Miki Feldman Simon - Global Career Paths and CORE Leadership

Speaker A: Leadership starts with leading yourself. There are a lot of leadership theories, strategies, advice out there, and it's all about managing others. But the one person we take with us into every decision, every interaction is ourselves. Most of the time, we're not intentional in how we show up. We are operating on autopilot. Our old habits, our old patterns, they're the ones who are actually driving every decision, every action, every response that we make. What I noticed throughout the years is that there is a way of shifting out of that and becoming more intentional.

Speaker B: Welcome. I'm your host, Dino Cattaneo, and you're listening to Authentic Leadership for Everyday People, the podcast where we investigate the connection between effective leadership and authenticity. If you're looking for inspiration and tips on how to become better leader by being your true self, you're in the right place. My guest today is Miki Feldman Simon, good friend and a fellow executive coach who had many parallels to Mind in her life. Her journey spans multiple countries and cultures, from Israel to Australia and back and then to the United States. And she navigated leadership roles in many different functional areas. Marketing, operations and hr. That diverse experience gives her a unique perspective on people and what it really takes to lead effectively across different environments. In our conversation, we explore how our assumptions shape the way we lead, the importance of understanding what a role looks like before committing to it, and why many of us operate on autopilot more than we realize. Mickey also published a leadership book, which honestly, I wish I had written. Her core leadership framework, where core stands for clarify, operationalize, reflect and evaluate, and the way that she uses it to, uh, help leaders move from reactive habits to intentional action, is a beautiful articulation of the type of work that I also do. But if the conversation was limited to a framework, it would be dry. And Mickey brings it to life with powerful personal stories and practical examples from our coaching work. Before we get into the episode, I have a request for you. This show is entirely funded by my executive and, uh, leadership coaching business. If you're enjoying these conversations and are, uh, thinking about how to become a better leader or increase your performance, or maybe you have a high potential member of your team who needs help to fully realize that potential, or, you know, somebody new to a position of leadership that could use some help navigating your environment, please reach out. I can be found@dinoal4ep.com Miki it's so great to have you here on this podcast. I want to just take 30 seconds to acknowledge how we met through the wonderful recognized expert class and community that is Managed by Dori Clark. There's a few other rexers that have been here. Dori was actually the first member of the community who was a guest here. I want to give Dory a tip of the hat because it's a wonderful, wonderful space where I keep meeting phenomenal people, including you. So with that, I'm going to ask you to start the same way I ask everybody. Introduce yourself to my audience, and you can use as little or as much time as you want.

Speaker A: Well, thank you, Dina. First of all, it's wonderful, uh, to be here. Thank you for inviting me. And, yes, hat off to Dori for creating the recognized expert group that through it, I've also met amazing people who become friends. It's just a wonderful community. So, Mickey Feldman, Simon and Mickey is M M I K. I spelled a little bit differently. I am an executive coach, a, uh, speaker. Recently I've become an author. I'm getting used to saying that. I was an executive myself for many years. I held a variety of different roles. My career didn't just go in a straight line. I was head of marketing, head of operations and business development, and many years as head of hr, where under my HR leadership, multiple companies had successful exits. Basically, there were other mergers or acquisitions. This funny accent that people are hearing is a combination. I've learned to explain it. Otherwise. People who are sensitive to accents are just focusing on this, where is it? Where is it coming from? And not really listening to what I'm saying. So it's a combination of Israeli, Australian and American. Yes. I've lived here for over 28 years, but that Boston accent has not stuck at all. I've lived and worked in all three places, um, different times of my life. I love working with people, helping them reach their full potential, get out of autopilot, that we're mostly all of us running on and living and leading in a more intentional way. I work with people, usually director level and above, who sometimes they're about to get a promotion, sometimes they have gotten a promotion, and often there's just something that needs to tweak. There is a certain behavior that needs to change. And I also work with CEOs where I serve as a thought partner, as a sounding board to help them think clearer and basically be more efficient and get things done. What else? I have two kids, 26 and 31. And there's two dogs. Hopefully we will not hear them today around the house. And I've been married for 33 years this year. So, uh, very exciting.

