In this episode of the Bricks+Brands Podcast, my guest Ralph Rathburn has run international businesses in Asia for over 32 years, helping to entertain tens of millions of Japanese people through the facilitation of tours such as "Disney On Ice," "Disney Live," and other live entertainment shows. 

Meet Ralph Rathburn
For 32 years he's run international businesses in Asia. Ralph founded and managed 4 businesses in Japan – 2 for himself and 2 subsidiaries of a Spanish company. 

His company, AmAsia, has helped entertain tens of millions of Japanese people by facilitating the Japan tours of events such as “Disney On Ice”, “Disney Live”, “Thomas the Tank Engine – Live” and other live entertainments. 

They've worked the Beijing Olympics and Tokyo Olympics and the Rugby World Cup among other major events. 

With my his company, Praxi K.K., he's worked in B2B wholesale and in B2C retail. The company manufactured consumer electronics under license from Hamilton-Beach and imported those and other electronics and household products into Japan. 

Ralph has worked with factories in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy and Poland and has sold products to companies throughout Asia.

The core pillar of Ralph's career, whether working in entertainment or product sales, has been helping people be successful, especially when they are working with people who are different from themselves. 

Ralph has provided intercultural training to dozens of foreign CEOs/Presidents working in Japan and to hundreds of Japanese who have to work with foreigners. 

He's helped multi-cultural teams do creative problem solving to find solutions to intractable problems. 

Ralph is always looking for the next person or company to help.

Learn More and Connect with Ralph
You can find Ralph on LinkedIn or visit his website to learn more. 

After listening to this episode, you'll walk away learning:

• Why diversity in creativity is critical to understanding the problem at hand
• What creativity means to Ralph and how he encourages it amongst his teams
• Why understanding your team's threshold for uncertainty can lead to innovative breakthroughs
• Plus a whole lot more!

On this episode of the Bricks+Brands Podcast, my guest is a Chief Chaos Organizer based in Berlin, Germany with a focus on helping people and organizations become more collaborative, innovative, flexible, and transparent, moving towards flattening hierarchies, improving employee engagement and adapting an ever evolving environment. 

With an impressive skill set including strategy development, requirements analysis, business process development, problem solving, communication, change management, creativity and innovation, Stephanie is well equipped to help people and organizations become more collaborative, innovative, flexible, and transparent, moving towards flattening hierarchies, improving employee engagement and adapting an ever evolving environment. 

You’ll walk away after listening to this episode:

• What Radical Knowledge Management (KM) is
• Why sustainable leadership behaviors are more closely linked to creativity than first glance
• Why organizations miss the mark when it comes to allowing their employees to tap into their creative capacity
• Plus a whole lot more!

Meet Stephanie Barnes

Stephanie Barnes is Chief Chaos Organizer at Entelechy, a consultancy whose main purpose is helping people and organizations become more collaborative, innovative, flexible and transparent as they flatten hierarchies, improve employee engagement and adapt to an ever-evolving environment.

As an artist and passionate expert in knowledge management and culture change, Stephanie advocates for curiosity, playfulness and creative learning as the cornerstones of the journey towards knowledge, a context-sensitive notion whose principles have been educated out of us through production line thinking.

Aside from her expertise and experience in the realm of Knowledge Management, Stephanie holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with Honours from Brock University (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada) and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). 

This week on the Bricks+Brands Podcast we’re speaking with a leadership expert on a mission to inspire new business owners to believe that leadership is simple.

In this conversation, we cover:

• Why leadership is S.I.M.P.L.E.
• What #Beinterested means to her
• Ways to boost engagement with your team

Meet Rhonda Delaney
Rhonda is on a mission to inspire NEW BUSINESS OWNERS to believe Leadership is S.I.M.P.L.E.

Why?  

Because EVERYONE deserves a Leader that EMBRACES their UNIQUENESS and is COMMITTED to CULTIVATING their POTENTIAL.

How? 

By sharing The People Gardener Principle that cultivates Safe | Intentional | Maximized | People | Loving | Environments

Over the years she's discovered the tenets of gardening equally apply to leading and nurturing humans. Tending plants requires interest, curiosity and patience. Our human connections are enlivened when we incorporate this.

In this episode of the Bricks+Brands Podcast, we’re speaking with an international consultant who has been a pioneer in remote work since 2012.

