July 10, 2024

From Amazon, BMW, and Google to You

From Amazon, BMW, and Google to You

Join host Divya Parekh as she chats with Stefan F. Dieffenbacher, the international award-winning founder of Digital Leadership Inc. Stefan, who has led innovation projects with giants like Amazon, BMW, Google, and Pfizer, shares his expertise on...

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Join host Divya Parekh as she chats with Stefan F. Dieffenbacher, the international award-winning founder of Digital Leadership Inc. Stefan, who has led innovation projects with giants like Amazon, BMW, Google, and Pfizer, shares his expertise on improving success rates in corporate innovations. Stefan breaks down a 4-step process to take your company's innovation from "idea" to "amazing success story." Subscribe to this episode.

Beyond Confidence is broadcast live Tuesdays at 10AM ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Beyond Confidence TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).

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The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are

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solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not

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four WN Radio.

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This is Beyond Confidence with your host W Park. Do

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you want to live a more fulfilling life? Do you

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want to live your legacy and achieve your personal, professional,

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and financial goals? Well? Coming up on dvparks Beyond Confidence,

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you will hear real stories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and achievers

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who have stepped into discomfort, shattered their status quo, and

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are living the life they want. You will learn how

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relationships are the key to achieving your aspirations and financial goals.

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Moving your career business forward does not have to happen

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at the expense of your personal or family life or

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vice versa. Learn more at WWDS You Done, Divpark Dot

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com and you can connect with div ants contact ants

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divpark dot com. This is beyond confidence and now here's

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your host, div Park.

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Good morning. It's wonderful to be here with y'all. And

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what I want to share is a really cool story

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that happened recently and it goes back to our kindness circle.

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So it you know, as we all are human beings

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and we all make mistakes. I don't know about you,

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but I definitely make mistakes every day. So with one

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of my team members, I thought that, like when we

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were talking, they were good. But then after the conversation,

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I had an inklink that the conversation we had had,

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the feedback I had provided may not have set well

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with them. So for me, it's important to be there

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for someone. The work is critical, the work and business

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keep the lights on in everybody's home, and yet people

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come first. So I reached out and I shared that,

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you know, let's have a five minute conversation and we

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were just talking in general and I opened up this

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space and it was amazing how that person shared back

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with me as.

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To what.

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Did not sit well with them and what I want

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to like go back from this kind of story and

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what I want to share with you is that they

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were very kind and understanding that I was a human

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being and that it was just a misunderstanding. So so

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many times what happens is that we assume things. So

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it's important to have that open communication and kindness also

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includes having those tough conversations, because kindness is not just

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going and doing an act. Kindness is also about sitting

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down and step into the discomfort zone and asking people like, Okay,

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let's clarify, Let's bring things out in the open. Otherwise

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what happens is that there may be a little wound

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that can become a boil. So you don't want to

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let that happen. So just wanted to share that story

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with you all, and thank you for everyone who have

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gotten books. We really appreciate you because those books Expert

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to an Influencer and the Entrepreneur's Garden will change your

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life because I can share with you it's not because

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these are our books, because I've heard back from readers,

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and also it's going to change other people's lives because

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we do share out part of the profit with keebo

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dot org. So I want to thank you each and

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every one of you for your support and making our

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show possible. Let's invite our guest in Welcome Stefan.

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Hey, nice to be here.

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Thank you so much for having me absolutely, thank you

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for your time and being open to sharing your thoughts

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and experience. So usually we start out in the childhood.

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Do you have any positive memory from your childhood where

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it was a person or a situation or an event

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that left a positive mark on you.

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I remember, it's a funny story. I remember that my

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mom picked me up from school when I was like

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a six year old kid, and I think we were

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locked out of the house because she had forgotten the key,

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and we also had picked up my sister, which was

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a little bit longer, younger she was in the kindergarten,

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and my father he was traveling for professional reasons and

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no way to enter the house. And then my mom

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was coming like, well, what do we do? Yeah, she

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went to a telephone, to a telephone cabin, I mean

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cell phones didn't exist back then. She called up a

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friend in Munich and asked her if he could stay

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the weekend with her because we couldn't go inside the house,

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into our house. Yeah, and there we were and ended

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up ended up in Munich, and that's the first time

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I got into Munich's beautiful opera.

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Oh wow, what a beautiful story.

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That was a big story. And how to approach life

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basically from my mom. She always was like, if something

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doesn't work, you do the next better thing instead of

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the next verse one, you do the next better one.

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That was my mom goodness, very resourceful and insightful. So

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as you grew up, did you have any interests just

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like any other kids or your interests were different? I

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guess my sports any day.

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I guess I was a very avid reader, and at

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home we used to have thousands of books and I

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really enjoyed reading, and we had a few different national

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international newspapers at home. I guess I also had the

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luck to be able to travel a lot with my

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parents at a young age, and I was big time

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into sports.

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That's fantastic. So what would you say, Like, you know,

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you did a lot of different things, sports, in traveling,

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and reading. So reading has been reading and traveling has

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been one of my favorite things, as well as sports.

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What would you say that each of the things taught

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you a lesson that has stayed with you even till today.

