Imagine a Place

Yahir Sarmiento is Cushman & Wakefield’s Senior Managing Director for Latin America.

When it comes to hiring, Yahir believes the best "fit" is someone who will work with the already existing team soul. A leader must consider the team's soul when making decisions. It's easy to make decisions when feeling strong emotions, but making decisions based on motivation and good intention is best for a team.

Doug and Yahir talk about time management for leaders—who often spend a majority of their time on shallow, immediate issues. In reality, leaders should devote 50% of their time to deep thinking about the future. But how? Making time for that isn't easy, but Yahir believes focusing on getting enough sleep can have a huge, positive impact on a leaders ability. Investing in sleep is like adding happiness to tomorrow.

Yahir speaks from the heart and dips into his life experiences and the wisdom of his mentors to pass on some excellent advice.

Learn more about Yahir Sarmiento and Cushman & Wakefield.

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Today, we have a special treat for you – Lisa Kahn is an expert in building "sanctuary spaces" and her story of how and why she’s decided to dedicate her life’s work to this is incredible. As you'll hear in this episode, now more than ever, we long for spaces that nurture us emotionally and allow us to feel a sense of well-being, tranquility, and joy - because as Lisa says, “When designed with consideration and care, our environments cradle not only our body but also our spirit. And this is why, when we find sanctuary, we thrive.”

The world needs more of what Lisa will teach you and inspire you within this episode.

Learn more about Lisa Kahn - founder and visionary behind Finding Sanctuary by Lisa Kahn Designs.

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For 9 years, Tracy Hawkins led workplace strategy at Twitter as they scaled from 700 to 13,000 employees. Today, she's Grammarly’s Global Head of Workplace Experience and Connection. In this episode, she will share Grammarly's formula for hybrid work and how deeper levels of research and experimentation help them create better outcomes for work and the workforce.

Tracy also explains how impactful company culture can be, relating a story of how a hashtag at Twitter emerged from employees supporting a coworker with cancer and evolved into an influential mantra. For Tracy, mission-driven, people-focused cultures are key when seeking new roles.

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Paul Shahriari is a visionary and a do-er – It’s a powerful combination. Today, he shares the mission and vision behind the company he cofounded Ecomedes. You’ll hear his inspiring story behind what set him down this path of sustainability - if you’ve ever had a college professor you loved, you’ll appreciate Paul’s story.

Paul and the Ecomedes tribe are determined to make more informed choices easier for designers and consumers and they are already succeeding. This is a fun conversation, it was really cool to learn about his business and I enjoyed Paul’s energy.

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David Ulrich is a university professor, author, speaker, coach, and consultant. With over 30 books that have shaped the HR profession, he is widely regarded as the father of modern HR thinking.

David has been ranked as the #1 Management Educator & Guru by BusinessWeek, he's been selected by Fast Company as one of the 10 most innovative and creative leaders and was named the most influential thinker in HR of the decade by HR magazine. Yeah... So the bar for this conversation is high.... and it does not disappoint. We talk about leadership, culture, the workplace, and we weave in some personal advice at the end.

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In this episode, we chat with Byron Morton, Vice President & Co-Head of Leasing at the Mart. Byron shares what to look forward to at NeoCon 2023 and gives us a sneak peek at the future plans for the show.

If you are heading to NeoCon we want to pass along a special invitation:

Monday, June 12 at 4pm at the OFS Showroom: We’ll be hosting an Imagine a Place alumni cocktail party which you are all invited! That’s right, please come and enjoy a few drinks and hors devours on and mingle with some of the past Imagine a Place guests as well as hosts from Imagine a Place network. We have over 50 previous podcast guests and podcast hosts who will be there to chat, laugh, mingle, and inspire. See you there!

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Amanda Schneider is a researcher, writer, and founder of ThinkLab, a phenomenal source of creative insight for the industry of interior design. Recently, Doug and Amanda met in Chicago to see what new thinking she has for us. As expected… it was a thought-provoking discussion that finishes off with 3 bold predictions for the future of our industry.

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Dianne Murata, Furniture Chief and Founder of Kimiko Designs has a big announcement - She just launched the Kimiko Green Playbook for Sustainable Decommissioning. It's a guidebook to help you make better choices when it comes to the afterlife of your furniture. It was developed through hard work and through listening to a community of facility managers. Tune in to learn more about the playbook and how you or someone you know might be fit to join the Kimiko Green community.

Download the playbook here:

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Roy Abernathy is the EVP of Workplace Strategy and Human Experience at Newmark. He is known for his big-picture mindset and creative thinking.

Today, we do some dreaming out loud around and explore concepts for the future of business and real estate. One of them: The 4-day workweek.

Towards the end of the episode, we learned that Roy went to veterinary school in college. You’ll be surprised when he shares with us exactly what a veterinarian can teach a designer.

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We brought furniture designer Brian Graham back on the show for a laughter-filled and insightful bonus episode! Together we review a handful of powerful quotes from previous episodes.

"It's not your job's job to make you happy." —Cheryl Durst

"If you are waiting for regulations to change the way we design it will be far too late." —Jane Hallinan

"If everyone is doing neutral, then of course, we'll continue to do neutral, but who's going to be the brave one that steps out?" —Laura Guido Clark

"If you're struggling with self worth, there have been more of us out there than you realize that have been very successful and had that exact same amount of self doubt." —Edward Wagoner

"A single, full understanding of someone's complete experience and existence can generate so much inclusivity." —Angie Lee

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