In this conversation, we cover:

• Hybrid & remote work
• Employee engagement
• Employee advocacy
• Leadership
• Future of workplace culture

Meet Nola Simon

She's an international consultant who has helped develop hybrid/remote work teams for the last 10 years. People hire Nola because she knows how to get things done. Challenging the status quo is bred in the bone.

She's worked for five (5) different corporations, two (2) of them global, over the last two decades. 

She's developed extensive business acumen and experienced lots of change. Nola pioneered hybrid work and has worked some version of hybrid and/or remote since 2012.

It changed her life. 

The secret to hybrid work is intention. Communication matters - it requires listening, asking great questions, establishing trust and psychological safety. Flexibility and a willingness to experiment and adjust course is the way to build effective culture and process.

As leaders and managers, we have a lot going on in our head. Often, too much. And because of this, it makes communicating with our team and asking for help a lot harder.  This week on the Bricks+Brands Podcast, I'm talking about a topic that can be hard for leaders to open up about: transparency and how to embrace it.

By not being transparent, it can create unnecessary friction and tension between you and your team. They may feel like you are keeping things from them, or that they aren’t able to do their best work, or that they are missing out on opportunities to grow. 

In this episode, I share three big lessons around transparency as a leader and why it is critical to successful teams. 

You’ll walk away from this episode learning:

• Why team members feel disconnected, cold, or distant (and what to do about it)
• Why building trust and connection is critical, but without one key missing ingredient, it makes it nearly impossible to get things done
• Why withholding information can actually be beneficial to a team (in certain situations)

This week on the Bricks+Brands Podcast, we’re talking with certified Insight Coach and Meditation teacher on the powerfully transformational effects meditation can have on our lives and in our work.

In this conversation, we cover:

• Her journey into coaching
• How meditation has transformed her life
• Her newly published children's book
• Plus the practice of Ho'oponopono

Meet Ipek

Ipek Williamson is a Certified Insight Coach, Listener, Certified Ikigai Coach, Certified Ho'oponopono Practitioner, Meditation Teacher, and Blogger. 

Her journey as an Insight Coach took over her focus after working for more than two decades as an Executive Assistant for C suite leaders of several multinational organizations. 

She perfectly blends her vast corporate experience with diversified areas of expertise as a coach and mentor.

In addition to the Ipek Williamson Coaching practice, she provides coaching and consulting to corporations as one of Annie Leib LLC and Happy Work Environment Ltd. elite coaches. 

She is a columnist with the BizCatalyst 360 platform and an Ambassador for the HumansFirst movement.

As well as her multiple highly acclaimed meditations that she showcases on the Insight Timer App, Ipek also leads live meditation sessions through that same application.

This week on the Bricks+Brands Podcast, we explore reconnecting to self through creativity, innovation, and leadership with a facilitator and coach who happens to have a computer programming background.

In this conversation, we chat about:

• What innovation is and why it’s critical to the workplace
• What creativity means to Steven and how he taps into it
• The importance of leadership & culture
• Team development; and
• Self-awareness of your skill sets, strengths, and weaknesses so that you can better communicate and thrive in your work

Meet Steven

Steven Sanchez is born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. A loving husband and father, he wears a number of hats including that of facilitator, coach, DJ, innovator, programmer, and product manager. He’s a connector and designer, but above all he is both curious and thankful. 

Steven has the skilled ability to learn from anyone. He prefers to influence people to the next best version of themselves. 

Connect with Steven
To learn more about Steven and his work, connect with him on LinkedIn or visit his website, Everyday Agile.

My guest this week on the Bricks+Brands Podcast helps organizations create the processes, tools, and team habits necessary to deliver breakthrough innovations. 

In this episode, we cover a variety of topics including:

• What innovation is
• Defining problem solving styles
• Communication effectiveness
• Leadership
• Kirton Adaption-Innovation Theory

Meet Benjamin Atkinson

Through his work as Director of Innovation of Production Engineering at Toyota of North America, Ben helps  to create the processes, tools, and team habits necessary to deliver breakthrough innovations. By combining “respect for people” with a “systems thinking” approach, organizations can leverage what W. Edwards Deming called the System of Profound Knowledge. 

Innovation Engineering is a discipline that can be learned by anyone who is willing. It is the surest way to sustain the growth of a business and create enriching work for the team.