My Favorite Mistake: Business Lessons from Failures and Success

Being Defensive When Disagreeing With Marketing Clients: Swire Ho

Director of Sales & Marketing, Garuda Promo and Branding Solutions.
Show notes and links: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake55
My guest for Episode #55 of “the My Favorite Mistake” podcast is Swire Ho, Director of Sales & Marketing, Garuda Promo and Branding Solutions. He is also an Ambassador for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Swire immigrated to Los Angeles in 1996. He trained as a sound engineer, working at recording studios and entertainment agencies before starting his own firm, Hellman Production, Inc, 2003 in Los Angeles.
Swire and his team successfully produced attractive, personalized DVD and CD cases and custom merchandise like T-shirts, earning a Score award in 2009, for small business success. His business eventually grew so popular, he sold it in 2013 to focus exclusively on the promotional product industry.
Swire is a proud SFG1 certified kettlebell instructor from #StrongFirst. He finds calmness through yoga, organic gardening, and enjoys being in nature.
Today, we talk about Swire's “favorite mistake” and topics and questions including:
How did he work to be a better listener and to not get defensive when disagreeing with clients?
How and why is he “constantly working on this”?
How did pivot during 2020 and the pandemic to branded masks and other products?
What are some common marketing and promotions mistakes?
Why don't you have to spend money to impress somebody?
Other social profiles:InstagramFacebookTwitter
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Pranks I’m Afraid Will Get Lisa David Olson Killed

Business humorist and the author of the new book Laughs On Wry: An Improviser's Memoir.
Show notes: https://ww.markgraban.com/mistake54
My guest for Episode #54 is Lisa David Olson a business humorist and the author of the new book Laughs On Wry: An Improviser's Memoir. She's an appropriate guest for today, given that it's the first day of National Humor Month.
Later this month (April 12th), my guest will be Art Bell — creator of the Comedy Central channel (which is celebrating its 30th anniversary today). I wish I had an entire month of funny guests… but there's two for you.
Lisa is a speaker, author, podcaster (“Stranger Connections“), and creative partner, who loves coffee and pranks! (the exclamation point is hers).
In today's episode, Lisa shares her “favorite mistake” of not writing her book earlier because she thought nobody would read it. I think my favorite mistake from the conversation was Lisa talking about a prank at her workplace, a police station, that I'm afraid could get her killed if she repeats it. We talk about those mistakes and topics including:
Why are you afraid of scaring the introverts?
Humor as her escape from a traumatic childhood
Helping businesses (and individuals) reignite their ideas… and their projects — how?
Humor as a connector
The risk of making mistakes when trying to use humor at work?
What are you doing for fun?
Humor as a gift vs something that can be developed?
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Not Understanding His Customers’ Feelings: Kent Billingsley

ENTREPRENEUR TO MILLIONAIRE: How to Build a Highly Profitable, Fast-Growth Company and Become Embarrassingly Rich Doing It.
Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake53
My guest for Episode #53 is Kent Billingsley, the author of the new book ENTREPRENEUR TO MILLIONAIRE: How to Build a Highly Profitable, Fast-Growth Company and Become Embarrassingly Rich Doing It. His friend Mark Cuban wrote the foreword.
Kent is the founder and president of the Revenue Growth® Company, LLC. He has become America’s Revenue Growth® Architect by helping thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses (representing hundreds of thousands of employees) generate billions in new sales and revenue. He has personally designed, built, transformed, or turbocharged over 1,000 organizations in 36 countries. Billingsley has served in executive and leadership positions in several billion-dollar firms. Over nearly three decades, he has developed thought-leading content and trademarked programs helping thousands of entrepreneurs and their employees become millionaires and multimillionaires from their businesses.
In today's episode, Kent shares his “favorite mistake” about not fully understanding the “psychographics” of his customers. He talks about the need to move beyond understanding customer demographics to really understanding his buyer's feelings. We also discuss topics and questions including:
Why is it a mistake to think a company is a democracy?
Why is it a mistake to assume we are going back to the old normal instead of creating a new normal?
What was it like working for H. Ross Perot at EDS? Why was he “the greatest leader” he's “ever seen”? See his blog post about his passing.
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Mistakes Men Make in the Workplace: Heather Zumarraga, TV Financial Commentator

