Commanding Business
by Tim Hamilton
The challenge with growth is that the habits that got you here become the limitations that prevent you from getting there. Growth not only requires us to learn new habits. It requires that we unlearn old ones. I'm Tim Hamilton, CEO of Praxent and host of the Commanding Business podcast. Each week, I interview authors, experts and real world leaders about how they grew their teams, their organizations and ultimately themselves. From leadership to management and marketing to innovation, we'll cover a variety of topics with an aim to uncover actionable takeaways you can implement in your own organization today.
Episodes
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EP057: Patricia O'Connell & Woo, Wow, and Win
Band-aid strategies for pleasing customers isn't enough to differentiate your business—it needs to be designed for service from the ground up. In today's interview with Patricia O'Connell we discover the importance of service design in businesses that compete today. Patricia shares her journey of...
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EP056: Thomas A. Stewart & Woo, Wow, and Win
Woo, Wow, and Win reveals the importance of designing your company around service, and offers clear, practical strategies based on the idea that the design of services is markedly different than manufacturing. Most companies, both digital and brick-and-mortar, B2B or B2C; are not designed for...
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EP055: Marc Stickdorn & Service Design Thinking
Service design thinking is the designing and marketing of services that improve the customer experience, and the interactions between the service providers and the customers. We interview Marc Stickdorn, consultant, speaker and author of This Is Service Design Thinking. Key Takeaways: [1:03] The...
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EP054: John Mullins & The Customer-Funded Business
In The Customer Funded Business, best-selling author John Mullins uncovers five novel approaches that scrappy and innovative 21st century entrepreneurs working in companies large and small have ingeniously adapted from their predecessors like Dell, Gates, and the Zieglers. John Mullins is an...
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EP053: Keith Casey & A Practical Approach to API Design
Keith Casey is co-author of A Practical Approach to API design: From Principles to Practice. Former Developer Evangelist at Twilio, his current work with Okta focuses on identity and authentication APIs. Keith is a software engineer focusing on creating open architecture, specifically APIs. His...
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EP052: Karen Dillon & Competing Against Luck
Journalist, author, and speaker, Karen Dillon is a former editor of Harvard Business Review Magazine, and the former Deputy Editor of Inc. Magazine. She recently co-authored Competing Against Luck with Clay Christensen. Using the Jobs to Be Done framework, Karen Dillon and her co-authors help...
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EP051: David Hubbard & Technology for Sales and Marketing
David Hubbard is a Revenue Growth Expert and CEO of Marketing Outfield. He works with private and public companies to strategically align sales, marketing, and product development efforts and grow annual revenues by 25-50%. He creates growth machines by integrating a company's core values into…
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EP050: Jim Kalbach on Designing Web Navigation and Mapping Experiences
Jim Kalbach is a noted author, speaker, and instructor in user experience design, information architecture, and strategy. He is currently the Head of Consulting and Education with MURAL, a leading online whiteboard for digital collaboration. Previously, Jim has worked with large companies, such…
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EP049: Daniel Burrus & The Future of Global Trends and Innovation
Author of the NYT and WSJ bestseller, Flash Foresight, Daniel Burrus is a leading futurist in global trends and innovation. A leading consultant to Google, Proctor & Gamble, IBM, and many other Fortune 500 firms, Daniel Burrus provides strategic advice for predicting forthcoming market innovators...
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EP048: Bill Halal & Technology's Promise
Author of six books, with a seventh in the works, Bill Halal is a Professor Emeritus of Management, Technology and Innovation at George Washington University. As the President of TechCast, Bill Halal and his team study the impact of artificial intelligence, the age of knowledge as compared to the...
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EP047: John DiJulius and The Customer Service Revolution
Best-selling author of three customer service books, John DiJulius shares how a company can make their customer service approach and their customer experience their single biggest competitive advantage. Training is the #1 factor in an employee's ability to recognize and deliver world class…
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EP046: Christine Comaford & SmartTribes: How Teams Become Brilliant Together
New York Times bestselling author and applied neuroscience expert Christine Comaford knows what it takes to move people from the Critter State into the Smart State, where they have full access to their own creativity, innovation, higher consAciousness, and emotional engagement. When an entire...