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The sports, perhaps if you start with sports. Sport was

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I think important because you learned to move and manage

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your body, and if you do that at a competitive level,

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I think it's important that you'll learn to compete in

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life somewhere. It doesn't matter where. Can be a good

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violinist player or do whatever you like, but learning to

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compete at some level I think is an important lesson.

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I managed to get this in sports in two or

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three disciplines, which certainly built me to a degree, because

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once you've figured out how you compete in one area

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and how you get good in one area, you just

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replicate the same process. I think reading has absolutely been

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critical because it builds knowledge and that thirst for discovery

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and experiences and learning, which I had brought me to

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live in many countries, so today live in Zurich in Switzerland,

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which happens to be my fourteenth country. That led me

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to explore very different fields, to read literally thousands of books,

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to eventually write for not or three. Yeah, I think

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these were important stories. And last, but not least, traveling

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is a way. I mean, unless you just go for

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beach travels, if you really travel to explore the world,

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you get to know the world now. And this makes

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me feel comfortable today that I have seen so many

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different areas of the world, both rich and poor, lived

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in different countries, managed to see so many different places,

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which was uniquely enriching. Now it definitely opened me big

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time for this world.

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And between these travels and between playing sports, tell us, like,

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you know, where did your career interest take you?

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My career interest, I got started with computers relatively early,

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which raised my curiosity, and then eventually started selling computers

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when I was like a fifteen year old kid, and

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when I was seventeen, so that was back in nineteen

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ninety eight. I was joining a first startup instead.

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Of going to school.

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That was basically my history, and then it went on

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from there.

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Well, that's fantastic, tell us about that's amazing a fifteen

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year old I can just kind of imagine you're walking

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down and working with the computers. And there's so many

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young entrepreneurs out there who think that college is the

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only route to take. The key is that it's knowing

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about yourself. So how did you know that's what you

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wanted to do, that you wanted to start up have

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a startup at that young of an age.

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Actually, I wasn't sure. To be honest, I think you

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can do a lot of thinking, but in the end,

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if you haven't been to that place, it's unlikely you

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figure that out by just thinking. So I would definitely

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welcome and invite you to explore and to test more.

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Unless you try it out yourself, you will never know

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if it's your shoe size, I mean, if it fits you,

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and if it if it feels good. Yeah. So that

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startup I just got involved in there. It was a

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fantastic experience for me, But I didn't know that was

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a good one before I was there.

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Yea.

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And repeatedly in my life, I've been thinking hard about

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certain things. Sometimes I was right, sometimes I was wrong.

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Some things you simply have to try and to do. Yeah,

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and you can't foresee how they eventually end up if

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you haven't been there yet.

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Absolutely, you bring home a really good point that you

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just can't know everything for sure. It's about being open

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to failing, and it's about being open to experimenting, because

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that's what all science and innovation is about. So tell us, like,

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you know, what was your startup about, and were you

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the only one or did you have it a group

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of other people? And what was your journey like through that?

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Let me actually comment on the point you just made.

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I remember having read a long blog article from Clayton

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Christensen at some point in time. And Clayton Christensen was

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that famous Harvard professor, and he wrote various books, and

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he opened several companies, etc. And so you eventually believe

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that this is one of the most successful human beings

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out there, having I mean a Harvard several books, several

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successful companies, etc. And in that blog article, he really

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analyzed step by step what he did in his life

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and he came to the conclusion that eighty percent of

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everything he tried eventually failed. And he goes through his

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life story and he goes like, well, I wanted to

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do journalism. I applied at Chicago Tribute and then New

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York Posts, etc. They didn't take me, they rejected me,

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they rejected me, et cetera. And it's amazing that one

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of the most successful people eventually came to the conclusion

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that most of the things he did in life eventually failed.

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And actually, the more you try, the more you're going

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to fail, but the more big wins you're going to have.

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And that story from Clayton Christensen inspired me to look

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at my own track record and see what actually failed

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and what went well. And also I've to acknowledged that

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many things eventually failed up. But this is part of life.

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Unless you choose a very stable career and work in

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the post office from day one to till you're sixty

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five till you retire, you're going to make errors. And

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the more you experiment, the more errors you're going to make.

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But the more big wins you're going to.

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Take home, absolutely, and there is the joy of taking

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big wren homes. So here's also I want to catch

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upon what you mentioned is that the more you try,

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the more you're going to fail. And it's a perspective.

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The way I see it is that the more you fail,

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the more you learn, and the more you learn, the

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more you grow, and the more deeper your capacity gets,

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the more your death you have, then you are able

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to perform at a higher level. So it brings its

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own things. So tell us a little bit about your

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startup experience and how long did that last.

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Well, that was a very early startup experience. I was

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like eighteen when it all started, or seventeen seventeen I think,

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And basically the idea back then, I mean search engines

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at least the Googles, et cetera. Didn't exist. Back then.

