Create Magic At Work®

A TABOO TOPIC IN SOME WORK SPACES? THE SECRET SAUCE TO FEELING RESTED... DO YOU EVER WONDER WHY SOME LEADERS LOOK SO RESTED AND PUT TOGETHER?Samm Smeltzer has passionately pursued the missing elements for employee engagement within organizations, and this path has led her to a place the working world often avoids, Spirituality and Eastern Medicine. She has since combined both her roles as an HR Visionary and a Medical Qigong Healer to heal disengaged workplaces and guide leaders and employees to discover their own professional purpose and passion.Prior to this journey, Samm began her career serving as an HR Manager within two U.S. based retail companies and was responsible for multiple store sites in various states. She then transitioned industries to healthcare where she developed and implemented company-wide educational programs for leadership and staff at a large Central Pennsylvania Healthcare System. Samm has functioned as a consultant to enhance team and individual performance. She is certified by the HR Certification Institute as a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and by the Society for Human Resource Management as an SHRM-CP. Samm's dedicated efforts resulted in multiple awards, two of them being 2013 Organizational Learning & Development Educator of the Year and Penn State's 2015 Outstanding Graduate Student in Training and Development.Samm's experience combined with her desire to create workplaces with thriving employees resulted in the creation of the HRart Center (pronounced "heart"), a boutique consulting firm devoted to corporate wellness and growth. She is the author of three books, the newest of which is called Workplace Healers. HR leader, Qigong healer, coach, author, and avid podcaster, Samm Smeltzer is on a mission to revolutionize HR and heal the working world.Join Amy and Samm in this episode as they delve into being intuitive and qigong meditation.In this episode, you will learn:What it means to be intuitive and how Samm applies it to help corporate leadersWhat Qigong is and how it relates to energy and wellnessHow Samm uses Qigong to help leaders find their authentic selves in the workplaceQuote from the show - '' Part of me thinks, you know, the pandemic is a horrible global situation that we're going through. However, one of the gifts it has generated is this massive, even reflective, movement through quarantine. And so for the first time, we were all forced to look at ourselves and go inward. We couldn't have all the distractions to allow us to not do that. And when we looked inward and we realized that we haven't been working there, people were like, oh crap. Now what? What do we do?''About the host:Amy Lynn Durham is the Founder of Create Magic At WorkAmy has spent years in the corporate world successfully managing hundreds of employees for private and publicly traded companies. Amy designed Create Magic At Work™ to bring a variety of services and strategies to aid in supporting healthy leaders & workplaces through:Private Executive CoachingSpeaking Internationally about Ways to Support & Create Healthy Workplace CulturesExperiential Workshops & KeynotesConnect with Amy:LinkedIn , Website, Purchase her book, Create Magic at Work

How do you collaborate with your team? Do you take the time to ask their opinions, check in with them, find out what they need from you as their leader?In this episode, Amy is joined by Robert "Bo" Brabo. Throughout his career, Bo has always focused on the people, helping them tackle their issues as if they were his own. Since retiring from the US Army as the Chief of HR Operations with the White House Communications Agency and Presidential Communications Officer for both Presidents Bush and Obama, Bo has served in several executive positions and is the founder of Hail Media Group & The Brabo Center of Excellence, providing fully accredited continuing education for HR professionals around the globe.Bo's mission through the Center is to build leadership and business acumen in human resources professionals, giving them the abilities to help solve today's most challenging business issues. Students develop a leadership mindset, boost their performance, build, and lead high-performing teams, get crystal clear on their HR goals, plans, and actions, and set-up their careers for long-term success and satisfaction. The Center's programs are offered on their E-Learning platform, via live webinars, as well as customized corporate training events.Bo received his MBA from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. He is a professional speaker and author of the book "From the Battlefield, to the White House, to the Boardroom: Leading Organizations to Values Based Results", an Amazon Top 100 Hot New Release in Business Leadership. Bo is the Co-host of "The Bo & Luke Show" (a top 2.5% global podcast) inspiring listeners to be, know, and do better every day. Bo also holds current SPHR and PMP professional certifications.Join Amy and Bo in this episode as they discuss:What values based leadership meansThe role mental strength plays in the workplace and its similarities to SQHow end of day check-ins with your team creates an open environment for communicationHow to handle mistakes and view them as an opportunity for learning, not blamingQuote from the show - ''When I'm meeting with my team and they're telling me what they've accomplished, they're telling me about any impacts they have had on their day or what other people, external forces might be having on them and getting their job done or any impediments, it's really about me listening, active listening, to ensure I can then discern what needs to be done and what actions need to take place'.About the host:Amy Lynn Durham is the Founder of Create Magic At WorkAmy has spent years in the corporate world successfully managing hundreds of employees for private and publicly traded companies. Amy designed Create Magic At Work™ to bring a variety of services and strategies to aid in supporting healthy leaders & workplaces through:Private Executive CoachingSpeaking Internationally about Ways to Support & Create Healthy Workplace CulturesExperiential Workshops & KeynotesConnect with Amy:LinkedIn , Website, Purchase her book, Create Magic at Work