Author of The Man's Guide to Corporate Culture: A Practical Guide to the New Normal and Relating to Female Coworkers in the Modern Workplace
Show notes and enter to win a signed copy of her book: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake52
My guest for Episode #52 is Heather Zumarraga, a work environment advisor, and President of Zuma Global LLC. She is a respected business commentator for channels including CNBC, Fox News, Fox Business News, and Newsmax, and she is now the author of the book The Man's Guide to Corporate Culture: A Practical Guide to the New Normal and Relating to Female Coworkers in the Modern Workplace.
In today's episode, Heather shares some reflections from her time working in the financial sector — why was she driven to be #1 in her role and what was the cost of that? We also talk a lot about workplace mistakes that men make… discussing topics such as:
Is it a mistake to try to treat everybody equally — being “gender blind” versus recognizing gender?
What are some mistakes that men make in attempts to be better allies?
Mistakes that men make when hiring or leading women?
Mistakes that men make working for women?
Having spent much of her career in testosterone-filled work environments, Heather wants to make sure that any male leader who wants to be part of the solution knows how to succeed and thrive in the inclusive modern workplace, as we go back to the office post-Covid. I think you'll enjoy the conversation.
#leadership #business
sexual harrassment
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An NFL Player’s Mistakes On & Off the Field: Lenny Walls

Former pro football player, Certified Personal Trainer, and more...
Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake51
My guest for Episode #51 is Lenny Walls, a retired professional football player who played for four NFL teams and three teams in the Canadian Football League. He is now a San Antonio-based Certified Personal Trainer, entrepreneur, coach, mentor, and community leader.
I had the opportunity to meet Lenny when I was living in San Antonio and I did a number of personal training sessions with him, as I wrote about here. His businesses and community ventures include Walls Next Level Fitness, the Breaking Down Walls Foundation, Walls2Walls Coaching, and Walls2Walls Capital.
In today's episode, Lenny shares some reflections about his "favorite mistake" -- not the money-losing investments, but his self assessment that he lacked humility "during his most successful time in life." We talk about what Lenny learned from his NFL experience and that time and how he's applied it to his second career.
I had the chance to ask Lenny about his mindset on making very public mistakes on the field -- when do you take the time to learn and correct? We talk about his phrase "the hustle is entertainment" and we also chat about workout mistakes that many people (including myself) have made. All that and more...
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Could She Fix a Bullying Narcissist?: Phyllis Quinlan, PhD, RN

Nurse executive, consulting CEO, author of Bringing Shadow Behavior into the Light of Day
Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake50
My guest for Episode #50 is Phyllis Quinlan, PhD, RN. She is a nurse executive and she is also the CEO of MFW Consultants to Professionals. Phyllis has a BSN in Nursing and a Ph.D. in Healthcare Administration.
She is the author of many books, including her latest, Bringing Shadow Behavior Into the Light of Day. It's available through Amazon Kindle or as a paperback through her website.
In today's episode, Phyllis shares a story, and deeper lessons and reflections, about her favorite mistake — taking on a colleague's bullying behavior on her own, thinking she could fix that person. She didn't go to HR or the executive team until it was too late. Phyllis talks about two types of bad behavior in the workplace: 1) The chronically clueless and unaware and 2) “Narcissists with a license.” The former group you can help, the latter cannot be helped.
Phyllis shares lessons about what leaders can and should do about bullies in the workplace. What happens with a leader (or even the CEO) is a bully? How can we bring ‘shadow behavior’ into the light of day and prevent a toxic work environment? What are some mistakes that leaders make in dealing with bullies? How can we better train managers to deal with this?
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A Future Cybersecurity Expert Hacking His College’s Grading System: Neil Daswani

Author of Big Breaches: Cybersecurity Lessons for Everyone
Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake49
My guest for Episode #49 is Neil Daswani, the author of the newly-released book, Big Breaches: Cybersecurity Lessons for Everyone. 
Enter to win a free signed copy!
Neil is, among other things, a Co-Director of the Stanford Advanced Security Program, and he earned a PhD in computer science from Stanford. You can learn more about him on his website and his LinkedIn page. He's previously worked for companies including Google, Twitter, LifeLock, and Symantec.
In today's episode, Neil shares a “favorite mistake” story from his time in grad school, when he hacked into a grading system… not to change his grades, but because he could. Hear Neil describe the mistake in what he did AFTER getting into the system. Neil also shares knowledge and lessons about ethical hacking and responsible disclosure, the recent Solar Winds hack (and its impact and lessons learned — or should be learned), and the difference between “white hat” vs. “black hat” hackers?
We also get his thoughts on the classic hacking-themed movie from my childhood, “War Games” — should we stream it, or skip it??
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Two Bosses Who Didn’t Like Each Other: Lori Baker-Schena