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It was Yahoo and Alta Vista, et cetera. And we

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were basically the central idea was building a local Internet

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catalog similar to what Yahoo and AltaVista I have been,

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but next to offering global information about general worldly things,

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we would offer local information like who is the car

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dealer in your city, what is going happening in the

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cinema in your city, etc. These kind of information. I

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think that was the pivotal idea, and from a business perspective,

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that dramatically changed the revenue model because suddenly local stores

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made sense for them to advertise locally, so totally new

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revenue streams as opposed to the big search engines. And

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that went on quite well. We got a few patterns.

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We got supported from Sun Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, which existed

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still back then. It was a big player, got international eventually,

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but crashed in the dot com crash like many other companies. Nevertheless,

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a part of that technology survived and was successfully sold

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on to another one of the big corporates.

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Yep, not congratulations, because as young as you were, you

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experimented it and you were able to move it forward

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to success. What would you say with your key learnings?

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Because there's so many of our bright youngsters, especially gen Z,

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they're so self starters, and of course, you know, every

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generation is pointing out like, oh, gen Z can be

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like this, gen Z can be like that. One of

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the things that I really appreciate about them is that

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they're self starters. So that a lot of youngsters out

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there thinking, oh, I want to do my start I

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want to go ahead and start this. What would you

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say would be a few lessons that they need to

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keep in mind as they're thinking about it.

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Well, this is very much the topic of my book,

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How to Create Innovation. It's a book we have als

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based on a ton of research, and in the end,

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I think most importantly and particularly young people like to believe, hey,

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this is my startup. It's unique. We are doing this

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and it has a very special angle and therefore it's special.

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But this is wrong. I mean, by far, most parts

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in a business are similar and have been done before.

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So rely on best practices, rely on approaches, on methodologies

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and tools which are proven in the marketplace, and use

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those because you don't have to reinvent the world. Ninety

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percent of a business model should remain absolutely the same

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without changes, So copy and paste wherever you can and

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focus on the few things. These are very few things,

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normally two to five percent of an organization which are

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truly differentiating where your business model is different, and this

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is where you have to reinvent the wheel for the rest.

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Rely on strong processes and copy and paste wherever you

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can to reduce the amount of errors you're making, particularly

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as a young entrepreneur.

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Very powerful. So what you're telling is that see and

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look at the businesses that are already established, that they're

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doing well, and how are they doing So what would

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be the point of differentiation? You mentioned that there are

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twenty percent that's different from the rest of the market,

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because there's always you know, we talk about the fit

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to market and talking about unmad user needs. So how

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can it You know, it doesn't have to be just

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young entrepreneurs or young startup companies. I wouldn't go about.

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It two different things. The first thing, let's talk about

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strategy execution, huh. And basically, if you look at the

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processes and capabilities or capabilities inside a firm, eighty percent

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of the processes or capabilities of a firm are non core.

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That means they're not even industry specific. The way you

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do marketing, the way you do accounting, the way you

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do your age R, the way you do your forecasting,

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the way you do your technology and engineering, even most

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likely production is not industry specific most likely, and that

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means if you if eighty percent of your pros are

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not industry specific, it's unlikely that you should be innovating there.

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Quite On the opposite, this is where you should be

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standardizing and leveraging best and leading practices. This is where

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you copy and paste and just try to be as

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effective as possible with the least amount of investment. Only

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twenty percent is industry specific, and you're only differentiating with

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two to five percent. And these are the very few

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areas where you really invest in your differentiation, where you

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innovate with everything you got, where you launch product innovation,

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marketing innovation, etc. But the important MESSO is in the

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eighty percent of all processes and all capabilities of your firm.

304
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This is where you can save cost. This is where

305
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you should save cost. This is where you should be

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standardizing important lesson number one. The other topic you just traced.

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Deva was understanding the customer needs. And this is what

308
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goes absolutely wrong out there on We are all working,

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we're doing our marketing, our product development, our sales, always

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towards certain segments and toward certain personas. This is and

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particularly for startups, often doesn't work well because it's not

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about those segments. I mean, you've got to know me

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now a little bit. I mean dev and I are

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talking now for a few minutes to have a very

315
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simple question. And the question is which do I go

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to a fanc restaurant tonight or to a bar? And

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imagine you have all the information of the world about me,

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You have any marketing segmentation, any persona information you ever

319
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dreamed of. You have that about me, and you're not

320
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able to answer that question with any significant likelihood.

321
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Yeah.

322
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So now I give you just one additional piece of information. Yeah.

323
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So tonight, I'm back in Paris. I'm meeting with my

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fellow students, which I've been studying with fifteen years ago.

325
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And now I think it's relatively obvious with that single information,

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you now know, oh well, those guys are most likely

327
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going to the bar now, not to a fancy restaurant. Yeah. So,

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and as this example illustrates, personas and segments do not

329
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prescribe or do not describe well how somebody's going to act.

330
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You have to understand really the important but unmeat customer.

331
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In this case, Stefan didn't go to a bar for

332
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whatever reasons. She did go to a bar to meet

333
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back his student's colleagues. Huh. So what we as to

334
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improve the success rates as entrepreneurs or corporate innovators. Huh

335
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we have to understand those deep, important but unmat customer

336
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needs and stop working on personas and segmentation.

