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Leadership Lessons From Brands You've Never Heard Of
By: Steve Olenski
Jul 23, 2018, 11:21am
I am many things. Lord am I ever. I drink way too much coffee. I am loud and opinionated, which by the way means I'm from the East Coast (Philly). I've been told countless times, "you must be from the East Coast because of the way you talk." I wear that as a badge of honor by the way.
Did I mention I drink way too much coffee?
Well aside from all this I am a people person. Now lots of people claim to be people people, if you will. But I truly am. I simply love to meet and engage with people. Except when I'm driving then that's another story.
Harvard Calling
This past April - paraphrasing Forbes contributor John Hall from his column on this event: L.A.’s boutique record label and entertainment company World Artists United (WAU) and the Harvard Graduate Council hosted the first annual Music Entrepreneur Conference (MEcon) at Harvard University’s Science Center.
I was fortunate enough to not only attend but participate, hosting a panel discussion on branding between myself, Kerry Gordy (son of Motown founder Berry Gordy, Evan Greene (CMO of the Recording Academy) and Bernt Ullmann, a.k.a the $6 billion man who's worked with everyone from Adam Levine to Jennifer Lopez to Daymond John to Nicki Minaj.
But perhaps the biggest benefit I got from attending this incredibly-inspiring event was the people I met and got to spend a few minutes with. All of them entrepreneurs with an intoxicating passion for what they do. I was so impressed by so many of them I asked to answer one question:
What's your personal mantra/your way of doing business that's different than someone else?
I think you'll agree there are some truly wonderful and powerful leadership lessons here that we can ALL learn from. I've added my thoughts to each as well.
Michael Anderson, president of MPAC Solutions..., which according to Anderson "advises, brokers, consults, deals, entertains the world’s most impactful people, ventures, and movements":
I live my life at the intersection of mission, values and purpose. Optimizing my MVP and calling to inspire, uplift and entertain enables me to excel and outperform at the highest levels."
My take: This is clearly the intersection many of us should be residing at but we all know not all companies do, let alone people.