Heartwarming reasons I pick up litter knowing it alone won’t fix the world’s problems overnight.

Picking up litter has its joys. A friend wrote about our meeting, in which we walked around Washington Square Park and picked up litter, also talking business. The meeting certainly was inspirational and I think back to it every time I see a piece of trash on the ground. So, you certainly made a difference in my life. I always tried to pick before, but now I make it a point. And every person counts, right? My routine dog walk was completely clear of debris this morning, which I feel is a fantastic accomplishment considering my route goes through an…

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The environment has losing stories.

When myths and stories contradict, the ones that persist aren't the ones that are right. The ones that people remember and share persist. I'm writing about it after reading this quote from E. O. Wilson: Creation stories gave the members of each tribe an explanation for their existence. It made them feel loved and protected above all other tribes. In return, their gods demanded absolute belief and obedience. And rightly so. The creation myth was the essential bond that held the tribe together. It provided its believers with a unique identity, commanded their fidelity, strengthened order, vouchsafed law, encouraged valor…

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Special invitation to sneak preview I Am Greta

As a proud member of Flight Free USA, where I've pledged another joyful year of not flying, I'm extending to you the invitation they extended to me. I just watched it. It's touching and honest as a documentary and she is honest, genuine, and authentic as a leader and person. After years of people asking me, confused, why I would act in service of the environment, asking me why I'm "so extreme" about not polluting, I feel one person who understands me and acts. She acts differently than I do, but we can all learn from her. I urge you…

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My Washington Square Park drug dealer dream

I want to write a headline one day saying, "How I Led the Washington Square Park Drug Dealers to Clean the Park," or something like it for a story in the paper. Likely? No. Possible? Yes. For longer than the twenty years I've lived in Greenwich Village, drug dealers have operated wantonly in the northwest corner of Washington Square Park. "Smoke smoke . . . weed weed," they say as you walk past. Since the pandemic, they've increased in number and brazenness. I haven't seen the police walk through in months. They claim to lack manpower and that they have…

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My third TEDx talk: People Don’t Want to Do Small Things. They Want to Do Meaningful Things

TED and TEDxConnecticutCollege posted my third TEDx talk (scroll down for my first two). I can't express my gratitude for the organizers for the opportunity to develop and deliver this talk. The event was February 29, just as the pandemic was starting. I believe the pandemic only makes my message more valuable. People Don't Want to Do Small Things. They Want to Do Meaningful Things. https://youtu.be/3GMTpaxlLGg I consider it my most meaningful talk. Times rehearsing it, tears streamed down my face, thinking of role models who led us through challenges before---especially that boat. If you like it, please share and…

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Hear me on the Ask Women podcast

Would you expect me on a podcast called Ask Women Podcast: What Women Want? With an episode title "How To Be A Leader With Women | The BJ Technique"? Yes, 'BJ' meaning what you think. Here are the notes about the hosts, Marni Kinrys and Kristen Carney: What do a female comic and a professional wing girl have in common? The realistically raw and hilarious perspectives on what women ACTUALLY want in a man. Prepare to be offended and awed as Marni Kinrys & Kristen Carney take you through the uncensored and often ridiculous mind of a woman to help…

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My second TEDx talk, “What everyone gets wrong about the environment” and how to get it right

I am deeply grateful to the TEDxWaltham team for inviting me and hosting the event, October 5, 2019. https://youtu.be/sTYiHr1lu10 Here's the blurb: Josh shares his remarkable, radical, personal journey to more sustainable living -- away from a standard American diet (and life) to his vegan, nearly package-free diet and away from a jet-setting lifestyle to not flying for 4.5 years and counting -- and his profound discovery of a common misconception about acting on environmental values that can help each help each of us live more sustainably and enjoy it.Joshua Spodek PhD MBA is the bestselling author of Leadership Step…

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The Company I Co-Founded Locked Me Out of the Office

Hear me share on Paul Smith's Lead With a Story podcast how the company I co-founded, Submedia, locked me out of the office as the final nail of ousting me. More precisely, after ousting me from the CEO position, owing to Submedia's running out of money -- I won't argue it being a fair reason to switch CEOs -- the new team moved offices and didn't give me a key to the new one. There's more to the story and it took me over a decade to share it openly, to the extent I can share it. Paul Smith brought…

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See my TEDx talk live, this Saturday, April 6!

