Is Your Business Telling the Stories that Sell and add Value?
In today’s competitive marketplace, it’s not the best ideas that win—it’s the best stories. This week on A New Direction, I sit down with strategist and author Gavin McMahon to discuss his powerful new book, Story Business: Why Stories Rule the World and How They Can Reinvent Your Business. Gavin reveals why every leader, CEO, and sales professional must learn the language of storytelling if they want to inspire, influence, and ignite action.
We’ll explore the 6 essential genres of business storytelling—Value, Product, Brand, Sales, Leadership, and Culture—and how each one can transform the way you communicate and connect. Whether you’re pitching an idea, leading a team, or building a brand, mastering these six stories can elevate your message from informative to unforgettable.
Gavin will share practical insights on turning complexity into clarity, data into drama, and strategy into stories that stick. You’ll learn why simplicity is a competitive edge, how to make your message “retellable,” and what separates a leader who speaks from one who truly connects. By the end of this episode, you’ll understand how storytelling drives alignment, motivation, and measurable results—because when people believe the story, they believe in the mission.
Join Gavin McMahon and me, Coach Jay on A New Direction. Discover how these six stories can help you inspire your team, elevate your influence, and lead your business in a whole new direction.
Gavin McMahon's book, Story Business: Why Stories Rule the World and How They Can Reinvent Your Business" is a mind bender of a book.  Hold on to your brains folks, because this book is going to challenge the way you think about every presentation, every intereaction, and every piece of marketing you do in your business.
The fact is...the stories matter!  Here is the big fact: Our brains are wired for stories.  Just think about it for a second.  What is your favorite movie?  Got it?  Why is it your favorite?  There is something about the story, right?  Well what if we apply the same principles to every avenue of your business?  And that is exactly what Gavin McMahon does in "Story Business".  He pulls the elements of great storytelling and makes it applicable to you regardless of size of business or budget.
Many powerful things in the book, but the first one that stands out is the Motive Triangle:  Hope, Fear, and Reason.  The fact is we don't make our decisions rationally.  Here is the key: Emotions create action. Reason creates rationalization.  If you want people to move you have to connect to emotion...and when you can oppose hope and fear...you have a recipe for success!
Secondly,

The 10 Commandments to Marketing and Persuasion
I’m pumped to bring you an interview with Dr. Yaniv Zaid — the guy known around the world as “Doctor Persuasion” and the author of The 21st Century Sales Bible. If you’ve ever felt like you’re shouting into the void with your message, or you’re undervaluing your work, or you’re trying to build a community but can’t quite crack the code — this conversation will flip a switch. We’ll dig into the ten “commandments” he lays out for how to master marketing, negotiation, persuasion and finally step into the high-value version of your brand.
This isn’t a fluffy chat about sales tactics that evaporate after you walk away. This is raw, real, and rooted in systems and psychology. Dr. Zaid draws from a PhD in law, from global speaking and consulting experience — and yes, this matters because what worked in 1999 doesn’t fly in 2025. He’ll challenge you to stop under-charging, stop hiding your expertise, and start leading with boldness, with clarity and with confidence. If you’ve ever held back because you thought you weren’t “salesy enough” or you weren’t supposed to push yourself forward — get ready to reframe that story.
Here’s why you’ll want to tune in: we’re going to unpack how to build a community that buys from you not just once, but again and again. We’re going to talk about how to get people talking about you (the holy grail of word-of-mouth), how to provide personal attention in an age that seems to dehumanize connection, and how to build trust so that when you speak, people listen and act. And more importantly, this isn’t just theory — we’ll pull examples, tactics and take-aways you can use Monday morning. Because micro-dosing your life means small shifts that compound. Coach Jay style means you’ll leave ready to act.
So if you’re ready to step into that next level — ready to raise your price, raise your presence, raise your impact — then clear your calendar for tomorrow at 6 pm Eastern. Bring your notebook, your questions, your “what if I could…” mindset. We’ll push past the noise, past the hustle-without-heart, and build something purposeful, profitable and sustainable.
Dr. Yaniv Zaid's book, "The 21st Century Sales Bible: Mastering the 10 Commandments of Marketing, Negotiation & Persuasion" is an outstanding book filled with practical insights that you can use right now in your business and in your life.  The book is filled with examples that give meaning to the ideas and concepts that he discusses in the 21st Century Sales Bible.
Each of the 10 Commandments builds on one another.  When you start with the 1st Commandment to the 10th there is a connection between them all.  What I found so brilliant, is at the end of each chapter he has "Key Takeaways" from each commandment.  If you forgot something he reemphasizes it again, making the book a extremely useful took kit for anyone in business.
Often times we find words like "marketing" and "persuasion" to be a bit uncomfortable. But, when you really read what Dr. Zaid, is saying you begin to realize our whole life is marketing ourselves and persuading others to do what we would like them to do.  The difference is this: There is an ethical and moral way to do it!  When we truly love our clients, and truly know we can help them with their problems or pain, then persuasion is not a bad word, but a great word for us to help them see the solution to the potential ...