337
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Hmm. That is definitely a different way of thinking because everywhere,

338
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like you look, people are talking about ideal customer profile,

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people are talking about ideal customer avatar. So it's about

340
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what you're talking is going at a deeper level and

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understanding that what they're looking for and where is the

342
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area where the needs are not met, And then that's

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where you're bringing in the innovation.

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Exactly, Because I mean, Diva and I we could go

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to the same bar for very different reasons, yeah, and

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we are from very different customer segments, and DEV and

347
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I we could be both purchasing candles for very different reasons.

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We are not definitely not at all in the same

349
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segment we would take the flight, would take a flight

350
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as well for very different reasons, but we're still not

351
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in the same segments. So you could go on and on. Basically,

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particularly if you're not in a well established market, untirely

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forget personas and segmentation and really understand what the important

354
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need is. Somebody is having what that important but unmid

355
00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:41.000
need is. There is an entire methodology around that, which

356
00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:43.480
is called jobs to be done. Have a look at it.

357
00:22:43.480 --> 00:22:48.240
It's extremely powerful. And ninety nine percent of the organization's

358
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out there fail and what they do instead, and that

359
00:22:50.920 --> 00:22:56.240
is highly problematic since they have no idea what that important, big, important,

360
00:22:56.279 --> 00:22:59.680
but unmid customer need is. They go for ideation, so

361
00:22:59.720 --> 00:23:04.319
it's and ideation is so they invent ideas. The recent

362
00:23:04.359 --> 00:23:07.400
newspaper article was like, oh, let's go for one hundred

363
00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:11.720
ideas for one to fly. Ideation is simply a luck

364
00:23:11.759 --> 00:23:14.240
based approach. Is you could as well play the lottery.

365
00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:19.160
It's simply unlikely that true ideation. You're going to find

366
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a startup idea that is inside the frame that you

367
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can execute up that meets your differentiating capabilities that is

368
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ahead of the competition, that meets an important but unmeat customery.

369
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So stop idea, stop ideating. Yeah, I can't get over this. Yeah,

370
00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:40.640
that's one of the most important reasons why startups fail

371
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because it's just so unlikely that you pick a winner

372
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out of one hundred ideas. It's just.

373
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You are pointing out something that might be counterintuitive to

374
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so many people in the industry and as that listening,

375
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they may be scratching their heads that without ideas, how

376
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is in a way possible? So tell us like, Okay,

377
00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:06.400
it's a concept is going to be there. But then

378
00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:11.119
from having that concept to building that proof of concept,

379
00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:14.079
what are one of the ways to go about where

380
00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:18.720
you're still maintaining innovation, where you're still reducing the odds

381
00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:19.240
of failure.

382
00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:27.160
Perhaps it's best to talk about a case study so

383
00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:34.640
then it becomes a little bit practical. And so we

384
00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:37.119
have been working with one of the big chemical firms

385
00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:42.119
in the world in agriculture, et cetera, and they wanted

386
00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:45.720
to penetrate the Asian market because the Asian markets are huge.

387
00:24:45.799 --> 00:24:49.519
Alone in India are five hundred million farmers. I mean,

388
00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:53.599
that's a quantity unheard of, Yeah, and similar neighboring countries

389
00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:57.160
extreme amounts of farmers, but nobody knew what these guys

390
00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:01.279
would help need help with. So we studied basically a

391
00:25:01.400 --> 00:25:05.640
large job, a large challenge, which was how to succeed

392
00:25:05.799 --> 00:25:08.519
in the business of farming. That was the field of study,

393
00:25:10.279 --> 00:25:15.240
and so we strategically broke down each step the farmer

394
00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:19.319
had from selecting the crops, working the field, watering the plants,

395
00:25:19.799 --> 00:25:23.680
eventually harvesting, then selling all the harvest. We strategically looked

396
00:25:23.680 --> 00:25:26.039
at all steps and broke this down even into more

397
00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:31.000
details until we had fully mapped out that entire process.

398
00:25:31.119 --> 00:25:34.440
And it was like, I think goes to two hundred

399
00:25:34.519 --> 00:25:38.640
individual steps from checking water levels to do we have

400
00:25:38.759 --> 00:25:43.680
enough pesticides against whatever animals, etc. Who might beating the crops,

401
00:25:44.119 --> 00:25:47.880
And then we checked with a mass survice. So we interwed.

402
00:25:48.240 --> 00:25:53.519
So we served over five hundred farmers in India, two

403
00:25:53.599 --> 00:25:56.880
hundred farmers in Thailand, et cetera. We asked them, hey,

404
00:25:58.319 --> 00:26:01.599
are you actually successful with it or are you struggling

405
00:26:01.640 --> 00:26:04.759
with this step? And based on that survey, we could

406
00:26:04.920 --> 00:26:08.480
really pinpoint what are they struggling with and they haven't

407
00:26:08.519 --> 00:26:12.480
been struggling with water management, but they hugely struggled, for example,

408
00:26:12.519 --> 00:26:17.319
with selecting a crop that would yield good outcomes I

409
00:26:17.359 --> 00:26:22.119
mean good monetary outcomes for them. In the end, that's what's,

410
00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:25.480
for example, one key insight for them. And once you

411
00:26:25.559 --> 00:26:28.599
have such a nugget, such an insight, yeah, and this

412
00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:33.319
is statistically proven that five hundred farmers or x percent

413
00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:38.799
do have that issue. Yeah, and it's monetary wise a

414
00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:41.880
big one for them, then you know exactly where you

415
00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:46.680
can innovate. Then innovation becomes almost based on such an insight,

416
00:26:46.799 --> 00:26:50.319
becomes almost an engineering discipline. And believe me, companies are

417
00:26:50.319 --> 00:26:54.359
good at engineering, but they're really poor at identifying important

418
00:26:54.359 --> 00:26:55.680
but unmid customer needs.

