Bea Wray has dazzled audiences for 20 years speaking on entrepreneurship, leadership, and women in business. At 27, she was CEO of a $5M Silicon Valley company, and launched several others. In 2018 she wrote, "What Harvard Taught Me But My Children Made Me Learn," drawing from her six years off on a resort island to focus on raising her three children. She holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and graduated summa cum laude from Emory University. She serves as a founder, mentor, investor, and board member to several companies. She's also served as the executive director of the entrepreneurial non-profit, The Creative Coast, and was the Chair of the Forbes Books Entrepreneurship Practice Group.
Nigel Bennett was shocked at a young age to witness the real impact of oil spills on our natural world. After almost being shot down by FARC guerrillas on the Venezuela-Colombia border and being forced to escape Egypt while working for his father's oil spill contingency planning company, he decided to break away and start Aqua-Guard Spill Response. Aqua-Guard now provides equipment and services that protect water in 104 countries. His new book: "Take That Leap - Risking it all for what really matters."
C.J. McClanahan is a speaker, author and executive coach. A few years after starting his coaching firm, he noticed that no matter how much success his clients achieved, few every seemed to truly enjoy the journey. It didn’t matter if they doubled their income or become CEO–it never seemed to be enough. CJ’s latest book, The Overachiever’s Dilemma, lays out a proven strategy to help overachievers get more satisfaction and joy in their lives while still achieving all their professional goals.
Dr. Ann Kulze is a one-of-a-kind real-world nutrition and wellness expert. With a degree in food science and human nutrition, she earned her medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), where she graduated as valedictorian. Founder and CEO of Just Wellness, LLC, she's the author of six books, including her best-selling Eat Right for Life series. Featured on the Dr. Oz Show, Oprah and Time Magazine. She lives the wellness she teaches with her family in Charleston, South Carolina.
James S. Fell, MA, MBA, has bylines in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, the Guardian, TIME Magazine, and many other publications. His blog, BodyForWife.com, has millions of readers and he is the author of two books: “The Holy S**t Moment: How Lasting Change Can Happen in an Instant” (St. Martin’s Press, 2019), and “Lose it Right: A Brutally Honest 3-Stage Program to Help You Get Fit and Lose Weight Without Losing Your Mind” (Random House Canada, 2014).
David Burkus is a best-selling author, a sought after speaker, and associate professor of leadership and innovation at Oral Roberts University. His newest book, Friend of a Friend, offers readers a new perspective on how to grow their networks and build key connections—one based on the science of human behavior, not rote networking advice. He shares some of his findings n this interview about how to use networking. He’s delivered keynotes to the leaders of Fortune 500 companies and the future leaders of the United TED talk has been viewed over 1.9 million times.
Barbara Turley is an investor, entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of The Virtual Hub—a business she started by accident that exploded in the space of 12 months to become one of the leading companies that recruits, trains and manages virtual assistants for businesses who need to free up time and energy so they can go to the next level. Barbara is also Mum to her gorgeous daughter Ruby, wife to her best friend Eti and an adventure lover with a passion for horses, skiing, tennis and time out in nature.
Jay Resio is the founder and CEO of BackerNation, a digital health and wellness platform developing innovative products and services to empower people with information, tools, and resources to overcome their back pain and spine conditions. Jay started BackerNation due to his own back pain journey. He has herniated his one disc four times, which led to four surgeries with the last being an artificial disc replacement. He feels amazing now and his mission is to help others destroy back pain.
Malcolm and Simone Collins, founders of the Pragmatist Foundation and co-CEOs of Travelmax, a corporate travel management company, authored the bestselling Pragmatist's Guide to Life, a book intended to encourage critical thought and intentional living.
Karen Brown had never run a marathon or ridden a road bike, and was a terrible swimmer. And yet, she had “a big, gargantuan, hairy, scary, outrageous personal dream” to participate in the IRONMAN World Championship at age 44.
Vince Kramer helps you uncover and share your authentic self to live your mission on purpose. He has brought spirituality and science together in a way that opens you to discovering your own path to living the life you are meant to live. He is co-founder of Imagine Miracles and the host of The Miracle U podcast. He developed the Create Model and Your Unique Purpose Formula and uses them to produce breakthrough results in unlocking the hidden parts of you to Discover, Create and Live Your Miracle Life.
Chris Butsch is a best-selling author, speaker, consultant, and globally-recognized authority on the Millennial generation. Known for his storytelling ability, high-energy stage presence, and immediately-actionable advice, he helps business leaders understand his generation and maximize the world's most unique generation. “I'm all about arming the generations—Millennials and Baby Boomers—with the tools and the information they need to solve their biggest problems working together.”
Julie Young was implementing a half-million-dollar technology program in her school, and loving it. Then, her husband got a promotion and transfer. Starting over in a bare-bones country school, she asked for a computer, a decision she never regretted. Today, she is a leading voice for revolutionizing K-12 online education on the global stage. She is deputy vice-president of education outreach and student services for Arizona State University, and the CEO of ASU Prep Digital High School.
Jeff Hall started working at age 7 doing door-to-door candy sales to help support his family. The company he founded in 1995 at age 15—Overflow Café—to help companies grow their websites, is thriving 23 years later. He has supported over 200 successful Kickstarter projects and has helped build 14 orphanages around the world. In his spare time he loves watching Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and having a good cup of tea. You’ll find him working hard, and sometimes goofing around, in Toronto, Canada.
Austin Belcak is the founder of Cultivated Culture where he helps people leverage unconventional strategies to land jobs they love without connections, without "traditional" experience, and without applying online. His strategies have been featured in places like Forbes, Business Insider and Fast Company and he has helped people get hired at Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and many more.
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.