The Opposite of Leadership...Wait for it...It's Drama
I’m really excited for this week’s episode of A New Direction, because I’ll be sitting down with best-selling author Charlie Sheppard, whose work jolts us out of the endless cycle of workplace drama and into — you guessed it — leadership by choice. In his book Save Your Drama for Your Mama: Drama or Leadership is a Choice, Charlie makes it clear that drama isn’t just annoying, it’s corrosive. It creates what he calls the “Drama Triangle” — where we play the roles of victim, persecutor, or rescuer — and it keeps us trapped in old patterns of blame, guilt, and avoidance. But the powerful truth is that leadership is also a triangle — one that begins when we make a conscious choice to step out of the drama and lead ourselves first.
One of the topics we’ll explore is what it means to shift from external control (“It’s not my fault, someone else made me do it”) to internal ownership (“I choose how I respond”). Charlie argues that when we feel powerless, we fall into drama; when we reclaim choice, we start leading. So, I want us to ask: where in your professional or personal life are you still waiting for someone else to drive the bus? And how might you hop into the driver’s seat instead? This isn’t about becoming perfect or drama-free overnight — it’s about recognizing that you always have the power to choose differently.
We’ll also dive into how we show up in the roles we play — adversary vs. catalyst, victim vs. visionary. These distinctions move leadership beyond the abstract and into behaviors we can see in our teams and ourselves. Expect us to unpack those everyday situations — the teammate who plays the victim and drags the group down, or the adversary who stirs things up in destructive ways — and contrast them with the visionary or catalyst who chooses to energize, engage, and elevate. If you’ve ever wondered how to stop drama from being “just how we do things,” this part of the conversation will be eye-opening.
Finally, we’ll wrap with the big idea that leadership is a choice — full stop. Charlie doesn’t sugar-coat it: real leadership takes awareness, intention, and a willingness to look in the mirror. But he also offers a practical roadmap — not just “stop the drama,” but “what do I do instead?” Whether you’re leading a team, managing projects, coaching others, or simply trying to grow as a person, this message will challenge and inspire you. My hope is that when you tune in, you’ll ask yourself one powerful question: “Am I choosing leadership right now… or am I just participating in drama because it’s easier?”
Charlie Sheppard's book, "Save Your Drama For Your Mama: Drama or Leadership. is a Choice is perhaps one of the best practical books on leadership I have ever read.  For the first time someone has clearly defined the opposite of leadership. Are you wondering what that is?  It's not followership...it's drama.
And what Charlie Sheppard had developed is elegantly simplistic by comparing and contrasting the behaviors of those in leadership and those in drama.  In fact, you discover the opposites.  For Example: An internal locus of control is leadership, it's counterpart is an external locus of control.  Adversary or catalyst. Victim or visionary. Rescuer or coach?.  His detailed triangles take us through a journey that begins change our perspective.
What is also phenomenal about this book is he has a tremendous amount of research to support his findings.  If you are brain and body geek you are going to love is section on the amygdala and it's connection to how it interacts with both drama and leadership. If you want real world examples, he supplies those as well.
Absolutely an engaging read.   And I will add there is truth in his warning in the introduction of the book.  "Once you’ve been exposed to this way of thinking, your life will never be the same.

