Absolute Advantage Podcast

The Absolute Advantage Podcast is about learning from some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, leaders, and achievers at the top of their game.

  • 55 minutes 5 seconds
    Episode 217: Finding the Courage to Let Go with Kute Blackson

    Author of the national bestselling book You.Are.The.One. and widely considered the next generation leader in the field of personal development by everyone ranging from Larry King, Jack Canfield, Marianne Williamson and more. He has been featured on Larry King Now, Fox and Friends, Dr. Drew, as well, Inc magazine calls him ‘The Mindfulness Guru Billionaires Go To For Advice’.

    He recently received a Walden Award in the New Thought Wisdom category that Unity honors once a year to recognize socially conscious leaders who are making the world a better place, past winners in the same category have been Oprah Winfrey and Michael Bernard Beckwith.

    A charismatic visionary and transformational teacher, he offers a fresh, bold look at spiritual awareness for a whole new generation. Born in Ghana, West Africa, Coot’s multi-cultural upbringing as the child of a Japanese mother and a Ghanaian father has spanned four different continents. His unique lineage lay the foundation for his approach to breaking down barriers and unlocking an individual’s true gifts and greatness.

    His mission is simple: To awaken and inspire people across the planet to access inner freedom, live authentically and fulfill their true life’s purpose.

    In this episode, we talk about his new book, “Magic of Surrender – Finding the Courage to let go”.

    What you will learn:

    • Kute’s journey to live into his truth
    • How do determine whether it is your instinct or an unlimiting belief that is holding you back
    • How to move you past inner struggle to discover the power of letting go of control and how letting go leads to more
    • Allowing life to lead us instead of needing to KNOW
    • The lies we tell ourselves and how they hold us back
    • What does it mean to “surrender”
    • Why surrender is the most powerful thing you can do
    • The stages in the process of surrendering

    Ways to contact Kute Blackson:

    5 May 2021, 8:00 am
  • 24 minutes 32 seconds
    Episode 216: Lead on All Fronts, with Doug Ward

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

    What You Will Learn:

    • Doug Ward’s leadership journey
    • How Doug tapped into his leadership abilities by observing his peers
    • Why self-awareness is such an important trait for effective leaders to have
    • How to earn your team’s trust from a position of authority
    • How to find a balance between your leadership position with your team and your leadership position with your family
    • How Doug navigated the transition from military to civilian life
    • The steps Doug takes to combat toxicity in a work environment

    Ways to contact Doug Ward:

    25 March 2020, 8:00 am
  • 22 minutes 29 seconds
    Episode 215: Everyday Courage, with Kelly Hatfield and April Taylor

    Kelly Hatfield and April Taylor are leaders and entrepreneurs at heart. They believe fully in the power of the ripple effect and the opportunity that each of us has to create meaningful, positive and long-lasting impact in the lives of our teams, our clients and all who we serve. They consistently focus on ensuring that this amazing opportunity is realized. Kelly and April have built several successful companies directly connected to helping others live into their opportunity to make a greater impact.

    They have been in the recruiting and HR field for over 25 years and love serving others. Kelly and April, along with their amazing teams, have created 4 successful businesses aimed at matching exceptional talent with top organizations. Through Kelly and April’s passion for service and people, their reach has organically expanded into the area of coaching and consulting. With a focus on high-performance, they partner with companies to support and develop their leadership teams and design recruiting and retention strategies. Additionally, their work as hosts of Absolute Advantage Podcast offers a conduit to deep discussions with successful entrepreneurs, executives, and thought leaders across a variety of industries. This has provided them a unique perspective and deep connection to leadership, people, entrepreneurship and high-achieving practices from all viewpoints.