Speaker B: We're celebrating 33 years, too. When is your anniversary?

Speaker A: It was 30th of March 93.

Speaker B: So you beat us by a month and a half. And we celebrated 35 years together.

Speaker A: We're also 35 years together. This is, uh, our 36th year. We have a lot in common. Dino.

Speaker B: Yeah. Something else that I was going to say, a nice representation of the coach culture is that essentially you're direct competition for me because I serve the same exact market. But here we are sharing ideas. Obviously, where I want to start from is your global point of view. You were born and raised in Israel and then moved to Australia, is that correct?

Speaker A: First 12 years were in Israel, then high school in Australia, and then I went back to live in Israel on my own. I volunteered. I served in the Israeli army. I came back to Australia for a few months to basically make some money so I could study. Met my husband, he's Australian. He came to live in Israel with me. We lived together for another about eight years in Israel, and then we came here.

Speaker B: What was the experience of growing up in Israel, then spending some times in Australia, coming back to Israel? What were the lessons between those two different worlds?

Speaker A: It's an interesting question. And Dina, I think coming to Australia honestly was a shock. Okay. I grew up, um, in Haifa. It's a city in Israel where it is actually Israelis and Arabs living together. It's one of the most integrated cities in Israel. But when I arrived in Australia, it was the first time that I was identified as a Jew. And I was asked why I did not have horns and if I lived in a tent. And I think for me, it was the first experience, honestly, with ignorance of how much people in one place really can know nothing about another and about other people and how they can be influenced by different assumptions. And that is something that I definitely saw in different aspects, uh, of my life later on. But it really opened my mind and I experienced it personally, which made me be more aware of it. When I go into interactions and people that I don't know what it's like for them Now, I think, um, coming back to Israel and then coming here. So multiple times it's been this process of understanding the culture that I'm arriving at. Because when I went back to Israel, again, I was an outsider. After, uh, it was about seven years that I wasn't there, I honestly, I volunteered into the Israeli army because everybody else was in the army. And I understood that to be part of the Israeli culture and to live there, that had to be part of my lived experience. And I think at each Point afterwards in my career, again, it opened my eyes to understand more the culture that I was moving into. And by the way, in 2015, we went back to live in Australia because, um, both our parents were not well. And that was again, it's like each one of those learning to understand the cultures and also understanding your strengths. Because one of the first jobs that I got in Israel was I was the executive assistant to a CEO because I spoke English and I could do all his communication with overseas. And one of the first jobs I got here in the us, um, after we moved here was for a company that had a subsidiary in Israel and they were trying to bring the cultures together. So living here, understanding the American culture, have lived in Israel. So again, looking into my strengths and bringing that into the different roles, goals and career aspects that I was pursuing.

Speaker B: I was kind of laughing because I'm thinking about the experience of somebody who is calling a company in Israel speaking English and the accent comes back Australian. You're not supposed to speak like that. It's such a disconnect. When somebody from a foreign country speaks your own language with a very, very distinctive accent, that is not what you would expect them to have.

Speaker A: I actually also speak Hebrew like an Israeli. So that sometimes really gets people that I'm speaking to them in an Australian English. And then if we shift to Hebrew with an Israeli accent and it's like I get a reaction. I understand what you're saying.

Speaker B: Yeah. There's this moment of getting adapted to what the person on the other side looks like and what they should sound like and when they don't. We have this moment where we need

Speaker A: to readapt its assumptions.

Speaker B: Right, exactly. So did you study business in Israel? How was your path?

Speaker A: I studied a few different things. I'm one of those people. I started actually before I went back to live in Israel, I started studying design, fashion design in Australia. And I realized very quickly that even though I loved making my own clothes, I started working in the fashion industry, that that should remain a hobby. It's not going to be my career. And I went to Israel. The first thing I started studying was actually economics and management. And I very quickly realized that.

Speaker B: I'm actually going to interrupt you for a second because you raised a really interesting point there. People are, uh, told that they come out of college and that you should find your passion. And there's this big what's my passion? But at the same time, sometimes we go and we follow our passion and we find out that the reality of working in what we think Is a passion is not what we expected. Uh, what were the factors in your experience in the fashion industry that made you decide that it wasn't for you?

