Absolute Advantage Podcast

Author of the national bestselling book You.Are.The.One. and widely considered the next generation leader in the field of personal development by everyone ranging from Larry King, Jack Canfield, Marianne Williamson and more. He has been featured on Larry King Now, Fox and Friends, Dr. Drew, as well, Inc magazine calls him ‘The Mindfulness Guru Billionaires Go To For Advice’. He recently received a Walden Award in the New Thought Wisdom category that Unity honors once a year to recognize socially conscious leaders who are making the world a better place, past winners in the same category have been Oprah Winfrey and Michael Bernard Beckwith. A charismatic visionary and transformational teacher, he offers a fresh, bold look at spiritual awareness for a whole new generation. Born in Ghana, West Africa, Coot’s multi-cultural upbringing as the child of a Japanese mother and a Ghanaian father has spanned four different continents. His unique lineage lay the foundation for his approach to breaking down barriers and u

Doug is a retired military veteran of over 24 years. During his time in the military, he held numerous leadership positions to include instructor and manager of 500 personnel to Troop Chief of a hand-selected group of special communicators tasked with supporting and deploying into austere environments with Special Operations Forces. Upon retirement, he supported numerous government agencies as a subject matter expert in non-standard communications and as a business development executive. These experiences have enabled him to pass on the knowledge and lessons of leadership under extreme conditions for companies needing management team building. Pulling from his past experience as an executive-level technology leader, he has built numerous successful teams based on building a common vision that is understood and predicated upon impact and purpose. What You Will Learn: Doug Ward’s leadership journey How Doug tapped into his leadership abilities by observing his peers Why self-awareness is such an important trai

Kelly Hatfield and April Taylor are leaders and entrepreneurs at heart. They believe fully in the power of the ripple effect and the opportunity that each of us has to create meaningful, positive and long-lasting impact in the lives of our teams, our clients and all who we serve. They consistently focus on ensuring that this amazing opportunity is realized. Kelly and April have built several successful companies directly connected to helping others live into their opportunity to make a greater impact. They have been in the recruiting and HR field for over 25 years and love serving others. Kelly and April, along with their amazing teams, have created 4 successful businesses aimed at matching exceptional talent with top organizations. Through Kelly and April’s passion for service and people, their reach has organically expanded into the area of coaching and consulting. With a focus on high-performance, they partner with companies to support and develop their leadership teams and design recruiting and retention

Part CEO, part personal development wonk, and part biohacker info geek, Thom King is a self-confessed serial entrepreneur. While his favorite book list contains many success-oriented and personal-development classics, the traditional definition of achieving success (e.g. make a lot of money) is not what inspires or motivates King. He follows more of a ‘you aren’t doing well unless you’re also doing some good’ line of thinking. King’s company has been built around the simple principle of ‘do the right thing.’ In 1999, Thom’s personal passion for food and his concern over the explosion of metabolic disease led him to found Steviva Brands, now known as Icon Foods, with a mission to help food manufacturers replace unhealthy sugars in their products with natural options. With 20 years of R&D work, Thom has helped hundreds of manufacturers improve the quality of their products. In recent years, his passion for food and optimal health have intersected with his embrace of a ketogenic (low carb, high fat) diet. —

Kelly Hatfield and April Taylor are leaders and entrepreneurs at heart. They believe fully in the power of the ripple effect and the opportunity that each of us has to create meaningful, positive and long-lasting impact in the lives of our teams, our clients and all who we serve. They consistently focus on ensuring that this amazing opportunity is realized. Kelly and April have built several successful companies directly connected to helping others live into their opportunity to make a greater impact. They have been in the recruiting and HR field for over 25 years and love serving others. Kelly and April, along with their amazing teams, have created 4 successful businesses aimed at matching exceptional talent with top organizations. Through Kelly and April’s passion for service and people, their reach has organically expanded into the area of coaching and consulting. With a focus on high-performance, they partner with companies to support and develop their leadership teams and design recruiting and retention