    What You Will Learn:

    • The meaning of courage at the Absolute Advantage
    • Why many of us are actually more courageous than we might think
    • How to “put on your damn shoes” and overcome fear, resistance, or friction
    • Why focusing on delivering value will make you more courageous than focusing on yourself
    • How acts of courage are presented in everyday life
    • How to get involved in the discussion on our private Facebook group and our All Access group
    • How to move past the negative connotations associated with failure

    Ways to contact us:

    11 March 2020, 8:00 am
  • 31 minutes 14 seconds
    Episode 214: Health, Energy, and Leadership, with Thom King

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

    Thom King is the founder of Icon Foods and the author of “Guy Gone Keto: How to Lose Weight, Feel Great, and Achieve Lifelong Fitness.” As you can imagine, health and fitness are at the core of everything Thom has built. But he did not develop a health-conscious mentality until much later in his life. He started to question the effects of sugar on our bodies, then sought out a viable alternative with zero calories and no negative effects. It was a pivotal moment that paved the way for Steviva and eventually Icon Foods, enabling Thom to make an impact on manufacturers, consumers, friends, and family to this day.

    Thom joins us in the latest episode of the Absolute Advantage to share his journey and bring us full circle with the concepts of health and energy. They are intertwined, and our health has a significant impact on how we show up in the world. Diet and exercise are directly tied to our ability to operate as effective leaders, and they can shape our organizations as a whole. To learn more about the relationship between health, energy, and leadership, listen to the latest episode of the Absolute Advantage.

    Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.

    Ways to contact Thom King:

    26 February 2020, 9:00 am
  • 41 minutes 48 seconds
    Episode 213: Energy Management and Self-Leadership, with Kelly Hatfield and April Taylor

    Kelly Hatfield and April Taylor are leaders and entrepreneurs at heart. They believe fully in the power of the ripple effect and the opportunity that each of us has to create meaningful, positive and long-lasting impact in the lives of our teams, our clients and all who we serve. They consistently focus on ensuring that this amazing opportunity is realized. Kelly and April have built several successful companies directly connected to helping others live into their opportunity to make a greater impact.

    They have been in the recruiting and HR field for over 25 years and love serving others. Kelly and April, along with their amazing teams, have created 4 successful businesses aimed at matching exceptional talent with top organizations. Through Kelly and April’s passion for service and people, their reach has organically expanded into the area of coaching and consulting. With a focus on high-performance, they partner with companies to support and develop their leadership teams and design recruiting and retention strategies. Additionally, their work as hosts of Absolute Advantage Podcast offers a conduit to deep discussions with successful entrepreneurs, executives, and thought leaders across a variety of industries. This has provided them a unique perspective and deep connection to leadership, people, entrepreneurship and high-achieving practices from all viewpoints.

    Our mental, emotional, and physical energies are directly tied to how we show up in the world. And when we get intentional with our energy—when we are actively managing it—we make a greater impact in everything we do. Like attracts like, so energy management connects us with opportunities and people who will propel us forward. Whether you are leading a team or not, energy is about self-leadership, and self-leadership is something that every single one of us can benefit from!

    Energy is reciprocated, and the energy we put out is the energy we will get in return. But it is not possible to operate at 100% capacity 100% of the time. Energy management is about setting ourselves up for success so we can bring the best version of ourselves to the table when it counts most. In this episode of the Absolute Advantage podcast, we dive into the topic of energy management, explore energy from a leadership perspective, and discuss some of the tactics we use to change how we show up in the world.

    Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.

    Ways to contact us:

    12 February 2020, 9:00 am
  • 28 minutes 22 seconds
    Episode 212: Real Estate Investing for Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs, with Chris Prefontaine

    Chris is the best-selling author of Real Estate on Your Terms: Create Continuous Cash Flow Now, Without Using Your Cash or Credit. He’s also the founder of SmartRealEstateCoach.com and the Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast.