Speaker A: So first of all, I consider myself very lucky that I found it earlier on because some people study, do hold degrees and then they go and work in these things and it's like, oh my God, that's not what I expected. So, um, I got a job. I was very lucky. My mother was a nurse and one of her patients had this fashion design house and she managed to get me an interview and I went to work for them. And a lot of what they did is they would bring clothes from overseas and copy them. And I started talking with different people to understand more and more about the industry and it made me irk. It's like I didn't enjoy it at all. And it also, it took my fun and passionate for the design, for making clothes out of it. So it was more of like, okay, this is something that I'm passionate about, I'd like to continue to be passionate about. But if this is something that I'm doing not for my own needs, not for what I would like to make out of it, but for others, other people's specifications, desire. It was having this self awareness that, hold on, I'm actually not enjoying this. And we was like, okay, this will remain a, uh, hobby. And by the way, I still have a lot of passion for clothing and I love to discover sort of different young designers. I'm not into the big name things, but more like things that are different and upcoming and just like how things are made, that's still part of me.

Speaker B: I don't know if you found this in your specific experience, but there's also a side sometimes in these industries that people fantasize about, mostly the craft creative industries, whether it is fashion, music, television, movies. There's a culture that because people are young and going there for passion, they can get abused or underpaid. And you realize that maybe the economics or career perspectives are not what you thought of.

Speaker A: So I definitely looked at the economic parts as well. I remember going and talking to some sort of young designers and stuff and understanding how tough it really is out there and sort of discovering that none of it really attracted me when it came to the profession. And I think that that's an important part of it. Right. And uh, by the way, for me, it didn't come from this influence of other people or wanting to be famous or something like that. It really came from I used to make my own clothes and I used to like seeing something somewhere and then thinking how I would like it to be different and wanting to do that, but really then understanding that's what I want to do for me. But it's not my profession.

Speaker B: Since we're down this path. Can take advantage of your expertise in so many dimensions. As somebody starting out in a new role or in a new position or a new industry. There is the passion component, but there's like a lot of other dimension that they should consider as they think, is this the long term place for my career? What's a quick way to think about? Okay, this is a 360 view that you should look at when you're considering a path as a career.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's an interesting question because also when you think of my skills, honestly, I don't think that that career path would have utilized my best skills, as in I'm not a good drawer. So I think that it's sort of stepping back and looking at your strengths and uh, what is it that you're really good at that you're really interested in and thinking more from that direction. I also really believe in informational interviews, in talking to people in the field. Okay, so what does a day look like? So, uh, I'm going to go back a little bit. Dino. So by the way, so I started studying economics and management and realized that the last thing that I want to do is study calculus. Bored out of my mind. Okay. That's not what I wanted to do as part of my crib. Left that. Then I went to study psychology and educational counseling. Great fit. But while I was doing that, I was also considering law. Okay. And my husband at that point said, honey, do me a favor and finish something. But, uh, one of the things that prevented me from doing law was I started talking to lawyers. Okay, what is it that you're doing in your day today? And I didn't want to sit and just read documents all day. I am a people person and I like that interaction, interaction with people. So by the way, Australia has an amazing program in high school. Throughout the last couple of years of high school, there's a week where you have work experience, you go and you follow somebody in the field of that does something you're interested in. And I think that that is just such an important concept of you actually seeing what is the day to day like. Because, uh, I think you started insinuating this before. We build a dream of something. Right. We think that that's what it' more often than not, it's not because that overnight success took 10 years to make. Right. So I think a good strategy is really understanding what does the work really involve, what will you need to do on a day to day basis and is that something you really want to spend your time doing and utilizing your strengths?

Speaker B: That is wonderful. So you covered a little bit your academic path, your professional entry that ultimately led you to where you are now. What was your first role that you would say, okay, this is really when my career started.

