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Like Tom Ray, I'm promoting successful business experts connecting people
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throughout the world from my podcast studio in Brazil. Joining
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us today from Vienna, Austria, Sharon Erlik, CEO, performance coach,
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a strategist for high performing women. So, Sharon, how has
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your experience as an expat in Austria influence your approach
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to leadership and coaching.
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Well, first, Tom, thank you for inviting me to your show.
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To answer your question, I would say that being an
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expat has given me the possibility to work with people
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from all around the world. I'm not the only expat
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who's living in Vienna, as I could imagine that Vienna
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is the easternmost western European city in Europe, and so
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it is a hub. And I have worked with teams
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where you know nation you know fifteen have been represented,
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which means that I've had to learn how to communicate
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and make myself understood by people who were not native speakers.
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I had to work with people who had a completely
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different work ethic when you think about it. When I
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came to Austria in nineteen ninety nine, the whole Eastern
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Bloc had only been open for capitalism for a very
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short period of time. So I was working with people
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who had a different sort of life philosophy and a
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different ideology that they were governed with, and how they
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experienced working was completely different, and so I had to adapt.
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I had to learn be incredibly flexible. And I think
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the core message here is about communication and listening before
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you speak, because we think that we're always understood, but
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people don't always understand us because we're already lining up
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our next sentence and sometimes you need to take a
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breath and pause and let people have a chance to
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react and respond.
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Now to your point, NA obviously is a cultural center,
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has been for years, let's say, from a business standpoint,
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has become more and more important. So when you have
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all of these different melting pots, right, and then back
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to what you said, understanding simple words like compliance becomes
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something completely different. So you got your feet on the ground,
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You've made your footprint, and you've evolved with that. So
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you are and what you do and you're coaching. Is
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it europe centric or is it global centric?
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It's actually global centric, but most of my clients are
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in Europe. It just happens that way because of time zones,
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and it makes a lot easier to do business. But
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that being said, I recently had a client who was
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in Australia. It was a big challenge for us to
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find the time that we can talk to one another.
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But linked In is a marvelous space to be on.
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You know, if I post, I post two or three
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times a week, So I wouldn't say that I'm incredibly active,
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but actively enough so that I have a presence people watch.
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We think that no one's looking at our post when
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we do something, but those posts do get legs.
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And one of the things is that we really find
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that we have a reach that sort of underestimate our.
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Own selves exactly, and especially when we look at vanity metrics.
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We think that when we look at the metrics, that
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tells the whole story, but it doesn't always tell the
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entire story. And so I've had at least two instances
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this year where clients have found me and I never
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even told them. We act one time to something I
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had done or posted online. And so, you know, I
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think we're in We have an incredible amount of opportunity
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being able to amplify our voices on all of the
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different medium and having people have the possibility to find US.
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But to answer your question, mostly people in Europe are
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finding me.
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And more to that point, I see on your LinkedIn
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profile you help ambitious women conquer self doubt and unleash
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their superpowers. Which really it's the coaching part. It's the
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nurturing and having that understand it. Because Europe is full
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of expats. The mobility of Europeans has changed dramatically, and
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you know, Europeans are everywhere throughout Europe.
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So yeah, and you know what, if they work for
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large concerns like you know, publicly traded companies like I did.
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I worked for IBM for many years. I worked for
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Citrics for many, many years, you end up working with
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folks who are incredibly ambitious and their careers take them everywhere, right,
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you know, So you have people who haven't even lived
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in their home countries for decades because every opportunity that
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presents itself happens to be in a new country. And
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they have the flexibility and the willingness to travel. And
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people are very mobile. You know, I'm American, and I'm
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always surprised at the lack of mobility that Americans still
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have compared to Europeans. Europeans, who will you know, just
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pick everything up and move across the border or move
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across you know, the planet for work. And Americans will
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do the same, you know, going from New York to
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the West Coast. But it's not so often that you
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hear of Americans that are just picking up everything and
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moving to.
