Founder and CEO of Activate Human Capital Group, Melissa Ortiz is my guest on this episode. We explore her experience with employee motivations, assessments, and programs to build better employee engagement.

Join me with my guest Nancee Johnson, a Microsoft marketing exec turned SEO guru. She’s made a business of helping business owners leverage social media the right way. Hear her stories and suggestions for optimizing your limited budgets for marketing and sales. For more articles on small business ownership, visit DougThorpe.com And to see more of what Nancee has to offer, visit her site NanceeJ.com

Join me as I interview Madelaine Weiss, best-selling author of the book “Getting to G.R.E.A.T.” This is a great model for leaders wanting to get to the next level. In this book, Madelaine explains a successful five-step approach to living the life you really want. Too often we get stuck in the ‘now’, never realizing what could be. But her program is more than simply visualizing success. It’s chocked full

A large majority of small business is in fact family business. The classic “Mom & Pop” structure. Mom or Dad get an idea and start a business. As the need for extra help grows, the easy answer is to hire other family members to help you get it going. Often the thinking behind this involves the sense that you know these people, you can trust them, and can rely on

In the book “Traction” by Gino Wickman, the concept of the EOS is introduced. EOS stands for the Entrepreneurial Operating System. By using an EOS approach you can stop working IN your business and start working ON your business. Or as Wickman states “Do you have a grip on your business or does your business have a grip on you?”

One big part of becoming an effective leader is keeping your body in tip-top shape. Join me as I visit with my own coach and fitness advisor, Luke Prentiss. We’re going to do some myth-busting about popular fitness fads. In addition to his regular fitness coaching. Luke offers a program dedicated to avid kayak fishermen. He calls the program Kayak Beast.