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EP045: David Evans & The New Economics of Multisided Platforms
Tim's guest, David Evans, is one of the world's leading authorities on multisided platform-based businesses. Many of the most dynamic public companies, from Alibaba to Facebook to Visa, and the most valuable start-ups, such as Airbnb and Uber, are matchmakers that connect one group of customers...
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EP044: Robbie Baxter & The Membership Economy
The smartest, most successful companies are using radically new membership models, subscription-based formats, and freemium pricing structures to grow their customer base―and explode their market valuation―in the most disruptive shift in business since the Industrial Revolution. Today's guest,...
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EP043: Jay Harman and The Shark's Paintbrush
Today's guest, Jay Harman is the CEO of PAX Scientific and author of The Shark's Paintbrush. In The Shark's Paintbrush, Harman introduces us to pioneering engineers in a wide array of businesses who are uncovering and copying nature's hidden marvels. He shows business leaders and aspiring...
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EP042: Sangeet Paul Choudary & the Platform Revolution
Sangeet Paul Choudary is co-chair of the MIT Platform Strategy Summit, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at INSEAD business school, and author of Platform Revolution and Platform Scale. In this podcast episode, Sangeet Choudary defines the concepts and drivers behind the platform business model,...
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EP041: Jack Daly & Hyper Sales Growth
Jack Daly is a worldwide expert on sales and growing sales. He has built six companies into national firms, is an Amazon bestselling author of Hyper Sales Growth, and has completed 15 Iron Man competitions in eight countries. Jack Daly's proven methodologies focus on people driving the business.…
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EP040: Marshall Van Alstyne & the Platform Revolution
Marshall Van Alstyne is a Professor at Boston University and a Digital Fellow at MIT. He co-authored Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming The Economy And How To Make Them Work For You, and is a father of the theory of two-sided markets. Marshall joins Tim today to discuss…
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EP039: On Product Design and Solving Wicked Problems with Adam Richardson
Today's guest is the multi-faceted and uniquely talented Adam Richardson. He is the author of the book Innovation X: Why a Company's Toughest Problems Are Its Greatest Advantage, and is a contributing writer for the Harvard Business Review. Adam was formerly a design lead at Frog Design focusing…
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EP038: The Platform Revolution with Geoffrey G. Parker
Geoffrey Parker is a Professor of Engineering at the Thayer School at Dartmouth College, where he also serves as the Director of the Master of Engineering Management Program. In this podcast, he joins Tim to discuss his recent book, The Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming...
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EP037: Riding the Wave of Consumer Demand for Entrepreneurial Breakthrough, with Mike Michalowicz
This is Mike Michalowicz's second visit on the Commanding Business podcast. During this episode, we announce the release of and have an in-depth conversation about his new book, Surge: Time the Marketplace, Ride the Wave of Consumer Demand and Become your Industry's Big Kahuna. Mike describes why...
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EP036: Turning Followers into Leaders with Captain David Marquet
After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy at the top of his class, David Marquet was asked to become the Captain of a nuclear-powered attack submarine. One year later, Captain Marquet was given an opportunity to lead a different submarine, one which had the worst performance record in the…
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EP035: Essence Mining and Meaning at Work with Danny Gutknecht
Today's guest, Danny Gutknecht is an expert in all things, talent. He is CEO of the HR Management company, Pathways and is the author of a new book - Essence: Meaning at Work. He shares his model of Essence mining, a way for companies to uncover key information used to drive higher productivity,...
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EP034: The Human Journey through the Lens of Innovation and Processes with Bijoy Goswami
Bijoy Goswami joins Tim to discuss his ideas on bootstrapping as an entrepreneur, the Human Fugue philosophy and his book The Human Fabric: Unleashing the Power of Core Energy in Everyone. Bijoy helps entrepreneurial companies in Austin, Texas, to grow into what they want to become by creating...
