This is going to help you because I'm going to pull the curtain back and walk you through why I changed the name and strategy of the podcast not that long ago...and why I'm now changing it again. First, let me tell you about my experience in completely changing  - and I mean COMPLETELY CHANGING - my business.

Context provides understanding. 

My context goes back to my entry into retailing. Specifically, consumer electronics retail. I walked into a local hi-fi store when I was in high school and asked for a sales job. I had no sales experience, but I loved the stereo gear because I loved music.

With no experience, but a lot of enthusiasm I got a job selling stereo equipment for straight commission. That meant I got no pay unless I sold something (illegal today, but this was the mid-70's). I loved retailing, stereo gear, music, observing human behavior and performance-based pay (not necessarily in that order). ;)

By the time I was 25 I was leading a multi-million dollar company. By the time I was 50 I had almost 35 years of experience selling, merchandising, advertising, managing, leading and operating. It was time to pass on what experience had taught me. And to lean more into my passions of being a good operator and leader.

As a lifelong learner (and reader), I had been consumed with leadership, management, human behavior, psychology, consumer behavior, marketing and sales for as long as I could remember. I was still in high school when I first read of W. Edwards Deming, the man General Douglas MacArthur brought to Japan in 1951 to help with the census following World War II. Deming was a brilliant engineer and is largely responsible for helping Japan become the world power in manufacturing long before Korea and China came to power.
If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing.

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.

It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your best.
I was obsessed with improvement. My own and the companies I ran.

Books have always surrounded me. Business books. Self-help (now called Personal Development) books. Psychology or human behavior books. Marketing books. Sales books. Leadership books.

I've invested gobs of money in books, but I've invested even more time in reading them.

I've invested far more than Malcolm Gladwell's proverbial 10,000 hours to watching human behavior, especially consumer behavior. And I've invested 7-8 times that many hours practicing the craft.

Trying things. Experimenting. Working hard to figure things out.

I didn't always succeed. I failed plenty.

The failures were all me. The successes mostly the result of having good, sometimes great people, around me. But I figured a few things out along the way. Mostly, I figured myself out.

By the time I left the C-suite I was ready to do more significant work. Work that would be legacy work. I found myself using the phrase "passing it on" far too often. And I was slowly, but surely leaning more and more into who I really am - a communicator who thrives in helping people figure things out.

I'd long know I was different in many respects. Growing up I was envious of people who weren't plagued with what I saw as a big burden. I was a noticer. Small details were inescapable. Subtle human behaviors stood out like a sore thumb for me. Things others didn't seem to notice leapt out at me, refusing to be ignored. I could sense things with alarming accuracy. Simply by watching people's facial expressions, body language, and vocal tone. It was ridiculously annoying growing up.

Empathy was a natural gift. Words, too. Compassion was easy and necessary. That simply meant my empathy drove compassion which is the f...