419
00:26:57.240 --> 00:27:01.200
So what I'm hearing Stefan this is brilliant and that

420
00:27:01.440 --> 00:27:07.599
when you are innovating, you are innovating, and yet what

421
00:27:07.640 --> 00:27:11.400
you're doing is that you're ensuring the success of it

422
00:27:11.480 --> 00:27:14.720
because you've gone down through each and every single step

423
00:27:15.240 --> 00:27:20.000
you've done your market research, you have been pointed exactly

424
00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:23.920
what are the areas that need to be either optimized

425
00:27:24.039 --> 00:27:30.279
or innovated or recreated whatever it is. In having that

426
00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:37.680
information is like having the key to success? Am I

427
00:27:37.759 --> 00:27:38.839
understanding that correctly.

428
00:27:39.799 --> 00:27:44.000
Absolutely. I think we need to mature in general the

429
00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:48.279
discipline of innovation so we have a chance at increasing

430
00:27:48.319 --> 00:27:50.799
the success rate. And for that we need much stronger

431
00:27:50.839 --> 00:27:54.799
processes and we need to follow leading patterns. Ultimately, I

432
00:27:54.880 --> 00:27:59.839
believe that similar to many other fields, innovation can become

433
00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:05.160
much more of an engineering discipline with much higher success rates.

434
00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:08.680
It just can't be that ninety percent of all innovation

435
00:28:08.759 --> 00:28:12.200
initiatives out there fail, regardless if it's corporates or startups.

436
00:28:12.279 --> 00:28:15.400
We have to change that, and.

437
00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:19.039
That is really powerful. So now we have let's say

438
00:28:19.160 --> 00:28:23.920
our minimum viable product where you know that you will

439
00:28:23.960 --> 00:28:27.079
have your proof of concept. So now how do you

440
00:28:27.200 --> 00:28:31.759
take that not only build, but also you build it

441
00:28:31.799 --> 00:28:34.119
in such a way that you are able to scale,

442
00:28:34.200 --> 00:28:37.079
because so many times what happens is that especially startups

443
00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:42.400
or even mid sized companies, they start, they experience success,

444
00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:47.119
but they're not built in scaling in the processes and

445
00:28:47.359 --> 00:28:51.160
fundamentals and systems and operations. And then what happens is

446
00:28:51.160 --> 00:28:55.480
as they scale, the system starts falling apart. What advice

447
00:28:55.480 --> 00:28:56.839
would you have for our audience.

448
00:28:58.960 --> 00:29:02.720
Okay, first of all, let's clarify briefly what an MVP

449
00:29:02.920 --> 00:29:06.759
is about. Because an MVP is not a proof of

450
00:29:06.839 --> 00:29:13.119
concept anymore. MVP is a quantitatively proven business formula that

451
00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:16.960
has worked in practice. People start confusing that because a

452
00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:20.160
proof of concept should happen before that. Yeah, MVP is

453
00:29:20.200 --> 00:29:22.640
there in real life. It works, and it works in

454
00:29:22.720 --> 00:29:26.559
practice and is quantitatively proven. Now, I think we have

455
00:29:26.599 --> 00:29:30.799
to differentiate thereafter in two scenarios. If it's a corporate

456
00:29:31.599 --> 00:29:35.480
or a startup are two different cases. But in both

457
00:29:35.599 --> 00:29:40.640
cases you have to mature all processes across the entire

458
00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:44.200
business model sufficiently. Because as you grow, as you grow,

459
00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:47.400
as you double in size or as your tenax in size,

460
00:29:47.400 --> 00:29:50.519
you have to lift up any aspect of your business model.

461
00:29:50.920 --> 00:29:54.680
You have to improve your financials, your AhR, your core processes,

462
00:29:54.720 --> 00:29:57.839
your marketing, et cetera, and so on. This is usually

463
00:29:57.920 --> 00:30:01.119
where the shit basically, where the fan hits the ship,

464
00:30:01.279 --> 00:30:05.440
where the ship hits the them. Sorry, yeah, because some

465
00:30:05.720 --> 00:30:11.920
parts are left behind. Not all things are skilled equally,

466
00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:15.599
but that is what ultimately needs to happen. What it

467
00:30:15.640 --> 00:30:20.599
would encourage you to do is. Normally an organization has

468
00:30:21.119 --> 00:30:26.200
one main value stream. Yeah, sometimes two, normally only one.

