Today we're in Cork, Ireland visiting our guest, Dr. Michael O'Grady. Dr. O'Grady is a STEM leadership and productivity coach and the founder of Be Wise and Rise, a company dedicated to helping leaders and managers in STEM industries achieve high performance without burning out. With diverse experience spanning semiconductors, medical devices, and construction, Mike empowers STEM managers to design systems that help them regain control, reduce stress, and focus on what truly matters.

Visit the C4C website to gain full access to the transcript, show notes, and guest links. Coaching 4 Companies

Today we're heading to London to meet up with multi-award-winning luxury business consultant, author, and world-renowned cake artist, Ms. Elizabeth Solaru. As the CEO and founder of the Diversity in Luxury Awards, she's a pioneering voice advocating for inclusivity and representation in the luxury sector. An ex-microbiologist and headhunter who ran job-hunting workshops for C-suite executives. She began her luxury business journey as a celebrated cake artist. Earning international acclaim for her innovative designs and impeccable craftsmanship, Elizabeth's clients include ultra-high-net-worth individuals and royalty. While her creative talent and business acumen led to a successful transition into luxury consulting, where she now advises brands on how to navigate complexities in the luxury market.

Visit the C4C website to gain full access to the transcript, show notes, and guest links. Coaching 4 Companies

Today, it’s the end of another quarter. But even bigger, it’s the very last day of 2024.

And it means only 359 days until we welcome Santa Claus again.

WOW, what an interesting year it has been. Putting aside wars, international conflicts, crazy sanctions, and one of the busiest years I can recall with elections around the globe.

In business and economics, we started the year with the World Economic Forum speaking about the Future of Growth Framework amidst a sluggish global economy.

And we watched a noticeable growing trend—the increasing reliance on AI to make major decisions, particularly being utilized by governments, which may surprise many listeners. (worrying or not, only time will tell), but for business leaders, you will need to prepare yourself for a changing of the business rules; that much I’m very confident about.

The question on every leader’s mind is no doubt what will 2025 bring. Well, the wait is over, and tomorrow we find out.


Visit the C4C website to gain full access to the transcript, show notes, and guest links. Coaching 4 Companies

Today we're heading home literally within Stone throw of our place on the Gold Coast in Australia, and chatting with an extraordinary individual, a man who is an international marketing enigma. Today we have the pleasure of speaking with and learning from Mr. John Dwyer. John is a direct response customer attraction expert who thinks way outside the box. His marketing consultancy business is called The Institute of WOW. And John's mantra is that one's marketing needs to wow prospects. He's also the guy who shocked the marketing world some years back when he convinced Jerry Seinfeld to come out of retirement to be the spokesperson for an Australian banking institution. Jerry headed up a free vacation campaign, which broke home loan lending records and remains folklore in the global banking industry.

John helps business owners understand how to exploit platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn by implementing incentive-based marketing offers that can be targeted specifically to certain audiences. His client list reads like a who's who of business and includes the likes of Rupert Murdoch's News Limited, 7-Eleven, Westfield Shopping Centers, Walt Disney, KFC, and BP, just to name a few. And his skills have been used by these companies because they acknowledge he is the master of creating incentives at work.

Visit the C4C website to gain full access to the transcript, show notes, and guest links. Coaching 4 Companies

Today we're back in Melbourne, Australia, to have a conversation with our guest, Mr. Tony Gruebner, a seasoned executive with over 15 years of global leadership experience. Half of this time has been in C-level roles across fast-growing, competitive B2C industries. Most recently, he served as chief marketing officer at a leading global FinTech company, driving year-on-year customer acquisition growth. Tony has also played a pivotal role in the development of AI-powered customer engagement strategies, scaling international teams, and transforming organizations through data-driven decision-making. As the author of AI for CEOs, Tony combines his deep expertise in analytics, AI, and digital transformation to simplify complex concepts for senior decision-makers.

His insights empower leaders to harness AI's potential to enhance customer experiences, improve efficiency, and drive sustainable growth with a proven track record of working alongside boards, global organizations, and elite teams. Tony is here to share actionable advice on navigating the rapidly evolving AI landscape. So team, in this episode today, we are delving into Tony's new book and discussing some of the essentials that all leaders need to be aware of as we find ourselves plowing ever deeper into automation, robotics, AI, and the whole digital space. It's a great conversation and one that any leader who has ever found themselves confused or overwhelmed on this relatively new journey will take an enormous amount away from. We hope you enjoy it.

