Angela Maiers is the founder of Choose2Matter, a global movement that challenges and inspires students to work collaboratively to develop innovative solutions to social problems. She has also authored six books, including Classroom Habitudes and The Passion-Driven Classroom, which introduced the concept of “Genius Hour” in education. Her “You Matter” talk at TEDx Des Moines in June 2011 has been viewed several hundred thousand times and was the impetus for Choose2Matter. Angela’s powerful message and down-to-earth style has made her a highly sought-after keynote speaker for education conferences, corporate events and innovation summits.
Hard to believe that 2017 is winding to a close. To that end, we thank our listeners, our guests, and C-Suite Radio for an amazing Year of the Peer. To wrap-up, Randy and I will talk about some of the major takeaways from Season 1 and look to what’s next for 2018. If you’ve missed a few episodes and you’re up for some holiday binge viewing and listening, please visit leobottary.com and click on PODCAST or look for us on C-Suite Radio. Remember, who you surround yourself with matters, so consider taking time during this holiday season to tell the people in your life how much you appreciate them. We’ll be back in mid-January for Season 2. Until then, have a safe and happy holidays!
We are extremely grateful for the incredible people who agreed to appear as guests on the Year of the Peer during 2017. Here they are in the order they appeared:
Charlene Li, CEO of the Altimeter Group and Best-Selling Author
Rich Karlgaard, Publisher and Global Futurist for Forbes
Lewis Schiff, Founder & Executive Director, The Business Owners Council
JJ Ramberg, Host of Your Business (MSNBC) and Business Owner
Jim Kouzes, Coauthor of The Leadership Challenge and former CEO
Vitaly Golomb, Investor & Global Startup Evangelist, HP Tech Ventures
Rahfeal Gordon, Inspirational Speaker/Author
Etienne & Beverly Wenger-Trayner; Scholars/Authors/Consultants
Laura Goodrich, Co-Founder, GWT Next and author of Seeing Red Cars
Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor Emeritus, Stanford Graduate School; of Education
Leon Shapiro, Coauthor of The Power of Peers and former CEO of Vistage
Bri Seeley & Thais Sky, co-founders of The Amplify Collective
Lolly Daskal, Founder, Lead From Within
Pat Wadors, CHRO LinkedIn
Larry Robertson, Founder Lighthouse Consulting
Sekou Andrews, Poetic Voice
Paul Michelman, MIT Sloan Management Review
Marian Salzman; CEO Havas PR, US
Ryan Foland, Managing Partner, InfluenceTree
Gini Dietrich, CEO Arment-Dietrich
Jeffrey Hayzlett; Chairman, C-Suite Holdings, LLC
Christina Martini; Partner at DLA Piper LLP (US)
Scott Mordell, CEO, YPO
Jimmy LeBlanc/Perry Stagg, Louisiana Department of Corrections
Tim Sanders, former Yahoo! Chief Solutions Officer
Angela Maiers, Founder, Choose2Matter
Miguel Dias, CEO and cofounder of CEOWORLD
Peter Carrington, St. Louis Barge
Simon Alexander Ong, Executive Coach and Mastermind Group Leader
Amazon’s Alexa (yes, Randy and I interviewed Alexa)
Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer, VaynerMedia
Peter Fuller, President, Lived Fused
Trent Sanderson, owner and creator of Team Prep USA
Benji Hyam, Co-founder, Grow & Convert
Cecelia Houser, Principal, Korn Ferry/Hay Group
Brian Solis, Principal Analyst, Altimeter Group
Tonia Ries; SVP Edelman, Executive Director, Edelman Square
Robert H. Thompson, author of The Offsite
Brian Mac Mahon, Head Honcho, Expert DOJO
Sam Reese, CEO of Vistage Worldwide
Jeff Hoffman, former CEO of Priceline partner and founder of Colorjar
Peter Shankman, founder of HARO
Dan Hoffman, founder and CEO of Circles
Richard Franzi, Founder and CEO Critical Mass for Business
Dave Peterson, C-founder and Partner at Play Bigger
Christine Comaford, NYT besting selling author and business coach
Dan Hoffman loves growing companies, delivering great service, and applying technology. He believes that business is philosophy in action, culture eats strategy for breakfast, and learning is leverage. Over the course of 12 years Dan started, grew and sold M5, a pioneer in the cloud communications industry. In 2014, Dan was selected as a Henry Crown Fellow and spent two years with his family in Spain. Today, Dan is building Circl.es, an idea that came out a recent sabbatical in Barcelona. Circles fosters deeper conversations to create enduring connections and learning.
