Dan Smolen is the Executive Producer and host of the What’s Your Work Fit? podcast, an engagement platform bringing together today’s business and workplace thought leaders, hiring managers, and career seekers. As a skilled communicator and thought leader, he is nationally recognized as an advocate for the future of work and employees doing meaningful work. 

Dan began his career in advertising and marketing, earning a US patent for his digital marketing and targeting methodology. After founding The Green Suits, a nationally respected talent recruitment firm, Dan published his first book, Tailoring the Green Suit.

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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

  • [7:39] The emergence and demand for Bluetooth hearing aids
  • [15:38] Dan explains his incentive for becoming an entrepreneur 
  • [18:10] What is a work fit?
  • [21:55] How American work culture differs from European cultures
  • [28:40] Why Dan wrote his book during the 2008 recession — and the impacts of the current economic crisis
  • [42:36] Dan’s thoughts on managers supervising their remote employees
  • [47:15] Productivity paranoia: the effects of in-person work on productivity
  • [53:25] How meaningful work benefits employees

In this episode…

The traditional work model entails measuring productivity based on hours, and the transition to remote work has initiated surveillance technology that monitors activity such as keystrokes. But the pandemic’s economic implications have engendered a substantial cultural shift, increasing demands for autonomy. So how can you cultivate meaningful work styles?

Future of work advocate Dan Smolen emphasizes evaluating the work produced and outcomes achieved to assess productivity. This provides employees the freedom to focus on personal matters during their work day. But a conventional work-life balance is not sufficient enough in that it implies a definitive split between the two. Instead, Dan proposes discovering your work fit to connect with purposeful work and customize it to adhere to your lifestyle. 

Join Rolando Rosas and Dave Kelly in this episode of What The Teck? as they talk with Executive Producer and host of What’s Your Work Fit?, Dan Smolen, about structuring your career around your life. Dan describes productivity paranoia, the benefits of meaningful work, and how American work culture differs from European cultures.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Global Teck Worldwide

We are a full-service online retailer of professional headsets, webcams, and speaker phones from top manufacturers. 

Since 2002, Global Teck Worldwide has provided affordable, high-quality communications equipment and customized telecommunications services to organizations of all sizes.

Our specialists have invested hundreds of hours in technical training, certifications, and seminars to assist customers with purchasing decisions. 

We have served thousands of customers in a variety of industries with value-added services, including ergonomics, employee work accommodations, and hearing-impaired services. 

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Episode Transcript

Intro 0:00

Hi welcome to the What The Teck? podcast where we talk about business and Office Technology and put our 20 years of expertise to discussing trends and issues impacting the workplace.

Rolando Rosas 0:26

Hi, this is Rolando and this is Dave and we are your co hosts for the podcast What The Teck?, where we speak to business and tech influencers to gain their insights on the evolving business world.

Dave Kelly 0:41

Hey, listen, Rolando. Before we introduce today’s guests, you know, we like to give big props you got to some people and some companies that we want to give big props out to.

Rolando Rosas 0:50

Yep. All right, for sure who you want to give big props today.

Dave Kelly 0:52

Listen, I really need to give big props to Clark Currier, Mike Dury, and the rest of the Zoom team and the training team over zoom does do an amazing job. training portal was fantastic to helping out a lot with our team. Thank you so much for getting us up to speed. And also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Mr. Braden Dixon over at scansource. Braden, again, thanks for everything that you do. We really appreciate your your partnerships.

Rolando Rosas 1:21

Braden. All right now I also have big props, Dave, there’s a person that I really admire. And I love what he’s doing that Steve Cadigan, who is the author of Future of Work, and he’s doing a bang up job on LinkedIn dropping all kinds of wonderful gems about leadership. You know, Dave, when I go on LinkedIn, he’s got something to say if it’s what Elon is doing, or what some other leaders leaders are doing in the industry, or what’s going on, he’s always got a really interesting take on employee relations in HR, and who’s been nice and who’s been naughty, in terms of handling employees. So I would say go check out Steve on LinkedIn, it’s got a lot of nuggets on on employee relations, go check out those episodes with Steve and some of the other folks on circuitloops.com.

Dave Kelly 2:15

So with our sponsors, so first sponsor, Global Teck Worldwide, you know, Global Teck Worldwide has been in business for 20 years, serving both small and large companies, solopreneurs and business leaders. And you know what, Dan, maybe you’d agree no matter whether you’re a team of one or 1000, the easiest way to improve your productivity is with the right tools and the right technology. So get the right set of headsets, webcams and other conferencing tools at amazon.com/teck. And that’s teck.

Rolando Rosas 2:50

Awesome. Dave, and you know, times are tough. And pennies count. Companies big and small. are overpaying for slow, outdated business internet. Stop doing that. Dan, I know you’re listening in on the side. Let me ask you this question. Do you drink coffee?

Dan Smolen 3:11

Oh, gosh, by the gallon.

Rolando Rosas 3:15

And let me ask you the last time you went to a coffee shop, how much did you pay for a cup of coffee?

Dan Smolen 3:20

Oh, I’ve been to a coffee shop since probably pre pandemic but a lot of money