How comfortable are you at work? Do you feel that you can truly be yourself or do you show only a version of yourself for fear of being judged by colleagues?In this episode, Amy is joined by Sean Moore. Certified in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University and after 20 years in the telecom industry, Sean decided to start a consulting company that focuses on change management, servant leadership and building strong, diverse and inclusive cultures.Join Amy and Sean in this episode as they discuss:How Sean operates from a place of higher motivation or big picture view as a leaderWhat it means to be a compassionate leader and how you can connect with your employees on a deeper levelWhy you should build diversity through connection as a leaderQuote from the show - ''A compassionate leader encourages people to be authentic and recognizes like.....something I've learned personally is people don't know how to help you,if you don't reach out and ask for help.'' *For a brief portion of this episode we discuss our guest's work in diversity, equity and inclusion. We acknowledge that these are deep and complex issues that require more in depth exploration than this conversation allowed for. At Create Magic At Work we honor, respect and value all identities and perspectives. Many of the skills of Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) reflect themes such as the awareness of others worldviews, awareness of the interconnectedness of life, and making wise and compassionate decisions. We will continue to explore these and other skills of SQ throughout this podcast.About the host:Amy Lynn Durham is the Founder of Create Magic At WorkAmy has spent years in the corporate world successfully managing hundreds of employees for private and publicly traded companies. Amy designed Create Magic At Work™ to bring a variety of services and strategies to aid in supporting healthy leaders & workplaces through:Private Executive CoachingSpeaking Internationally about Ways to Support & Create Healthy Workplace CulturesExperiential Workshops & KeynotesConnect with Amy:LinkedIn , Website, Purchase her book, Create Magic at WorkConnect with Sean: LinkedIn https://dgiconsultingllc.com/

Since the COVID pandemic, the way people work has changed and some may be wondering, is there a place for middle managers in the workplace and if so, what role do they play in the health and wellbeing of their employees?In this episode, Amy is joined by Roly Walter. Roly is the founder of Appraisd, an employee performance management system that is unique in aiming to help managers get the best from their team members. Roly has built Appraisd from his garden shed to a global business with £1mm ARR. He has so far avoided external investment, worried that it would get in the way of his family life but also wanted to prove that you could build and scale a SaaS business through customer revenue.He is fascinated by what it means to be a manager – why middle management has become a dirty word, why management is seen as inferior to leadership, how managers also need to be coaches, mentors as well as holding their team members to account.Roly says it's hard to be a manager, and this is what drives him to build tools to help. He also loves to regularly embarrass his two kids by playing guitar for their school's Dads Band.Join Amy and Roly in this episode as they discuss:Whether there will be a place for middle managers in the future of the workforceHow middle managers can best support their teams in a remote working environmentEquipping managers with the right tools they need to have conversations with their employees about their mental health and their wellbeingQuote from the show - ''Now we could look at the managers and think about what it means. If you're a new manager or you're a manager that has imposter syndrome, or you're a manager that has blind spots, how can we help those people so that the balance is absolutely equal and that manager and employee can really get the best from each other.''About the host:Amy Lynn Durham is the Founder of Create Magic At WorkAmy has spent years in the corporate world successfully managing hundreds of employees for private and publicly traded companies. Amy designed Create Magic At Work™ to bring a variety of services and strategies to aid in supporting healthy leaders & workplaces through:Private Executive CoachingSpeaking Internationally about Ways to Support & Create Healthy Workplace CulturesExperiential Workshops & KeynotesConnect with Amy:LinkedIn , Website, Purchase her book, Create Magic at WorkConnect with Roly:Website, LinkedIn

Being a curious and creative learner has set Valerie apart from becoming an accomplished leadership coach and professional speaker.For the past 20 years, Valerie's career has taken her to many different countries and to work with people of many cultures. She's worked for Up with People, the international leadership program, the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce, and Hyatt Corporation in roles focused on public relations, training, recruitment, and leadership development.In 2018, she launched into entrepreneurship as the CEO of her company, Connect to Joy, LLC. Her thought‐provoking questions and unique strategies empower people from all walks of life. Her group workshops and one‐on‐one sessions are designed to go beyond concepts and data points, to shine a light on what has heart and meaning. While her delivery is fun, engaging and playful, attendees report breakthroughs in achieving meaningful goals, transforming relationships, and communicating with confidence. Whether in a one-on-one session, delivering a keynote, facilitating a breakout or participating in a panel discussion, Valerie exudes wisdom, curiosity, and joy.In this episode, you will learn:What it means to have a deeper connection with a colleague or employeeWhat sparks Valerie to speak about bringing joy to diversityWhat servant leadership means to ValerieHow organizations should look to fix underlying causes of problems vs. symptomsQuote from the show - ''The more I embraced that part of me, which was so natural already, the better results I got, the more compliant people were ironically, because they were willing to go above and beyond sometimes in places, in ways, that were uncomfortable.''About the host:Amy Lynn Durham is the Founder of Create Magic At Work™.Amy has spent years in the corporate world successfully managing hundreds of employees for private and publicly traded companies. Amy designed Create Magic At Work™ to bring a variety of services and strategies to aid in supporting healthy leaders & workplaces through:Private Executive CoachingSpeaking Internationally about Ways to Support & Create Healthy Workplace CulturesExperiential WorkshopsConnect with Amy:LinkedIn , Website, Purchase her book - Create Magic at WorkConnect with Valerie:Website, LinkedIn, Instagram