469
00:30:26.599 --> 00:30:30.799
That main value stream can be depicted in a customer journey.

470
00:30:31.240 --> 00:30:34.079
So you do your customer journey, you map it out,

471
00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:37.400
but next to that customer journey, you are under it

472
00:30:37.480 --> 00:30:41.319
in different swim lanes. You highlight everything that needs to

473
00:30:41.400 --> 00:30:44.799
happen internally. So what are the internal processes to back

474
00:30:44.920 --> 00:30:48.920
up and make this customer journey work? Which systems do

475
00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:52.519
you require, Which data is flowing, which colleagues are working

476
00:30:52.559 --> 00:30:55.200
on which part, which teams are working in which part,

477
00:30:56.160 --> 00:30:58.799
How is the customer getting feedback? So you not only

478
00:30:58.839 --> 00:31:01.839
map out the customer journey, but you map out basically

479
00:31:01.880 --> 00:31:07.960
the entire organization in different swim lanes. They are by

480
00:31:08.079 --> 00:31:13.160
rearranging and improving that single core value chain. That is

481
00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:16.400
I think the most important thing I would be doing,

482
00:31:16.440 --> 00:31:20.359
because this is where things fall apart and for the

483
00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:23.079
rest I mean we just that's something I mentioned at

484
00:31:23.079 --> 00:31:27.079
the beginning. Eighty percent is non care. So in the

485
00:31:27.200 --> 00:31:31.400
non core areas such as I mean likely operations, accounting, shipping,

486
00:31:31.400 --> 00:31:35.039
et cetera, think about outsourcing so you don't have to

487
00:31:35.119 --> 00:31:39.519
mature those processes outsold strategically to somebody who is really

488
00:31:39.559 --> 00:31:40.599
best in class.

489
00:31:41.759 --> 00:31:45.839
Yeah, no, definitely that makes sense because we are going

490
00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:48.759
back to again that when you're doing the market research,

491
00:31:48.799 --> 00:31:51.440
when you're mapping on the customer journey, when you're doing

492
00:31:51.440 --> 00:31:55.359
the innovation that you are bringing in the maduration, and

493
00:31:55.599 --> 00:31:59.200
so many people rush through that process like Okay, if

494
00:31:59.200 --> 00:32:03.279
it is working, it's good, let's just keep going. And

495
00:32:03.319 --> 00:32:06.279
what I'm hearing is that you're playing the long game

496
00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:12.440
versus thinking about the short term cost. Oh.

497
00:32:12.480 --> 00:32:16.480
Absolutely, I think the key error we have been making

498
00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:20.599
is to drive down costs in our innovation processes to

499
00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:23.480
the degree we're an MVP is no more an MVP

500
00:32:23.720 --> 00:32:26.799
but really a proof of concepts, so no quantitative validation.

501
00:32:27.720 --> 00:32:31.799
And I mean this all started. The problem started with

502
00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:35.680
the lean startup. If you want, we got leaner and leaner,

503
00:32:35.759 --> 00:32:38.119
and we are still failing at ninety percent. I don't

504
00:32:38.160 --> 00:32:40.119
think we should be failing at ninety percent. I think

505
00:32:40.119 --> 00:32:43.200
we should be spending more. We should get on top

506
00:32:43.279 --> 00:32:46.200
of our customers important but und needs. We should target

507
00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:50.559
our innovation build those strategically, and while yes it will

508
00:32:50.559 --> 00:32:53.680
be more expensive, we won't. It's not necessary to fail

509
00:32:53.720 --> 00:32:56.400
at ninety percent. If you're smart. You can't broadly get

510
00:32:56.400 --> 00:32:59.480
away with the fifty percent chances of failure, which is

511
00:32:59.480 --> 00:33:03.039
still high, but by factors better than what is currently

512
00:33:03.079 --> 00:33:07.160
out there. So I would really urge us to work

513
00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:11.799
on the investment security we are providing here that costs

514
00:33:11.799 --> 00:33:14.680
a little bit more money, but that drastically improves the

515
00:33:14.759 --> 00:33:15.480
success rate.

516
00:33:16.640 --> 00:33:20.599
No, I definitely agree with you. Is that so many

517
00:33:20.640 --> 00:33:25.039
times and especially companies you know with the quarter earning reportings.

518
00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:31.680
It's the whole culture that we have created is like,

519
00:33:31.720 --> 00:33:33.799
you know, keeping the eye on the short term goals

520
00:33:34.359 --> 00:33:37.839
cost versus playing the long game. So what would you

521
00:33:37.880 --> 00:33:41.039
say that even with all of these things and the

522
00:33:41.079 --> 00:33:47.720
way this whole evolution has happened in the corporate capitalism,

523
00:33:48.720 --> 00:33:51.519
what would you say is are a couple of things

524
00:33:51.559 --> 00:33:55.240
having worked with big giants like Amazon and Google that

525
00:33:55.519 --> 00:33:58.480
have allowed them to stay on the map and sustain

526
00:33:58.519 --> 00:34:05.640
their success.

