The Professional Confessional

Marc Maxhimer, a former middle school teacher, talks about the time he tried to help his new principal -- only to get the door slammed in his face.

• Marc's big mistake wasn't confronting problematic behaviors in his boss. Rather, it was not anticipating his principal's misinterpretation of intent as a personal attack or a complaint.
  
  
• In future conversations with the powers that be, Marc would pre-emptively ...

Graphic designer Charlotte McBride talks about how her greatest strength turned into a weakness so big, she delivered 6 months' worth of bad projects.

• Charlotte's biggest professional mistake was rushing her projects to completion, prompting a career-defining confrontation with her direct supervisor. Her speed, combined with her inexperience and her manager's reluctance to speak up sooner, which was her own mistak...

"The Godfather of Content Marketing" Joe Pulizzi describes how his first business flopped by selling the wrong service to the wrong audience.

• Joe's big mistake was actually two-fold. First, he fell in love with his product before his customers validated the approach. Second, he sold to the wrong audience altogether! His original target market of agencies generally never spent on their own marketing, even as they s...

Content marketing champion and Fortune 100 consultant Robert Rose reveals how his private insecurities kept him chained to the wrong job for 3 years.

• Robert's big mistake was waiting so long to leave his corporate gig -- but more than that, it was believing that inner voice that said he'd always be a failure because he "couldn't finish what he started." That insecurity -- rooted in his own failure to fin...

Serial entrepreneur Steve Teare's core mistake led him to embezzle computer parts and plunged him into homelessness before he could pick up the pieces.

• Steve's big mistake was his lack of awareness of his own personality, and how it could compromise his values to the point where he embezzled computer parts from his company suppliers. Even after repaying the theft, Steve had to hit rock-bottom homelessness before he luc...

Global sales manager Rob Finn introduces us to his younger self: A first-time closer with a chip on his shoulder so big, he lost a quota-doubling account.

• Rob's biggest mistake was letting his personal ambitions and thirst to prove himself blind him to the red flags plastered against a prospective deal that would never materialize. In what must be a mark of his personal character, Rob's biggest regret of the whole epis...

Social media branding consultant Mark Schaefer explains how his sales team almost lost $1.5 billion in revenue from a profitable (if problematic) client -- and how he managed to recover the account.

• Mark's biggest mistake was not hanging up fast enough. No, really, it was a teammate's indiscretion in choosing a bad time and place to vent about a problematic, if profitable, client -- risking the loss of 10% of the compa...

Today's guest is entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and unapologetic Canadian, Scott Stratten, who explains how his biggest mistake drove a mind-bogglingly successful viral video production company into bankruptcy--and how he pivoted back into success. 

• Scott's biggest mistake was his lack of professional curiosity and overconfidence in his approach and product that left him blind to industry updates and progress...

Content marketer Ashley Stryker remembers the "feedback" meeting that nearly got her fired through her own self-righteous arrogance.

• Ashley's biggest mistake was her (my!) insistence that just because I was correct on a given strategy -- and the strategist presenting was incorrect -- did not mean that I presented it in the correct time or place, or even in the most respectful way possible. My accusations and arrog...