Speaker A: I'm going to connect things a little bit more actually, because in the last year of my psychology degree in Israel, you do a practicum, so I had to work with people who were mentally ill. And that's when I realized I'm not going to be a therapist. I, because I took things too hard, it was too heavy for me. And it was very clear to me that I did not want to take responsibility for people's lives. Now I shifted into hr. So that was my first path that used my psychology degree, my educational background, and I have a master's in organizational behavior as well. I'm actually going to step back even more. So in the army, I was a trainer. I used to train youth, uh, to explain to them what are, uh, their career options in the army, the jobs they could do. I also used to teach them how to shoot a gun. But that training led me to one of the first jobs that I got was in a company, a startup. They were providing a program for visual thinking. And I trained the leaders and the teachers who were going to perform the actual program. So use my experience from the army into that. And as we were growing, I also became the HR manager. And that really was the beginning of my career and that path into people and sort of really learning. I love the, uh, people interaction. And then further down I think it was also being open to opportunities. So I enjoyed, um, the hr. And then there was this opportunity at a company, it was called Ginger Software, and managing all their operations in the US and the educational program, like, why not? Let's try these.

Speaker B: So you went into hr. HR is a very broad field. Some things are more interesting than other. What was your interest specifically in that area?

Speaker A: The people. So it's interesting because, uh, I always had the business sense and people would always say to me, mickey, you're not the typical hr. So when I say the people, I don't want you to think that it was just about, oh, but we need to do that because the people would. It was balanced with the business side. But what I really enjoyed is understanding people, understanding their Motivations, who's a good fit for that role, how they can grow, the people interactions. I was very good at helping build the teams and helping resolve conflict between the, uh, different people. And that was something I really became passionate about.

Speaker B: When was the moment that you realized professionally, okay, this is where I really belong?

Speaker A: That came later on in life. I think it wasn't as intentional in those years. I think I embraced the different opportunities and enjoyed what I was doing. So about 10 years ago when I started coaching, I felt that this is what I was meant to do. So going back to that psychology degree and not wanting to work with mentally ill people. So coaching is exactly the thing of helping people. It's very forward looking. It doesn't have that heaviness. Most of the people are not mentally ill. So I really, that was the first time in my life that I think I felt this is it, this is what I was meant to do. Before that I enjoyed what I was doing. But I think it's a little bit like I don't think we should be searching for like the, this is what I'm meant to do. Sometimes it just, just finding the good things in the different stuff, enjoying seeing that you're living your potential, you're learning, you're discovering new things. And I really enjoyed that as well. And I think I was very lucky to get to this point of this is what I was meant to be.

Speaker B: How do you define success now versus 30 years ago?

Speaker A: Great question. So success in my house when I grew up was a lot about money and titles and I think I carried that with me for a good while until I really paused to define what success means for me. For me, in the last whatever years, it's been having a positive impact in the world, helping people reach their full potential and having more of that reach. And I think writing the book, by the way, has been part of that. Like the success for me is enabling others live and become the best version of themselves.

Speaker B: Since you brought it up, let's talk about the book. The book is called Core Leadership and uh, core is for four core principles. So without giving away the book because we want people to go out and buy it and read it, what are the four principles?

