The Business Buffet | Real-World Leadership Skills with Matthew Tedesco
The Jon Gordon Podcast
Jon Gordon
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
On this episode of The Jon Gordon Podcast, I sit down with Matthew Tedesco, SVP at Miller Knoll and author of The Business Buffet, the very first official release from Gordon Publishing! Â We dig into the real-world leadership and communication skills that business schools leave out.Â
If you're looking for simple, practical takeaways to elevate your leadership and strengthen your team, this episode is for you.
About Matthew,
Matthew Tedesco is the author of The Business Buffet: 15 Career Skills They Never Teach—But Everyone Expects You to Know, which distills two decades of global leadership into practical lessons on communication, connection, and culture.
He is a senior global business leader, where he has led teams across Asia, North America, and Europe, launched new divisions, and guided organizations through periods of transformation and change. His approach to leadership was shaped not just in the boardroom, but also while studying improv at Second City in New York, where he learned that authentic connection comes from listening and responding—not delivering a script. He also serves as board chair for Global Nomads Group, a nonprofit that expands education and opportunity for youth worldwide.
Outside of work, Matthew is a musician (under the name NJMJ), photographer, and lifelong storyteller. He grew up on Long Island in a blue-collar family where hard work and education weren't just values—they were survival. Today, he lives with his wife, teenage son, and their Labradoodle, who has never once respected a conference call when the mailman shows up.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the John Gordon podcast, where we share John's interviews with guests, as well as key strategies and lessons from his keynotes, coaching, and more. |
| 0:09.0 | We want to encourage you to check out John Gordoncertified.com if you're interested in growing as a leader, coach, speaker, or trainer. |
| 0:15.6 | When you get certified, you'll be able to teach, coach, and train others on John's most impactful mindset, leadership, and teamwork principles. |
| 0:22.5 | For more information, visit john Gordoncertified.com. |
| 0:25.5 | That's J-O-N-Gordoncertified.com. |
| 0:28.5 | Now let's jump in to today's episode. |
| 0:31.5 | Hey, this is John Gordon with the John Gordon podcast, and my guest is Matthew Tedesco. |
| 0:54.8 | Matthew, how you doing? Nice. Very good, sir. How are you? Doing good. How are you feeling? Yeah, I'm loving it. I wake up every morning to my gratitudes, my mindfulness, and I'm in a good space today. So feeling really excited about this opportunity to connect with you. And here's a good word, sir. It's great to have you on. |
| 0:57.0 | So you wrote a book. |
| 1:00.4 | I've got to let people know that it's a Gordon published book. |
| 1:01.8 | So we're very proud of you. |
| 1:02.6 | Thank you. It's an incredible book. |
| 1:03.7 | It's called The Business Buffet. |
| 1:06.0 | What do you mean by Business Buffet? |
| 1:07.7 | Are we going to eat the book? |
| 1:09.1 | Yeah, yeah. |
| 1:10.1 | Well, I kind of thought that universally |
| 1:13.9 | people love food so they can relate to food. It's a business book about leadership and communication |
| 1:18.8 | and not everybody is a business book nerd like myself. So I wanted to make the content a little |
| 1:23.4 | more relatable. I also didn't want to write a book that you have to read front to back. |
| 1:28.3 | And so unlike the beautiful parables you write, this is a book that you can jump to page, |
| 1:33.5 | you know, 186 if you want to, or chapter three and then go to chapter 13. And so it's 15 topics, |
... |
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