Help Others Find What They Don't Know What Their Needs Are
Join me on A New Direction as I sit down with Bill Shander, author of Stakeholder Whispering: Uncover What People Need Before Doing What They Ask. Bill’s premise is bold and true: most customers, clients, and bosses don’t actually know what they need; they only know what feels familiar enough to ask for. Our job isn’t to take the order—it’s to uncover the real needs with empathy, curiosity, and skill. That’s the heart of Stakeholder Whispering, and that’s exactly where we’re going.

Bill and I will dig into the mechanism behind the magic—how to slow the conversation down just enough to surface intent before you sprint into execution. We’ll explore practical moves like clarifying the decision your work will enable, mapping the real stakeholder chain (who wins, who loses, who decides), and challenging assumptions that quietly steer requests toward the wrong solution. Expect concrete tactics leaders can use in the room—silence that invites better thinking, questions that reframe the task, and small tests that prove what actually matters.

If you’ve ever delivered exactly what was asked and still missed the mark, you know the emotional punch of this topic. It’s frustrating, it’s deflating, and it erodes trust. We’ll talk about the human side—how fear, constraints, and “what we’ve always done” hide beneath the ask—and how a calm, curious presence earns permission to go deeper. When people feel understood, they stop defending their request and start partnering in the outcome. That’s when influence grows and results compound.

You’ll leave with five field-tested questions to put in play immediately: What decision will this help you make? If this worked perfectly, what changes? Who else is impacted, positively or negatively? What risk are we avoiding—or accepting—by doing it this way? What would we try if there were no constraints? Bring these to your next meeting and watch the conversation shift from “build the thing” to “solve the right problem.” This one is about leading with courage, listening with intention, and delivering what truly moves the needle. Needs.

To contact Bill go to his website: www.billshander.com

Or connect on Linkedin: Bill Shander

Bill Shander's book, "Stakeholder Whispering: Uncover What People Need Before Doing What They Ask" is a fun, insightful, and powerful read.  This book is literally for everyone in any career, and in any stage of their career.  And personally so valuable that it will help every relationships and every interaction that you will have.

Bill Shander explains very clearly through research that as human beings we are hopelessly flawed.  And that means all of us.  We really don't know what we want or what we need and the reality is we need someone to draw it out of us. Bill Shander's Stakeholder Whispering does just that.

We get a good sense of who are as humans.  Our thinking is faulty.  And the more knowledge we get doesn't actually make us smarter, it only creates more biases that make it more difficult for us to change.

So how do we deal with ourselves and others to help navigate our relationships in business.  Ahhh...that's the secret of "whispering".

Lead by 3 - Leadership with Simplicity
A New Direction brings you an in-depth conversation with retired Naval Academy alum Steven Mays, author of The Power of 3: Lessons in Leadership. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the endless “leadership frameworks,” this episode is a breath of clarity. Steven cuts through noise using a foundation rooted in three—three pillars, three practices, three indispensable commitments. It’s concise, potent, and built for people who lead under pressure.

In The Power of 3, Mays doesn’t shy away from the harder side of leading. He explores how despair, unmet expectations, and human frailty challenge even the best of intentions. But he also shows how effective leaders engage in three core acts: assist (serve those you lead), inspire (ignite purpose and vision), and depend (trust and rely on others). That last part may surprise you—he makes dependence not a weakness but a leadership strength. These themes are not abstractions; they’re revealed in stories, real tension points, and situations you’ll recognize.

On our show, I’ll push Steven to unpack exactly how those triads work in everyday leadership life. How do you “assist” without overstepping? When your team’s morale is sliding, how do you “inspire” in a real, not canned, way? And when things go sideways, how do you lean into “dependence” without losing authority or credibility? We’ll also dig into the internal life—how love, despair, and disappointment show up in your leadership—and how to structure your guardrails to stay steady even when people around you aren’t.

