My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in Business and Leadership

Making Business Decisions Out of Ego with Trav Bell

Australian, coach, "bucket listologist"
Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake27
Please subscribe, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts or Podchaser! We also have a new Facebook page for the podcast.
Joining me for Episode #27 is Travis (Trav) Bell, coming to us from Victoria, Australia. He's not our first guest from Australia, but he is our first Aussie accent!
Trav is a self-appointed "Bucket Listologist" a.k.a. "The Bucket List Guy." He is a coach and a Certified Speaking Professional, and is also Founder & CEO of his coaching firm. Trav previously founded & franchised a chain of personal training studios across Australia and that's one of the things we'll talk about today in the context of his "favorite mistake."
"Making business decisions out of ego," is how he describes his favorite mistake.
You can find him online via his websites TheBucketListGuy.com and BucketListCoach.com.
He also has a new book just out called My Bucket List Blueprint, available through Amazon.
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Doubting Herself as a Singer and Performer: Yaya Diamond

Singer, recording artist, podcast host, radio host, and more...
Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake26
Please subscribe, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts or Podchaser! We also have a new Facebook page for the podcast.
Joining me for Episode #26 is Yaya Diamond, a professional singer, recording artist, podcast host and (now) radio host. She's very dynamic and I've enjoyed our conversations very much (she's having me on her podcast as a guest shortly, something we've already recorded). You can tell why she is a professional entertainer and I am not :-)
Yaya says that her "favorite mistake" is not trusting her own abilities and talents, which has sometimes held her back, as we'll discuss. Yaya has worked to stop repeating this mistake, using a "5-4-3-2-1" method that she learned that helps her avoid overthinking situations. We talk about making mistakes on stage as a performer (and I share a personal mistake that I made as a member of the Northwestern University Marching Band).
I think you'll enjoy the conversation, as I did.
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Sorority President Leadership Mistakes with Val Ries

Val = leadership trainer, executive coach, "management muse"
Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake25
Joining me for Episode #25 is Val Ries, a leadership trainer, an executive coach and a "management muse." She's a nurse with an MBA and her firm is called Executive Muse.
Val has a book due out in April 2021 called Chief Inspiration Officer, so I'm looking forward to that. You can get the first chapter now through her website.
Today, Val shares her "favorite mistake" about her first leadership role, as president of her sorority. Why does she reflect and say, "I didn't know what I was doing"? What did Val learn from this experience and how has it helped her in her career and in her work with others? We talk about this and more.
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Having Clients That Are a Bad Fit with Ash Taylor

From England, former tennis coach, entrepreneur, founder of The Business Clubhouse, and more
Show notes ://www.markgraban.com/mistake24
My guest for Episode #24 is Ash Taylor, our first guest from England. He is the Founder of The Business Clubhouse. He is also a speaker and a business coach supporting small business owners. Ash is also the author of the recently-released book titled Hitting the Wall: Winning the game of business by breaking through your own barriers. You can learn more at hittingthewallbook.co.uk.
Today, we talk about Ash's “favorite mistake” of working with clients that he was not well suited for, in the context of a business that he owned that provided services and coaches for tennis clubs. How has Ash worked to avoid making the same mistake in new ventures? How successful has he been at that? How does he coach other entrepreneurs around this issue?
We also talk about coaching business leaders and how we can make it safe, creating a culture of not being afraid to put your hand up and ask for help, as he aims to create a psychologically-safe environment of peers.
Ash and I also chat about planning for what to do WHEN we make a mistake (since we WILL make mistakes).
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”Let’s Be Bad Together” with Coach Jimmy Nelson

From Dallas, high-performance business coach, actor, and storyteller
Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake23
My guest for Episode #23 is Coach Jimmy Nelson, who has been a high-performance business coach for over a decade. Using his 20+ years of experience as a stage and film performer, Coach Jimmy crafted his own personal story to create a 7-figure business and now dedicates his life to helping professionals craft their own stories to attract and impact the lives of their ideal audiences. As he says, "Tell a story, change the world." You can learn more about his work via his website.
He also has a free eBook available now about his morning routine and what you can learn from that. You can also get free story-telling sources via www.storywellcrafted.com.
Today, we talk about Coach Jimmy's "favorite mistake" of letting external reasons become excuses. He says we need to "make stages" instead of waiting to be invited onto someone else's stage. We talk about mistakes that people make in story telling. And we discuss this blog post, "Stop blaming others and start taking action." He says you need to "first let it hurt, then take action." He adds, "Failure will always be part of our life, but that’s where we get our lessons from" and that's basically the theme of this entire podcast series.
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When Leaving Corporate Feels Like a Mistake

