In this episode of the Bricks+Brands Podcast, my guest Ralph Rathburn has run international businesses in Asia for over 32 years, helping to entertain tens of millions of Japanese people through the facilitation of tours such as "Disney On Ice," "Disney Live," and other live entertainment shows. 

Meet Ralph Rathburn
For 32 years he's run international businesses in Asia. Ralph founded and managed 4 businesses in Japan – 2 for himself and 2 subsidiaries of a Spanish company. 

His company, AmAsia, has helped entertain tens of millions of Japanese people by facilitating the Japan tours of events such as “Disney On Ice”, “Disney Live”, “Thomas the Tank Engine – Live” and other live entertainments. 

They've worked the Beijing Olympics and Tokyo Olympics and the Rugby World Cup among other major events. 

With my his company, Praxi K.K., he's worked in B2B wholesale and in B2C retail. The company manufactured consumer electronics under license from Hamilton-Beach and imported those and other electronics and household products into Japan. 

Ralph has worked with factories in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy and Poland and has sold products to companies throughout Asia.

The core pillar of Ralph's career, whether working in entertainment or product sales, has been helping people be successful, especially when they are working with people who are different from themselves. 

Ralph has provided intercultural training to dozens of foreign CEOs/Presidents working in Japan and to hundreds of Japanese who have to work with foreigners. 

He's helped multi-cultural teams do creative problem solving to find solutions to intractable problems. 

Ralph is always looking for the next person or company to help.

Learn More and Connect with Ralph
You can find Ralph on LinkedIn or visit his website to learn more. 

After listening to this episode, you'll walk away learning:

• Why diversity in creativity is critical to understanding the problem at hand
• What creativity means to Ralph and how he encourages it amongst his teams
• Why understanding your team's threshold for uncertainty can lead to innovative breakthroughs
• Plus a whole lot more!

On this episode of the Bricks+Brands Podcast, my guest is a Chief Chaos Organizer based in Berlin, Germany with a focus on helping people and organizations become more collaborative, innovative, flexible, and transparent, moving towards flattening hierarchies, improving employee engagement and adapting an ever evolving environment. 

With an impressive skill set including strategy development, requirements analysis, business process development, problem solving, communication, change management, creativity and innovation, Stephanie is well equipped to help people and organizations become more collaborative, innovative, flexible, and transparent, moving towards flattening hierarchies, improving employee engagement and adapting an ever evolving environment. 

You’ll walk away after listening to this episode:

• What Radical Knowledge Management (KM) is
• Why sustainable leadership behaviors are more closely linked to creativity than first glance
• Why organizations miss the mark when it comes to allowing their employees to tap into their creative capacity
• Plus a whole lot more!

Meet Stephanie Barnes

Stephanie Barnes is Chief Chaos Organizer at Entelechy, a consultancy whose main purpose is helping people and organizations become more collaborative, innovative, flexible and transparent as they flatten hierarchies, improve employee engagement and adapt to an ever-evolving environment.

As an artist and passionate expert in knowledge management and culture change, Stephanie advocates for curiosity, playfulness and creative learning as the cornerstones of the journey towards knowledge, a context-sensitive notion whose principles have been educated out of us through production line thinking.

Aside from her expertise and experience in the realm of Knowledge Management, Stephanie holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with Honours from Brock University (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada) and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). 

This week on the Bricks+Brands Podcast we’re speaking with a leadership expert on a mission to inspire new business owners to believe that leadership is simple.

In this conversation, we cover:

• Why leadership is S.I.M.P.L.E.
• What #Beinterested means to her
• Ways to boost engagement with your team

Meet Rhonda Delaney
Rhonda is on a mission to inspire NEW BUSINESS OWNERS to believe Leadership is S.I.M.P.L.E.

Why?  

Because EVERYONE deserves a Leader that EMBRACES their UNIQUENESS and is COMMITTED to CULTIVATING their POTENTIAL.

How? 

By sharing The People Gardener Principle that cultivates Safe | Intentional | Maximized | People | Loving | Environments

Over the years she's discovered the tenets of gardening equally apply to leading and nurturing humans. Tending plants requires interest, curiosity and patience. Our human connections are enlivened when we incorporate this.