Speaker A: I'm just going to give it a little bit of description, uh, before we go to what cores stand for and the principles. So the premise of the book is that leadership starts with leading yourself. There are a lot of leadership theories, strategies, advice out there and it's all about managing others. But the one person we take with us into Every decision, every interaction is ourselves. We also have the most influence on how we show up. The interesting thing is that most of the time we're not intentional in how we show up. We are operating on autopilot. Our old habits, our old patterns, they're the ones who are actually driving every decision, every action, every response that we make. What I noticed throughout the years is that there is a way of shifting out of that and becoming more intentional and using my experience, experience as a coach, as ah, my leadership experience and also I am an avid reader. You can see some of those big books in the background here. So based on psychology, behavioral science, I came up with this framework called core. It's simple, not so easy to really follow through. Where the C stands for clarifying. So the idea is that you clarify your values, your priorities, your strengths, what does success mean for you? So at the end of it you really have this vision of who you want to be. We talk a lot about the what. Think about how often people have been asked, what do you want to be? What do you want to do? But not who do you want to be? And that's how you show up in whatever you do. Okay, so clarify. The R is operationalize. And here we take those intentions and we turn them into action. Because we're all really good at talking, we're not so good at doing. So this is really breaking down what those values may look like in specific actions, those priorities and what habits are working for me. What habits need to shift, what habits can I build on? Habit stacking. So really putting into action those values and those priorities so that you can show up who you want to be. So that was clarify. Then you operationalize. And R is for reflect. And this is going deeper and understanding how we get in our own way. We all get in our own way, whether it's our self talk, our uh, limiting beliefs, our uh, triggers. And here you learn to identify all these obstacles that we put on ourselves and to pause, take a deep breath and really to learn to respond rather than react. Because when we are just working on that autopilot, we're just constantly, just reacting. And the idea that in the moment then you can be that person you want to be. So in the moment you can ask yourself, who do I want to be right now? And when you've clarified it, uh, it's much easier because if you're frustrated now, then you're trying to think, who do I want to be? And you don't know you're not going to be that person. But if you know how you want to show up. Then in the moment, you can pause, you can ask yourself that, and you can put it into action. So clarify, operationalize, reflect. And then the E is evaluate, where evaluate has two aspects to it. And the first part, you want to evaluate your progress. Okay, this is who I want to be. This is what I set out, uh, to do. How am I doing? The other part of it is that we judge ourselves by our intentions, but other people, they judge us by our impact, our, uh, behaviors. So I may think that I am direct, but other people may think that I'm aggressive. Somebody else might think that they're really funny, but everybody else thinks that they're inappropriate. So this is really understanding. If there's a gap there between how you think you show up, um, and how your behavior is really landing for others. And what happens is when you follow core and you follow those steps, you lead yourself with a lot more intention. There's now a lot less regrets because you're living according to your values, to your priorities. And at the end of the day, you become a leader that others want to follow.

Speaker B: At the end of the description, my listeners will understand why. When we talked about this a while ago, I had this huge pang of jealousy. Oh, she's done all the work and figure out all the steps by authentic leadership much better than I could ever do. So I really highly recommend, recommend the book. Is there a story in the book? Maybe one that you can share with the audience just to give an example of how this has come into play?

Speaker A: Can I give two stories, one personal and one from a, uh, client?

Speaker B: You can give as many stories as you want. I got time.

Speaker A: The journey for me started with reflect. I used to get really easily frustrated by anything and everything, by, you know, when my kids were young, in the morning, getting them out of the house, the cars on the road, a comment, anything. Then I was even better at carrying that energy with me and keeping it for the rest of the day. And, yeah, not that pleasant. And I didn't feel good. It felt yuck. But I just thought, that's who I am. I get frustrated, and, yeah, I take it with me, and that's it. And when I realized and more internalized that I have a choice, a choice in every moment, in how I respond to that stimulus, my life started changing. I no longer get upset by traffic. There's so many things that I'm just not faced by because I really, I have a choice. There's, uh, nothing. It's out of my control. What's the point.

Speaker B: I agree with you. We are a choice at any point, and we're told from day one you have a choice. But there's a difference between knowing it, uh, and internalizing it. What was the key for you in being able to internalize that?

Speaker A: I think I started watching myself and really understanding the impact that it had on me. I am a happier person now. I'm much more grateful. I live a different life. And I want to give you an example from yesterday. Okay, Dina? I was in Boston yesterday, and I, um, went into a meeting. I came out. My car wasn't there. What happened to my car? All the other cars are there. I don't know. Anyway, my car was towed. Okay. Took me about. First of all, when I realized it was towed, I went into the meeting, told other people just in case they parked today night. But every moment then, I, uh, had to ask myself, who do you want to be right now? I was upset, Dino, and I talked to the parking attendant. I had to go into the town hall. I had to go and pick up my car. There were so many different interactions that my natural would have been to get angry, to get upset, to be rude. And I kept on going back, who do you want to be? Take a deep breath so that I could show up in the way that I want to. And there's still work to do. I think I'll be working on this for the rest of my life. But you know what I'm really proud of? When I came home and four hours later, it took me four hours to deal with this, I let go. I didn't let it take over the rest of my evening. And when you say internalize it, you start really noticing. Okay, well, I made a different choice here. And how did that feel? What was the impact of that? So it's trying. It's just trying different things, seeing what happens and appreciating it and thinking, okay, how can I do more of that?

