national and international awards. Competing on eight U.S. Culinary Olympic Teams, he travels the world sharing with chefs, culinary students, industry leaders and military personnel. He produced seven Vegas Style shows for troops in Afghanistan. Chef Charles recently published his third book, a culinary parable entitled, “The Recipe: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Ingredients of Greatness,” which he co-authored with John David Mann.
Adam Anderson felt right at home on computers at age six. He wanted to make them talk to each other so he could play games with friends. “Without knowing it, I was teaching myself the fundamentals of computer science and information technology. They just didn't call it that at the time.” Today he is a serial entrepreneur, author and founder of Palmetto Security Group (PSG), an IBM Premier Cyber Security Business Partner. He recently launched Element Security Group.
Lori B. Duff thought she would be the voters’ obvious choice for probate court judge. She had a decade’s experience with a major metropolitan court, and her opponent wasn’t even a lawyer. Her unexpected loss was a stiff rebuke. At 42, she brushed herself off and found renewed life as a ghost writer, editor, and a best-selling author of 3 memoirs. She recently won a gold medal in the 2017 eLit awards. She has a series of memoir writing classes designed to give people a head start on writing their stories.
Dorie Clark is the author of Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of 2015 by Inc. magazine. A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, she teaches at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, and is a consultant and speaker for clients such as Google, Morgan Stanley, and the World Bank.
Justin Shelby felt his campus interview with a Fortune 500 company had gone well. When he didn’t get a call from them, he made a friend inside the company and kept calling back–for 30 days. His persistence paid off, and he spent the next 9 years at Black & Decker. Today, he is CEO and founder of Artichoke, a complete business solution for the rapidly growing community of freelancers, independent practitioners, and moonlighters operating in the U.S.
Helene Segura had a clear plan as she left L.A.—to be a dual athlete playing soccer and softball for Texas A&M. “My plan got shot to heck when I was cut from the softball team.” If she was not going to be Helene, the Athlete anymore, she had to figure out who else she could be. Today, as author of two best-sellers, she shares her mind-bending framework for decreasing interruptions, distractions and procrastination so that companies can spend more time generating revenue.
Derek Champagne is founder and CEO of a full-service marketing agency The Artist Evolution and author of the bestselling book, “Don’t Buy a Duck.” Through his work, he has reviewed more than 1,000 brand audits and identified five commonalities found anything from start-ups to household brands. Any one of the five can lead to bad business decisions, but when solved, lead to meaningful traction and growth. The good news is they are easy to fix, if you know how.
Kristen Ivy was a good student, but when her grades dropped, a teacher looked her in the eye and asked “Are you okay?” It was the first time someone was really seeing her. That instilled in her the need to see the whole person at any given moment.
Michael McDonnell surprised everyone with his love of sports and active life, despite a disabling condition. “My parents saw that I was going to try everything.” At 16, a coach offered him an opportunity to coach tennis, which made perfect sense. “It was an easy choice for me to take that road.” Still a young man, he has gone from managing cystic fibrosis and diabetes to using the lessons learned to help people with their mindset and strategies to leave their job and run their own businesses full time.