Peter Shankman is a multiple-startup founder with several successful exits under his belt. He’s the founder of Help a Reporter Out (HARO), the world’s largest source/journalist matching tool, and he runs ShankMinds: Breakthrough, a private, online entrepreneur community with hundreds of members around the world, as well as Faster Than Normal, a leading ADD/ADHD podcast and best-selling book, focusing on the benefits of being gifted with ADD/HD. He can be found at www.shankman.com
Dr. Cecelia Houser is a Principal with Korn Ferry/Hay Group Leadership and Talent Consulting Practice. Cecelia is a skilled facilitator with more than 40 years of management and organizational leadership experience. She is dedicated to helping clients build a leadership pipeline through professional development training, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and executive coaching.
Cecelia had served for 12 years as faculty and mentor at Seton Hall University for its Master of Arts in Strategic Communication and Leadership program (MASCL).
Benji Hyam is a Co-founder of Grow and Convert, a fully done for you content marketing agency, and Wordable.io, a SaaS app that imports blog posts from Google Docs to WordPress. Previously he ran marketing at 2 venture backed startups in San Francisco.
Claude Silver is VaynerMedia’sChief Heart Officer, the capstone of a career focused on guiding client relationships, global brand strategies, operations, and management. An abiding passion for creating spaces in which people can thrive defined her previous leadership positions at JWT London, Publicis London, SAYMedia, and Organic, among others.
At VaynerMedia, Claude cultivates the heart(s) of the agency’s success: its people. With a purview that includes staff relations, development, recruitment, and retention, each practice is underscored by Claude’s drive to unlock the inner professional potential of every VaynerMedia employee.
Peter Carrington was born and grew up in Ireland. His background is in sales and marketing and 4 years ago his career took a significant change in direction when he and his wife Wendy, embarked upon the development of a luxury hotel barge business in South West France. Today, the 5 star Saint Louis Barge offers one of the mostly highly rated barge experiences in France, offering week long charter cruises for up to a maximum of 6 guests. The barge has 4 full time crew dedicated to providing a relaxed and informal backdrop to what is a unique holiday experience.
As many of you know, I dubbed 2017 the Year of the Peer. Throughout the year, I’ve learned (and continue to learn) a great deal from the people whom I surround myself – including the new people I have met. These are the guests on my podcast, audience members for my keynotes, and participants in the several dozen CEO/Key Executive workshops I’ve conducted. I’ve also learned a great deal from what you’ve all offered in the form of blog posts, articles, videos, etc.
My new book provides leaders, aspiring leaders, and educators with 12 practical takeaways about the value of surrounding yourself with the right people and the power of tapping into the unlimited potential they can create for your business and your life. It’s not focused on neuroscience, how to become part of the collaborative economy, or how to start or join a peer group. It’s focused squarely on our greatest (and most underutilized) source of success and happiness – the people we surround ourselves with each an every day.
Since you are playing such a prominent role in informing the content, I’d like to practice what I preach and not attempt to sit in a room by myself to craft a compelling title. So here’s what I’d like to do:
Starting today through July 31st, I invite you to submit a book title – a title that captures the essence of something you’d love to read. Assume that the subtitle will be 12 Timeless Takeaways From The Year of the Peer. Understand that I’m not the sole decision maker when it comes to selecting the final title. Fortunately, I have a wonderful publisher (the Taylor & Francis Group) which will have a hand in helping us make the best choice.
In early August, I’ll post our favorite submissions and ask you to pick among your favorites on the list. That doesn’t mean the top vote-getter will be selected, because there are a host of other considerations when it comes to picking a title, yet your preferences will provide us with another important data point that will undoubtedly be helpful to reaching a final decision.
The working title to date is: Winning With Your Peers. Another option under consideration is Who You Surround Yourself With Matters. I believe you can offer other powerful options! The person who comes up with the title selected for publication will receive 12 signed copies of the book – one for you and 11 others for you to give away to the people you value in your life. I hope you see this as 12 valuable takeaways for your efforts. Please send your suggested titles to leo@leobottary.com (submit as many ideas as you like), and I will confirm receipt of your email(s). Game on!
*No purchase necessary. The decision of the author and the publisher is final. If I receive multiple entries of the same title, the one I received first will take precedence. Once you are notified that you have won, the signed books will be shipped to you free of charge when they become available in Spring, 2018.
**Book artwork is not meant to represent the final cover.
