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Awesome Office: Lead. Create. Inspire.

The Awesome Office Show is all about helping you lead people, create culture, and inspire Awesome at your company. Each week we talk to a business leader, entrepreneur, HR pro, or engagement specialist at the most successful and buzzed about companies in the country, and learn their most actionable tips, tactics, and best practices - and share them with you. This is a behind the curtain look that you’re not going to find anywhere else. If you care about developing stellar cultures that provide lasting value for employees, customers, and shareholders, then this is the podcast for you. The Awesome Office Show is hosted by Sean Spear. Similar to Entreleadership and HBR Ideacast.
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Awesome Office: Lead. Create. Inspire.
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Now displaying: March, 2017
Mar 25, 2017

Is it better to bet on a company with a great idea but with a team of B-level players, or one stacked with A-level talent working on an average idea?

It’s a question that early-stage investors have debated for decades, but for this week’s guest there's no question about it - a great team beats a great idea, every time.

That’s according to Ronen Olshansky, the visionary CEO behind Cross Campus, a Los Angeles based on-demand workspace and business event venue that provides peak office experiences to a community of creative professionals.

Now if that name sounds a bit familiar, that's because Ronen is our first ever repeat guest on the Awesome Office show. After getting to know his story during our first interview (which we highly recommend listening to first), we knew we had barely scratched the surface with this insightful entrepreneur.

In this interview, co-host Sean Spear digs deep with Ronen to learn more about the philosophies that underlie his life and business. We learn some fascinating info, including an update on the Cross Campus business, Ronen’s take on leadership and fundraising, the industries that are poised to go mainstream in the next 5-10 years, and why right now Los Angeles is the best place in the world to do business.  

Recommended Reading

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Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE

Introducing SnackNation Market.  

For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too.

SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep.  With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game.

We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE.

Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling).

That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

Mar 19, 2017

When you hear the word “company culture,” what comes to mind?

If you picture a whimsical work environment filled with highly social Millennial co-workers, cruising around on hoverboards and gathering around the company’s kegerator on Friday (or Tuesday) afternoons, you’re not alone.

According to this week’s Awesome Office guest, you’re also completely wrong.

In this episode, co-host Sean Spear talks to longtime friend and mentor Tony Knopp, the CEO and co-founder of InviteManager. Together with his co-founders, Tony has built the leading entertainment enterprise SaaS company, so he knows a thing or two about building high-performing teams.

Tony is a fascinating, driven entrepreneur who reads two books per week, and who brought a ton of juice to this episode. In our conversation, he shares stories from his early days at StubHub, explains why he decided to strike out on his own at the age of 27, and details why InviteManager has made “relentless recruiting” one of their core tenets.

One of the things we found most interesting was Tony’s take on company culture, and why he thinks most people miss the mark when it comes to building the right culture for their business.

Recommended Reading

Links

Mar 13, 2017

Today we’re fired up to introduce our brand new contributing host, Sean Spear of Hughes Marino.

Sean is one of my absolute favorite people. He’s someone who, like me, is fascinated with the intersection of personal performance, workspaces, and workplace culture, and how these things can make for better businesses and enhance all of our lives. He’s also someone with an endless curiosity and knack for stories, and he’ll be a perfect addition to the AO crew.

I’ll still be doing my share of interviews and standalone segments, but Sean will be adding to the interview side of the equation, tapping into his impressive network of leaders and cultural innovators.

In the coming weeks you’ll be hearing a LOT more from Mr. Spear, but for now I decided it would be fun to put him in the hot seat. In this episode, Sean tells us why he starts every day at 5 am, why he believes fortune favors the bold, and why you shouldn’t be afraid to, in his words, “fail epicly.”

Links

Sean Spear at Hughes Marino

Mar 4, 2017

Tero Isokauppila radiates an undeniable energy. As soon as you meet him, you can tell he’s got an insatiable curiosity about the world around him.

This 13th generation family farmer has lived in eight different countries, served in the Finnish military, and is currently making plans to fly to the edge of space in a Russian fighter jet.

But his true passion is dealing ‘shrooms.

Tero is the founder of Four Sigmatic, a company whose mission is to make medicinal mushrooms - some of the world’s most researched superfoods - more accessible to everyone. They do this through their best selling mushroom coffee, mushroom elixirs, mushroom cocoas, and other fungi-based products.   

As we discuss in the interview, mushrooms are pretty magical. There are mushrooms that can eat plastic, clean oil spills, and even thrive in irradiated environments.

As much as Tero is an innovator and an unconventional entrepreneur, he’s also seen firsthand how important people are to the process of making a great company. He talks to us about how key hires can help create a brand that people connect with, why he strives to never hold meetings, and the greatest challenge facing emerging CPG brands today.

Key Takeaways

  • Tero explains why he plans to fly to the edge of space in a Russian fighter jet. 3:21
  • The reaction Tero gets when he tells people he’s a “shroom dealer.” 7:40
  • How living in third world countries has affected Tero’s point of view. 14:36
  • How Tero’s relationship with mushrooms began foraging on his family farm in Finland. 15:30
  • The difference between entrepreneurship in Scandinavia and other parts of the world, and why Tero believes the U.S. is the best place on the planet to do business. 16:25
  • Why mushroom coffee is better for you than traditional coffee. 20:00
  • Why it’s important for Tero to go beyond the hype and “snake oil” perception traditionally associated with nutrition products.  21:20
  • Why mushrooms are so diverse and versatile. 23:00
  • The moment Tero knew he had something special with Four Sigmatic. 25:50
  • The greatest challenges facing emerging CPG brands. 30:30
  • Why, at the end of the day, your brand is your people. 32:45
  • Why Four Sigmatic tries never to hold meetings. 41:47
  • Tero describes Four Sigmatic’s cancer contribution program, and why he believes it’s better to have causes you believe in than a “pity product”. 46:10

Links

Special Offer for AO Listeners - Try SnackNation Market for FREE

Introducing SnackNation Market.  

For the past few years SnackNation has only been available to businesses, but now it’s available for homes and awesome individuals too.

SnackNation Market brings health- and taste-conscious folks expertly curated boxes of the most delicious, innovative and healthier snacks right to your doorstep.  With SnackNation there is no more worrying about having a weak, unhealthy and tasteless snack game.

We’ve secured a special offer for the listeners of this show: you can try SnackNation for FREE.

Just visit SnackNation.com/AO right now, and get your first box free (just cover shipping and handling).

That’s SnackNation.com/AO.

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