Consultant, award-winning author, and more
Show notes https://www.markgraban.com/mistake22
Joining me for Episode #22 is Karen Martin, President of TKMG, and Founder and President of TKMG Academy. She is the author of many books including The Outstanding Organization and Clarity First.
Today, we talk about Karen's "favorite mistake" of leaving a corporate job to go solo. Why was it a mistake to want the VP title so badly? Why did it seem like a mistake (to her or to others) for her to leave? We also have a great conversation about how to create a culture in a company where it's safe to talk about (and learn from) mistakes.
I also love this quote and you'll have to listen (or read the transcript) to get the context:
"So I think of certainty as being a form of arrogance because we can't actually ever be certain."
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Starting a Business for the Wrong Reasons With the Wrong People: Eran Thomson

Game designer, entrepreneur, wordsmith, idea machine, and joy pusher
Show notes https://www.markgraban.com/mistake21
Joining me for Episode #21 is Eran Thomson, our first guest joining us from Australia. The is the creator of the game "Song Saga," which is now available for your holiday gift-giving needs. He's been the founder of many entrepreneurial ventures, and he describes himself as a "Wordsmith, Idea Machine, Joy Pusher" in addition to being a writer, podcaster, marketer, and speaker.
In the episode, Eran talks about his "favorite mistake" of starting businesses for the wrong reasons and/or with the wrong people. He also talks about the mistake of trying to do everything himself and what he's learned from that, as well. We also talk about his game and simulate a round of it between the two of us. Song Saga seems like it would be a lot of with a group and it could be played during a virtual gathering...
You can enter to win the game here.
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Trusting an Expert and Not Verifying with Michelle Seiler Tucker

Author, founder and CEO of Seiler Tucker
Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake20
Joining me for Episode #20 is Michelle Seiler Tucker, founder and CEO of the firm Seiler Tucker. Michelle has sold hundreds of businesses to date and currently owns and operates several successful businesses. Michelle is one of three American women to hold the Merger & Acquisition Master Intermediary (M&AMI) certification.
Michelle is the author of the book Sell Your Business For More Than It's Worth and her newest book, due out in January 2021, is Exit Rich: The 6 P Method to Sell Your Business for Huge Profit.
In our episode, Michelle shares one of her "favorite mistakes" involved in selling a business and we chat about some of the mistakes made (and lessons learned) by business owners who want to sell their business.
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Carrie Sechel on Making Partner and Leaving a ”Comfortable Hell”

Former Deloitte partner, coach, speaker, and trainer
Show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake19
Joining me for Episode #19 is Carrie Sechel, a former Deloitte partner who now works as a coach, speaker, and trainer. As Carrie explains:
"After years of building my career as a partner at Deloitte, I found my family broken by guilt, shame, resentment, and addiction. My husband, Todd, and I committed to creating our own family model that celebrates the best of each of us. Now, we have a relationship and life that I couldn’t even imagine a few years ago."
She has over 20 years of coaching and consulting experience. Carrie is the author of the bestselling book, BASE Jump: Finding Yourself In An Unfulfilling Professional World and she is a co-author of the WarriHER Playbook.
In our conversation, Carrie shares a mistake from her time at Deloitte, where what might have been characterized as a "human error" and a "process error" was really, to her, a "management error" that she was responsible for. This situation and the "gap" she identified between "what I am and what I'm pressured to be" led to her departure and her increased focus on female breadwinners and the particular issues that can create in lives, families, and careers.
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Getting Fired for Solving the Problem: Audie Penn’s Favorite Mistake

Management consultant
Show notes: http://www.markgraban.com/mistake18
My guest for Episode #18 is Audie Penn, an operational performance consultant at Audie Penn Consulting.
In today's episode, Audie tells a story about a job that he got fired from early in his career. Audie got results, but got fired, he thinks, for making people look bad for solving what had been viewed as a long-unsolvable problem. We talk about the importance of relationships and organizational politics and his lessons learned from that episode. He's now become a successful consultant, proof positive that we can build upon mistakes to end up stronger and better off for them. We also talk about what Audie calls "the dignity of work," which I think is a very important concept.
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