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EP033: Four Simple Questions to Jumpstart Your Business Journey with Mark Moses
Tim’s guest, Mark Moses, has had two ultra-successful businesses, starting his first at the tender age of 19. He is a long-time entrepreneur who is now coaching CEOs from all over the globe. He says, creating specific measurable results based on your company’s vision is the first and simplest…
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EP032: Investing in and Executing Continuous Improvement Projects Using Lean Six Sigma with Kimberly Watson-Hemphill of Firefly Consulting
Improving business processes can be a difficult task if management approaches it without first determining the needs of the stakeholders. Gathering information from this group will help the improvement team to understand what drives your business's profit and loss. From there, creating baseline...
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EP031: Disarmingly Honest Conversations with John Oberg
New managers often find themselves tangled in a web of different processes. If they are joining an existing organization, the processes that might have worked for their predecessors, often don’t fit current business needs. If they are entrepreneurs starting from scratch, they are tasked with...
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EP030: The Heavy Burden of Being a True Leader with Nick Norris
If you are the guy who is in charge and accountable, everyone will be looking to you for guidance and strength. Understanding your endgame will help you to prioritize and focus in times of high stress and responsibility. Today’s guest, Nick Norris, knew he wanted to be a Navy Seal from a very…
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EP029: Honing in on Growth as a Core Value with Arnie Malham
Founder, Arnie Malham, of CJ Advertising seems to have done everything right while growing his business. He founded his niche advertising agency with the help of others. After proving his worth to his initial clients, they introduced him to other prospective clients within the same industry. He...
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EP028: A Great Strategy Executed Poorly is Worse than an OK Strategy Executed Fantastically
Some companies grow so fast they don’t have time to think about the decisions they are making. Whether it’s hiring, making the best proposals or which city to open their next office in, taking care of clients should always take precedence. Tim Hamilton talks with Scott Weintraub, CMO of…
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EP027: Using Open Book Management to Increase Revenues and Build Leaders with Jack O'Riley
Everyone is on the same team when playing the great game of business. Tim’s guest, Jack O’Riley, is a coach and specialist in Open Book Management. He takes us through the 3 core principles of The Great Game of Business, including how the principles are utilized, received by the employees and how...
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EP026: When You Want Something Bad Enough Nothing Can Stop You with Gina Mollicone-Long
Are you willing to do the hard work it takes to change and reach your desired outcome? If you are a CEO or an entrepreneur in business today, you must build up your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual resiliency to prepare yourself for adversity. When adversity presents, you will be able to...
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EP025: What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?
The Freedom at Work program is a real strategy for empowering people in the workplace. Using democratic principles to remove fear-based leadership, WorldBlu is transforming businesses from the inside out. Our guest, Traci Fenton, was recently named by Inc. Magazine as a Top 50 Leadership…
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EP024: Getting the Most out of the Visionary and Integrator in your Organization with Mark Winters
Many extraordinary companies have had two primary positions of leadership. One being the visionary and the second is the executor. Understanding the difference between the visionary (aka the pie in the sky idea person) and the executor (the dig-in implementer) can make or break your business.…
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EP023: Why Your Business Should be Your Soulmate with Mike Michalowicz
Is your business taking on any clients who give you money when what it requires is a profitable endeavor? Try using your lack of resources to encourage innovation and creative change within your organization. Mike Michalowicz, the author of three business strategy books, used the advice of his...
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EP022: Six Clear, Simple Components to Strengthen A Company's Core Values with Mike Paton
Entrepreneurial startups often find themselves maturing before they’ve had time to analyze their growth. The business structure builds itself based upon its initial framework which may no longer be applicable to the company’s present challenges. Mike Paton, the co-author of Get A Grip, details…
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EP021: How to Keep Your Entire Team in the Rookie Zone with Liz Wiseman
Many businesses grow stale when a large number of employees decide to quit engaging in the organization, but stay at their current positions. If your leaders are not challenging existing employees with something new or fringe every three to six months their creativity level drops or becomes...
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EP020: Data + Knowledge Base = A "Model" Business System with George Danner
Joining together the formidable pattern recognition abilities of the human mind with the agility of data-driven simulation modeling is a company's best option for overcoming challenges. Business Laboratory captures information from experts in your organization to gain insights and systematically...