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Another No, that's true. That that is and to the
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point of Europeans, they have had that because there's been
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so much business oriented transition and mobility for hundreds of years,
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right you know, so you know, many of the countries
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have gone out and done the basic footwork of finding
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opportunities in the world and speaking various languages, which is
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also something different.
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Exactly exactly, well, you know what, I grew up in
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New York, and when you're raised as a New Yorker,
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you're raised to think that New York is the center
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of the universe, you know. So we have we have
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some big egos native New Yorkers. And you know, if
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you knew English, this was enough. If you had Spanish,
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it was a bonus. But we never needed to speak
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any other languages. But when you think about in this
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part of Europe that I'm living in, the borders are
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very tight. You know, if we go in one and
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a half hours in any direction, we might be in
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another country.
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Or three different countries.
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Yeah, and so that you know, that demands that people
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at least have the flexibility, maybe not to be fluent
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in languages, but to be able to do the most
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basic things. I was working in Brontoslava and Slovakia for
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two years. I was commuting. When I told my family, oh,
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I'm commuting to Slovakia, they just couldn't understand. You know,
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can you do that? Yes, actually I can, because.
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At that time it might have just been a train ride.
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Yeah it was. It was a one hour train ride away.
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Commuting in New York exactly exactly. My sister commutes more
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from New York to New Jersey where she lives. But
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you know what, I also learned how to order a
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cup of coffee in Slovakia, some basic launch. I would
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never go as far as to say that I was
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fluent in Slovakia, but for two years when I worked there,
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I knew how to get what I needed when I
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wanted a refreshment, or to be polite to say hello,
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thank you, good morning. And this is the sort of
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flexibility that you have to have when you're working in
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this cross cultural working across borders. You have to be
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open to that.
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And that's open for a simple not as simple, but
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a cup of coffee or a major career change. Yeah,
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the process, it's a simple ordering coffee, but you have
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to understand all the nuances, right.
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And you know, that's one of the things that leaders
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look for when you're when people are talking about you
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when you're not in the room, about the next promotion,
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right and the next opportunity in stretch projects. They want
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to understand how adaptable is that candidate for that? Nobody
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is going to send anyone across the planet to work
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someplace if you if you don't even demonstrate the minimum
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amount of adaptability, right, well, you were in a company
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that also had a planetary footprint.
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So it's not even being in the room, it's being
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having persons remember you wherever you are in the world
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and thinking you could be a candidate for anywhere.
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Absolutely, And that's why one of the things I talk
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about very often, particularly when I'm coaching mid career women,
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is the importance of having mentors and sponsors, right, because
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you know, a mentor is one thing. A mentor is
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someone who is you know, giving you their wisdom, teaching
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you from their past experiences, advising you and guiding you.
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The sponsor is the person who's talking about you when
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you're not in the.
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Room, right, right, And that involves a strategy, which you're
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also a specialist, and so strategizing is probably i would
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say more important, but it tends to.
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Be absolutely absolutely, And so you know, having a sponsors
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is equally, if not more important than having mentors. And
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you need a lot of them, right, not just one,
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right because as a single person, you can amplify your
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your accomplishments and achievements in an organization only up to
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a certain point, and then you need somebody else to
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amplify your achievements for you so that other people in
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the organization learn how great you are, and that usually
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happens when you have a sponsor.
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Well, how can our listeners find you to help themselves
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amplify their career path?
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Yeah, well your listeners can find me on my website
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that is living while leading dot com, or they can
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find me on LinkedIn. Sharon Erlick is my name. I'd
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be happy to be followed by you and to follow
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your listeners just to see what they're posting and check
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them out online.
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Very good. Well, thanks again for being here and sharing.
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Yeah, lovely to be with you Tom.
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And again so for our listeners you can find more
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about it. It's Sharon Erlick. Your first name is s
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H A R O N. The last name e H
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R l I c H. Find her on LinkedIn and
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her site, which is living while leading dot com Cafe
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Networking is Braapfast by focus in my market intelligence and
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agriculture market research specialist in Brazil. More information at f
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O c U s m I dot com. Talk to Tom,
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Talk to the World. Thanks for listening. Till the next
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time here at Cafe and Networking Podcast