What if the thing you've spent years trying to hide is also connected to strengths you haven't fully recognized?

Raja Vaidya knows what it means to have other people make assumptions about what you can do.

Raja is a scientist turned keynote speaker, Grandmaster Black Belt, author and TEDx speaker who has lived with a stutter throughout his life. For years, speaking could be exhausting. Singing was different. So was martial arts. Both became places where Raja discovered ways to communicate, perform and lead without allowing his speech to define what he could accomplish.

In this episode of MOJO: The Meaning of Life and Business, Jennifer R. Glass talks with Raja about invisible disabilities, fear, workplace inclusion and what happens when someone else's perception of your abilities begins affecting your opportunities.

Raja shares what happened during his career in cancer research when colleagues routinely presented his work because meetings didn't accommodate the additional time he sometimes needed to speak. Those colleagues received visibility and promotions while Raja's own contributions became less visible. Eventually, one colleague left his name off a presentation altogether.

That experience helped force a change.

Raja began developing his speaking skills, joined Toastmasters and increasingly confronted the fear that had shaped many of his decisions. He eventually stepped onto the TEDx stage, not because his stutter disappeared, but because what he wanted to say became more important than his fear of saying it.

Jennifer and Raja also discuss:

• Why singing can change the experience of someone who stutters
• The difference between a limitation and someone else's perception of one
• How workplaces can unintentionally silence talented employees
• What leaders may overlook about employees with invisible disabilities
• How martial arts helped Raja develop a different approach to communication
• Why fear can protect us while also preventing us from pursuing opportunities
• The opportunity Raja gave up because he feared being interviewed on television
• What TEDx taught him about speaking when speaking itself is difficult
• Why Raja says, “Don't fake it till you make it. Believe it and become it.”

The conversation is ultimately about more than stuttering.

It's about recognizing how easily a perceived weakness can become a box, whether that box is created by other people or by ourselves, and what can happen when we begin challenging it.

Connect with Raja Vaidya and learn more about his speaking, coaching and work through the links below.

Disclosure: Jennifer R. Glass and Raja Vaidya participated in a reciprocal speaking arrangement in which each provided a speaking appearance for the other's platform. No payment was made by Raja Vaidya for this podcast interview.

Raja's LinkedIn

Raja's Instagram

Raja's YouTube

Raja's website

What if improving your workday began with stepping outside for a few minutes?

Julie Beckwith, co-founder of Living on the Patio, joins Jennifer R Glass to share how her relationship with outdoor living changed after the pandemic and a serious cardiac event. Their conversation explores how intentional time in nature may support stress relief, mood, focus, and overall well-being.

Jennifer and Julie discuss:

• Practical ways to spend time outside in cold, hot, or humid weather

• Whether sitting near a sunny window offers the same experience as going outdoors

• How to work from a patio, balcony, yard, or shared green space

• Simple ways to reduce screen fatigue and give your eyes a change of focus

• How apartment dwellers and city residents can bring elements of nature indoors

• Why employers may want to consider outdoor work and break spaces

• Julie’s definition of success and the joy she finds in helping people reconnect with nature

Learn more about Julie and access her resources at LivingOnThePatio.com.

Disclosure: Julie Beckwith paid an administrative appearance fee to participate in this episode. Payment did not guarantee editorial control, endorsement, or any particular outcome.

Health note: This conversation shares personal experiences and general educational information. It is not medical advice and should not replace guidance from a qualified healthcare professional. Some health and productivity claims discussed reflect the guest’s interpretation of available research and should not be treated as guaranteed outcomes.

What does it take to raise children who are not only happy today, but prepared to become responsible, resilient adults?

In this episode of MOJO: The Meaning of Life and Business, Jennifer R. Glass speaks with educator and author Martha Burich about the decisions parents make today and how those choices can shape a child’s relationships, confidence, behavior, and ability to handle real life.

Martha shares her Three Ls of Parenting:

• Love them enough to say no
• Lead by example
• Let them fail

Jennifer and Martha discuss why children need consistent boundaries, what can happen when parents repeatedly change a “no” to a “yes,” and why protecting children from every disappointment may prevent them from developing the strength they will need later.

They also explore:

• How to teach boundaries at different ages
• Why parents should consider whether they can enforce a rule before making it
• The difference between a mistake and intentional misbehavior
• Why failure and disappointment are important parts of development
• Praise versus encouragement
• Helping children rely less on approval from others
• How parents and grandparents can have different relationships with a child
• Why mealtimes may not be the best place for difficult family conversations
• How everyday parenting choices influence the adults children eventually become

Martha is the author of Yes, You Can Raise Happy, Responsible Children, a practical guide to building stronger relationships with children while helping them develop confidence, empathy, responsibility, and resilience.

Learn more about Martha and her work at MarthaBurich.com.

You can also find Martha Burich Parenting on Facebook and YouTube and connect with her on LinkedIn.

Whether you are raising young children, teenagers, or thinking about the lessons you learned from your own parents, this conversation offers practical ideas for raising children who are better prepared for life.