You know you've wanted to see a TED talk live. Now's your chance. Cancel your old plans for next weekend. [NOTE: I will post the video of my talk here when the organizers finish editing and post it. They estimated 6 to 12 weeks from April 6 -- that is, likely late May or June.] See me and six other brilliant, engaging speakers this Saturday, April 6 at TEDxNYU---the intersection of two world-renowned institutions. This year's theme is Disruption. In NYU's Kimmel building, 60 Washington Square South, 10th floor, starting 10am. Get tickets and logistics here or contact me and…

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Enron Environmentalism (Inc.)

Enron Environmentalism Enron looked profitable when it compartmentalized and hid its losses. Do you compartmentalize and hide your pollution? I just had lunch with a man who described himself as fanatical about the environment--in particular, about water bottles. He illustrated by describing how fastidiously he handled them. As he started his story, I expected him to describe how he never used water bottles. Americans have such clean and drinkable water that water made unclean makes front page news for weeks. Specifically, he lives near Manhattan, and our water wins blind taste tests with consumers. The EPA finds it meets or exceeds all safety requirements. I figured he knew that 91% of plastic isn't…

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How Do I Live My Values?

Daniel Bauer uncovered what I'm up to next and what led me to it in his second interview of me for his Better Leaders Better Schools podcast. He released it yesterday. All the burpees, vegetables, and so on are leading up to a lot more than just personal habits, as the conversation reveals. The next big step is the podcast launch, featuring some big names---a Pulitzer Prize winner, tens-of-millions-times-viewed TED talker, New York Times bestselling authors, and more---sharing their struggles you don't normally see. Daniel and I talked about its origins and why such big names are doing it, even…

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Videos and a short history of my invention and Submedia, the company I co-founded in 1999

Ten or fifteen years ago most people knew me through Submedia, the company I co-founded to market I technology I conceived of in 1996. My invention The technology was a display we'd install on subway tunnel walls that looked to riders between stations like a movie screen outside the subway car windows. From a business perspective, we were a billboard company: we installed the displays at our cost, sold media to advertisers who wanted large audiences, and shared revenue with our landlords---transit agencies. From a technological perspective we created a new medium that reached people where no one had before,…

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Reviews and reflections from guest speaking recently

I recently guest hosted an online seminar for Park Howell's course in the Executive Masters of Sustainability Leadership program at ASU. The student reviews and reflections touched and inspired me. I can't help sharing them. I described and performed one exercise from my Leadership Step by Step book and course. You can imagine that if these results come from one session, how much doing all the exercises in the book or course would give. Enough from me. Here are the students. I thoroughly enjoyed Joshua Spodek’s perspective and angle he took to engage through experience to train leaders. I purchased…

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Transformative Leadership, a guest post from Jethro Jones

Jethro Jones is hosting the Transformative Leadership summit. I know him because he hosts the Transformative Principal podcast. Here's my conversation with him, “How You Learn Is As Important As What You Learn." I'm participating in the summit. We recorded part of my session, and if you want to improve your leadership, you'll benefit from the summit. I recommend signing up! There are many short recordings of what you'll hear at the online event so you can learn and find out more. Longtime readers know I barely promote anything that isn't my book or courses, but I'm promoting Jethro. Jethro…

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Absurdly Useful Leadership Tactics That You Can Use Today: the second interview with Jim Harshaw

I don't know if the interviewers are getting better, if I'm developing in conversation, or if I'm just enjoying podcast conversations more, but it feels like the interviews are getting better all the time. Yesterday, Jim Harshaw (scroll down to learn more about him) of the Success Through Failure podcast posted our second conversation. Second conversations lead to greater comfort, depth, trust, and intimacy, so I recommend listening. We cover a couple exercises from the book, connecting leadership to everyday living, sports, and more. Jim was a division 1 athlete and coach, among many other achievements so he knows leadership…

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Stealing Happiness Back from Comfort

I guest posted today with the Lead Change Group, whose vision and mission are: Our Vision The Lead Change Group is a global, virtual community dedicated to encouraging and showcasing great ideas and helping leaders in their own professional growth. Mission We will encourage, energize and equip one another to leading change – in ourselves, in others, and in our communities. We want to be a resourceful, supportive community sharing and multiplying powerful leadership content. They have monthly themes, and this month's was “five thieves of happiness” (control, conceit, consumption, coveting, and comfort), after one of its member's book's title.…

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Listen to Outlier Magazine’s podcast of Joshua Spodek, published today!