Speaker B: So can I just ask you a coach question here? What becomes possible when you operate like that?

Speaker A: Oh, okay. So, first of all, I think that it started the journey because when I understood that I have an option, and here I want to be in the moment, I also have an option and how I want to design my life. Okay. And that brought me to the see, to the clarify, to, okay, who do I want to be in general, what do I want my life to look like? So it opened from the moment to zoom out to so many options of how do I want to show up, how do I want to live and it just opened a whole new world for me and seriously opened my life to a lot more gratefulness, a lot more happiness, lot less regrets. And being the person that I want

Speaker B: to be, this is going to be a leading question. So the thesis of this podcast and of my coaching work is that when you take the time to articulate your values and what you really want and you make your professional choices according to that, you are not only happier, but also more successful. What did this make possible for you professionally?

Speaker A: So I'm just going to relate also to the title of your podcast because I think it also makes you more authentic. Right. So I, by all that clarify process, by living my values, my priorities, I feel like I'm showing up as my authentic self. Okay, so what did this open, uh, up for me, the coaching world? I think that when people, when I show up with that energy, conversations are very different. At Thinkers50, when we met up and I showed up with, uh, my book, it opened up. It made the book possible. Okay. That was a huge thing for me. So it opened up to people receiving me in a different way, in, I believe, in a better way, um, more positive. I gave a talk today, and, you know, people come. It's inspiring, and it's inspiring. I think in the business world also, as a parent, I share the process that I go through. I share my experiences with my kids intentionally one to show them life is not easy and we need to work at the different things that we, that we want to achieve. It opened me a lot more opportunities that align with the work that I do, with the impact that I want to make.

Speaker B: That's great. So I derailed your personal story. We follow a few tributaries. Is there anything else that you wanted to include in your personal story?

Speaker A: I can tell you in a personal story, but I also want to tell you the career story. So look, in personal life, I think afterwards it went on that I identified a gap in the person that I want to be the values, and that was fitness. I wanted to live and be a lot fitter than I was. I also, my husband, my son, um, very fit. They do a whole lot of crazy marathons, ultra marathons. So to spend more time with them, I decided I wanted to get more fit. And I set myself a high goal, an intentionally high goal of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. And I operationalized it, like, what do I need to do? How did I work? Building the habits of getting fitter. And that was a whole saga, the climb. You know, I wasn't quite as fit as I Was. But I made it to the top. A lot of it. Uh, managing my self talk and really drawing into my strengths. My strength is not physical, it's determination. And it changed my life. Afterwards. I did start running afterwards. The year afterwards, I went trekking in Nepal with my son for three weeks. How often do you get to do that? So personally, like, following through these processes had a huge impact on my life. And I want to give you an example from a client. We'll call him Paul. And it's in the book as well. And by the way, the book has all different exercises for each one of the sections that I talked. So the idea that it's not theory, it's very practical. It has stories, exercises, so you can really bring your core leadership to life. So, Paul, every client that I work with, I do 360 interviews. And on top of that, when I start working with them, we do values exercise. We identify their values and values that Paul came up for. Paul are very successful. Tech guy, always meets his goals. He came up with excellence. Collaborative and respectfulness were part of his values. Okay, now, the 360s that I got back were very different. His team basically said that meetings are, uh, transactional. They're too scared to bring up issues because he doesn't listen, he dismisses them. And when we took all that feedback and we looked at his values, it was very clear he was living by one of them, by excellence. He wasn't living by the rest of his values. Now, by connecting the feedback to his values, what we created is intrinsic motivation, because we don't change people. People need to want to change themselves. And suddenly becoming a better listener, really becoming more collaborative, respectful, all those things became important to him. It was part of his values. So. And then, of course, we looked at what each one of them would look like in action. What could be his limiting beliefs, what triggers him, all those different things that get in the way. But we created that motivation for him to make that change, and he did.