527
00:34:05.720 --> 00:34:10.480
Let's pick perhaps Google as an example one. And Google

528
00:34:10.719 --> 00:34:15.400
had that pivotal inside with a search engine which would

529
00:34:15.400 --> 00:34:19.079
work differently as opposed to the yahoos and alta vistas, etc.

530
00:34:20.159 --> 00:34:22.960
And that it would rank the authority, that it would

531
00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:26.639
measure the authority of a website and ranked those pages

532
00:34:26.679 --> 00:34:30.280
with high authority higher, which was the central insight behind

533
00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:34.599
Google search engine. So they had one successful innovation which

534
00:34:35.400 --> 00:34:40.920
would scale extremely well but then they thought, well, okay,

535
00:34:41.199 --> 00:34:43.679
what do we do next at this point in time?

536
00:34:43.800 --> 00:34:46.039
That was a very exciting point in time. I remember

537
00:34:46.559 --> 00:34:49.280
Google found it at some point in time Alphabet as

538
00:34:49.320 --> 00:34:54.320
a holding and came up with many more innovation in

539
00:34:54.559 --> 00:34:59.280
other business units to keep growing, to keep scaling, and

540
00:34:59.639 --> 00:35:03.239
to be able to continue its evolution. And this is

541
00:35:03.400 --> 00:35:05.960
I think, how we need to think about innovation now.

542
00:35:06.480 --> 00:35:10.440
It's not always doesn't need to happen within the same company,

543
00:35:10.519 --> 00:35:15.079
within the same structure. Rather think about a portfolio and

544
00:35:15.559 --> 00:35:22.440
launch a series of innovative products, services, et cetera, similar

545
00:35:22.440 --> 00:35:23.840
to what Google has been doing.

546
00:35:24.519 --> 00:35:31.400
M Yeah, very powerful. So Stefan, thank you so much

547
00:35:31.400 --> 00:35:36.840
for being open to kind of sharing your wisdom and

548
00:35:36.920 --> 00:35:42.320
bringing in insights. And I'm sure that our audience is

549
00:35:42.480 --> 00:35:45.760
definitely curious about your books. Where they can connect with you,

550
00:35:46.960 --> 00:35:48.960
because I know that I'm going to look it up.

551
00:35:49.400 --> 00:35:52.960
Wealth of information and knowledge over here, So do share,

552
00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:56.000
like you know, where they can connect with you in

553
00:35:56.239 --> 00:35:58.360
where can they find your books? And tell us about

554
00:35:58.360 --> 00:35:59.400
your books as well.

555
00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:05.079
Well. To briefly talk about the book. The book, I mean,

556
00:36:05.119 --> 00:36:09.000
ninety percent of the innovation initiatives out there failing regardless

557
00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:12.199
if you're corporate or if you're a startup, and this

558
00:36:12.760 --> 00:36:16.840
led me to launching a research initiative now seven years back,

559
00:36:16.920 --> 00:36:22.599
and basically for years we were researching. We were structurally

560
00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:26.559
researching better ways to doing innovations. So we looked at

561
00:36:26.559 --> 00:36:30.480
two hundred and seventy post mortems and really analyzed why

562
00:36:30.519 --> 00:36:35.639
did they fail? Oh my goodness, yeah, And analyzed seventy

563
00:36:35.760 --> 00:36:40.519
pain points innovators were facing and strategically looked at how

564
00:36:40.559 --> 00:36:45.280
can these be overcome with better tools, better approaches, et cetera.

565
00:36:45.920 --> 00:36:48.480
And this is what we documented. We call them the

566
00:36:48.639 --> 00:36:53.360
UNITE models in short for Understanding Navigating Innovation Transformation Enterprises.

567
00:36:53.880 --> 00:36:57.360
The UNITE models today are the by far largest, deepest

568
00:36:57.440 --> 00:37:02.559
and first integrated collection of models, frameworks, approaches, and canvases.

569
00:37:02.679 --> 00:37:04.960
So I think many of you will know the business

570
00:37:04.960 --> 00:37:08.760
model canvas. Think about seventy times the business model canvas

571
00:37:08.880 --> 00:37:12.840
and integrated, so you know how you go from elevator

572
00:37:12.880 --> 00:37:16.199
pitch to I mean important and need to elevateor pitch

573
00:37:16.239 --> 00:37:19.440
to value proposition, to business model to operating model, to

574
00:37:19.519 --> 00:37:24.880
organizational culture to organizational structure, et cetera. This is these

575
00:37:24.920 --> 00:37:28.639
are the Unite models and I think the abstract got

576
00:37:28.679 --> 00:37:31.760
then published in a book which is called How to

577
00:37:31.760 --> 00:37:35.920
Create Innovation. Originally self published, now the leading publishers globally

578
00:37:35.920 --> 00:37:38.840
pick it up. It was just published by Wiley in

579
00:37:38.880 --> 00:37:43.000
the English speaking world, and I think it's the first

580
00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:46.639
book that covers innovation and to end that goes beyond

581
00:37:46.760 --> 00:37:53.679
individual piecemeal solutions such as design thinking, oscrum or business

582
00:37:53.719 --> 00:37:56.440
model generation. So we have the first end to end

583
00:37:56.440 --> 00:38:00.360
book thanks to those models, and this is what this

584
00:38:00.440 --> 00:38:03.320
book is really making a difference. So you can pick

585
00:38:03.360 --> 00:38:06.360
up the book anywhere at Wiley dot com, at Amazon,

586
00:38:06.440 --> 00:38:08.960
at any store you like, et cetera. And you can

587
00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:12.679
get the models on our website at Digital Leadership dot com.

