I have always been a huge fan of underdogs.

Josh Shipp started his life without a safety net. Abandoned at birth by his mother, he spent most of his youth bouncing between foster homes, growing increasingly disillusioned and angry.

He finally landed in a home with a family who gave him the kind of support and encouragment he needed.

He then built an amazing speaking business, reaching more than 2 million teens with live presentations.

He created a television show called Jump Shipp where he pairs a person with a big dream with a mentor and a challenge to make it happen.

His latest book is called Jump Ship: Ditch Your Dead-End Job and Turn Your Passion into a Profession.

In this episode, Josh and I discuss:

• His own journey, and how he turned a bleak childhood into a life of service and inspiration
• Strategies for finding more meaning in your life and business
• How to integrate all of your "ingredients" in your work - skills, strengths and scars

I was so inspired to talk to this young man who has done more with his short life than most people twice his age.

When you think about it, navigating your life is a series of negotiations.

In the course of a day, you may try to influence:

• Your new puppy to use the restroom outside
• Your customer to buy your product
• Your kid to brush his teeth
• Your neighbor to vote for your candidate
• Your boss to support your project

How can you undertake these challenges with integrity, not force, and make all involved (especially the new puppy) feel like they got a win too?

Bob Burg, the successful author of such classic books at The Go-Givers and Endless Referrals, tackles this challenge in his latest, and he argues most important book to date,  Adversaries into Allies: Win People Over Without Manipulation or Coercion.

In the book, Bob lays out a way to approach negotiations and differences in business, and life, in a way that is mutually supportive and respectful.

In this conversation, Bob and I talk about how our national political discourse (and resulting actions) might look radically different if we took the time to focus on the motivation behind our beliefs, rather than name-calling.

We also talk about how to set personal boundaries without being rude, and handle negotiations in a win-win manner.

Bob says this is his most important book to date, and I agree. I hope that millions of people buy and read the book, resulting in a kinder, more effective and productive society.

There are some people I meet who I instantly feel not just a connection with, but true kinship. Todd Henry is one of these people.

I first met him when he interviewed me about my book Escape from Cubicle Nation on his wildly popular podcast, Accidental Creative. I was intrigued by his work with creatives, where he acts, in his words, as an "arms dealer for the creative revolution." His ideas have inspired people from graphic artists to Hip Hop stars (LL Cool J is a fan).

But I really got to know him when we were both writing our new books for the same publisher (Portfolio) with the same editor (Emily Angell). Our late-night email chats were both inspiring and extremely effective for working through creative blocks.

After being close with Todd in the creative process, I was so excited to read his brand new book Die Empty. It got me tremendously fired up.

In this interview, Todd gives extremely clear, passionate, concrete advice on not only how to get your creative work out into the world, but why it is your obligation to do so. I was shaking my fist in the air during the interview. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

To get the new book:

Many years ago, when I was in the early years of blogging at Escape from Cubicle Nation, I heard about a young man named Dan Schawbel who was writing like crazy about personal branding and millenials in the workplace. His name and face were everywhere, as he wrote for his own blog, as well as grew an impressive byline in places like Fortune, Time and Fast Company.

Dan's first book, Me 2.0, became an international bestseller, and has been translated in 13 languages.

And yet, surprisingly as we discuss in this podcast interview, he had to work really hard to find the right publisher for his brand new book, Promote Yourself.

Listen in to our conversation, where we discuss:

• How the world of work has changed, and what you need to do to make sure you have sustained career and business success
• The necessary hustle required to make things happen in a crowded online world
• Expectations from millenials in the workplace, and how we can all learn to get along (Dan and I have healthy disagreement on a few items here, but that is what makes a good discussion, right?)

Promote Yourself: The New Rules for Career Success is fresh off the press this week, and not surprisingly with Dan behind the launch, has generated lots of buzz in the business press.

Pick up your copy here: http://www.amazon.com/Promote-Yourself-Rules-Career-Success/dp/1250044553

Imagine that you are driving down the road and you get a call from your office that a VC is interested in talking to you about investing in your business, but the only time they have to meet with you is tomorrow at noon. You have never put together a pitch before, and feel slightly panicked. But then you open an app, say "How to make a VC pitch" and immediately get 5 names of experienced VCs. You scan the list, see that one of them is Mark Cuban, and say "call Mark" and in 2 minutes you have him on the phone, coaching you through tomorrow's presentation (of course you scanned the list when you were pulled into a parking lot, because of course you would not text and drive). When you hang up, you would automatically be billed for 15 minutes of Mark Cuban's time.

This scenario is not far from the reality at Clarity.fm, Dan Martell's current company which connects entrepreneurs with questions with experts who have answers. He has the small goal of reaching one billion people with his platform in ten years (!).

In this interview, we talk about:

• Dan's personal journey to entrepreneurial life, which included drug addiction and jail time
• How he took this tough experience and made it a driving force in his vision for positive change
• His early startup history, including early failures
• The business model and vision for Clarity.fm and how it may change the way we learn
• How Dan survived my "I have never met a Canadian I didn't like" challenge by the end of the interview (I like him a lot)

Find Dan at http://www.danmartell.com/ on Twitter @danmartell and his company https://clarity.fm/home

In 2010, Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson released their first book Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It, based on their experience leading a "Results Only Work Environment" (ROWE) while they were at Best Buy.

In a results-only workplace, employees can do whatever they want whenever they want, as long as the work gets done. No more pointless meetings, racing to get in at 9:00, or begging for permission to watch your kid play soccer. You make the decisions about what you do and where you do it.

It sounds great, doesn't it? But if you are a manager, how do you make sure that work is actually getting done?

In their second book, Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix it, Cali and Jody tell many stories from companies who have instituted ROWE environments. They provide guidance to managers who are ready to embrace the workplace of the future.

In this 30-minute interview, Pam and Jody discuss the book, and the revolutionary movement to give employees control of their lives back, while creating a productive and dynamic work culture.