The Change Your Mindset Podcast

Welcome to the Change Your Mindset podcast, hosted by Peter Margaritis, CPA, AKA The Accidental Accountant. Peter is a speaker, expert in applied improvisation and author of the book 'Improv Is No Joke, Using Improvization to Create Positive Results in Leadership and Life'. Peter's new book, Taking the Numb Our of Numbers: Explaining & Presenting Financial Information with Confidence and Clarity will be published in June 2018.

S5 E17: Strengths of Running a Collective Intelligence Workshop with Rod Collins

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

“In rapidly changing times, dexterity to speed is your key to adaptability.” Rod Collins

In today’s episode, we are joined by Rod Collins, a returning guest. Rod’s initial episode was released on February 14th, 2022. The topic of conversation was ‘The Benefits of Flat Organizational Structures.’ Today, our discussion focuses on the strengths of running a collective intelligence workshop when you’re trying to solve problems or coming up with new ideas. If you have not listened to the earlier recording, I highly suggest giving it a listen and then following up with this episode.

Rod is a leading expert on digital transformation in the future of business. He is the host of The Thinking Differently podcast on the C-suite Radio Network, where he explores how technological innovations continue to transform the rules of how successful businesses. Rod is a regular blog contributor on Substack and the author of Wiki Management, a revolutionary new model for a rapidly changing and collaborative world, highlighting the innovative tools and practices used by a new breed of business leaders to sustain extraordinary performance in a world reshaped by digital disruption. Rod is the former chief operating executive of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee program, one of the nation’s largest and most successful business alliances. Under his leadership, the business experienced the most significant five-year growth period in its 60-year history.

A collective intelligence workshop gets a microcosm of the business in the room. Everybody who would touch on the business’s project, process, and initiative must be in the meeting room. We come up with a way to develop good ideas where we put them into groups to discuss their ideas. At the end of the sessions, each table reports the vision they have settled on. As a decision-maker in a rapidly changing world, you want the best picture, which helps move things along.

After identifying the ideas, we open them up to agreements and disagreements because we want creative energy. The members are also allowed to present their grievances to uncover unknowns that always mess up projects. By having the whole system in the room, things get to be handled in real-time and rapidly, and it helps to drive unanimous consensus.

In rapidly changing times, dexterity to speed is your key to adaptability. My experience is that collective intelligence is more significant than one person providing answers, and frequently this is the power of a network. 

Click to Download the Full Transcript PDF

S5E16: Leadership Development Must Include Financial Leadership

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

“Go write those stories, prepare and practice. And then if the occasion calls, go off script.” Peter Margaritis

This excerpt from the book “Off Script: Mastering The Art of Business Improv.“

The Silent Killer of business is ultimately a lack of financial acumen. The death knell of a company comes from having leaders who are empowered to make important decisions and who don’t understand the fundamentals of Accounting and Finance. Leaders need this understanding and knowledge to make more informed, smarter, and more profitable decisions. Further, without the key elements of Improv in place, we won’t have the courage or safety to talk about the money.

We need to teach accounting and finance to non-financial leaders to remove the complexity of accounting and financial jargon and teach them the fundamentals in plain English. When you switch the accounting and finance light bulb on and include it as part of the Improv leadership development, your leaders will make better business decisions because their business acumen has been fully achieved.

In business, problems and solutions are always about money. The improv exercises in this book provide you with tools that can always make you stronger regardless of your title or the amount of work experience, or your confidence. Your ability to generate significant results from these improv activities sometimes hinges on the participants’ essential financial acumen to have these conversations in the first place.

The combination of improv, off-script leadership skills, and strong financial acumen can take you and your organization to new heights. It’s been my great honor to introduce you to the world where more yes is possible. A world in which respect, trust, and support underlies our every interaction, a world in which we can focus on what matters and listen to the people who matter. A world in which we can adapt to any contingencies, opportunity, or crisis, like a seasoned, talented improviser, ready to accept the gifts of change and forge forward into a story that’s worth waiting to be written.

S5E15: The Four L’s In Changing One’s Mindset with Robert Bendetti, Jr.

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

“There is a real direct application to being human with what you learn in theatre and Improv.” Robert Bendetti

Today, our guest is Robert Bendetti, Jr., CPA, who is the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Life Cycle Engineering. As CFO, he is responsible for all financial operations of the company and accounting contracts, purchasing, Process automation, and IT. Before Life Cycle Engineering, Robert served as VP of Finance at Galey and Lord and CFO of the Coastal Logistics Group and a financial management position within Lockheed Martin, Hormel Foods, and Hilton Hotels.

Robert is also president and founder of the Global CFO Council. The purpose of the global CFO counselors is to provide an educational and networking forum for senior financial executives to share the best practices, discuss current financial issues, and learn about current topics related to their job performance. There are 1500 members in 32 countries. Robert has a great sense of humor and embraces Improv due to his background in the performing arts.