588
00:38:12.920 --> 00:38:17.239
They are published open source, so feel free to get

589
00:38:17.320 --> 00:38:20.599
those and download those and feel free as well to

590
00:38:20.679 --> 00:38:24.440
connect with me. I love speaking with other entrepreneurs with

591
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.440
corporate executives to discuss what their innovation struggles are and

592
00:38:29.480 --> 00:38:33.840
to see, yeah, how we can help if and learn.

593
00:38:33.920 --> 00:38:37.559
Basically that is always great and interesting talk, so feel

594
00:38:37.559 --> 00:38:40.840
free to connect on LinkedIn. Yeah you'll find me there well.

595
00:38:40.920 --> 00:38:46.320
Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that information. And folks, if

596
00:38:46.360 --> 00:38:50.199
you are thinking about inno waiting, you have the expertise

597
00:38:50.280 --> 00:38:55.519
right here, take some time connect with Stefan and get

598
00:38:55.559 --> 00:39:01.480
his books because as we talk through our conversation today,

599
00:39:01.559 --> 00:39:07.679
it's important to have those processes mature and think differently

600
00:39:07.719 --> 00:39:11.079
than what has been thinking. Because Stefan, as you mentioned

601
00:39:11.079 --> 00:39:13.679
that even though we have lean startups, ninety percent of

602
00:39:13.760 --> 00:39:17.079
businesses are failing. So it's important to put in that

603
00:39:17.159 --> 00:39:20.280
time upfront. So as we wrap up our show, do

604
00:39:20.360 --> 00:39:27.239
you have any final words of wisdom?

605
00:39:27.440 --> 00:39:31.960
Well, I think innovation. We can't prevent change, we can

606
00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:34.679
only shape it, and so I would really like to

607
00:39:34.719 --> 00:39:38.960
invite you to create change in a way that improves

608
00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:41.599
the world around us. Let's unite, Let's create a world

609
00:39:41.599 --> 00:39:44.800
worth living in. Let's do some positive change out there.

610
00:39:45.039 --> 00:39:48.119
We owe it to ourselves, to our families, to our companies,

611
00:39:48.159 --> 00:39:51.039
and to the wild at large. So be invited to

612
00:39:51.480 --> 00:39:55.280
leverage better processes and let's create a worldwidth living in,

613
00:39:55.360 --> 00:39:56.559
one innovation at a time.

614
00:39:57.760 --> 00:40:00.119
Well, thank you Stefan for joining us and share and

615
00:40:00.239 --> 00:40:03.719
your knowledge, and thank you listeners for being part of

616
00:40:03.760 --> 00:40:06.519
our family because without you, the show would not be possible.

617
00:40:07.280 --> 00:40:10.679
And I know that you lead the change. Keep those

618
00:40:11.840 --> 00:40:14.639
emails coming to us, and I know several of you

619
00:40:14.679 --> 00:40:18.239
are connected with me on social media reach out. Continue

620
00:40:18.280 --> 00:40:23.599
sharing your thoughts because it helps us make our podcast

621
00:40:23.719 --> 00:40:26.719
richer and bring you back more value. And thank you

622
00:40:26.840 --> 00:40:30.599
on for making the show technically possible. Be well and

623
00:40:30.719 --> 00:40:31.320
take care.

624
00:40:32.840 --> 00:40:33.360
All the best.

625
00:40:33.880 --> 00:40:36.480
Thank you for being part of Beyond Confidence with your host,

626
00:40:36.559 --> 00:40:39.079
divv Park, we hope you have learned more about how

627
00:40:39.119 --> 00:40:41.679
to start living the life you want. Each week on

628
00:40:41.760 --> 00:40:45.199
Beyond Confidence, you hear stories of real people who've experienced

629
00:40:45.239 --> 00:40:49.440
growth by overcoming their fears and building meaningful relationships. During

630
00:40:49.480 --> 00:40:52.719
Beyond Confidence, Vpark shares what happened to her when she

631
00:40:52.760 --> 00:40:55.199
stepped out of her comfort zone to work directly with

632
00:40:55.239 --> 00:40:58.320
people across the globe. She not only coaches people how

633
00:40:58.360 --> 00:41:02.119
to form hard connections, but also transform relationships to mutually

634
00:41:02.159 --> 00:41:05.639
beneficial partnerships as they strive to live the life they want.

635
00:41:06.079 --> 00:41:07.960
If you are ready to live the life you want

636
00:41:08.119 --> 00:41:12.760
and leverage your strengths, learn more at www Dotwpark dot

637
00:41:12.800 --> 00:41:16.960
com and you can connect with vant contact at vpark

638
00:41:17.039 --> 00:41:20.039
dot com. We look forward to you joining us next week.