Outlier Magazine's Ever Gonzalez interviewed me recently and posted the podcast today, "Ep 331: Joshua Spodek Interview – Finding Your Hudson River" We talk about Learning entrepreneurship Learning leadership Swimming across the Hudson River Failure and learning from it My last book, ReModel (and hinting at the next one) Increasing your self-awareness through mental models Sidchas Check out the podcast here. If you prefer using Stitcher, here's that link. If you prefer using iTunes, here's that link. Thank you Ever, Paige, and the Outlier Magazine team! Or listen here:

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What You Can Learn from the Best Leader in America’s Bold Job Interview Strategy

My Inc.com article today, "What You Can Learn from the Best Leader in America's Bold Job Interview Strategy" begins What You Can Learn from the Best Leader in America's Bold Job Interview Strategy Interviewing for the job that brought her national prominence, she prepared and behaved differed from most standard advice, but was incredibly effective. Of those responsible the Girl Scouts camping out on the White House lawn, Frances Hesselbein may have been the most important. As the CEO of the Girls Scouts from 1976 to 1990, she helped turn the organization around, tripling minority enrollment, and increasing their focus…

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Six Lessons I Learned at Lunch With the Best Leader in America

My post on Inc.com today, "Six Lessons I Learned at Lunch With the Best Leader in America," begins Six Lessons I Learned at Lunch With the Best Leader in America Experience trumps everything in leadership and she has more than you do. From the Girl Scouts to the White House. Is Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford, whose stock price went up 18 times under his watch, a fair judge of good leadership? How about Peter Drucker, the "founder of modern management"? How about Marshall Goldsmith, named the #1 leadership thinker in the world in 2015? If we can accept them as reasonable judges, they all named…

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Video: What a leadership course can deliver, part 2

Here is an interview with a student who is taking my online leadership course, Ellen, who is an entrepreneur who recently sold her latest business. As you'll see, she is also finding that the lessons she's learning apply to other deeply challenging areas in life.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnblmP_VlHg Reach your potential in business and life. My courses don't take time from the rest of life. You work with people in your life that you care about on projects that you care about without distracting from the rest of your work and life. Learn more about the course and register here Read testimonials…

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Hustling

What do you do when they cancel your flight? In the late 70s, a man and his fiancée were visiting the Caribbean. They found themselves stranded in an airport when their airline canceled their flight to Puerto Rico. The man was disappointed, but based on his experience running a record business that he had founded, he took initiative to solve the problem. Noticing other people from the same flight were also stranded, he called a chartering company to find the cost to charter a plane. $2,000. He agreed to charter it. He divided that cost by two less than the…

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Video: How to Make Meaningful Connections

Here is the video from Sunday's webinar on How to Make Meaningful Connections, which, as I describe in it and you'll find if you practice the exercise in it, is about how to develop compassion. The exercise in this webinar teaches some of the most valuable skills you can learn about relationships. Every leader I've ever heard talk about compassion describes it as critical, up there with empathy and self-awareness. Scratch that. Every successful person, not just leaders. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9h3gNZ3rl4 If you want your questions answered, attend the webinars or contact me. By the way, I'm still getting to the questions…

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Inc.com Today: 2 Questions To Ask in Every Interview So They’ll Want You Back (Video)

My post today on Inc.com, “2 Questions To Ask in Every Interview So They'll Want You Back,” begins: Instead of trying to show off, making you look like a commodity, use these techniques to make interviews two-way conversations where they'll want you back. Isn't that what you want from an interview? If you want one thing most from an interview, you want the interviewer to want you back. If you want a second thing, you want to know if you want to work there--do you like the people, the culture, and everything else about working there. What not to do in…

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Inc.com Today: Why You Should Never Let Anyone Call You ‘Smart’ in Business

My post today on Inc.com, "Why You Should Never Let Anyone Call You 'Smart' in Business" begins: Intelligence is good so entrepreneurs should like being called smart, right? Wrong. People call you smart when you have nothing they care about more. Look at who doesn't care if you're smart in business: Customers value products and services that solve their problems. Employees want to pay their rent and enjoy their jobs. Suppliers want to get paid. But the big concern is investors. Read the rest at the site: Why You Should Never Let Anyone Call You 'Smart' in Business

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Leadership lessons from Frances Hesselbein, part 5/5

"What do I say to a 99-year-old woman?" "What do I say to a famous person?" "What do I say to someone who could help my career without seeming selfish?" All I could think to ask was what it's like to be 99, which seemed irrelevant and the same question people have asked her for a decade. I don't like when people find out I don't eat meat and ask me where I get my protein. Again? How unimaginative and boring. Do they not realize how many people ask the same question? I'm sure people ask you similar annoying questions.…

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