Make plans to join us and capture insights to lead yourself and others. Whether you lead a small team, a department, or your own personal mission, this isn’t just another leadership talk—it’s a chance to recalibrate how you lead from the inside out.

Steven May's book, "The Power of 3: Lessons in Leadership" is a very quick read, but there is elegance in simplicity.  And that is what this book brings.  The idea that learning to lead does not have to be difficult.  What Steven Mays gives us is how in the power of 3 we can learn to lead and lead well.


As with any great book he starts with the three fundamentals.  Honesty, Courage, and Talent.  Don't be fooled by the word "honesty" because he gives it a different definition.  And it all starts with an honest self-awareness of where are really.  Then he moves to courage, which again he breaks down into 3 ideals...Accept it, Fix it, or Leave it.  The least important of these three fundamental principles? Talent.  As Steve Mays reminds us that leaders are not born, they are made if they have the right tools.

The book is filled with lessons of threes that he puts into triangles and demonstrates that The Power of 3 and the strength of 3 can be used to build successful and great leaders.  While it is only 50 pages long if you dig deep into the simplicity of The Power of 3 you will discover more depth than you can imagine!

Get you copy of the Power of 3: Lessons for Leadership by Clicking Here.


Enhance Your Audiobook Experience with Zoundy!
If you’re an author or narrator looking to produce high-quality audiobooks with ease, Zoundy is the ultimate tool you need. Designed specifically for audiobook creation,

Becoming More Requires You Becoming Different
Join me live on A New Direction as I sit down with best-selling author, business leader, and transformational coach Dianna Kokoszka to talk about her incredible new book Becoming More: You Can’t Get Better Until You Get Different. If you’ve ever felt stuck in your routines or wondered why progress feels just out of reach, this conversation will inspire you to break free from old patterns and step boldly into the growth you’ve been craving.

Dianna has spent decades helping leaders, entrepreneurs, and everyday people achieve extraordinary success, and in Becoming More she shows us that true change doesn’t come from doing more of the same—it comes from becoming someone different. Together, we’ll unpack how to shift your thinking, expand your vision, and transform your results by making intentional, courageous changes in your life and business.

We’ll talk about why so many of us resist change, how fear often disguises itself as comfort, and the practical ways you can begin to adopt new habits and mindsets that unlock your potential. Dianna’s insights in "Becoming More"  are not just theoretical—they are grounded in proven strategies that she has lived out in her own career and taught to thousands of others around the globe.

So whether you’re a business professional looking for that next breakthrough, an entrepreneur seeking fresh inspiration, or simply someone ready to grow into the best version of yourself, this episode is for you. Tune in on your favorite podcast platform. This conversation will not only encourage you—it will challenge you to Becoming more.

Make sure you check Dianna's cool mindset assessment.  Got www.14mindsets.com

Dianna KoKoszka's book, "Becoming More: You Can't Get to Better Until You Get to Different" is an absolute life changing business changing read.  It is more than just a reading book it truly is a workbook.  Because if you will put in the work your life, and your business will in fact change.

The book starts out by making us realize that your life, your circumstances are your choice.  If you have a victim mindset, you will stay in a victim mindset.  But if you choose a different mindset your life will change.  You may be reading this say, "that's crap! Changing my mindset is not changing my circumstances!" Well in fact it does, because the research demonstrates that as we change our thoughts, we change our brain chemistry, as we change brain chemistry, we change our behavior and your health...and that starts changing everything around you.

When we are open to making better choices, we also get more open to opportunities, we don't see our circumstances as a bad thing, but a growing opportunity.  And now our world becomes different.

She the moves into her pyramid of being more. Where begin to understand the power and differences between beliefs and values, feelings and emotions, questions about our character, what kind of energy are you bringing every single day, finding and knowing your purpose and leaving a legacy that gives back.

What a great book, it is inspiring, and will make you stop and think about your life, and the areas you need to work on.  But be cautioned, you can't work on them all!  So pick one, and start there!

Get your copy of Becoming More by clicking here!

