Stories

Still in love

My high school---Central High School

My Favorite Posts / Relationships / Stories

Still in love

I first fell in love in high school, 1987 or 1988---more than two-thirds of my life ago. It was on my mind a couple weeks ago, after I attended a panel discussion my friend invited me to. It turned out that I happened to know all the panelists, though not the host. Since I arrived late and sat in the back of the room, they didn't know I was there, but my book came up. When it did, I stood up and mentioned I was there. The host invited me to the front, asked me to share about the book and how I happened to be there, and invited me to speak at a future event. I felt great to know my book was getting…

October 28, 2017

How Do I Live My Values?

Living Your Values Daily -- Better Leaders Better Schools' Joshua Spodek interview

Audio / Education / Leadership / Stories

How Do I Live My Values?

Daniel Bauer uncovered what I'm up to next and what led me to it in his second interview of me for his Better Leaders Better Schools podcast. He released it yesterday. All the burpees, vegetables, and so on are leading up to a lot more than just personal habits, as the conversation reveals. The next big step is the podcast launch, featuring some big names---a Pulitzer Prize winner, tens-of-millions-times-viewed TED talker, New York Times bestselling authors, and more---sharing their struggles you don't normally see. Daniel and I talked about its origins and why such big names are doing it, even pre-launch. Listen to the conversation Listen to the conversation Daniel also interviewed me in episode 79: Great Leaders Aren't Superheroes. Daniel's show notes: Josh Spodek…

October 21, 2017

Videos and a short history of my invention and Submedia, the company I co-founded in 1999

Submedia's logo

Entrepreneurship / Leadership / My Favorite Posts / Stories

Videos and a short history of my invention and Submedia, the company I co-founded in 1999

Ten or fifteen years ago most people knew me through Submedia, the company I co-founded to market I technology I conceived of in 1996. My invention The technology was a display we'd install on subway tunnel walls that looked to riders between stations like a movie screen outside the subway car windows. From a business perspective, we were a billboard company: we installed the displays at our cost, sold media to advertisers who wanted large audiences, and shared revenue with our landlords---transit agencies. From a technological perspective we created a new medium that reached people where no one had before, in places with a lot of people. I wrote the patent and we filed it in 1998. The company I co-founded We got our first…

October 3, 2017

Education / Exercises / Leadership / Stories

Reviews and reflections from guest speaking recently

I recently guest hosted an online seminar for Park Howell's course in the Executive Masters of Sustainability Leadership program at ASU. The student reviews and reflections touched and inspired me. I can't help sharing them. I described and performed one exercise from my Leadership Step by Step book and course. You can imagine that if these results come from one session, how much doing all the exercises in the book or course would give. Enough from me. Here are the students. I thoroughly enjoyed Joshua Spodek's perspective and angle he took to engage through experience to train leaders. I purchased his audiobook and listened to a bunch of it on the way into work today. He focused on developing empathy. But his method of confirmation…

September 1, 2017

Art / Creativity / Stories / Tips

How do I improve my storytelling?

My response to the question "How do I improve my storytelling?" on a forum got upvoted a lot: Practice, practice, practice. The best advice in the world only works in the context of practice. Practicing makes advice meaningful. Practice and then practice more. Then practice more. Get feedback. Seek advice. Iterate. But practice. Name anyone who mastered a performance art who didn't practice more than most. Even if you can, I can name a hundred who did. Practice, practice, practice. Find audiences you can practice with and practice with them. Until then, practice by yourself, in front of a wall if that's what you have. Use a mirror or a camera. Practice. The more you practice, the more audiences you'll find. Then practice more. I…

August 22, 2017

After 20 Years, Reciprocating a New York Moment

In the 90s, when I was a graduate student, my father was away for the summer and left me his car. I was living on 100th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive with two teammates from my ultimate frisbee team. A long time ago, it must have been the year we went to Nationals. Having a car up there meant a lot of parallel parking because alternate side parking meant you couldn't stay in a spot for more than a couple days. One afternoon I was meeting a friend near Union Square. Today I would take the subway, but having the car and not yet seeing it as a pain, I drove downtown. I was late. It started drizzling. Finding parking around Union…

