Networkwise Presents: Conversations With Connors

Costas Mandylor was born in Melbourne Australia to Greek parents. In his early teen years, his first job was as a dishwasher in nightclubs, in his late teens, he learned how to work the door at night clubs, he considered this, one of his greatest educations in life. In the normal world his two loves were boxing and soccer, which kept him fit and mostly out of trouble. In 1988 he took an adventure to Los Angeles California and found himself stumbling into an acting class, soon after into the entertainment industry. He loved old movies and as time passed he found himself to be fortunate enough to work and become friends with some movie legends like Robert Loggia, Anthony Quinn, Don Rickles and many others. He has learned many lessons since. He has lived between New York and LA for 28 years and his grandfather’s words still ring true to him, “respect your true friends and never double cross your partner”. Mandylor is known for his roles in Virtuoso, Saw V and Saw VI. His newest venture is Cliffs of Freedom which

David M. Cunic is a licensed physical therapist, business consultant, certified leadership coach, and cannabis industry expert and consultant. David’s expertise in sports medicine, orthopedics, and manual therapy has allowed him to work with prestigious doctors from numerous professional and Olympic sports teams. His motto in both health and professional circles is U.C.S. -- “Use Cannabis Safely.”   As one of the original pioneers in the cannabis lab testing market, David empowers and educates private investors, real estate owners, farmers, physicians, and other professionals on smart and safe ways to get involved in this ever-changing sector. David consults with cannabis companies in 11+ states, bringing with him a unique, in-depth knowledge base on the ins and outs of regulations as they vary from region to region. He advises with many start-up companies and works with several SME’s cannabis executives, ensuring and enhancing their success within their respected focus. David shares his experiences at confer

Michelle Tillis Lederman was so impressive the first time we spoke to her on our 29th episode, that we just had to bring her back for another conversation. Michelle Tillis Lederman named one of Forbes Top 25 Networking Experts, is the author of several books including The 11 Laws of Likability , Nail the Interview, Land the Job and her newest book, The Connector's Advantage. Michelle is the CEO of Executive Essentials which provides custom communication and leadership training and coaching programs. Michelle has appeared on NBC, CBS, Fox, Gayle King, and NPR and been featured in the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Working Mother, US News & World Report, Monster.com, USA Today, CNBC, and About.com. She holds degrees from Lehigh University and Columbia Business School Find NetWorkWise on: Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube LinkedIn  Reddit

Over the past nearly 20 years, Justin Smith, aka Just Blaze has become a fixture in Hip Hop music and culture. He began producing for well-known artists in the late 1990s, leading to a breakout role in producing the majority of Jay-Z’s “The Dynasty: Roc La Familia” and its follow-up, the celebrated perennial fan favorite "Blueprint”, which reshaped the sound and sonic styles of Hip-Hop music upon its release. Just reached international fame for his production of Cam’ron’s 2002 summer smash “Oh Boy” and instantly became a household name in Hip-Hop culture. Since then, he’s gone on to produce for Snoop Dogg, Usher, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Talib Kweli, Busta Rhymes, Rick Ross, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Ludacris, TI & Rihanna, and many more. In between record production projects, he also broke into scoring various video game projects for EA Sports, Capcom and Midway, and created soundscapes for Hollywood hits such as Ice Age 4 and The A-Team as well as various TV projects, such as hosting VH1's "Master of the

The Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) is a Global business network of 13,000+ leading entrepreneurs in 186 chapters and 58 countries. EO enables business owners to learn from each other, leading to greater business success and an enriched personal life. They educate, they transform, they inspire and they offer invaluable resources in the form of global events, leadership-development programs, an online entrepreneur forum and executive education opportunities, among other offerings designed for personal and professional growth. Recently, Adam Connors had the opportunity to speak at one of the New Jersey Chapter's recent conferences. Following Adam's talk, he sat down with some of the Entrepreneurs there for a one-on-one conversation. This special episode of Conversations with Connors features a chat with 10 entrepreneurs from nine vastly different companies. Below is a small snippet about what you can expect to hear in this podcast: Todd Leonardis & Steven Schneider – Kramer Industries Todd and Steven run a

Chris Schembra is a sought-after dinner host and facilitator whose passion lies in facilitating profound human connection in a deeply disconnected world. He is the Founder + Chief Question Asker of 7:47, an organization which uses theater + food to help companies build more human relationships. Their research and strategy is centered around empathy, loneliness, and creating emotional connections in the workplace. Since it’s inception, 7:47 has worked with over 4,500 leaders and sparked over 300,000 relationships. Aside from 7:47, Chris is a Partner at OHenry Productions which both invest in and produce commercial theater. He’s led social campaigns with over 1,000,000 (million) participants, and the projects Chris has been involved in have been awarded 14 Tony Awards, 7 Emmy’s and a Grammy. Find NetWorkWise on: Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube LinkedIn  Reddit