Leading with Hospitality is Not Going to Be Easy...
But it will be Effective
What does it truly mean to lead with heart? This week on A New Direction with Coach Jay Izso, we welcome Taylor Scott, author of Lead with Hospitality: Be Human. Emotionally Connect. Serve Selflessly. In a world where leadership often gets reduced to strategy, numbers, and bottom lines, Taylor brings us back to the core truth: people want to feel valued, cared for, and connected. Get ready for an eye-opening conversation that challenges the way you see leadership in both life and business.

Leadership isn’t just about giving orders—it’s about creating emotional connections that inspire others to give their best. Taylor has spent his career developing a framework where hospitality becomes more than customer service—it becomes a leadership philosophy. Together, we’ll explore how empathy, authenticity, and service can transform not just teams and organizations, but entire cultures. If you’ve ever wondered why some leaders inspire loyalty while others struggle to keep people engaged, this is your chance to find out.

In this episode, you’ll discover practical strategies for leading with kindness without sacrificing results. From building trust to serving selflessly, Taylor reveals why putting people first always leads to stronger performance. Expect stories, insights, and actionable takeaways that will make you rethink how you lead at work, at home, and in your community. Leadership doesn’t have to be complicated—it just has to be human.  It must be contained within hospitality.

So join us as we uncover how to Lead with Hospitality. And if you can’t make it live, don’t worry—the podcast will be available on all major platforms. Whether you’re a business owner, a team leader, or simply someone who wants to positively influence the people around you, this is one conversation you won’t want to miss.

Taylor Scott's book, "Lead with Hospitality: Be Human. Emotionally Connect. Serve Selflessly" is a powerhouse of a book that digs deep into an area that most leadership books will delve into, and that is leading with hospitality.  Whatever business you think you are in, the fact is we are all in the hospitality business.

If you are like me you may be thinking, well I have to deal with customers so, maybe my business is in the hospitality business.  But what you may not be thinking is that hospitality starts with your people.  Are your people being treated with hospitality?

Taylor sees for areas and they are in order in order to lead with hospitality, Connect, Serve, Engage, and Inspire.  Let's think about this for a minute.  How can we truly have the most productive employees and people if we do not see the import...

Can Empathy Drive Productivity and Profit?
Yes!
What if the greatest leadership superpower wasn’t authority or strategy—but empathy? On the this episode of A New Direction with Coach Jay Izso, my guest Dr. Melissa Robinson-Winemiller unpacks her book The Empathic Leader and explains how empathy, when connected to Emotional Intelligence (EQ), is transforming leadership in ways that boost profit, productivity, and innovation.

Too often, leaders feel pressured to prioritize numbers and outcomes over people. But Dr. Robinson-Winemiller makes the case that empathy isn’t a “soft skill” at all—it’s a strategic advantage rooted in EQ. We’ll dive into how empathic leadership helps uncover hidden strengths, fosters trust, and fuels creativity in teams. If you’ve ever wondered why some leaders inspire while others burn people out, the missing ingredient may be empathy.

This conversation isn’t about being “nice” or “agreeable.” It’s about results. Companies that embed empathy into their leadership culture—anchored in Emotional Intelligence—consistently outperform their competitors. Dr. Robinson-Winemiller will share why empathy is the leader’s most underutilized tool, and how developing this EQ muscle can transform organizations from the inside out.

Join Dr. Melissa and me for a powerful discussion that will challenge everything you thought you knew about leadership. Whether you’re leading a company, a team, or even your own personal growth, The Empathic Leader will open your eyes to why empathy changes everything. Watch live, interact in real time, or catch the replay on the A New Direction podcast—because the future of leadership starts with empathy.

Dr. Melissa Robison-Winemiller's book, "The Empathic Leader: How EQ via Empathy Transforms Leadership for Better Profit, Productivity, and Innovation" is a read for anyone who is in leadership, wants to be in leadership, or just needs to connect with greater ability with another person.


This book is not as Dr. Melissa says, "woo-woo".  This is a book filled with research that makes a clear case that leading with empathy may be the one emotional intelligence factor that may be missing from your business moving upward to the next level.