    Chris has been in real estate for over 25 years. His experience includes the construction of over 100 single-family and duplex homes (mostly in the 1990s and selectively to date), has owned a Realty Executives Franchise (Massachusetts 1994-2000) as broker/owner which maintained high per-agent standards and eventually sold to Coldwell Banker in 2000. The 2000s included coaching ½ million and higher REALTORs® in order to scale & automate their business throughout the US and Canada. He also participated (and still does selectively) in doing condo conversions (multi-family homes to condos) and “raise the roof” projects (converting single family ranches to colonials in growth neighborhoods).

    Chris has been a big advocate of constant education and participates regularly in high-end mastermind groups, as well as consults with private mentors. He runs his own buying and selling businesses with his family team, which buys 2-5 properties monthly, so they’re in the trenches every single week. They also help clients do the same thing around the country.

    Chris and his family team have done over 80 million in real estate transactions. They mentor, coach, consult, and actually partner with students around the country (by application only) to do exactly what they do.

    Chris Prefontaine and his family mentor, coach, consult, and partner with students across the country to do real estate deals on terms. Between his associates and his own deals, Chris is still acquiring 5-10 properties each month. He controls $20-30M in real estate deals that are all done without using his own cash, credit, or signing for loans. And in this episode of the Absolute Advantage podcast, Chris explains how business leaders and established entrepreneurs can get into real estate with minimal exposure.

    Smart Real Estate Coach is all about values mission and purpose because Chris recognizes the common misperceptions surrounding real estate education. There are a lot of programs out there with a significant gap between the time you take the course and the time you see revenue—sometimes it never happens at all. But Chris has built an unbelievable support network to guide his associates through deals using owner-financing and lease-purchase arrangements. If you are interested in getting into real estate so you can build wealth with a community of likeminded business leaders, this episode is you.

    Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.

    Ways to contact Eric Kapitulik:

    29 January 2020, 9:00 am
  • 20 minutes 22 seconds
    Episode 211: Reflection, Correction, Progression, with Kelly Hatfield and April Taylor

    Kelly Hatfield and April Taylor are leaders and entrepreneurs at heart. They believe fully in the power of the ripple effect and the opportunity that each of us has to create meaningful, positive and long-lasting impact in the lives of our teams, our clients and all who we serve. They consistently focus on ensuring that this amazing opportunity is realized. Kelly and April have built several successful companies directly connected to helping others live into their opportunity to make a greater impact.

    They have been in the recruiting and HR field for over 25 years and love serving others. Kelly and April, along with their amazing teams, have created 4 successful businesses aimed at matching exceptional talent with top organizations. Through Kelly and April’s passion for service and people, their reach has organically expanded into the area of coaching and consulting. With a focus on high-performance, they partner with companies to support and develop their leadership teams and design recruiting and retention strategies. Additionally, their work as hosts of Absolute Advantage Podcast offers a conduit to deep discussions with successful entrepreneurs, executives, and thought leaders across a variety of industries. This has provided them a unique perspective and deep connection to leadership, people, entrepreneurship and high-achieving practices from all viewpoints.

    2020 has arrived and it is ripe with opportunity. But as time moves forward, many of us fall further and further out of touch with the entrepreneurial spirit that led us down this path in the first place. How can we bring more fun and more joy into the work we are doing? How will our reinvigoration impact our teams and businesses as a whole? These are questions we should be asking ourselves—not just at the turn of each decade—but every single day!

    There are tons of resources and strategies out there to help us set our goals for the new year, but a lot of the content we consume is sugar-coated. Since 2016, April and I have striven to bring you along for the ride in our journey with full-transparency. Being a leader is extremely difficult and sometimes we fall flat on our faces, but even the smallest victories make it all worth while. Think about what has held you back in the last year, what helped you move forward, and why you are doing this. Let’s hit the ground running.

    Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.

