Sharon Spano, Ph.D., helps business leaders transform how they think, adapt, and respond in complex business environments. As a business strategist, author, and Professional Integral Coach, she leads her clients through specific research-based practices that empower them to realign their business strategy with a life of meaning, accelerated performance, and increased profitability.

Sharon is also the author of The Pursuit of Time and Money: Step Into Radical Abundance and Discover the Secret to a Meaningful Prosperous Life.

She is also a scholar-practitioner who enjoys researching and understanding some of the hard stuff of life so you don’t have to. There’s nothing like helping people move through challenges such that they come out more passionate and fulfilled on the other side.

Whether you’re a person in the midst of change, an entrepreneur, or an organizational leader, Sharon would love to help you discover a more meaningful and prosperous life.

What you will learn in this episode:

• How to identify leadership DNA, where it comes from, the benefits, and the drawbacks
• Why the systemic mapping process allows us to see hidden patterns and subconscious dynamics in a concrete way
• How to look at systems from a quantum physics perspective
• How the aforementioned systems transcend generations and affect the unconscious minds of business leaders
• Why bringing the unconscious to the conscious mind allows leaders to make better decisions with more efficiency and less stress
• How to recognize hidden loyalties and use them as an agent for positive change
• What inspires Sharon Spano to bring this methodology to her clients
• How genetics play a prominent role in who you are as a leader

Resources:

• Website: sharonspano.com
• Book: thetimemoneybook.com
• Events: sharonspano.com/workshops
• Contact: sharon@sharonspano.com
• Twitter: @SharonSpano

Adam Honig (HOE-nig) is the founder and CEO of Spiro (SPEAR-oh) Technologies, a CRM company focused on breathing new life into sales technology to help salespeople reach new heights. Adam has worked in the tech industry for over 25 years, building companies that deliver enterprise software and solutions, as well as developing award-winning teams across the globe. Together with Spiros founding team, Adam has developed tech solutions for over 300,000 salespeople in the past 10 years. He's learned invaluable lessons throughout his career, and today he shares his expertise with sales teams across the globe, empowering them to achieve success through targeted relationship-building, proven sales tactics, and inspired technologies.

What you will learn in this episode:

• How the movie “Her” inspired Adam to create Spiro
• How Spiro helps business owners as it relates to how can help and organizations sales team become more helpful and effective
• The problem organizations encounter when it comes to having a sales team record all of the data for their leads and the process that leads to the sale
• Ways that Spiro’s CRM eliminates the gaps in the sales team’s work with data to make them more effective
• The gaps that Spiro has seen with the sales team’s communication with prospects and how Spiro solves them
• What Adam believes is the best way that organizations can improve sales
• The importance of collecting data and seeing how it can be used to elevate the sales team’s performance and achieve goals
• How collecting all the data within your sales team can help you make better predictions for your business
• Why it is important to make sure your customer service is a priority in your business and how it can create opportunities down the road
• The skills a business owner needs to master in order to properly manage a sales team
• Why the tech industry has been leaning on creating specialized sales teams and how that is helping them grow their business
• Ways Spiro helps in creating alerts for communicating with leads
• Why connecting with leads on LinkedIn can be helping when creating and nurturing relationships with leads

Resources:

• Website: spiro.ai
• Resource for listeners: spiro.ai/onwardnation

Eric Thurston has enabled many of the world’s leading organizations to leverage technology solutions to drive business performance. He is currently as President and CEO of Personify, a market-leading technology platform that helps organizations to better engage their constituents, maximize revenue and optimize operations. In his role at Personify, Eric has led the company through a founder transition, successfully acquired three new technology solutions, executed a major product rewrite and positioned Personify to be sold from its private equity sponsor Rubicon Technology Partners to Pamlico Capital.

As host of the Planet Leadership podcast, Eric meets with leaders, influencers, and movers and shakers in the association and nonprofit market to explore the issues and topics keeping up executives up at night, such as how to drive efficiencies within an organization, leverage technology to be more effective, and stay on top of trends in a rapidly evolving market.

Eric has a wealth of experience in the software industry, serving in leadership roles at Mitratech, P2 Energy Solutions, Oracle and SAP. He lives in Austin and enjoys boating, hiking, and fishing with his family.

What you will learn from this episode:

• Eric Thurston’s journey to owning private equity-owned software companies
• Why Eric describes himself as a “Transformational CEO”
• How Eric transformed and grew Personify since 2013 when he became CEO
• The vital priorities Eric’s leadership team planned and followed in order to grow Personify and why they plan over a five-year time frame
• How Eric build out his leadership team within Personify
• Two reasons why the topic of leadership is important to Eric
• The types of organizations that Personify serves
• Two ways that business owners can become transformational leaders
• Inside information about Eric’s new podcast, Plant Leadership and his decision to start a podcast
• The reason why Eric chose the name ‘Planet Leadership’ for his podcast
• Eric’s influential lessons that he learned from his mentors and how that lesson helped him become the leader he is today

Resources:

• Podcast Website: http://theplanetleadership.com/
• Website: personify.com

About Judy Sparks
Judy is the founder, CEO, and President of Smartegies LLC. Founded in 2008, Smartegies is a specialty marketing agency that has helped more than 150 companies across North America build stronger brands, implement effective communications, and develop winning strategies and proposals. Judy has worked in B2B marketing and sales roles exclusively since 1993, specializing in the AEC industry. Judy is a true expert in AEC marketing and has a proven record of success across her 25 years in the field.

About Katie Cash
Katie is an architecture, engineering, and construction marketer with over 15 years of experience serving the AEC industry. Katie is an expert strategist who helps her clients win big projects through creative marketing methods. Katie believes in thinking outside the box and has a gift for tackling challenges by using innovative and unconventional solutions. Today, Katie serves as the Vice President of Smartegies, working alongside Judy to help clients achieve maximum impact in their marketing efforts.

What you will learn in this episode:

• The struggles that Judy saw in the design and construction industry that led her to start Smartegies
• Katie’s path to meeting Judy and what attracted her to work with Smartegies
• The changes that are happening within the design and construction industry and why marketing seems to have become an afterthought
• How Smartegies creates an impact and educates their clients on ways they can build a brand that will help them build their business
• How Smartegies defines marketing and sales
• Why Strategies talks about strategies and how to support their clients’ business goals before getting into a project
• Why looking at other B2B industries can help innovate your marketing strategy
• How companies can stand out in the AEC industry with the “Art of the Pitch”
• The number one prevailing emotion that triggers someone to want to hire a firm
• The three things that Smartegies believes a presentation should do in order to stand out in a pitch
• The importance of incorporating emotional storytelling into your pitch
• Why more agencies/organizations are not implementing the “Art of the Pitch” process
• The skill that business owners need to master before being good at implementing the “Art of the Pitch” process
• Why design and construction firms need to be open to the idea of change
• The importance of recognizing when you need expert’s advice

Resources:

• Website: smartegies.com
• Judy Sparks Email: judy.sparks@smartegies.com
• Katie Cash Email: kcash@smartegies.com