There are four L’s that goes into changing your mindset. These include Learning, Leading, Listening, and Leaving. The first L is learning, which comes from podcasts, books, mentors, and networking, and it could be professional certifications, which is a great way to learn in whatever field you’re in.

The second L is leading, which includes serving and empowering others and volunteering wherever you’re. In the current environment, community, civic, and industry associations desperately need folks like us to volunteer at any phase of your career. There’s no greater way to learn and change your mindset than by embedding yourself with others and serving and empowering them.

The third L is listening, and a great way to grow is by being a mentor and having mentees and listening to them. Another way to do this is to listen to your customer, and the only way you can listen to the customer is if you’re out with the customer. It is also essential to listen to your team members and learn from them.

I am primarily an internal consultant to the CEO and the business operations leaders. But also, my customers include the end-user of the service and products and solutions that we sell, and then I have all the team members at the company. My job is to keep everybody happy, engaged, excited, and equipped to do their job.

The last L is Leaving, and sometimes to change your mindset, you got to change some things about your environment. You need to take out some things and leave like negative influences, some bad friends or some habits.

To affirm those that are listening and doubt themselves, you can learn enough so that you can have an enjoyable conversation and interact with people, or have the confidence to say something in a meeting or to your boss in the moment, instead of on the way home and have all the regret not doing it. Those are the kind of skills that you can learn by doing maybe a little reading or listening to a podcast or taking an Improv class.

Click to Download the Full Transcript PDF

S5E14: Fresh Approach Beats Out Cost Control

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

We are in the people business and we need to treat our people and customers with the respect that they deserve.” Peter Margaritis

Saving a few pennies is not worth losing a customer. In this era of social media, bad reviews, pictures of disappointing meals, and word of mouth can significantly impact your business. While we must always watch our costs in order to make a profit, it is important to realize that it is the revenues that drive that profit. If we don’t get a return business, we lose revenue, and the business loses sustainability and growth period.

As a professional speaker, I customize my presentation to each audience and never do the exact same presentation twice. It takes a lot of work, and has been a key driver in the success is my business for 12 years. I will never serve leftovers to my audience or client. It’s simply not a good business plan or practice.

We all need to remember that we are in the people business. We have no business when we don’t treat our people and customers with the respect that they deserve, and provide them with a constantly reliable and top quality product or service

S5E13: Remembering a Great Leader, Retired Colonel Dean Danos

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

Leadership has many attributes associated with it, such as perseverance, vision, inspiration, motivation, and service, to name a few. A leader is there to serve, and my uncle Dean was a great leader who served his country. Retired Colonel Dean Danos passed away on January 27, 2022, after a valiant and brave battle with pancreatic cancer. He served in the Vietnam war, where he flew over 300 combat missions in the AC-47 Gunship, known as Spooky.

After serving in Vietnam, he was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone. He flew A-37s to support the Peruvian Earthquake Relief Effort and assumed command of Joint Command Post personnel. After that assignment, he was stationed at Craig Air Force Base in Selma, AL as a T-38 instructor pilot and flight commander. His next assignment was in Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, where he was assigned to the Aggressors, a squadron that flew McDonnell F-15 Eagle fighter jets. His next assignment was in Vicenza, Italy, where he brought Penny and his four children – Stephanie, John, Athena, and Katherine. Uncle Dean led the 5th ATAF’s crisis action support during this tour in support of Desert Shield/Storm. Uncle Dean was pinned a Colonel on December 1, 1989. Uncle Dean and the family returned to the U.S. in August 1991 to Randolph Airforce Base in San Antonio. Dean held several roles at Randolph, including base commander, before retiring in 1997. 

When I published my first book in 2015, Improv is No Joke: Using Improvisation to Create Positive Results in Leadership and Life, I sent him a copy. He read it and enjoyed it. However, he felt that I left out one chapter in the book that should be there: a chapter on Ethics. His comment got us discussing the ethics issue, particularly the responsibility of educating and training our workforce. Uncle Dean believed that it was the employer’s responsibility to train the employees, no matter how long they stayed, because they needed the knowledge to be better stewards of their communities and country.

During his retirement from the Air Force, Uncle Dean did become an executive director for a non-profit association for a few years. While playing golf with him at Randolph Air Force Base, it was the first time that I looked at him without any intimidation and saw him as the person he was – a loving man to his family, country, and God.  

I would be remiss if I didn’t say that he was an outstanding public speaker who commanded and engaged an audience. We did talk a lot about the speaking business, and I did share some of my speaking videos with him, and he provided excellent feedback.

I WAS DEVASTED when I received the news that he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. 

He was a man that meant a lot to me and my life. Uncle Dean was a great leader, and may his memory be eternal