Jesse Lee Peterson is the author of several books, but his latest is "The Antidote: Healing America from the Poison of Hate, Blame, and Victimhood.” He is the founder and president of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, a nationally recognized nonprofit dedicated to “Rebuilding the Family by Rebuilding the Man.” He is a talk show host, counselor, activist, media commentator, and columnist at WND.com Jesse has appeared on ABC, CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, and is a frequent guest on Fox News, "The Sean Hannity Radio Show," and other national media outlets. His national radio show (The Jesse Lee Peterson Show) airs, M-F, 6-9 a.m. PT / 9-12 Noon ET and is simulcast on Newsmaxtv.com His popular YouTube web-series “The Fallen State” is fast becoming one of the most talked about shows online. For more about Jesse visit JesseLeePeterson.com To learn more about his nonprofit go to Rebuildingtheman.com Find NetWorkWise on: Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube LinkedIn  Reddit

He’s a realty star, entrepreneur, author, podcast host and restauranteur. He’s been working since he was 12 in the hospitality industry and has held many roles, everything from bar tending, valet and general management. When he was 19, Chris Joined Bravos “Housewives of NJ” which aired for 5 seasons.  Bravo subsequently offered his family their own show- “Manzo'd With Children.” Most recently he’s the co-host of a Podcast called “Dear Albie” which has recently launched and has already become one of the fastest growing and highest rated podcasts.  As much he loves doing the show, his true love is being around people and seeing the smiles that are on their faces when they are eating at 10th Street Pizza in Hoboken, where Chris can found pretty much 24/7. Find NetWorkWise on: Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube LinkedIn  Reddit

Steve Sims is a 52 year old American Entrepreneur and CEO of Bluefish a luxury concierge service for clients that want to improve on their impactfulness and soft-skills. A renowned speaker and author Steve has authored the book "Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen" as well as sharing what it takes to be professional and personal. Find NetWorkWise on: Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube LinkedIn  Reddit

Alex Doman is an author, entrepreneur, public speaker, music producer, and product creator, who has 25 years of experience in leadership in the brain health, neurotechnology, and therapeutic music markets. The third generation in a family of pioneers dedicated to improving brain performance for over seventy-five years, Alex is founder & Chief Product Officer of Vital Neuro, founder & CEO of Advanced Brain Technologies, founder & Chief Scientist of Sleep Genius, and bestselling co-author of Healing at the Speed of Sound®. His production credits are extensive, leading the research, creative and innovation teams who’ve created cutting-edge solutions that have helped millions of people worldwide including; The Listening Program®, Brain Builder®, Sleep Genius™, inTime™, Sound Health®, Music for Babies™, Music for the Mind™, Waves™ multi-sensory audio system, TAVS™ (Test of Auditory and Visual Skills), The Movement Program and Vital's Leonardo, a mobile cloud based neuroscience service for stress reduct

On December 10th, 2013 Kerri Accardi, a filmmaker and activist from New York  began a journey "with a mission to educate the world about Cannabis and help the change laws.” If I didn’t highlight Passion at the forefront of  this introduction than you would have accused me of being  asleep at the wheel during our conversation….  You want to talk about someone inspired and driven…. Well, let me tell you this, nobody is getting in her way. From the depths of a deep personal loss, Kerri Accardi, the CEO of 420 Media, found from within a super human desire to serve others.  Her company is dedicated to helping the legal cannabis industry get the educated word out.   We delve into what cannabis is, why it’s illegal, she gives us a crash course on CBD and some of the biggest challenges she’s facing today.  We also discuss how her relationships have been critical to the movement, who has helped her, her rule of thumb on getting back to people and how she facilitates introductions. I strive to bring you guests with pas

Most often my interviews focus on Networking. However, this conversation isn’t about networking per-say, rather how important relationship skills lend themselves to not just getting a job, making a sale or building a business. Today I sit with Chris Voss who helps us understand what Negotiations really are and how you can’t negotiate successfully without being able to establish a relationship first.  In fact, according to Chris, It’s the foundation of a good negotiation. While good business negotiation skills can mean life or death to a company, Chris' negotiations literally were life and death situations. You see, Chris was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group.   Chris is best known known world-wide as the author of the book “Never Split the difference”, which in my humble opinion is the best book on negotiating that I have read to date. I’ve proba

Shally Steckerl is President of The Sourcing Institute (TSI), and one of the originators of the talent sourcing discipline. With twenty-one years of recruiting experience, Mr. Steckerl has served as corporate sourcing leader for many Fortune 500 brands, like Microsoft, Google, Coca-Cola, Cisco, and Motorola, helping them efficiently find unfindable talent. He has advised recruiting leaders at over 300 organizations, like CH2M Hill, GE, Lockheed, and SourceRight, on how to successfully embed key sourcing initiatives into their current efforts, improve the performance of their existing sourcing teams, and establish sourcing functions from the ground up.  Mr. Steckerl is the author of both the industry standard textbook “The Talent Sourcing and Recruitment Handbook” (ISBN 978-1928734796), and his recently published book, “The Sourcing Method” (978-0-9998081-0-8). He has served as Adjunct Faculty at Temple University’s Fox School of Business where he taught the first ever full-credit academic capstone course on r