Chris is the best-selling author of Real Estate on Your Terms: Create Continuous Cash Flow Now, Without Using Your Cash or Credit. He’s also the founder of SmartRealEstateCoach.com and the Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast. Chris has been in real estate for over 25 years. His experience includes the construction of over 100 single-family and duplex homes (mostly in the 1990s and selectively to date), has owned a Realty Executives Franchise (Massachusetts 1994-2000) as broker/owner which maintained high per-agent standards and eventually sold to Coldwell Banker in 2000. The 2000s included coaching ½ million and higher REALTORs® in order to scale & automate their business throughout the US and Canada. He also participated (and still does selectively) in doing condo conversions (multi-family homes to condos) and “raise the roof” projects (converting single family ranches to colonials in growth neighborhoods). Chris has been a big advocate of constant education and participates regularly in high-end mastermind

Kelly Hatfield and April Taylor are leaders and entrepreneurs at heart. They believe fully in the power of the ripple effect and the opportunity that each of us has to create meaningful, positive and long-lasting impact in the lives of our teams, our clients and all who we serve. They consistently focus on ensuring that this amazing opportunity is realized. Kelly and April have built several successful companies directly connected to helping others live into their opportunity to make a greater impact. They have been in the recruiting and HR field for over 25 years and love serving others. Kelly and April, along with their amazing teams, have created 4 successful businesses aimed at matching exceptional talent with top organizations. Through Kelly and April’s passion for service and people, their reach has organically expanded into the area of coaching and consulting. With a focus on high-performance, they partner with companies to support and develop their leadership teams and design recruiting and retention

Eric Kapitulik was born and raised in Thompson, CT and attended Pomfret Preparatory School where he was a three-sport varsity athlete. Upon graduating, he attended the United States Naval Academy. While there, he was a 4-year varsity letter winner and played on three NCAA Division I Lacrosse Tournament teams. During his junior year, Eric received the Lt. JG Frank McKeone Award, given to the Navy player who most demonstrated spirit and sportsmanship and who served as the unsung hero. Eric was also named Navy’s Most Outstanding Defenseman and received North-South All-Star honors his senior year at the Academy. He graduated in 1995 and went on to serve as both an Infantry Officer and Special Operations Officer with 1st Force Reconnaissance Company, 1st Marine Division. As a Force Reconnaissance Platoon Commander, Eric led 20 covert operations specialists in Special Forces related missions including long-range reconnaissance patrols, hostage rescue, high altitude jump exercises, ship takeovers, and gas-oil platfo

Mike Kitko is an Executive Self- Mastery Coach, Speaker, and Author. He found external success in the world through attaining powerful titles, incomes, and material possessions. His family only focused on material wealth as the primary means of trying to find happiness. He ultimately fell into depression, alcoholism, and the near-collapse of his family before he began a journey of internal happiness. Mike now coaches Executive Leaders to feel as powerful on the inside as they appear to those they lead – which creates a fulfilled person and powerful family. — Early in Mike Kitko’s career, he found himself running from fear, inadequacy, and insecurity no matter what he accomplished. His life was crumbling around him and he struggled to maintain a facade of strength and composure. But when Mike took a step back and sought out a path of authenticity, he no longer felt like an imposter. He became the master of his own life and is now helping other leaders to do the same. Mike and his wife pulled themselves out of

Peter Guzzardi has worked in publishing for more than forty years. Prominent books he has edited include Stephen Hawkings A Brief History of Time, Deepak Chopras Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, Queen Noors Leap of Faith, Arianna Huffington’s Fanatics and Fools, and Paula Poundstone’s There’s Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say. Emeralds of Oz: Life Lessons from Over the Rainbow was published by HarperCollins in May 2019 and marks Peter’s debut as an author. An independent editor and writer, he lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Peter’s book, “Emeralds of Oz: Life Lessons From Over the Rainbow,” is available for purchase now where books are sold. You can see his upcoming events by going to peterguzzardi.com and clicking on “Events.” — Peter Guzzardi stumbled upon a spectacular 75th-anniversary edition of The Wizard of Oz and it sparked an epiphany. It occurred to him that, throughout his forty-year career in publishing, all the lessons he learned from the brilliant minds of his industry were presented in