Speaker B: That's great. And Mickey, something that I probably should have said at the beginning of this podcast that I want to share with my audience. You and I met for the first time. We had a dinner schedule for a social event. We were in London to attend the conference. You and two other people met me for the first time about six hours after I found out that one of my closest friend's wife had very unexpectedly passed. And it was a really difficult moment in time for me. And the space that you and everybody else on that table created that night is something that I will forever be grateful for. And I think that the people that have heard you speak in this conversation can get pretty much a sense of who you are, not just as a leader, the power of your intellect, but really of who you are as a human. And I want to acknowledge this.

Speaker A: Thank you, Dina. And I remember that. And I strongly believe that we are first of all humans, and that's this part of self leadership and how we show up. And if you think of all AI and technology at the moment taking over so many of our technology tasks and skills, what remains with us and what can be our superpower is how we show up for other people.

Speaker B: Exactly. And it's interesting the more we go through our experience, there's so many parallels that I didn't bring up in the conversation. So your book is called Core Leadership, I assume is available with all major booksellers online. However, if people want to go and order it at their local booksellers, we do support local booksellers. Where can people find you online if they want to learn more, if they want to connect with you, if they want to hire you?

Speaker A: So you can find me on LinkedIn. And again, it's Miki M M I K I Feldman Simon and you can reach out to me, uh, through my website and you can sign up for the newsletter there. I write a weekly newsletter and that is Mickey Feldman Edmond Simon.com and yes, you can ask your local bookshop to order the book for you. So every shop can order it. And of course, it's available online everywhere.

Speaker C: Great.

Speaker B: M I guess there was a ton of personal in this conversation. And you may choose to say for this question, I refer back, uh, to the story about fitness, but what is a passion or a hobby that you have outside of work? And how does that influence your work, being outdoors?

Speaker A: I think it's something that I learned that fills my soul like that. It's just I feel happier being outside, being in the sun. So it can be hiking, it can be walking, it can be kayaking, cycling. I'm not a great athlete, okay. But, um, I really enjoy the outdoors. And I also want something else that finally I was good at something, and that is yoga. So as a Taipei personality for many, many years, I looked down on yoga and sort of thought, oh, you know, it's not enough. And I started doing it. I think in 2015, my mom passed away and I thought, okay, I need to relax more. And I started doing yoga. And I try and do yoga every day. Um, sometimes it's hard. So I. It's like Three minutes. It always becomes more. But that is something that I really enjoy as well.

Speaker B: So my next question is my favorite question of the podcast, and one that you're probably highly eminently qualified to answer, given your knowledge of the business world. Every era has sayings, business cliches, jargon that gets overused, that they become meaningless, which is one that drives you crazy.

Speaker A: Purpose. And I think that, um, we have that one in common as well. And I have to tell you that I did a, uh, workshop at Salesforce earlier on today day. And I. Living by my values, I ask everybody at the end to give me some feedback on a note card. And I got multiple ones that said, thank you for finally helping me understand and break the myth of purpose. Because I believe that we have a whole generation out there that was told to look for their purpose, and they're like, really like deer in the headlight. And some people have left their jobs, and they're just like. And they. They're still searching. So I believe that purpose, it really is just living by your values and your priorities, and that's how you find your purpose, and that's how you live your purpose. And when we talk that seriously, some they're like, thank you. So that's a word that I think that has just done in some ways, more damage than m. Good.

Speaker B: Yeah. It's funny because somebody had the same exact observation, and it may be someone else who is a wrecker. And the first person who brought up the issue of chasing passion as something that you're given that has no meaning is Dory. So there's this common theme that's going through. It's very funny. Final question. I call it food for your body or food for your soul. And you can choose if you go the body route, a recipe or a drink that you're particularly loving right now, or if you're gonna soul route something in the arts. It could be a book, it could be a piece of music, movie, TV show, theater, play, paintings, or something that right now you love.

