Making a Home Across the Atlantic and Back

Music industry executive Patrick Joest shares his experience of being a German-Argentinian Jew in different cultures For years he had been traveling back and forth for work between Germany and the United States. Dozens of times Patrick Joest had visited Los Angeles. When his company sent him and his family on an expatriate assignment to California, Patrick quickly realized there’s …

Tim Mahoney culture

Tim Mahoney’s Success Recipe for Working Across Cultures? “Human Stories, Simply Told”

The automotive marketing maven tells his cross-cultural tales of selling Porsches, Chevys, Subarus, and VWs around the globe Selling a product requires understanding the needs and desires of your potential customer. You need to recognize what problems customer have and how your product can be a solution to that problem. Sales and Marketing are professional tasks that are difficult enough …

Malcolm Ohanwe Christian Höferle

A Conversation about Identity, “Race,” White Blindspots, and Apfelschorle

How Malcolm Ohanwe shines light on inequality by nudging white folks to talk about it He works for one of Germany’s biggest public broadcasting companies, the Bayerische Rundfunk. The country today is as diverse as it has probably never been, yet when Malcolm Ohanwe stepped foot into the BR offices for the first time he “thought I entered Narnia. Everything’s …

Learning to Go 120 Miles Wide and 2 Inches Deep as a California Expat

Back from California’s beaches Martin Brem reflects on expat life He works for one of the most global businesses in one of the most global industries. Yet, when Martin Brem made a professional move from Central Europe to Southern California for the music business, his Red Bull wings didn’t fully prepare him for the cultural change he was about to …

Russell Harlow

Adapt. Don’t Adopt. [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Russell Harlow on why even monkeys fall from trees Can you be “too Japanese” as a foreign professional in Japan? Apparently you can. On this episode Russell Harlow tells us how his success in adjusting to his new environment in Tokyo initially had a detrimental effect on his effectiveness as a leader of a multinational organization in Japan. Russell is …

The Mayor who Manages a Multicultural Municipality [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Ted Terry on how a hyper-diverse community becomes inclusive He is in his 30s. He has been called a hipster. And he is the mayor who has been putting a small town just outside of Atlanta on the map. Ted Terry shot to fame via an episode of season 2 of the hugely successful Netflix show Queer Eye. during which …

When Everything You Think You Know About A Country Is Wrong [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Inês Nascimento shares her experience of being a serial expat She had always been curious about “the world out there” and so Inês Vieira Nascimento started working for international companies, supporting business functions and employees navigating the challenges of international transition. Then she became a serial expat. As an HR manager, Inês began her career in global mobility roles in Portugal. …

Daren Menabney The Culture Guy odcast

Why Focusing on Differences Won’t Help You Build Commonality [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Darren Menabney talks about the things you may want to stop doing when working across cultures When Darren Menabney moved to Japan in 2011 it was to attend an MBA program in Tokyo. Before that, the Northern Ireland-born Torontonian spent over twenty years working for the federal government in Canada, in the Departments of Revenue, Industry, Foreign Affairs, and Defense. Today, …

Build a Global Career You Can Be Proud of – with a Culture Coach [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Everybody needs a coach – here’s why Let’s call this the coaching episode. A whole podcast about the fact that you won’t reach your top goals without someone who holds you accountable and cheers you on at the same time. 27 minutes to highlight how you or any global professional can build a career in international business with cultural competence. …

Busting the Myth of “Normal” [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Dave Kerpen: “No one I know grew up feeling ‘normal’” Those of you who have ever worked with The Culture Mastery or who have experienced me on a stage or in a training room know this: In our work the concept of “normal” usually comes with quotation marks. “Normal” is an arbitrary concept because what’s normal for one culture may …

Growing up as a black TCK in Germany [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Trevor Gillies talks about his experience with racism and ethnic inequality as a U.S. third-culture kid in Deutschland Spending your childhood and adolescence abroad and being raised as a third-culture kid (TCK) is a unique experience. As the child of U.S. service members, Trevor Gillies grew up as the only black kid in a Southern Germany town in the ’80s …

How Unmanaged Diversity Will Lead to a Mess in Global Business [The Culture Guy Podcast]

When companies fail abroad, 50% to 70% of the time this is due to cultural differences that have not been addressed, says Sophie Lechner. The CEO of Global Commerce Education and creator of The G2 Experience is dedicated to making her clients aware of the dissimilarities and contrasts between markets and countries. Sophie Lechner about how organizing diversity properly will …

Why knowing Spanish isn’t good enough to be successful in Latin America [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Adjusting to cultural differences between Spain and the Spanish-speaking parts of the Americas Spanish is the world’s second most common language with more than 400 million native speakers. Comparable to English it has been a lingua franca for centuries and you’ll find people on five continents whose first language is Spanish. This linguistic commonality, however, does not translate into cultural …

Why the Japanese concept of Nemawashi affects leadership in a Western context [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Working with professionals from Japan, Mexico, and the USA For three decades Jack Parsons worked for a Japanese car manufacturer who is building vehicles in the United States. In fact, Honda was the first automaker from Japan which established a production subsidiary in the U.S. In his functions at Honda Jack was responsible for training and supporting his company’s network …

Combining Czech, Japanese, and U.S. Influences to Boost Global Business [The Culture Guy Podcast]

From Third Culture Kid to International Business Etiquette Expert She lived abroad as a child and as an adult; she studied, worked, and traveled to more than 70 countries on 7 continents; she speaks French and Czech. Today Sharon Schweitzer has built a career around understanding cultural differences and the tremendous role they play in building strong and successful international business …

How a Corporate Hack became a Global HR Leader [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Four countries, four cultures, four MBA universities Throughout his almost 20-year corporate career Matt Burns has had the opportunity of working for companies with operations around the world. Currently, he is in what he describes “the midst of a mid-career renaissance,” as he is completing an International Executive MBA program at four universities in four countries. This academic globe-trotting is serving …

Why your perceptions of Iran are probably wrong [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Three countries in seven years For many Western expats the list of destinations for an overseas work assignment often include countries among the developed economies as well as the leading powers among the developing nations. So living in Australia and Indonesia might not be considered unusual for a student and young professional from Germany. However, relocating to Iran – a …

Mastering a mixed marriage in Indonesia [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Silke Irmscher talks about transitioning from Saxony to Java On this episode Silke Irmscher, founder of Culturenergy, tells her story of how she left Germany and fell in love with Indonesia and, in fact, found love on the island of Java. Silke has been living in Indonesia for more than 15 years and together with her husband, Ri Yanto, she …

No need to force cultural agility upon others [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Marie Gervais talks about Nabil from Nottingham and being allergic to rice in Japan On this episode Marie Gervais, the CEO of Shift Management, Inc. in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), shares how she learned that people can be plotted on a continuum of cultural rigidity. Sometimes people’s positions on this continuum changes over the course of a lifetime, but sometimes it does …

When moving within the U.S. feels like going from Morocco to Finland [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Melissa Hahn shares how the question of identity can shape a relationship between partners from different cultures. She also describes how the geographical distance within one country can equal that of the opposite ends of a continent. Born and raised in Arizona, Melissa has had many opportunities to travel and live abroad and to experience other cultures. However, the first time …