Connect with Martha:

Website

LinkedIn | YouTube

What does it really mean to lead a team, especially when leadership requires making difficult decisions, putting other people first, and sometimes accepting that the people you develop may eventually become better than you?

In this episode of MOJO: The Meaning of Life and Business, Jennifer R. Glass sits down with leadership and executive coach Jon Sheldon, founder of BelleauWood Coaching, to explore what effective leadership looks like in business, the military, and everyday life.

Drawing on his experience as a Marine and his career leading teams in finance and business, Jon shares why leadership comes with a cost and why great performance alone doesn't make someone a great leader.

Jennifer and Jon discuss:

• Why leadership requires taking the ego out of the equation

• The difference between being a top performer and being an effective leader

• Why leaders need to adapt their approach to the people they're leading

• How to build teams with people who will challenge you instead of simply agreeing with you

• Why Jon prefers "selection" over "recruitment" when building a team

• The importance of choosing the right #2 person in an organization

• What to do when you inherit an existing team

• Why leaders need to understand what actually motivates individual team members

• How servant leadership and high standards can work together

• Giving people permission to fail without accepting repeated mistakes

• Ikigai and the importance of understanding purpose and where people perform at their best

Jennifer also shares a real experience from managing her first virtual assistant, including a significant mistake that became an opportunity to create a better working relationship and a clearer process going forward.

Leadership isn't about being the best salesperson, marketer, technician, or operator on your team. It's about creating an environment where other people can succeed, grow, challenge assumptions, and ultimately become leaders themselves.

If you lead a company, manage a team, are preparing for your first leadership position, or are building a business and beginning to hire, this conversation will give you plenty to think about.

Connect with Jon Sheldon:

BelleauWood Coaching: https://www.belleauwood.coach/

Instagram: @BelleauWoodCoaching

This episode of MOJO: The Meaning of Life and Business features Jennifer R. Glass in conversation with award-winning screenwriter, filmmaker, and storytelling expert Laurie Lamson.

Storytelling isn't just for authors, filmmakers, or public speakers. Every business tells a story, whether it realizes it or not.

Jennifer and Laurie explore why storytelling is one of the most overlooked business skills and how entrepreneurs can use it to build stronger customer relationships, communicate more effectively, and create marketing that people actually remember.

Drawing from Laurie's experience writing more than 100 produced film, video, and audio scripts, the discussion moves beyond creative writing into practical business applications including branding, customer messaging, editing, emotional connection, and understanding the role your business plays in a customer's life.

In this episode:

• Why storytelling is more powerful than simply sharing information

• The difference between storytelling and information dumping

• How case studies become compelling business stories

• Understanding customer avatars beyond demographics

• Why businesses should focus on emotion, not just features

• The role of right-brain creativity and left-brain editing

• Practical writing techniques that improve marketing communication

• How to identify your role in your customer's story

Whether you're an entrepreneur, consultant, business owner, marketer, speaker, or creative professional, this episode offers practical ideas to help you communicate with greater clarity and impact.

Learn more about Laurie Lamson:

• Jazzy Mae Media: https://jazzymaymedia.com

• Now Write: https://nowwrite.net

Laurie's bio: Laurie helps clients tell their stories clearly, concisely, creatively. With over 20 years experience collaborating with production companies, ad agencies, and their corporate and government clientele, Laurie Lamson is a go-to for creativity, clarity and branding strategy. She has written well over 100 produced film, video and audio scripts, and a mountain of other content. With a passion for empowering creativity, she was editor or co-editor of three anthologies in the popular Now Write! creative writing series. She also authored THE SECOND BIG BANG – a science fiction fantasy novella with a racy sense of humor adapted from her screenplay.

This episode is sponsored in part by Dr. Murray Sabrin.

In this episode of MOJO: The Meaning of Life and Business, Jennifer R. Glass sits down with Dr. Murray Sabrin, Professor Emeritus of Finance at Ramapo College of New Jersey, author, economist, and former candidate for Governor of New Jersey and the U.S. Senate.

What follows is a wide-ranging and, at times, spirited conversation about freedom, government, economics, personal responsibility, and the future of America.

Murray brings a libertarian perspective to the discussion, but Jennifer doesn't shy away from challenging some of his positions and exploring what happens when political principles meet complicated real-world questions.

Jennifer and Murray discuss:

• Murray's experience as the first third-party candidate to participate in New Jersey's gubernatorial debates with the two major-party candidates
• Individual liberty and the role government should play in personal decisions
• Abortion and the difficult questions surrounding individual rights
• Tariffs, presidential power, and economic growth
• The Federal Reserve, inflation, and monetary policy
• Cryptocurrency and alternatives to traditional currency
• Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and government entitlements
• Healthcare costs and personal responsibility
• Federal involvement in education and the role of parents, communities, and states
• Civil liberties, property rights, and limited government
• America's first 250 years and what may lie ahead
• Murray's work promoting financial independence

Whether you agree with Murray, disagree with him, or land somewhere in between, this conversation explores a fundamental question: What does freedom require when people disagree about what freedom means?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by guests on MOJO: The Meaning of Life and Business are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Jennifer R. Glass, MOJO: The Meaning of Life and Business, Business Growth Strategies International, LLC, or any affiliated organization. Guest comments are presented for informational and discussion purposes and should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any political position, candidate, party, policy, product, service, or organization.

