Mastering the Toughest Conversations: Management Lessons from Mahesh Guruswamy
Release Date: 02/17/2025
Stop Your Brain from Sabotaging Your Success and Happiness
Monday Morning Radio
Mitch Weisburgh is on a crusade to get five million people to change their minds. Literally. A lifelong educator and entrepreneur, he helps teachers and students to mindshift away from reflexive reactions to setbacks, obstacles, and low moods. Rather than give in to them, he shows members of school communities how they can adopt a reasoned mentality that seeks solutions and opportunities, and restores optimism. Mitch’s classroom approach works as well, if not better, for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs facing professional or personal challenges. The next time your computer...
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Want Greater Business Success? Start with This Unlikely Leadership Trait: Happiness
Monday Morning Radio
“Do it before you die.” Those five words sum up Carl Barney’s advice to business leaders and other wealthy individuals to find a deeper level of success and satisfaction by “pre-questing” meaningful gifts to individuals and institutions — not in their wills — but while they can still witness the impact of their generosity. Carl, author of the new book , is a philanthropist who grew wealthy as an educational entrepreneur. He is the founder of the , which identifies and supports independent thinkers who have innovative ideas, work smart, follow through, and achieve results. The...
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What You Say Matters, But How You Say It is Often More Decisive in Becoming an Influential Communicator
Monday Morning Radio
Do you suffer from glossophobia? No pill or injection will cure it. But this week’s guest, Ruth Milligan, has a proven antidote for the nearly eight out of ten people who experience anxiety or fear of public speaking — also known as glossophobia. Ruth is the founder and managing director of , a 15-year-old executive communication coaching consultancy. She is also the co-author of the new book “.” Ruth was the force behind one of the earliest TEDx events in the country, TEDxColumbus, where she spent a decade observing both masterful and woeful presenters. That experience laid the...
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How to Turn Passion into Profit: Lessons from Jackie Lapin’s Entrepreneurial Journey
Monday Morning Radio
What began as a labor of love for Jackie Lapin — traveling the world and taking captivating photos — has blossomed into a thriving business and membership community. Today, Jackie’s offers frequent blog posts, a vast library of images, curated reading lists, historical insights, and exclusive travel resources, all designed for those who share her wanderlust. Jackie is a veteran of multiple fields — including working as a pioneering female sportswriter, accomplished PR executive, and marketing strategist. She champions the idea that turning your avocation into a vocation isn’t just...
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Steven Gaffney Specializes in Building Consistently High Achieving Teams and Organizations
Monday Morning Radio
The client list of corporations that Steven Gaffney and his colleagues at the have consulted reads like a Who’s Who of America’s best corporations, including Allstate, Amazon, American Express, Best Buy, Booz Allen, and BP. And those are just some of the “A”s and “B”s on the roster. Steven’s expertise lies in building consistently high-achieving teams and organizations that set goals, overcome obstacles, and achieve their desired results. The founder and CEO of the eponymous consultancy, he asserts that honest communication and the right mindset will overcome most...
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Johnny Molson, a Marketing Maestro, on the Two Words That Transform Branding
Monday Morning Radio
[With this episode, we launch our 14th year delivering weekly . That’s more than 650 episodes — and we’re on the verge of celebrating our one-millionth download.] In two words, distills what it takes for a business to soar above the ordinary in its advertising and marketing campaigns to attract and keep lifelong customers. Johnny is one of the elite global partners. Building on the groundbreaking strategies developed by the legendary , he and his fellow Wizards work individually and collectively to help businesses craft powerful brand identities and turbocharge their results....
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Butch Meily on Life with Billionaire Reginald Lewis — and the Personal Price of Ambition
Monday Morning Radio
Are the tradeoffs that highly successful executives make — prioritizing wealth and recognition over family and a more grounded life — truly worth it? That’s the central question that prompted Butch Meily to write a memoir reflecting on his time nearly 40 years ago as a close aide to the brilliant but often brash Reginald F. Lewis, the first African-American to build a billion-dollar company. Lewis was a trailblazing businessman and investor who, in the 1980s, bulldozed through racial barriers. Financier and philanthropist Michael Milken described him as “the Jackie Robinson of...
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Rob Kessler, a Second-Generation Entrepreneur, Marks a Dozen Years of Innovation, Success, and Struggle
Monday Morning Radio
Like father, like son, entrepreneur Rob Kessler is a talented and ambitious business owner. His company, , has just passed a dozen years of marketing a brand of shirts with proprietary inserts [] designed to be worn without ties. Rob is the son of , who for 35 years reigned as the diamond engagement ring “King” in Wisconsin and was one of the very first guests this podcast showcased when it launched in June 2012. Among the insights you’ll hear listening to Rob are: Adapt or die Bet on yourself Start lean Serve obsessively Rob’s path has been different than his dad’s....
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Plenty of Ups and Downs: Riding the Rollercoaster of a Startup
Monday Morning Radio
After more than 15 years as an executive at Meta, eBay, and Target, Anya Cheng set out to launch her own venture, . Her company uses artificial intelligence and personalized styling to rent clothing to men who dislike shopping, but need to look put-together for professional and social occasions. As she candidly shares this week, her two-year-old company has encountered a full buffet of challenges — from limited resources, both financial and human, to the steep personal transition of relying entirely on her own judgment. Drawing from her successes and missteps, Anya offers ten actionable...
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When You Hear About the Boneheaded Choices of These Business Leaders, Your Mistakes Won’t Look So Cringeworthy
Monday Morning Radio
Business owners and entrepreneurs who mess up royally might take cold comfort in Al Lewis’s Substack, , which regularly details the boneheaded choices and outright illegal antics of a rogues gallery of today’s and yesteryear’s CEOs and senior executives. For most readers, Al’s independent newsletter is an opportunity to learn from other people’s mistakes, which is, as he puts it, “is a lot less costly than learning from your own.” Among his recent posts is an article titled , featuring, among others, Kohl’s CEO Ashley Buchanan, BP CEO Bernard Looney, and McDonald’s CEO Steve...
info_outline“You’re Fired!”
Two words that are never easy to speak and are even harder to hear.
Dismissing employees is complicated — legally, emotionally, and professionally.
Mastering the art of letting employees go isn’t taught in business school, and too many managers fumble the process.
Mahesh Guruswamy, chief technology officer at Kickstarter, has spent much of his career delivering tough news — not just to employees but also to customers, investors, and even higher-ups. Now, he’s sharing his hard-earned wisdom in a new book — How to Deliver Bad News and Get Away With It: A Manager Guide.
Whether you’re a seasoned executive or a first-time manager, Mahesh's insights will arm you with tools to handle difficult conversations while building trust, retaining talent, and, yes — keeping your sanity intact.
Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart.
Photo: Mahesh Guruswami, How to Deliver Bad News and Get Away With It
Posted: February 17, 2025
Monday Morning Run Time: 52:16
Episode: 13.36
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