David Hauser has built a number of successful companies in the startup space, both organically and inorganically. He is the founder of Grasshopper, which was acquired by Citrix after he bootstrapped the company to $30M+. David founded Chargify and made it profitable, securing a Mark Cuban investment. He founded ReturnPath and is a founding member of National Entrepreneurs’ Day (http://entrepreneursday.org). David is an angel investor in Intercom, Unbounce, Munchery, Groove and more. He is a public speaker at FOWA, Big Omaha, LessConf, SuperConf, Entrepreneurs Organization, and has received major media coverage by CNN, Fox, Inc. Magazine, Fortune, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Inc. 30 Under 30. — As leaders and business owners, we prioritize other people’s needs. It is part of what makes us great leaders in the first place. You signed up for long days and late nights when you entered this world, but you can only operate at full capacity when you put your oxygen mask on first. Sometimes, to h

Jennifer Brown is an award-winning entrepreneur, dynamic speaker and diversity and inclusion expert. She is the founder, president, and CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting (JBC), a strategic leadership and diversity consulting firm that coaches business leaders worldwide on critical issues of talent and workplace strategy. Brown is a passionate advocate for social equality who helps businesses foster healthier, more productive workplace cultures. Her book Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will to Change (2016) will inspire leadership to embrace the opportunity that diversity represents and empower advocates to drive change that resonates in today’s world. Jennifer’s second book, How to Be an Inclusive Leader, is available everywhere! — Many of us look at leadership and say, “I don’t see anyone that looks like me or shares my story.” We leave parts of ourselves at home for fear of not being accepted. Jennifer Brown has been a member of the LGBTQ community for 22 years, and she struggled with her s

John Waid has thirty years of sales and sales leadership experience in Fortune 500 companies and twelve years of senior consulting experience in the learning and development field. John earned his MBA in International Business from a top program and is fluent in three languages which has allowed him to work in Europe, North, Central and South America. He started his own firm, C3—Corporate Culture Consulting, to work with leaders and their companies on their cultures. — John Waid is the founder and CEO of C3, a firm that specializes in aligning an organization’s culture with its strategic goals. In his experience, culture represents the relationship of values and behaviors within an organization. When your organization’s values are well-defined, employee behavior is the best indicator of how the values are being exemplified. Values are implemented by profound leaders, and leaders are people that others follow voluntarily. Leaders are responsible for the culture, coaches are responsible for the growth, and mana

Erik Salzenstein’s story is one that truly shows the power of change and what’s possible. From greed and addiction to purpose and fulfillment. Erik found himself facing life in prison, with his back against the wall where he finally had to face his worst enemy up until that point…himself. What stands out that he had to go to prison to find freedom and realized he was in his own prison long before actually being behind bars. He then went on to spend 4 years relentlessly pursuing personal growth, coaching, speaking, running workshops and even being published in a newspaper all while in prison. He developed a 4 step process using the acronym ROCK that allowed him to tap into his full potential and develop the ROCK solid foundation needed to transform and build his life on. He’s since used this process with much success to his clients lives. Erik is a powerful and sought out speaker and transformational coach who shares his signature talk “From Prison to Prosperity” and takes people through his ROCK process and h

John Livesay, aka The Pitch Whisperer, is a sales keynote speaker and shares the lessons learned from his award-winning sales career at Conde Nast. In his keynote Better Selling Through Storytelling, he shows companies sales teams how to become irresistible so they are magnetic to their ideal clients. After John speaks, the sales team becomes revenue rock stars who know how to form an emotional connection and a compelling sales story with clients. His TEDx talk: Be The Lifeguard of your own life has over 1,000,000 views. His best selling book is Better Selling Through Storytelling. He is also the host of The Successful Pitch podcast, which is heard in over 60 countries. These interviews make him a sales keynote speaker with fresh and relevant content. Audiences love him because they know hes been in their shoes. John has been interviewed by Larry King and appeared on TV as an expert on How To Ask For What You Want And Get A Yes. John currently lives in Los Angeles with his King Charles Spaniel, Pepe, who welc