About Murray: Dr. Murray Sabrin is Professor Emeritus of Finance at Ramapo College of New Jersey, where he taught for 35 years. He is an economist and author whose books address taxes, healthcare, the Federal Reserve, economic cycles, and his own life story. Sabrin was a candidate for Governor of New Jersey and the U.S. Senate. In 1997, as the Libertarian Party's nominee for Governor, he became the first third-party candidate in New Jersey to receive matching funds and participate in the official gubernatorial debates with the two major-party candidates.

Connect with Murray:

LinkedIn | Website

Growing a business requires more than the right technology. It requires business systems that make important work repeatable, consistent, and easier to scale.

In this episode of MOJO: The Meaning of Life and Business, Jennifer R. Glass speaks with Adi Klevit, founder of Business Success Consulting Group and host of the Systems Simplified podcast, about how processes and standard operating procedures, or SOPs, help businesses operate more effectively.

Jennifer and Adi explore the difference between a business process, an SOP, and the technology used to support them. They discuss why buying a new software platform does not automatically solve an underlying process problem and why businesses need to understand what they are trying to accomplish before adding another tool to their technology stack.

The conversation also looks at one of the biggest risks facing growing businesses: important knowledge that exists only in one person's head. From employee onboarding and customer service to sales, payroll, marketing, and inventory, documenting repeatable processes can create greater consistency and make delegation easier.

You'll also hear practical advice about deciding which processes to document first, keeping systems updated as the business changes, improving adoption across a team, and making sure industry terminology and acronyms are clearly understood.

Whether you're starting a business or managing a fast-growing company, this episode will help you think differently about the systems behind your business and what needs to be in place before you can truly scale.

Key takeaways:

• A system is bigger than software. Technology can execute or automate part of a process, but the underlying business process needs to be understood first.
• A process and an SOP are related but different. The process maps how work moves from point A to point B. The SOP explains how the work is executed step by step.
• Document what is repeatable. If something happens regularly, it may be a candidate for systematization.
• Protect institutional knowledge. A business becomes vulnerable when essential knowledge resides only in one employee's head.
• Systems support delegation. Documented processes make it easier to train people and move work away from the owner.
• Systems must stay alive. Documentation should be reviewed and improved rather than created once and forgotten.
• Technology needs a purpose. Before adding another platform, determine what role it plays in the larger business process.

About my guest: Adi Klevit is the leader and visionary behind Business Success Consulting Group. With thirty years of experience as a trained Industrial Engineer and management consultant, she brings a unique understanding of the challenges businesses face today. Adi utilizes her practical know-how to help organizations of any size dramatically improve their efficiency and performance. By leveraging her ability to understand both business processes and people, she helps business owners bring order to their lives and achieve their goals. She is also the host of the Systems Simplified podcast, where she interviews successful entrepreneurs about the power of systematizing a business.Connect with Adi:

Website | LinkedIn

Systems Simplified Podcast

In this episode of MOJO: The Meaning of Life and Business, Jennifer R. Glass sits down with career branding expert Lynne M. Williams to discuss what it takes to successfully manage your career in today's rapidly changing workplace.

Whether you're looking for your next opportunity, considering a career pivot, building your personal brand, or simply trying to stay relevant in an AI-driven economy, this conversation offers practical advice you can start using immediately.

Jennifer and Lynne discuss:

• The difference between career management, career pivots, and reinvention
• Why LinkedIn should be much more than an online résumé
• How Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) evaluate résumés
• The importance of keywords and measurable accomplishments
• Skills-based hiring and why continuous learning matters
• Preparing for AI's impact on the workforce
• Positioning yourself whether you're an employee, entrepreneur, or business owner
• Building a personal brand that creates new opportunities

If you're serious about growing your career, attracting better opportunities, or strengthening your professional reputation, this episode is packed with actionable insights.

About Lynne M. Williams:

Lynne M. Williams is the Executive Director of Great Careers Network, a nonprofit organization that provides career development, networking, and educational resources for professionals navigating career transitions and career growth.Key Takeaways

• Career management should be ongoing, not something you think about only when you're unemployed.

• LinkedIn is a professional branding platform, not simply a digital résumé.

• Skills increasingly matter more than degrees.

• AI is changing the workforce and continuous learning is becoming essential.

• ATS systems compare résumés against job descriptions, making keyword optimization important.

• Entrepreneurs should optimize LinkedIn around the problems they solve, not simply their job title.

• Your accomplishments should demonstrate measurable business impact.

Connect with Lynne

LinkedIn

Website

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