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On December 6, 2020, Do-Be Associate Brian Gorman (“Mr. BE”) gave a talk for TEDx Hartford. Through the story of his own life and his work with clients facing change over the past five decades, Brian has come to understand Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey as the path we take on each change we move through. He shares how to improve the likelihood of successfully moving through change, some of the risks you face along the way, and how to address them. This podcast is a re-broadcast of Brian’s interview with Paul Geiger and Glen Ingram about his TEDx experience and the change journey. The interview was conducted on the online program and podcast Blabbit on December 11, 2020. The TEDx Hartford talk is available at TEDxHartford.com and on YouTube (search “TEDx Hartford Brian Gorman”).

When she started Jillian’s Circus, Jillian Weston thought that her job was to sell social media marketing services to prospective clients. As she discusses with Tony and Brian on this edition of it’s DO-BE time, she was wrong. In fact, Jillian is an educator. By bringing an understanding of social media to clubs, libraries, schools, chambers of commerce, and elsewhere, she is creating a deeper understanding of the world of social media marketing. In doing so, she has become a vital member of her community and a successful business woman.

 With Congress’s authorization of a second round of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Joel Brach (JD Capital Strategies) returns to the it’s DO-BE time studio with Tony and Brian. In this podcast, Joel discusses the significant ways in which the second round of PPP is different from the first and more accessible to smaller business owners. He provides an update on first round PPP forgiveness and the EIDL program. Joel also offers insights on programs for business owners offered by New York City and New York State.

As entrepreneurs, it can sometimes feel like it’s us against the world or “if I let others in on my idea they’re going to steal it.” When imaware™ co-founder Jani Tuomi was ready to enter the world of at-home health testing, he knew he was challenging healthcare norms. After all, testing was used to confirm doctors’ diagnoses, not to provide an early warning to patients. In this revealing conversation with Tony and Brian, Jani describes his initial efforts to be a disruptor in the multi-billion dollar healthcare industry, and how he learned to achieve success instead by recruiting an army of people that shared his passion, and then letting go.

Running a business is not the same as leading it. In this episode, Tony and Brian reflect on the lessons that Theresa Moulton (Editor-in-Chief of Change Management Review), Scott Mason (Principal of Scott Mason, LLC), TJ Chernick (Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, New York chapter), and Andy Presti (Managing Partner of Presti & Naegele, CPA) shared about their growth into truly being leaders of their organizations. As different as each of their businesses is, growing it and successfully moving it forward has required not “managing the business” but “leading the business.” The lessons in becoming a leader that are shared here are universal.

Andy Presti, Managing Partner of Presti & Naegele, began his career in a two-person accounting firm and has grown it to a 40-employee business. In this episode of “it’s DO-BE time,” Andy, Tony and Brian discuss what it takes to successfully achieve such growth. As Andy put it, “just because you know your profession well, it doesn’t mean you can run your business well.” He shares his own trajectory from Certified Professional Accountant to business leader and the critical lessons he learned along the way about himself, his employees, and business success.

It’s important for your employees to know your vision for your business. It helps them to understand why you work the way you do and why you expect what you do from them. If you’re like most business owners, you proudly talk about your plans, hopes, dreams for the future. And, if you’re like most business owners, you have no idea about the plans, hopes, dreams of your employees. In this replay of one of our most liked podcasts, Tony and Brian invite you to ask your employees what brings them to work every day, and to invest in helping to make their work more fulfilling. Echoing and building on the voices of luminaries such as Simon Sinek, Bob Chapman (CEO, Barry Wehmiller), and Dan Price (CEO, Gravity Payments), we explain why doing so is a bottom line investment.

Working in international human rights,  TJ Chernick’ s career took him from Morocco to Finland, but it didn’t prepare him for his role as Executive Director of the New York chapter of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. While the move from human rights to his first Chamber position in membership was challenging, even more difficult was the move from manager to his current leadership role. In this episode, TJ discusses the part those you serve can play in your professional growth when you have the courage to ask, and to listen.

When Scott Mason lost his job in what he now recognizes was a “finger-pointing, cover your rear end” government agency, he never expected he would find himself on the mat of a martial arts studio. But that is where he found himself, both literally and authentically. In this riveting episode, Scott, Tony, and Brian discuss the relationship between doing and being in finding and living into your true purpose.