    Ways to contact us:

    15 January 2020, 9:00 am
  • 39 minutes 55 seconds
    Episode 210: The New Standard of Leadership, with Eric Kapitulik

    Eric Kapitulik was born and raised in Thompson, CT and attended Pomfret Preparatory School where he was a three-sport varsity athlete. Upon graduating, he attended the United States Naval Academy. While there, he was a 4-year varsity letter winner and played on three NCAA Division I Lacrosse Tournament teams. During his junior year, Eric received the Lt. JG Frank McKeone Award, given to the Navy player who most demonstrated spirit and sportsmanship and who served as the unsung hero. Eric was also named Navy’s Most Outstanding Defenseman and received North-South All-Star honors his senior year at the Academy. He graduated in 1995 and went on to serve as both an Infantry Officer and Special Operations Officer with 1st Force Reconnaissance Company, 1st Marine Division. As a Force Reconnaissance Platoon Commander, Eric led 20 covert operations specialists in Special Forces related missions including long-range reconnaissance patrols, hostage rescue, high altitude jump exercises, ship takeovers, and gas-oil platform takedowns. He left active duty after eight years of service and graduated from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 2005.

    Eric has been extensively involved with the Force Reconnaissance Scholarship Fund, which he established for the children of six Marines who died in a helicopter crash while serving under his command. Since 1999, he has been helping to raise funds and has done so through public speaking engagements covering Leadership and Attacking Adversity and through participation in Iron Man Triathlons and other ultra-endurance races around the world. In addition to finishing 8 Iron Man triathlons, Eric has competed in numerous marathons, the Canadian Death Race Ultra Marathon, the Eco Challenge, the American Birkebeiner Ski Marathon and was a competitor on The Outdoor Life Networks Global Extremes Challenge.

    Eric is also an avid high altitude mountaineer. He has summited five of the Seven Summits (the highest peaks on the seven continents); Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. McKinley, Mt. Aconcagua, Mt.Elbrus and most recently Mt. Everest.

    Eric sits on the board of directors for the Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund and is the Founder and President of The Program LLC, a team-building and leadership development company for high school and collegiate student-athletes and corporate teams.

    As a former D1 lacrosse player and Special Operations Officer with 1st Force Reconnaissance Company, Eric Kapitulik maintains a standard of excellence in every facet of his life. The lessons he took away from those experiences are invaluable, so Eric is paying it forward by teaching structure, discipline, and an unrivaled leadership methodology to athletes and executives who want to take their teams to the next level.

    Eric’s program has one mission: to develop better leaders and create more cohesive teams—that’s all they do. He facilitates personal development, leadership development, and team building through shared adversity, and helps individuals and teams grow by stepping outside of their comfort zones. Eric works with collegiate and professional athletic programs and corporations across North America to reinvent their standards of leadership. Then, they commit the lessons to memory through experiential training.

    Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.

    Ways to contact Eric Kapitulik:

    1 January 2020, 9:00 am
  • 51 minutes 44 seconds
    Episode 209: Forge Your Own Path to Success and Happiness, with Mike Kitko

    Mike Kitko is an Executive Self- Mastery Coach, Speaker, and Author. He found external success in the world through attaining powerful titles, incomes, and material possessions. His family only focused on material wealth as the primary means of trying to find happiness. He ultimately fell into depression, alcoholism, and the near-collapse of his family before he began a journey of internal happiness. Mike now coaches Executive Leaders to feel as powerful on the inside as they appear to those they lead – which creates a fulfilled person and powerful family.

    Early in Mike Kitko’s career, he found himself running from fear, inadequacy, and insecurity no matter what he accomplished. His life was crumbling around him and he struggled to maintain a facade of strength and composure. But when Mike took a step back and sought out a path of authenticity, he no longer felt like an imposter. He became the master of his own life and is now helping other leaders to do the same.

    Mike and his wife pulled themselves out of the depths and started living the life they always wanted. But it is important to note the relatively short time frame in which the Kitkos’ transformation took place. We are only one decision away from changing our lives for the better and it starts with identifying everything that serves your vision and cutting out the things that don’t.