The fact is we probably have some idea of what empathy is, but more than likely we don't know what empathy is not.  She makes this very clear.  Then she shows us the most important factor and that is empathy is a skill that must be practiced on a daily basis and how we truly put it into action.  And that is the key.  It's not a feel good thing, it is an action that we all can take.

I found the book to be incredibly inspiring, and really challenged my mindset on what I thought I knew about empathy.  This book is now a took in my tool box of emotional intelligence of how I can use it and distinguish between simply building rapport and actually connecting with other on a level that changes the outcomes.

Get your copy of "The Empathic Leader" by clicking here!

Please thank the sponsors of A New Direction for their financial support by LIKING their business pages and or send them a note of appreciation.

7 Strategies to Build a Better Now in Life and Business
In this episode of A New Direction with Coach Jay Izso I have a powerful conversation that could change the way you experience every moment of your life and your business. My guest, Greg Bennick, speaker, humanitarian, and author of the inspiring new book Reclaim the Moment: 7 Strategies to Build a Better Now, joins me to share how to stop letting life and your business slip by and instead start living it with intention.

Greg has spent years speaking around the world about resilience, meaning, and transformation. In Reclaim the Moment, he offers seven practical strategies that help you take back control of your time, your focus, build your business team, and ultimately your joy. Whether you feel stuck in the past, overwhelmed in the present, or anxious about the future, Greg’s insights will guide you toward living and doing your business more fully and with greater purpose.

This is not just another interview about self-help or business theory. Greg brings raw stories, proven strategies, and a deeply human perspective that will challenge you to shift from being passive in your own life to becoming active, intentional, and engaged. These are tools you can start applying immediately—in your relationships, your business, your career, your personal goals, and your mindset.

Tune in for practical wisdom, heartfelt stories, and a fresh outlook on how to reclaim the moment and build a better now. And if you can’t catch us live, make sure to listen later to the replay—you won’t want to miss this conversation that could spark the change you’ve been waiting for. You and your business will be grateful you did!

Greg Bennick's book, "Reclaim the Moment: 7 Strategies to Build a Better Now", is a fun and insightful read.  Greg, takes stories from his life that are both filled with humor and meaning.  He also uses research to support his ideas, taking them from theory to reality.

The fact about this book is really going to build a better you and a better business.  Greg's 7 Strategies may be some things you have heard before, but he expands on them in a unique and insightful way.  These 7 strategies, if you follow his prescription will take you and your business from ordinary to extraordinary.

I found two of them especially important when dealing in my own business that I could use work to develop.  The first is "Laughter".  In the world of business where everything is so serious, we don't take the time to laugh in our places of employment. And yes there is room for it! The benefits of laughter are both physiological and psychological, and desperately needed in a way too serious world.

The second was the Reverberation Effect.  The whole idea that we can start with an idea, and then connect with others, and rather than it losing steam we actually can amplify it.

This book is a real winner.  It is clever, insightful, and fun.

Get your copy of Reclaim the Moment by Clicking Here.

Please thank the sponsors of A New Direction:

Linda Craft Team, Realtors, for more than 40 years they have created relationships that last a lifetime.

That is why when it comes to real estate, they are known as the “legends of customer service”.

They know that your home is personal.

How Peer-to-Peer Networks Will Surpass the Best CEO Driven Companies
What if your smartest move as a leader is to stop trying to be the smartest person in the room? Join me on A New Direction with Coach Jay, as I sit down with Rod Collins, author of Nobody Is Smarter than Everybody: Why Self-Managed Teams Make Better Decisions and Deliver Extraordinary Results. We’re diving into the playbook that replaces top-down control with collective intelligence through peer-to-peer teams—and shows why the crowd, when organized well, consistently outperforms the lone hero.

In this conversation, you’ll discover the seven power shifts of peer-to-peer networking teams: from hierarchy to networks, meetings to real-time cycles, opinions to evidence, secrecy to radical transparency, bottlenecks to distributed decision-making, rigid plans to rapid iteration, and compliance to shared ownership. If you lead a business, a sales team, or a creative squad, you’ll walk away with practical ways to unlock faster decisions, higher accountability, and outcomes your competition can’t match.