Theresa Moulton, Editor-In-Chief of Change Management Review, is a serial entrepreneur. She has a seemingly unending stream of great ideas that become new strategies, or even new businesses. The challenge is that being an entrepreneur is not the same as being a business leader. In this episode, Theresa talks with Tony and Brian about what she had to do and who she had to become in order to be successful as an entrepreneurial leader.

In 1976, Elaine Koyama, a third-generation Japanese American woman, became an animal feed salesman for Cargill in rural Iowa. She had a Stanford degree, sales training, all the animal feed knowledge her employer could provide, they Chevy four-door sedan, and her own experience growing up on a farm in rural Montana. But that wasn’t enough to make the sale. In this insightful discussion with Tony and Brian, Elaine reveals that the key to your success may not have anything to do with your job title or position description.

When Quantuvos Founder and CEO Gregg Bedol’s dream job turned into a nightmare, he kept at it. He was there for his team, for his customers, and for his employer, continuing to be the leader he has always been and doing the things he thought he should be doing. Only in retrospect did Gregg realize that the leader he was serving was a different type of leader, one whom Gregg doesn’t serve well. In this podcast, Gregg shares this experience with Tony and Brian, passing on the lessons that it taught him about leadership styles and alignment.

Almost nothing in life drains our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energy in a sustained way as the events of the past nine months have done. The impact of COVID-19, #BlackLivesMatter, and demands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion surround us as we try to juggle work, family, home schooling, caring for aging parents, and more. Even if you had achieved work/life balance prior to all of this, it is likely to have been lost again. How far out of balance are you? In this episode, Tony and Brian introduce some of the keys of DOing and BEing required to achieve your version of the 4-day work week. In the coming months we will be expanding on these both in this podcast and in other offerings ranging from DIY guidance to hands-on support. “When times are tough in business, it’s DO-BE time!”

As the Do-Be Associates prepare to change the format of it’s DO-BE time, we wanted to share with you one of our most popular podcasts to date. Stand by on October 13 for a new and pithier version of our podcast focusing on the DOing and BEing of business success. In this replay, ResultsMap® founder Caroline Kealey discusses with Tony and Brian the importance of communications strategy and offers some simple models for improving communications.

Successfully leading your business through today’s ongoing uncertainty takes more than skill; it requires that you achieve a level of vertical development that allows you to see the world more broadly, and to live in complexity and ambiguity. In this episode, Sparks Group founder and CEO Jessica Bronzert joins Tony and Brian to introduce vertical development, discuss its importance to entrepreneurs and business leaders, and to offer a three-step process for increasing your vertical development.

Yonason Goldson, Director of Ethical Imperatives, refers to himself as a hitchhiking rabbi and ethics warrior. In this engaging conversation with Tony and Brian, Yonason shares his path to understanding the importance of ethics and discusses the vital role that it plays in shaping our organizations and determining their future.

As a business owner, as a leader, it is up to you to set the tone, to define the culture of your organization. In doing so, you set, or redirect, it on the path to the future. In this wide-ranging podcast, Deutser Founder and CEO Brad Deutser joins Tony and Brian to explore how leaders create safe space for their employees; the difference between making Diversity, Equity and Inclusion something that your organization does and making it part of your organizational being; and the role that positivity plays in organizational success.

Your employees make the difference in whether or not your business succeeds. As a business owner it is up to you to shape the difference your employees make. In this episode, Tony and Brian share their own insights, as well as those of Simon Sinek, Bob Chapman (CEO, Barry Wehmiller), Dan Price (CEO, Gravity Payments), and others, on how to help your employees help your business.

As summer winds down and we continue to face a highly disrupted and uncertain fall, our own resilience continues to be tested, as does the resilience of colleagues, clients, family, friends, and strangers. Heading into what for many will be a low-key Labor Day weekend, we decided to provide a replay of our most popular podcast to date. Dr. Linda Hoopes, founder of Resilience Alliance, joins Tony and Brian “At the Intersection of Resilience and Recovery” to discuss your resilience muscles, the energy that powers your resilience, and being not okay.

What can business owners learn from a professional rock balance artist? As it turns out, a great deal. Travis Ruskus is highly attuned to the integration of doing and being that is as critical to every entrepreneur’s success as it is to the creation of his art. In this episode, Travis joins Tony and Brian to share what he has learned on his journey to living his passion. And he describes the seven principles for living into your dream, principles that will serve you well.