    Mike Kitko wants to help you create a life of your own dreams, not a life someone else designed. It all starts with an internal journey and the ‘right’ path is the path that suits you! Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.

    Ways to contact Mike Kitko:

    18 December 2019, 9:00 am
  • 40 minutes 4 seconds
    Episode 208: The Nine Emeralds, with Peter Guzzardi

    Peter Guzzardi has worked in publishing for more than forty years. Prominent books he has edited include Stephen Hawkings A Brief History of Time, Deepak Chopras Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, Queen Noors Leap of Faith, Arianna Huffington’s Fanatics and Fools, and Paula Poundstone’s There’s Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say. Emeralds of Oz: Life Lessons from Over the Rainbow was published by HarperCollins in May 2019 and marks Peter’s debut as an author. An independent editor and writer, he lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

    Peter’s book, “Emeralds of Oz: Life Lessons From Over the Rainbow,” is available for purchase now where books are sold. You can see his upcoming events by going to peterguzzardi.com and clicking on “Events.”

    Peter Guzzardi stumbled upon a spectacular 75th-anniversary edition of The Wizard of Oz and it sparked an epiphany. It occurred to him that, throughout his forty-year career in publishing, all the lessons he learned from the brilliant minds of his industry were presented in the film.

    Peter shaped the lessons into sixty-two insights that parallel events in the Wizard of Oz. Then, he distilled the insights into nine substantial takeaways dubbed the “nine emeralds.” The nine emeralds can be used to address particular issues in your life and work through them. They are extremely useful in a leadership position, especially as you learn to speak the language.

    Each emerald is linked to an iconic moment in the film because Peter’s goal is to take you through an emerald circuit similar to Dorothy’s. The emeralds are intended to facilitate a transformation and help you step into the best version of yourself. Being your best self is not just about improving your own experience; it is about creating a richer and more rewarding experience for your employees as well. You will make a tremendous difference just by showing up that way.

    Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.

    Ways to contact Peter Guzzardi:

    20 November 2019, 9:00 am
  • 40 minutes 43 seconds
    Episode 207: Optimize Your Personal Life, with David Hauser

    David Hauser has built a number of successful companies in the startup space, both organically and inorganically. He is the founder of Grasshopper, which was acquired by Citrix after he bootstrapped the company to $30M+. David founded Chargify and made it profitable, securing a Mark Cuban investment. He founded ReturnPath and is a founding member of National Entrepreneurs’ Day (http://entrepreneursday.org). David is an angel investor in Intercom, Unbounce, Munchery, Groove and more. He is a public speaker at FOWA, Big Omaha, LessConf, SuperConf, Entrepreneurs Organization, and has received major media coverage by CNN, Fox, Inc. Magazine, Fortune, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Inc. 30 Under 30.

    As leaders and business owners, we prioritize other people’s needs. It is part of what makes us great leaders in the first place. You signed up for long days and late nights when you entered this world, but you can only operate at full capacity when you put your oxygen mask on first. Sometimes, to help others, you have to help yourself. David Hauser explores that notion and more in his new book, Unstoppable.

    We preach the importance of health and wellness, but we don’t always practice it ourselves. David Hauser struggled to prioritize self-care in the hustle-hard culture of modern entrepreneurship—a position that many of us are in right now. You have to recognize that there is no ‘right’ time to start practicing self-care and stop putting it off. When you achieve balance and become the best version of yourself, your business will reflect that. Health and wellness is a great place to start.

    In this episode of the Absolute Advantage podcast, David Hauser joins us to share his journey of personal development. He discusses the key principles in his book, “Unstoppable,” such as the optimization mindset, the myths surrounding diet and exercise, and the top things you should be paying attention to on your own journey.

    Click here to listen to the episode, and make sure to visit www.absoluteadvantagepodcast.com for more content that inspires, encourages and helps you grow and make an impact QUICKLY both professionally and personally.

    Ways to contact David Hauser:

    13 November 2019, 9:00 am
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