Visit the C4C website to gain full access to the transcript, show notes, and guest links. Coaching 4 Companies

Today we're heading back to Melbourne, Australia, and meeting up with our guest, Ms. Bessi Graham, and chatting with her about a subject she's more than just passionate about; she's invested in. With nearly 25 years of experience working with business owners, governments, and large funding bodies to merge money and meaning, Bessi's experience spans from the grassroots of sitting in the dirt, working with business owners across the Pacific Islands, through to the United Nations in Geneva. This has given her an unparalleled perspective as an entrepreneur, business owner, angel, venture capitalist, impact investor, philanthropist, coach, and advisor. Bessi has done everything. From being a decision maker on Grant and Investment Committees, driving over $1 billion of capital into small and medium-sized businesses, to using her own capital for grants to dozens of organizations and investing directly with both debt and equity in 42 businesses.

Bessi has been engaged by governments and leading financial institutions to design capacity-building funds, servicing multiple countries to build investment readiness in businesses in emerging and established economies. And setting up and being the cornerstone investor in the first impact investment fund focused on the Pacific. Much of our conversation will be centered around impact investing and the term that I've come to understand more fully, blended value. With investors and businesses alike, turning their money, as well as attention, to this concept of finding the right formula to drive financial results while doing business in ways that benefit society. This is a hot topic that needs our focus as well. So please get yourself ready as we embark on this journey of discovery together.

Visit the C4C website to gain full access to the transcript, show notes, and guest links. Coaching 4 Companies

Today we're heading to Arizona and interestingly, not the hot plains we hear the most about, but a city in the northern ranges of the state called Flagstaff. And we're connecting with our guest, Craig Meriwether. Craig is a mindset coach, helping people eliminate negative emotions and trauma so they can reach their full potential. Craig is a certified clinical hypnotherapist, medical hypnosis specialist, neurolinguistic programming specialist, and founder of Arizona Integrative Hypnotherapy, helping people eliminate the limiting beliefs that may be keeping them from reaching their true potential.

For over 12 years, Craig has been helping people heal from early childhood trauma, helping cancer patients with pain control, veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, students with test anxiety, children with nightmares, entrepreneurs with confidence, athletes with peak performance, and anyone who may be dealing with overwhelm fear and anxiety. One of the many very comprehensive and successful programs that Craig has created is called Ace Any Test. It's for test anxiety relief so people can eliminate stress around exams, auditions, job interviews and public speaking, as well as increased confidence and self-esteem.

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Today we're off to somewhere special, to a city called Lausanne, located on the northern shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, to chat with our guest, Ms. Kanchan Chanana. Kanchan describes herself as an observer, curious and a striving human who's actively broken given norms, rules and excuses for the past two decades to unlock the other side of being. She's a first-generation professional in STEM and management. However, growing up came with considerable challenges from the many norms, beliefs, and rules that she felt suffocated by. Mentions of money, for example, were simply out of the question. Her academic journey proved adventurous, starting in an all-girls government school and deciding to pursue mechanical engineering, where she was the only girl in a class of 50. Her professional career started in a male-dominated world of automotive procurement. She became the youngest buyer responsible for managing spending of more than $100 million, and this role enabled her to oversee successful and complex negotiations with top suppliers and to understand the link between money and authority.

Three years later, she went on to pursue management studies in India and the United States and then joined a leading consulting firm where she worked in the US, Southeast Asia, and India, solving complex business problems for large multinational organizations. This role further expanded her understanding of money, authority, and decision-making. Some six years later, she joined the strategy function of a Global 500 corporation and found numerous systemic gaps leading to leakages in women's payslips every month, every year. This inspired her to speak up for equal pay for women at her workplace, which led to serial abuse behaviors, exclusion, non-transparency, baits, bribery, threats, and eventually a non-mutual separation. Kanchan's journey has revealed visible and invisible challenges to achieving equal and fair pay for women. She notes that in Switzerland alone, the women's pay gap amounts to more than $45 billion annually. Kanchan's story is to enable, educate, and engage women on the taboo topic of unfair pay. Team, I truly hope you're fully prepared for the conversation ahead and ready to practice some active listening because there's a powerful message that awaits all of us as listeners.

Visit our website to access the full transcript, show notes and guest links. Coaching4 Companies