Speaker A: I have to go with coffee. Okay. So I have been drinking coffee since I was 6 years old. So my parents drank coffee every morning, and I wanted to drink coffee, too. And I really don't know what was going through their mind that they said yes. But coffee is a big part of my day. I feel like it's food for my body and my soul. It's my time to sit with myself, to think, to breathe in the morning. I don't like talking to anybody before I have my coffee. When my son was young. I actually taught him. We'd run back home after preschool or school, and it was usually after work. And, you know, my day was like, one thing, uh, after the other, and that then I would come home and I would drink a cup of coffee. And I needed that moment for myself. And I taught him to come and look in my cup of coffee. And if it was empty, Mum was ready to play with him. So for me, that cup of coffee is not just drinking coffee. It really is, uh, a moment for myself to enjoy the coffee and to enjoy a bit of me time.

Speaker B: Do you have a particular preparation or coffee brand that you really love or is just as long as it's coffee, it's fine.

Speaker A: Oh, no, it has to be a double espresso.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: And, uh, medium to dark roast. I can't have dairy, so it used to be a cappuccino quite a few years ago, so it has to be a good espresso. It's not anything. I have all these different contraptions of espresso making that I sometimes travel with. So I am particular about the coffee, about the mug as well. So it's. It's a little bit a ceremony. If you want to think about it.

Speaker B: We're the same. I have my gaja machine, I have my coffee grinder, and I get all my coffee from a specific place in New York, this company called Bean and Bean, which is run by somebody that I mentored through the Ilab. And she and her mother are the owners. And one of the things that I really love about it, uh, aside from the fact that I bought the first bag of coffee to be supportive and it destroyed my Italian Eli. And I've been drinking her coffee because I like it more. But they have a very intentional process of finding farms that are owned by women and selecting and showcasing that coffee. And these farms also happen to make my favorite coffee.

Speaker A: I will look it up for sure and give it a try.

Speaker B: I will send you a link. Mickey, it was great to have you here and thank you so much for your insights.

Speaker A: Thank you. And for the audience you want to go deeper into the conversation, Please reach out LinkedIn my website. Mickey Feldman. Simon, thank you. Dinner. Appreciate being here.

Speaker B: Thank you for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, find a friend who may like it and tell them that they should listen to it. Also, you may have listened to every single episode so far, in which case I'm really thankful, but most likely you haven't. So go find a few others and listen to them as usual. If you really like the show, tell your friends and post about it on social media. Every little bit helps. Make sure you're subscribed to the show on your favorite listening platform so you don't miss any episode. If you listen on a platform that allows ratings and reviews like Apple podcasts, Spotify, Audible, GoodPods, please leave us a stellar rating and a review. 5 stars. Stay tuned because after the credits, I'm gonna play a song by Susan Cattane, one of Boston's best singer songwriters. For more information on the episode and all the links, go to the website al4ep.com spelled with the number 4. You can email me at dinoal4ep.com make sure you follow the podcast on whatever social platform you use on Instagram and threads. The handle is L4EDP with the letter D. And on Facebook, look for authentic leadership for everyday people. This episode was produced by Me Me Dino Cattaneo. It was recorded remotely with Squadcast and partially edited in the script with additional edits by Pro Podcast Solutions. The theme music was composed, produced and arranged by Nicholas Cattano, who also played keyboards and drums with Tony Salvino on guitar and Jesse Willems on bass. And now, here's a song by Susan Cattano. It's called Diamond.

Speaker C: None of us start out looking like a jewel we're all rough around the edges um, unfinished A little jagged too we're not ready for the ring not cut out uh for crowns A buried treasure waiting to be found but it takes patience and pressure and feeling lost in the dark in the hard work in the hard times we find out who we are uh something beautiful is taking shape we can't hurry through these Making a diamond tape. In the moment of slow passing Long and lonely nights we don't notice all the changes the hammer, the chisel, the struggle bring to life but somewhere under the underneath the weight of earth and time the stone that is a heart begins to shine but it takes patience and pressure and feeling lost in the dark in the hard work in the hard times we find out who we are Something beautiful is taking shape we can't hurry through these Making a diamond taste. We're all meant to catch the light we're all meant to catch the light we're um all meant to catch the light Catch the light. But it takes patience and pressure and feeling lost in the dark in the hard work in the hard times we find out who we are uh something beautiful taking shift we can't hurry through. These Making a diamond taste. Making a diamond. We're making a diamond Sam.