We’ll get tactical. How do you set clear decision rights without a bossy org chart? What metrics matter when peer-to-peer teams manage themselves? How do you replace status meetings with continuous, visible workflows? Rod will break down through real life examples that you can deploy this week—think peer commitments, short feedback loops, and “the few rules that create a lot of freedom.” Expect examples, frameworks, and step-by-step moves you can test immediately.

Bring your team, your questions, and your curiosity. Tune in and listen in to  a conversation that could change how you lead—and how your people thrive. Miss it live? No worries: catch the replay and share it with your whole organization. LISTEN IN RIGHT HERE and let’s prove, together, that nobody is smarter than everybody.

Rod Collin's Book "Nobody Is Smarter Than Everybody: Why Self-Managed Teams Make Better Decisions and Deliver Extraordinary Results" is a mind bender of a book.  As open of a mindset that I believe I had, and as much of a growth mindset that I believe I operate in...Nobody is Smarter Than Everybody challenged me.

Honestly, I have lived in a hierarchical world.  Where I am used to someone being in charge and being the leader that makes the decisions.  In fact, I am that person.  The thought of peer-to-peer groups actually being faster and more efficient seemed so counterintuitive to me.  To embrace it was a mindset challenge I needed to change.

However, as I read the book and reading example after example of how peer-to-peer teams embraced this change of structure, I found myself realizing it is the correct model.

Can we be honest with each other?  Technology is moving faster than one human can adapt to.  In the technological and AI world we find ourselves, we cannot individually handle the amount of information and utilize it effectively.  Let's also state a fact that here we are in the 21st Century, operating business with early 20th Century Industrial Revolution model.  It simply cannot work. We need peer-to-peer solutions with all the combined brain power.

This is where Nobody is Smarter than Everybody comes in.  Rod Collins makes the strong case with examples of how if we are going to compete with networks we need to become a network utilizing all the brain power we have available to us in our companies by shedding the...

26 Jerks in the Work Place...Are You 27?
Your workplace should be a place of growth, teamwork, and purpose—but what happens when one person throws it all off track? In his new book The One-Minute Jerk at Work, Rich Salon—better known as “Rich the HR Guy”—shines a bright light on the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways toxic behaviors can creep into your office and derail your career. On this episode of A New Direction with Coach Jay Izso, we’ll unpack these behaviors, why they matter, and what you can do about them.
Have you ever had a coworker like Wesley the Weasel who constantly takes credit for your ideas, or Micromanaging Maria who micromanages every move, or Rumor Mill Roger who thrives on stirring up drama with Rumors? Rich calls them “one-minute jerks”—people who may only need sixty seconds to poison a conversation, a meeting, or even an entire workplace culture. Together, we’ll explore the practical tools from his book that help you identify these jerks early and stop their behavior from taking root.

But this conversation isn’t just about spotting the jerks around you—it’s also about a little self-reflection. Could you be number 27...the one-minute jerk without realizing it? Rich’s insights go beyond finger-pointing and invite us to hold up a mirror, recognize blind spots in our own behavior, and make changes that foster trust, respect, and productivity.

Whether you’re a leader trying to build a stronger team, an employee navigating difficult dynamics, or simply someone who wants to work in a healthier environment, this episode will give you the strategies to create a more positive and effective workplace. Join me, Coach Jay, for this powerful and eye-opening discussion with Rich Salon—because the jerk at work doesn’t have to win.

Rich Salon's book, "The One-Minute Jerk at Work" is a fun, fast, educational read that you will take with you to work immediately.  You will be diagnosing your co-workers and wondering why they became a "Micromanaging Maria" or a "Pessimist Pete" and how they are disrupting the workplace. The next question is "what can I do about it?" Rich offers suggestions there too.

The book also comes with self-reflecting questions that you need to ask yourself.  The fact is we all lack self-awareness and Rich Salon wants to make sure that you are also taking a close look at yourself because while there are 26 mentioned in the book you may be number 27.

