The Author Your Brand Show

Maldene with Mark Anthony Tierno

A full-time author and ghostwriter, Southern California native Mark Anthony Tierno has written over 30 Science Fiction and Fantasy novels. He holds a Master’s Degree in Physics, which often plays well in his creation of other worlds.  Amongst his works is a triskadekology (series of 13 books) combining fantasy and science fiction into an epic known as "Maldene". He also wrote Inspector Flaatphut, a 6 part book series with 2 books already published. 

 

Mark has this one problem with writing, though: he can't stop! When he's not working on his own projects he's working on someone else's, and currently has ideas for a LOT more... if he can just find the time away from the rest

 

Takeaways: 

 

1. On ghostwriting non-fiction books: I need specifics here, and sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get out the specifics and just make like a bullet point list of what you want to say. Once you have the bullet points, then that evolves into an outline, and you have your point by point. (19:07)

2. In the fiction book, for me, plot is king. Whatever it is, you can have your social message or whatever else, but if you don't have the plot first, no one is going to read the thing….And before I even start on any book fiction or nonfiction, I'll make sure I have that plot outline down. I want to know what the end of the book is going to be before I started. (21:03)

3. If you're gonna make something on a movie or a comic or whatever, you know, pay attention to the source of material, they have reasons for doing what they're doing there. (23:18)

4. On advising somebody who's thinking about writing their own book: First have a day job, second prepare to suffer because it isn't going to be, you could write the best possible book and unless you have contacts and in the marketing and publishing field, that's things probably going to sit in your closet for a few years before you find some way to connect it to someone. (26:22)

 

To get a copy of his books, visit Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Anthony-Tierno/e/B007PTKI74%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share. 

 

Dream: Clarify and Create What You Want with Marcia Weider

Summary:

 

Marcia Weider, CEO, and Founder of Dream University spent years launching a worldwide dream movement. She designed and launched the DreamSteps Methodology that helped people all over the world to identify and realize their dreams. In this interview, she shares that before you can achieve your dream you have to identify what you love and what you want.  It's a combination of being a dreamer and realistic at the same time. 

 

Visit https://marciawieder.com to know more about Marcia Weider.

 

Key Takeaways/Main Points:  

 

In this episode we discussed….

 

1. “Dream is a verb. You have to act, otherwise, it's a fantasy.”

 

2. “The distinction for me between a dream and a fantasy is that in a dream you can design a strategy for getting there, but there's a paradox because if you go too quickly to strategy, you'll often compromise the dream down to what you realistically think is possible”

 

3. “Getting clarity about who you are and what you do and don't want, your ability to say no more, No thank you, and to be discerning, can really free up a lot of headspace.”

 

4. “Choose to believe in your dream and demonstrate that you're more committed to your dream than to any doubt, fear or reality by taking action.”

 

5. “Big dreams and long-term dreams need short-term projects. A project that I think you can accomplish easily in one month or less because a month is a short enough period to produce a real result.” 

 

6. “It's a really cool thing when you learn how to fail without identifying yourself as a failure.”

 

7. “It was one of these thoughts that just because I was good at something didn't mean it was the thing I was supposed to do forever.”

 

8. “I consider myself a philanthropist, not just giving money, but giving time, energy, and my love to things that I care about.”

Racism & Leadership: Lessons from a Chicago Cop and University Professor with Karen Bartuch

In this episode of The Author Your Brand Show, Karen Bartuch shares her professional views on the George Floyd and how it can be prevented. For Bartuch, using psychology and communication can help handle stressful situations, especially with the cops. 

Bartuch, a former Chicago cop, reiterates the importance of training among law enforcers so they can do their job humanely and win the people, even those she calls  "don't want to go into cuffs, but need to be in cuffs".

She also highlights the discrimination of women in the workplace which motivated her to start a movement on women empowerment. She believes that, though it's not necessary to pick women over men all the time, society must become impartial towards women and not treat them as less important.

Karen gives a peak on her podcast, called "Victorization", where she talks about how people can physically and mentally prepare for what may happen to them and be victorious even under tragic conditions. 

 

Key Takeaways/Main Points:  

In this episode we discussed….