July 26, 2017

Transformative Leadership, a guest post from Jethro Jones

Education / Leadership / Stories

Transformative Leadership, a guest post from Jethro Jones

Jethro Jones is hosting the Transformative Leadership summit. I know him because he hosts the Transformative Principal podcast. Here's my conversation with him, "How You Learn Is As Important As What You Learn." I'm participating in the summit. We recorded part of my session, and if you want to improve your leadership, you'll benefit from the summit. I recommend signing up! There are many short recordings of what you'll hear at the online event so you can learn and find out more. Longtime readers know I barely promote anything that isn't my book or courses, but I'm promoting Jethro. Jethro is guest posting the following: Leadership, education, and you When a principal cares Jonathon was a 7th grade student who moved from Florida to Alaska.…

July 21, 2017

How to Step Up Your Leadership Game With Storytelling

Audio / Creativity / Exercises / Stories

How to Step Up Your Leadership Game With Storytelling

Park Howell hosts the Business of Storytelling podcast. Today he released our interview about storytelling and how to improve your storytelling for business. Everybody agrees on the value of storytelling in all human communications. All the more in business. Listen to the conversation! Bonus that I missed saying in the interview By the way, when you listen, there's one part where Park said, "You don't want to know what's in my head." I missed an opportunity and, as much as I try to avoid interrupting, I should have interrupted to say to him, We do want to know what's in your head. We love to hear that inside story, that inner monologue. Everyone thinks his or her inner monologue is dark before doing the exercise.…

July 10, 2017

My 12-minute conversation with record-holding podcaster Engel Jones

Audio / Education / Stories

My 12-minute conversation with record-holding podcaster Engel Jones

Engel Jones holds the record for most podcasts, I believe. Our podcast was the most mellow I've been on. We spoke about Education Memories Earliest memories Music, and More. Plus, all his podcasts are about 12 minutes, so convenient for listening. Mine was 16 minutes. He posted mine today---his 1,128th. I recommend listening to mine and more. Listen to the conversation! Listen to the conversation! About Engel: Engel Jones was born and raised in the twin island of Trinidad and Tobago and he loves great conversation. He is an Entrepreneur, Life Coach and the podcast host of the Twelve Minute Convo. His passion is to help you find Y.O.U.R.S - Your Own Unique Real Self. After having 1001 conversations in 3 months he uncovered Y.O.U.R.S,…

May 16, 2017

The value of technique: My student connects with a billionaire and gets invited to Harvard using skills from the course!

Jingming in New England Patriots helmet

Education / Entrepreneurship / Relationships / Stories

The value of technique: My student connects with a billionaire and gets invited to Harvard using skills from the course!

I was delighted to read the email below from a former student. You can tell that English is not her native language, nor is America her native culture. Yet you'll see she turned a standard business meeting assigned to her into a meaningful connection. That's the value of technique: it works even when you wouldn't know what to do. You can fall back on it. The more you practice and rehearse it, as my class does, the more automatic it becomes. Then you create opportunities where you never saw them before. I posted the exercise, called Meaningful Connection, from the course that she used, along with an excerpt from my book,Â Leadership Step by Step, and videos of me practicing the exercise with my mentor, Marshall…

April 27, 2017

Awareness / Exercises / Leadership / Models / SIDCHAs / Stories

Absurdly Useful Leadership Tactics That You Can Use Today: the second interview with Jim Harshaw

I don't know if the interviewers are getting better, if I'm developing in conversation, or if I'm just enjoying podcast conversations more, but it feels like the interviews are getting better all the time. Yesterday, Jim Harshaw (scroll down to learn more about him) of the Success Through Failure podcast posted our second conversation. Second conversations lead to greater comfort, depth, trust, and intimacy, so I recommend listening. We cover a couple exercises from the book, connecting leadership to everyday living, sports, and more. Jim was a division 1 athlete and coach, among many other achievements so he knows leadership from multiple angles. He's taken on and overcome challenges many of us don't even try. All this comes out in his podcast. When you don't…

March 27, 2017

How to Turn the Knob of Leadership and Your Life: The Tanner Gers Interview

Audio / Freedom / Habits / Stories

How to Turn the Knob of Leadership and Your Life: The Tanner Gers Interview

I can't say enough about Tanner Gers. He posted the podcast of our conversation today. We had a great time talking about life and doing things. A bit of a love-fest between two people who admire and respect each other. Before linking to the podcast, a few words about Tanner from his about page. If you've read Chapter 8 of Leadership Step by Step, you'll see the connection this man's story to my life, passion, and message. About Tanner Gers Thanks for stopping by and saying hello You may have found me through my health & fitness site, coaching site, or have heard me on someone else's podcast, but either wayâ€¦ I'm glad you've come to hangout. Here's the real background story that most don't…