Michelle Tillis Lederman named one of Forbes Top 25 Networking Experts, is the author of three books including The 11 Laws of Likability and her latest Nail the Interview, Land the Job. Michelle is the CEO of Executive Essentials  which provides custom communication and leadership training and coaching programs. Michelle has appeared on NBC, CBS, Fox, Gayle King, and NPR and been featured in the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Working Mother, US News & World Report, Monster.com, USA Today, CNBC, and About.com. She holds degrees from Lehigh University and Columbia Business School Find NetWorkWise on: Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube LinkedIn  Reddit

Nish Patel is a self-made man! He started Paperchase US operations which is originally from London. Paperchase established their niche expertise into hospitality business by producing analytical reporting and helping outsourcing day-to-day finance operations.   When Nish started, his vision was to have 30 restaurants as clients in 5 years, but today they have over 400 restaurants in just the US alone and continue to grow with offices in NY and Miami. Prior to launching Paperchase in the US, Nish ran a small business in London alike corner shop. Prior to that he worked for a CPA firm in London Makan & Makan Chartered Accountants. After that, he joined Paperchase India operations and that’s how this journey started.  A self-proclaimed Introvert, Nish likes to lead by example and takes great pride in developing his team. He leads by the philosophy of his “people are the true assets of companies, not computers, software or other traditional assets”. Nish is committed to a life of learning.  He's a voracious r

Michael Dash is a business owner, entrepreneur and good Samaritan.  He is the CEO and President of a thriving technology talent acquisition firm called Parallel HR Solutions. Michael has been named “2014 Forty Under 40” by Utah Business Magazine, 2016 man & woman of the year nominee by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society after raising $75,000 for charity in just 10 weeks and a member of the 2011 Salt Lake Chamber Leadership Utah. Michael is part of several national organizations such as Young Entrepreneurial Council (YEC) and The Founders Organization.  He is a graduate from the University of Maryland. When he is not helping businesses grow or donating his time Michael can be found training for marathons.

Tyler Wagner is the founder of Authors Unite where he helps people write and market their first profitable book. He has helped over 300 people create passive income, become leaders in their field, start businesses from their books, and much more. He is also the bestselling author of Conference Crushing, a book designed to help businesspeople and entrepreneurs maximize their ROI at networking events, conventions and conferences. When Tyler was 21 he dropped out of college to intern under Jayson Gaignard (Founder of MastermindTalks). He got to see behind the scenes of how an amazing conference should be put together. He later realized that a lot of people were not maximizing their time at networking events. So, he decided to write Conference Crushing. The book has helped thousands of people maximize their ROI at events. Tyler Wagner is also the founder of Wags Media where he helps people start and scale their businesses online. Wags Media helps people scale their businesses in numerous ways including: building

Stylist and consultant Meryl Gabay began working in fashion for Calvin Klein Menswear.  During her tenure with Klein, she worked in all aspects of the designers’s Menswear division and was accountable for merchandising and sales, building relationships with such legendary CEO’s Marvin Traub, Phil Miller and Ed Finkelstein. Calvin became the leading Menswear Designer receiving a coveted CFDA award. She later joined Ralph Lauren launching state of the art in-store boutiques for the brand. She was reunited with photographer’s  Bruce Weber, and later Annie Leibovitz, as she rolled out a brand imagining campaign for national advertising magazines and newspapers positioning Ralph Lauren with key fashion books such as Vogue, Harpers, WWD and the New York Times. Having collaborated with some of the biggest names in the industry she has in depth knowledge of the fashion process, including product design, design management, fashion editorial and brand building.  No man or woman knows what they really want until you giv

Tammy Marzigliano is a partner at Outten & Golden LLP in New York, where she represents employees in litigation and negotiation in all areas of employment law, including matters involving compensation (and bonus) disputes, contractual violations, and whistleblower and individual discrimination claims.  Ms. Marzigliano is the Co-Chair of both Outten & Golden’s Financial Services Practice Group and its Whistleblower and Retaliation Practice Group.  She is also a member of Outten & Golden’s Executive and Professionals Practice Group and former Co-Chair of its Sex Discrimination and Sexual Harassment Practice Group.  She has also been recognized by Best Lawyers in 2018, and Super Lawyers New York Metro edition for 2013-2017. Ms. Marzigliano received her B.A. from Hofstra University and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Quinnipiac University Law School, where she served as the Public Relations Editor of the Quinnipiac Health Law Journal.

As the CEO of TechWerxe, Sejal Lakhani is a passionate woman and leading figure in the IT industry. She was instrumental in getting TechWerxe as the top 100 MSSP’s (Managed Security Service Provider) for 2017 the top 500 MSP's (Managed Service Providers) for the last three years and numerous other awards. She is WBE and MBE certified. Prior to TechWerxe, Sejal spent 12 years in the Banking world, from the trading floor, to Regulatory and Compliance. She has worked around the world including, Japan, London, Hong Kong and Singapore. Sejal is a true networker and is on the Board of Entrepreneurs Organization, Connect 4 Business Exchange (C4BX) as well as part of several industry Mastermind groups.   Sejal is an avid supporter of St. Jude’s as well as works with organizations that support victims of Human Tracking. She is also a huge foodie which fits perfectly with her passion for travelling. She loves exploring new places, while discovering unique dishes from all over the world. She is married with 2 kids.