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EP019: Best Recruiting Strategies and Practices to Hire A-level People with Kelly Geary
Who handles recruiting within your organization? If the responsibility currently resides in Human Resources, it might be time to re-think your recruitment strategies. Knowing the qualities and attributes the open position requires will assist you in finding the right person. Start by developing a...
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EP018: The 3 Big Questions Your Business Needs to Answer when Building Your Brand with Deb Gabor
To become a financial asset for your company a brand needs to have an essence, a promise and a personality. Building your brand requires sustainable differentiators, scientific research and most importantly, focuses on your customer’s point of view. Your brand should also closely resemble the...
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EP017: Sharing a Vision of the Finished Project with Your Team with Gary Minor of Petra
Hiring a business coach may seem expensive and time-consuming for your organization but an outsider's perspective may be exactly what your team needs. Leaders may be in need of self-awareness coaching and managers probably need to learn more effective communication skills. A coach will help to...
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EP016: 3 Journaling Exercises for Passion, Purpose and Direction with J V Crum lll
Many small businesses accept every client solely on the monetary aspect. The key to turning your business into a seven figure business is learning to say no in order to attract the right customers to you. If you find your True North, which will only come from keeping your patience through chaotic...
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EP015: Breaking Down the 11 Dimensions of the Birkman Method with Jim Blanchard
From recruitment to retirement the Birkman assessment tool creates awareness in your organization. Understanding yourself is your first step to becoming a great individual. Understanding the personal styles of your team members will make you a great leader. Jim Blanchard explains how to break…
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EP014: Transformational Business Improvements through Coaching with Andy Bailey
Becoming self aware and recognizing your strengths and your weaknesses as a leader can ultimately make or break your business. Delegating tasks, sharing your vision and investing in your employees will give you more time to do what you are good at and will empower your employees to be productive…
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EP013: Fixing the Right Sales Problem By Seeing the Blind Spots with Chief Door Opener, Caryn Kopp
Key decision makers appreciate compelling and powerful messages from your salespeople. An intuitive opener is able to deliver the message and discover what truly matters to your prospects. A proficient closer should move the process along to close the sale using a refined sales language. If you...
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EP012: Tips and Tricks to Help Your Purpose Find You with Dr. Srikumar Rao
You are currently living in a construct. You have created mental models, good and bad, to promote your own self interests. Each day you use these models as paths to guide you through life. You then apply labels to these things so you know how to react to situations. Becoming aware that you are…
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EP011: From Zero to a Hundred Million Dollars in the SaaS Game with Andrew Quinn
Building your sales force from scratch has its advantages as long as you are clear on which behaviors, you as the sales manager expect from your new hires. The first people on your team will likely help you to figure out your go to market strategy and must be willing to experiment and share. For...
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EP010: Solving Industry Bottlenecks, The X-Factor Essential Question with Barrett Ersek
: Are daily tasks bogging you down and keeping you from moving your business forward? If so, gather your executives and hit the pause button every 90 days. Step back and gaze into your industry looking for bottlenecks or problems which need to be solved. Craft the essential question based on...
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EP009: Starting with the Why to Elevate Your Corporate Culture with Stephen Shedletzky
Prolonged fear and stressors have negative health effects on teams therefore depleting them of their effectiveness. Why not make some changes to your corporate culture to alleviate burnout and increase loyalty? Customers will sense when your team is functioning at optimum levels and when your...
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EP008: Crafting Your Unique Value Proposition, the Art of the Demo and Testing the Pricing Model with Ash Maurya
How do you get your customers from their current reality of riddled with problems to the future reality of alleviating the pain or removing the problem completely? You need to get the idea out of your head and into a format people will pay attention to. Crafting the proper unique value…
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About this show
The challenge with growth is that the habits that got you here become the limitations that prevent you from getting there. Growth not only requires us to learn new habits. It requires that we unlearn old ones. I'm Tim Hamilton, CEO of Praxent and host of the Commanding Business podcast. Each week, I interview authors, experts and real world leaders about how they grew their teams, their organizations and ultimately themselves. From leadership to management and marketing to innovation, we'll cover a variety of topics with an aim to uncover actionable takeaways you can implement in your own organization today.
Hosted by
Tim Hamilton
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