In March 2010, Patrick Prothe hired me to speak at the Fall User Conference he put together for the software company where he was working at the time. We’ve been in touch ever since. I was delighted to be guest No. 6 on his Unvarnished Business podcast.
We talked about domains where I’ve built quite a bit of experience over the years:
- Community building–from the lessons learned grades sixth through eighth in Italy, to the ups and downs of a pre-social media online network run on a listserv and grown organically to an impressive referral and learning engine.
- Communications–from the non verbal skills learned in the playpen, or rather out of it, to the work I had the privilege of doing for some of the most interesting and diverse companies, some of which I helped exit.
- Leadership–from the incredible luck in working with a generous and skilled CEO early in my career to the realization that “nobody is coming for me,” I better be the leader I wish I had.
We also talked about curiosity, B-sides, and a few other stories in between.
If you’re curious about my back story, my experimenting with Fast Company over 7 years and 100 events, the differences between Italian and American cultures, want to sample Patrick’s listening skills while practicing your own, listen here.
More about my work here.
Past conversations
Some of the best conversations I’ve had with friends range in topics from digital media, doing great work, structuring communication functions, keeping the social conversation real, my take on SxSW, and more.
Of course, since things are so impermanent online, the archives might not be active anymore.
- The Bean Cast 243: Facebook Classic with Christopher Baccus (executive director digital, Golin Harris) and Rose Cameron (head of globabl brand strategy, Hornall Anderson), and Valeria Maltoni
- The Bean Cast 190 with Mark Wnek (former head of Lowe NY), Gabe Zimmerman (Gamification.co), and Valeria Maltoni
- The Bean Cast 182 with Peter Shankman (founder HARO), David Burn (founder/editro AdPulp), Marc Whitehead (Reason Partners), and Valeria Maltoni.