March 21, 2017

The bigger your achievement, the more it’s a beginning

Art / Awareness / My Favorite Posts / Stories

The bigger your achievement, the more it’s a beginning

Back when I made my art, I would sometimes find a new venue or commission that would give me the chance to work bigger than before. I'd sign a new gallery, meaning more pieces, or a museum. Or a venue with a budget would commission me. My art was technical, with laser cut steel, 8 foot photographic quality images, power cables, and so on. I could only scale up when I had a budget and a space big enough to mount the displays and for people to step far enough away to view it. How did I decide how big to make a new display? From my experience building subway advertising displays a quarter-mile long, meeting safety and fire codes for ten years in brutal…

February 25, 2017

Forbes profiles three graduates of my course!

Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Stories

Forbes profiles three graduates of my course!

Forbes's Carrie Kerpen profiled three graduates of my entrepreneurship course in, "Three Important Lessons Women Learn Early In Their Careers." The three students---Nikita, Grace, and Nahima---did the course's exercises with diligence and discipline. None of them knew how experiential the course would be and didn't expect to create projects that impassioned them or their customers as much as they did. In other words, they didn't have secret or magical skills you and I don't. They had direction and worked at it. You can too (shameless plug: if you take my course). Her story begins: I often write about the wisdom I've gained from women with long, successful careers. But I've learned just as much from young women at the very start of their journeys, too.…

February 14, 2017

Habits / Leadership / SIDCHAs / Stories

Stealing Happiness Back from Comfort

I guest posted today with the Lead Change Group, whose vision and mission are: Our Vision The Lead Change Group is a global, virtual community dedicated to encouraging and showcasing great ideas and helping leaders in their own professional growth. Mission We will encourage, energize and equip one another to leading change — in ourselves, in others, and in our communities. We want to be a resourceful, supportive community sharing and multiplying powerful leadership content. They have monthly themes, and this month's was "five thieves of happiness" (control, conceit, consumption, coveting, and comfort), after one of its member's book's title. My story, "Stealing Happiness Back from Comfort," began Stealing Happiness Back from Comfort The winter I renovated my apartment was one of the coldest I…

January 20, 2017

My greatest anxiety and how it calmed me

I led a team of students from NYU'-Tisch's School of the Arts' ITP program to install a temporary art display in Bryant Park. It feels like it was yesterday, but it was 2009. Here's a video of the display: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIfi71_ffG0 The story of coordinating the MTA, NYU, Submedia, and the student-artists was one of my first great hustles that benefited everyone, which I'll save for a later post. This post is for telling about the incredible anxiety that hit me as the installation day approached. It took close to a year from my proposing the display to the MTA to installation. Part of what made the arrangement possible was that Submedia, the company I cofounded, had a spare digital display we had built. It didn't…

October 31, 2016

The five times I got mugged growing up

Awareness / My Favorite Posts / Stories

The five times I got mugged growing up

Not sure how interesting this post will be to others since it's not about helping or insight. Just reflecting on my childhood. On the other hand, I suspect people have a morbid fascination about reading about crime and personal stories. Talking to my sister recently about her comparing this generation growing up and our growing up, she commented on how our childhoods seemed normal to us but that they weren't by the standards of most people she knew. I hadn't thought about it, but agreed with her. I just took for granted that most people got mugged a few times as kids. Growing up in Philadelphia meant an urban environment. My family's neighborhoods were residential, but within the city, and bordered some poor and dangerous…

October 7, 2016

Education / Entrepreneurship / Stories

Teaching critical thinking: a high school example

Have you ever found young adults self-righteously holding ideas, unwilling to consider alternatives? I have. This summer I also saw a room full of them change their minds in an instant on an issue I know they would have been fixed about before. I taught a summer session of high school students entrepreneurship. One exercise is to project financials for your project for two years. I've gotten good at helping people who have never used spreadsheets to do the exercise, which is quick-and-dirty, to learn their project's most important assumptions, to see if they can reach profitability, and to learn the details, as only doing financials can. Before the exercise, most students look at their projects idealistically. They think everybody benefits so starting it will…

September 8, 2016

Company review: The Sweeten ruined my floor, went over budget and over schedule

Stories / Visualization

Company review: The Sweeten ruined my floor, went over budget and over schedule

I love recommending products and people that work. In the video below, I love the Cuisinart CPC-600 pressure cooker and Vita-mix blender. I don't like reporting on disasters, but some require it. Every summer my floor buckles because I used TheSweeten.com. When someone will work on where you live every day, you want someone trustworthy and with integrity, neither of which I found in working with The Sweeten. I bring up trust and integrity because I didn't just work with The Sweeten, I worked with one of its leaders, I think a founder. I followed his recommendations to post on his site, to choose the contractor he recommended, and on the design. He assured me he would manage the contractor, someone he knew. So even…

August 10, 2016

At Princeton’s ELab: Contact valuable people!

Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Stories

At Princeton’s ELab: Contact valuable people!

I got a few short clips from my presentation on entrepreneurship when I spoke at Princeton's Elab recently. I described a student's success contacting a valuable person in her field. The call got hairy, but she Benefited from the interaction Learned about how to talk to valuable people Learned about herself Would do it again Inspired her classmates If you want similar experiences, take my entrepreneurship course. It develops you in small steps to work up to handling interactions like this. Even if you don't, call valuable people. Err on the side of making things happen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7-gv7Oq7Vg

June 8, 2016

Listen to Outlier Magazine’s podcast of Joshua Spodek, published today!

Audio / Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / SIDCHAs / Stories

Listen to Outlier Magazine’s podcast of Joshua Spodek, published today!

Outlier Magazine's Ever Gonzalez interviewed me recently and posted the podcast today, "Ep 331: Joshua Spodek Interview — Finding Your Hudson River" We talk about Learning entrepreneurship Learning leadership Swimming across the Hudson River Failure and learning from it My last book, ReModel (and hinting at the next one) Increasing your self-awareness through mental models Sidchas Check out the podcast here. If you prefer using Stitcher, here's that link. If you prefer using iTunes, here's that link. Thank you Ever, Paige, and the Outlier Magazine team! Or listen here:

May 20, 2016

Inc.com / Leadership / Stories

What You Can Learn from the Best Leader in America’s Bold Job Interview Strategy

My Inc.com article today, "What You Can Learn from the Best Leader in America's Bold Job Interview Strategy" begins What You Can Learn from the Best Leader in America's Bold Job Interview Strategy Interviewing for the job that brought her national prominence, she prepared and behaved differed from most standard advice, but was incredibly effective. Of those responsible the Girl Scouts camping out on the White House lawn, Frances Hesselbein may have been the most important. As the CEO of the Girls Scouts from 1976 to 1990, she helped turn the organization around, tripling minority enrollment, and increasing their focus on leadership, science, technology, and math. Her work earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom among other honors--bringing her to the White House--not to mention…

May 16, 2016

Education / Stories

I still took a class after graduation

I wrote yesterday how I took two classes at the same time second semester senior year, but that by the end I couldn't keep up. I wanted to add how I ended up keeping up with the class. That year, my girlfriend's sports team made it to Nationals and got to stay on campus until leaving to go to Nationals. I was moving back to Philadelphia that summer to start Penn the next fall. Since I was going to live at my dad's house in Mount Airy until I found a place near school, I preferred staying with her until she left. After graduation, I went to the lab TA, a graduate student in the physics department, and got a hold of a key to…

May 13, 2016

Education / Stories

I once took two classes at the same time

Senior year in college I had to take a lot of physics classes to finish the major. Most people who major in physics know their major when they start college. It's not a casual major. It has a lot of requirements and you have to take many in order since most depend on earlier ones so you don't have much freedom. I chose in the second semester of my junior year, so my courses were fixed. Meanwhile, I took a math class, Modern Algebra, that I loved. I wish I could explain it casually. The best I can say is that it studied symmetry and that we humans find symmetry aesthetically pleasing, so the class led me to find more beauty in the world and…

May 12, 2016

Education / Inc.com / Leadership / Relationships / Stories

Six Lessons I Learned at Lunch With the Best Leader in America

My post on Inc.com today, "Six Lessons I Learned at Lunch With the Best Leader in America," begins Six Lessons I Learned at Lunch With the Best Leader in America Experience trumps everything in leadership and she has more than you do. From the Girl Scouts to the White House. IsÂ Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford, whose stock price went upÂ 18 timesÂ under his watch, a fair judge of good leadership?Â How aboutÂ Peter Drucker, the "founder of modern management"?Â How aboutÂ Marshall Goldsmith, named the #1 leadership thinker in the world in 2015? If we can accept them as reasonable judges, they all named Frances Hesselbein--advisor to the U.S. Military Academy atÂ West Point,Â fourteen-yearÂ CEO of the Girl Scouts, holder of almost two dozen honorary degrees, and more--as the best leader…

April 29, 2016

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