Ric Lindberg is a freelancer who helps global organizations with business intelligence and team development based on coaching, metrics and KPIs. He is a deep technical data-nerd who understand the desire to replace tools and processes for better results, but having worked within business intelligence for 24 years, Ric learned that it’s never about the tool. The path to better and lasting change requires leadership way more than tools. He’s been podcasting for more than 5 years about self-leadership, focus and relationship building on the show Relationship Power at work and has now turned into a beginner YouTuber helping parents better connect to their computer gamer children. Ric helps you Connect and Levelup. — By helping businesses harness the power of advanced analytics and team development, Ric Lindberg works with his clients to build a stronger connection between the employees and their work. Lindberg’s process combines a technical background in computers with intra-organizational analysis to create cust

Joe Williams helps coaches, consultants and entrepreneurs become world-class communicators! Joe is the Founder of Creative Performance Group, where he helps people get their message out to the world in the most powerful way possible. He created the Master Your Message Bootcamp, an intensive training that has created hundreds of other successful speakers, coaches, consultants, and authors. In addition to live events, consulting, and corporate programs, Joe lead the Impact Entrepreneur group a high-end mentorship program for professional speakers, coaches, and consultants. His new book “The Impact Awakening: How to go from having a calling to changing lives”, focuses on how to master your message, communicate it powerfully, and scale it into an Impact Business. Joe is a passionate student and trainer of personal and professional development techniques he has worked with and spoken for peak performance coach Anthony Robbins for over 20 years. Joe’s work has led him to consult with companies in a number of fields

Jonathan Keyser is the founder and thought leader behind Keyser, the largest tenant rep commercial real estate brokerage/consulting firm in Arizona. Through his disruptive focus on selfless service, Jonathan is re-shaping the commercial real estate industry, and his firm has quickly become one of the fastest-growing CRE firms in the country, representing companies globally across multiple industries. Jonathan is thrilled to share his journey and mission of selfless service through his highly-anticipated book, You Dont Have to Be Ruthless to Win (hitting bookshelves in mid 2019). A strong supporter of the Conscious Capitalism movement, Jonathan is eagerly working toward the upcoming launch of The Keyser Institute to inspire and equip the next generation of selfless leaders. Jonathan is passionate about helping and empowering others, and has been involved in many different executive and nonprofit organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Phoenix and several business leadership organizations in A

Carey Jenkins had an unconventional path to CEO of Substantial, a Seattle-based digital product studio that has worked with companies like Amazon, Mercedes Benz, and the Wall Street Journal. In 2012, Carey joined the client services team, and six short years later she became the CEO. As the sixth female employee and first mother hired at Substantial, Carey is proud that Substantial has grown the female employee base to 37% overall and 40% on the leadership team, and she is committed to empowering other women to seize more leadership opportunities. — Beyond the excitement of graduating from college, many students wander out of the auditorium as lost souls. Their failure to recognize opportunity in disguise creates a void of purpose, but it is important to acknowledge that no one in history had a road map to success. Carey Jenkins’ story emphasizes the importance of framing adverse situations differently to become more resilient. Ironically, her success story is more of a collection of failures than successes,

After their business crumbled due to a sudden illness that had Joeel bedridden for a year, Joeel (jo-ELL) and Natalie Rivera (ri-VAIR-uh) decided they never wanted to be in that situation again. So they dedicated themselves to converting their training and speaking programs into online courses that would outlive them and would provide passive income. They reached over 100,000 students from 191 countries in only 3 years. They believe that entrepreneurship is the ultimate form of empowerment. Today they teach INDIEpreneurs how to create a purpose-driven business in this new economy so they can monetize their passion and live life on their terms. — Joeel and Natalie Rivera both had entrepreneurial dreams early on, but what brought them together was their desire to help others, create a legacy, and make an impact on the community. After their paths merged, Joeel and Natalie found a collective calling to establish a multitude of platforms that would help business leaders in the community grow. As fate would have i