Voices in the Wilderness

Jewelry department head for the Americas
and senior international specialist, Phillips.

I listen to podcasts generally on my home commute.

It helps me to unwind and makes the trip easier. The Moth: I adore listening to these personal true-life narratives, which touch my heart and soul. Cathartic, inspiring, arousing and educational, these anecdotes ground me and draw me away from my work, focusing on life outside of my narrow path. It is a welcome relief to hear other voices.

The Wall Street Journal’s Potomac Watch: When I need or want to tune into current politics, I prefer to listen to the engaging conversations from the WSJ opinions podcast about what’s going on in Washington. The straightforward perspective is refreshing and insightful, and it differs from the morning news.

CEO, The Smithee Group

My favorite non-jewelry podcast is How I Built This. It is an in-depth interview podcast where the host, Guy Raz, speaks with entrepreneurs, innovators and other people that have accomplished and started successful businesses and organizations. He always pulls out interesting insights, [lessons], and things that help me as an entrepreneur and leader. My other favorites are the HBR IdeaCast and Lewis Howes’s School of Greatness. HBR follows the Harvard Business Review format of studying businesses, people and leaders [to learn] about their growth, journey and lessons. It is a great short podcast. The Lewis Howes podcast is more individual-based, interviewing interesting people of note about their journeys and struggles in life and how they overcame them to achieve greatness.
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Founder, Young Diamantaires group of the World Federation of
Diamond Bourses (WFDB)

I’m more of a reader. I begin my day early and go through the Financial Times and Australia’s Financial Review before I get to the Harvard Business Review and various posts on social media. When I do listen to podcasts, I turn to Gary Vaynerchuk — The GaryVee Audio Experience — for pure entertainment value. He’s a loud, abrasive New Yorker who I just love. On a more serious note, I follow Jeffrey Gitomer, who wrote the Little Red Book of Selling and hosts a podcast with sales expert Jennifer Gluckow called Sell or Die. If I were to write a book about sales strategy, I would want it to be his. His basic philosophy is, “I don’t want to sell to you, I want you to buy from me.” It’s all about creating a value proposition that makes the customer want to buy.