1. "It is important to treat people, even those who are with restraining orders, with integrity, dignity, and respect. If not, they will come after you and make some complaints." (09:31) 

2. "Without proper training on the law and its nuances, officers tend to go from zero to escalation because they think it's going to end the situation." (10:14)

3. "Bartuch shares the stress inoculation training she designed for police officers. During the training, officers are placed under stressful situations that test their ability to think and make the right decision, such as when to shoot or not to shoot. The purpose of the training is to prepare the cops physically and mentally and help them make the right call." (17:51)

4. According to Karen's research, women don't often see themselves as leaders or feel like they're heard as leaders. (33:37)

Listen to Victorization, Bartuch's podcast, to hear a spirited and often humorous approach to shifting the narrative from "victim" to "victor" that will awaken your warrior spirit.

Leadership From The Front Lines with Craig Henzel

U.S. Coast Guard veteran Craig Henzel is one of the world’s leading thinkers on leadership for corporate managers in challenging times. His new book, "Leadership from the Front Lines" offers a complete strategy to protect your business in turbulent markets and take it to high levels of performance when everything seems to be falling apart. 

 

In his book, Henzel provides a path for readers to achieve effective leadership while developing ultra-high performing teams.

 

Henzel, guided by his diverse functional experience, demonstrated how leaders can get real business progress through leading from the front, radiating positive influence, and getting the most out of the employees, even in a virtual set-up.

Key Takeaways/Main Points:  

In this episode we discussed….

 

1. “It's leading from the front. So, you're going to need to get out front it's where you've got the best unobstructed view of what's ahead of you.” (10:08)

 

2. “Everything that comes from the book will go to veteran homelessness and solving that. So, it's something that a number of us are serious about.” (20:44)

 

3. “When you've eliminated the root cause there, you're never having to go back to that same old kind of broken manual processes.” (28:00)

 

4. “Taking a look at something end to end is always a great idea and in objectively, right? So, you're bringing different minds to it.” (29:33)

 

5. “Everyone has a kind of a part to play. It’s harnessing the collective intelligence of the team. That is going to be the key.” (30:36)

Christian Girl in the Yoga World with Miranda Jo Davis

This episode is with Miranda Jo Davis who talked about why Yoga conflicts with the Christian belief. While Yoga became so widespread around the world and people from different religious sectors have tried it, this “fitness exercise” started and rooted from Buddhism and Hinduism, which practices are different from that of Christianity. She talked about how she struggled with accepting both yoga and her belief in Jesus being the only path to God and how she eventually gave up the former.

Topics Discuss in this Episode:

01:11 Why Miranda Davis started yoga and how it has changed her life.

 

04:27How she came to know Christianity and how it changed her perspective about yoga and life in general

 

06:16 How did she manage being in a difficult marriage relationship to becoming best friends with her husband. 

 

07:35 Her experiences when training abroad and her encounters with different people that made her convinced yoga is not for her. 

 

13:09 Miranda Davis explaining about the inspiration behind her book.

 

Visit https://mirandajodavis.com/ for more information

 

14:05 Sneak peak of the stories that will excite her book readers. 

Garage Startups and Margin Multinationals with Jarvis Bowers

Jarvis Bowers is currently VP Marketing for Pearson Online Learning Services managing a team of 180 professionals committed to rethinking how people learn. Pearson is a 170+ year global leader in educational content evolving to become a digital leader in the future of education.

 

He's a seasoned marketing professional with experience with some of the world's most iconic brands such as American Express, AT&T Wireless, Sony Electronics, Walt Disney Company and Microsoft. His background with large multinationals and garage startups, has given him a unique perspective on how high-performance cultures are built and leaders are formed. 

 

 

Key takeaways:

 

1. Sometimes people think that if I can go to a small startup, I won't have to deal with the bureaucracy and the weight and the dysfunction of large corporations. And that's not always the case….they all struggle from the same challenges. (1:23)

2. Don’t be fooled by the race of the corner office. It comes with a lot of compromise and make sure that you want it before you sacrifice your whole life for it, make sure that that's really what you want (3:31)

3. My message to people, whether they're starting a career, are in the middle of their career, or on the tail end of the credit, is invest time and the energy to think about really, what is it that you want and why do you work? Why do you go into this office every day? (4:34)

Autobiography of an Immigrant with Mohan Ananda

Dr. Mohan Ananda founded Stamps.com, a NASDAQ registered company providing Internet-based mailing and shipping solutions using technology he developed. A successful venture capitalist, he has raised over $450 Million in public and private offerings for Stamps, Envestnets, and JAB Holdings

His book, Autobiography of an Immigrant, is a memoir about a man who left the comforts of a modern home in faraway India and did what he had to do to make a living and succeed in a new land.