Insightful, enjoyable and well written, The One-minute Jerk at Work will be a fun read to explore and do some critical self-analysis so you avoid being a "Jerk at Work" yourself.

Get Your Copy by Clicking Here!

Please reach out to the sponsors of A New Direction and tell them thank you!

Linda Craft Team, REALTORS for more than 40 years they have helped people worldwide sell their home or buy their home.

They are completely unaffiliated with any nationally branded real estate company and can refer you to the best expert in your area for real estate regardless of that agents affiliation.

What is more because they are located in the Greater Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Research Triangle Park area they help major companies with their move,

Business Start Your Engines with 5 Flags to Enhance your Sales and Strategy
Why do so many companies struggle to grow—even when they have talented sales teams and visionary executives? On the next episode of A New Direction, I, Coach Jay Izso, sit down with Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author Scott Edinger to discuss his latest book, The Growth Leader. Scott’s research uncovers a costly disconnect between the C-Suite and the sales force—driven by the fact that business strategy and sales strategy often live in separate worlds. The result? Leaders obsess over quotas and transactions instead of delivering a powerful, customer-driven experience.

In The Growth Leader, Scott shows that bridging this gap is not just possible—it’s essential. And it starts with what he calls The 5 Flags Start: Define Success, Embrace Your Power Play, Identify Your Customer, Create Value, and Execute. Each of these steps is a practical move any leader can take to transform how their organization thinks about growth, sales alignment, and customer engagement.

During this episode, Scott will break down each of these 5 Flags, revealing how they help leaders align their vision with real-world sales execution. You’ll hear why defining success goes far beyond revenue targets, how to identify your “power play” that differentiates you in the market, why knowing your customer is non-negotiable, and how creating true value leads to stronger, longer-lasting business relationships. And finally—how to stop talking about growth and start executing it.

If you’re an executive, entrepreneur, or sales leader who’s tired of missed targets, siloed thinking, and wasted potential, this is the episode you can’t afford to miss. Join us live Wednesday, August 13th at 5:30 pm Eastern, and discover how to align your strategy, empower your sales team, and lead your organization into sustainable, customer-focused growth.

Scott Edinger's book, "The Growth Leader: Strategies to Drive the Top and Bottom lines" is fundamentally and practically fantastic!

The bottom line is this, you as a CEO want your team to sell more,

Don't confuse Human Hacking with Manipulation...Like Everything there can be a Dark Side, but Now When It Is Used for Good
What if you could ethically influence others, build instant rapport, and create lasting positive impressions—just by understanding human behavior more deeply? On the next episode of A New Direction with Coach Jay Izso, we welcome Christopher Hadnagy, world-renowned social engineer, cybersecurity expert, and bestselling author of Human Hacking: Win Friends, Influence People, and Leave Them Better Off for Having Met You. This is not your average conversation about relationships or persuasion—this is a masterclass in human connection rooted in psychology, empathy, and real-world application.
Chris has spent his career studying how people think, communicate, and make decisions. In this episode, he reveals how the same principles used in cybersecurity and social engineering can be powerfully applied to everyday life through social engineering or "human hacking"—whether you’re leading a team, building a business, networking, or simply trying to be a better version of yourself. From decoding body language to navigating tough conversations, Chris breaks down the tools to ethically influence outcomes while making others feel seen, heard, and valued.

We’ll dive into practical techniques of human hacking that go beyond manipulation and into the realm of authentic connection—where the goal isn’t just to get what you want, but to genuinely elevate the lives of those around you. Chris calls it “leaving people better off for having met you,” and he’ll show us how to make that mindset the foundation of everything we do.

If you’re a leader, coach, entrepreneur, or simply someone who wants to have more meaningful and effective interactions, this episode is for you. Join Coach Jay Izso and Chris Hadnagy as we explore the hidden power of human behavior—and how mastering human hacking can change your relationships, your business, and your life.

If you are looking to hire a great speaker and master of practical influence, please go to Chris' website Social Engineer | The Experts in Social Engineering

Chris Hadnagy book, "Human Hacking: Show more...