Co-founder of LeadHERship Consortium, LLC
Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake48
My guest for Episode #48 is Lori-Baker Schena, a professional speaker and leadership consultant based in Southern California. She has a PhD in organizational leadership and is a co-founder of the LeaderHERship Consortium.
She is currently on her third career. She was a journalist and PR person, then a professor for 25 years, now she's a coach and speaker.
In our episode today, Lori tells a story about her “favorite mistake,” related to staying too long in a role where she had two different bosses who not only didn't work together well — they didn't like each other! Lori regrets that it took too long for her to realize the situation was unworkable, but she learned from it.
We talk about how people react to bad situations, how we can “ask for what we need” and why that can be difficult, especially for women. How can you be in a situation where you love what you're doing at work. I mention Rich Sheridan and Menlo Innovations, the movie “Office Space,” and the Apple TV+ Plus “Ted Lasso.” Also, how can we get past "the shame of failure" and "pivot to positivity"?
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Giving in to the Monkey: Mike Smerklo

Managing director of Next Coast Ventures
Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake47
My guest for Episode #47 is Mike Smerklo. He is an entrepreneur, an investor, he’s the co-founder and managing director of Next Coast Ventures. He was one of the first employees at Loudcloud, recruited there by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
in 2003, he purchased ServiceSource, a 30-person technology services startup in San Francisco. As CEO over the next 12 years, he grew the business into a successful 3,000-person publicly traded company with close to $300M in revenue.
Mike now shares his lessons in his book Mr. Monkey and Me: A Real Survival Guide for Entrepreneurs.
In today's episode, Mike shares favorite mistakes about giving into “fear, uncertainty, and doubt” and how he made the mistake of trying to be a blend of two very different leaders who were both role models to him. We also talk about why he wrote the book and the “SHAPE” formula — Self Awareness, Help, Authenticity, Persistence and Expectations.
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Getting Burned Out From Doing it All Herself: Pam Hopman (with New Introduction and Context as of Nov 2022)

Financial advisor and CEO of The Hopman Group
UPDATE (November 2022): The links to Pam's LinkedIn page and her business website no longer work. It was called to my attention that Pam is under investigation for allegedly recommending an investment that has been described as a “Ponzi scheme” in a news report and law firm websites.
“I have been told many times, now it’s a lost cause,” Bryant said. “I will never see that $95,000 again.”
Bryant said she trusted Tucson financial advisor Pamela Hopman of PGH Advisors and the Hopman Group with her money. She said it was Hopman who invested her money into Deeproot in 2019.
Bryant said she believes Hopman should have done better research on the investment.
Bryant has not yet filed a lawsuit against Hopman. She shared a letter with the N4T Investigators from Hopman’s attorneys saying Hopman lost a significant amount of money herself to Deeproot. The letter urged Bryant to join them in going after Deeproot, instead of suing Hopman.“
She is not alleged to be the mastermind of the “Ponzi scheme,” but the allegations are that she made a bad recommendation to herself and others, a mistake, it seems. Here is the lawsuit filed against the creators of Deeproot.
The decision and settlement
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Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake46
My guest for Episode #46 is Pam Hopman, founder of The Hopman Group, a financial advisory firm based in Tucson. Pam has over 20 years of experience working as a financial advisor, with comprehensive knowledge of strategies for retirement income planning, wealth preservation, and estate planning. She holds the designation of Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor from the College of Financial Planning.
Pam is the host of the Empower U Podcast and she recently launched her financial mastermind group called The Money Thing (formerly called Conversations Over Wine and Chocolate).
In today's episode, Pam talks about how she owned a practice with multiple offices, but got burned out — she was trying to do it all. She sold the practice and took a marketing job. This turned out to be a mistake, as the first year was great, but the second year was a “nightmare.” Learn how Pam wishes she had been coached through the challenges with that first practice and how having a coach has helped her prevent repeating mistakes in her new practice.
We also talk about financial planning mistakes and we learn we have a shared belief in the power of “baby steps” (hear Mark's podcast with psychologist Robert Maurer on that).
Enter to win books and other items produced by other “My Favorite Mistake” guests.
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