Key Takeaways:

1. You need to have sufficient capital, eventually, the revenue should be more than all these expenses, then you are in in a good shape. (7:58)

 

2. One thing I which I still regret, we started growing quite rapidly. We had close to 800 employees. I think that's a mistake because you should grow in conjunction with the revenue growth. You need to have a minimum number of employees for sure. But any kind of growth has to be in proportion to the growth in business activities.(13:30)

 

3. We should learn to have people who are experts, part of your team that you have to bring. Like technology, legal, and marketing you need to hire experts. (21:35)

 

His book can be purchased on Amazon https://amzn.to/3vl3Acl

Return on Ambition with Nicolai Chen Nielsen

Nicolai Chen Nielsen is the Director of Transformation Services at Peakon, Workday, where he helps organizations use talent analytics and employee engagement tools to empower employees to drive the change they wish to see. 

He has co-authored two bestselling books, Return on Ambition and Leadership At Scale. His most recent book, Return on Ambition, has just been shortlisted as one of the top 10 out 10,000 non-fiction books by get Abstract for 2021. If you enjoyed the interview, please consider voting for the book here.

 

Key takeaways:

 

1. Ambition has always been this incredible strong drive. And there's been a dark side in the early, early twenties. For example, I did experience a form of burnout. I did, essentially just take on too many things. (2:59)
2. Instead of you managing your ambition, your ambition is managing you….We looked at the types of situations where these occur and, and we found that there was something we called frenemies in the book. Uh, there are friends of ambition, but they're also, um, potential enemies. Uh, ambition has a dark side, if you will. And it's important that there is a balance because it's not that you want to get rid of them. (11:31)
3. The big question is setting a philosophy of ambition. I mean, really thinking through what is your ambition and, and more important than the destination is actually the direction because so many things will change in your life.… along those three dimensions of achievement, growth and wellbeing, what are the principles you want to live by you? What's the future state you want to get through. So you can make an assessment that you are on the right path and you're living in alignment with your true ambition. (16:51)

 

Don’t forget to vote for the book here.

Ideal Wealth Grower with Dr. Axel Meierhoefer

A retired Air Force officer, Axel started his first company in 2005 focusing on consulting, employee skill development, and program management. 

 

Along his journey, he has made many relationships, learned about the pitfalls of purchases, and made both good and bad decisions to ultimately reach economic independence.

 

Axel currently has a residential real estate portfolio worth $1.5 Million which is still growing. Due to his love for education and helping people help themselves become successful, he has continued to teach, coach, and mentor people. 

 

 

Key takeaways: 

 

1. You don't need to be rich to start investing in real estate. (3:08)

 

2. It’s really important to have, a vision or a goal so that you keep positive energy and remain motivated to actually go down on that journey, (4:52)

 

3. Man, discipline mindset and passive income. What else do you need? (3:55)

 

Interested in becoming financially free? Visit his podcast https://idealwealthgrower.com/media/the-ideal-investor-podcast/

Goals Book: Embracing Personal Responsibility in an Age of Entitlement with Biagio “Bill” Sciacca

Biagio "Bill" Sciacca, known to his friends as "Bill" grew up in the coal mining district of Northeast PA. He holds a bachelors degree in Philosophy and Sociology, and a Masters and PhD in Business Administration.

 

He taught at the university level since 1982, and, recently retired from a full time academic post at Penn State University. In addition to his academic post, Bill is a serial entrepreneur owning an award winning consulting and training organization, a chain of donut and ice cream franchises, and several businesses in the automotive/car care industry. 

Bill divides his free time between doing research in creativity, Southern Italian cooking, writing fiction, and writing and recording his own songs with guitar. He is also a certified SPIN instructor

 

1. That's what made my teaching of economics sexy. The students loved it when I can roll up my arms, show them the scars, because it wasn't just theory. (2:02)
2. The biggest problem with people speaking in public is they are afraid they're going to make a mistake. It doesn't matter if you have a snack bubble coming out of your left nostril. Wipe it off and keep going. People are concerned about what your content is. Not how you look (20:24)
3. What I try to teach young executives is that you need to have self-confidence, don't necessarily worry about making a mistake. Worry about doing the best that you can. People will forgive the mistakes, as long as you have the passion and the intellect to back that passion. (23:00)

For more information on Bill Sciacca visit his website https://intelligentmotivationinc.com