Zoe Fragou is an Organisational Psychologist with an MSc in Human Resources Management, a clinical psychologist license, a diploma in Business Coaching & Mentorship and a Certificate in Agile Leadership.

At the moment, she is a PhD Candidate at Panteion University and her research is mainly focused on the psychometrics of the corporate culture.

Alongside her academic interests, she is operating professionally in the full spectrum of her science, taking over projects of culture transformation, employee training and development, business coaching, personal branding, public speaking, and writing, for both private and corporate clients globally.

About Conan Higgins

Dr. Higgins is an international business attorney, crisis leadership consultant, and Amazon #1 Bestselling author who has spent his career operating where most people only theorize.

Before embarking on his illustrious academic journey, Conan served as a Joint Terminal Attack Controller with U.S. Air Force Special Operations—including parachuting into enemy-held territory in Iraq—earning two Bronze Stars for Valor across combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. After more than 25 years of military service, he became a Washington State Trooper and SWAT team leader before transitioning to international crisis management, where he oversaw projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars across six continents, from the Middle East and Eastern Europe to West Africa and Latin America.

Today, Conan serves as President and General Counsel of TSI Legal Enterprises, advising clients on complex international transactions, defense contracting, and export control compliance. He has consulted for the Government of Qatar, contributed to the World Bank/IMF's "Doing Business" report covering 189 economies, and held leadership positions in the American Bar Association's international law committees. His book, The Maverick's Blueprint: Crisis Leadership for an Unstable World, distills decades of operational experience into practical frameworks for leaders facing high-stakes decisions. He also writes the Princess Gumdrop children's book series—proof that even operators have a softer side.

Episode Notes

00:00 Conan J. Higgins - WIP

10:17 Lesson 1: The Signal Was Always There

14:10 Lesson 2: The Plan Dies on First Contact

15:59 Lesson 3: Calm Is Contagious

17:31 Lesson 4: Crisis Does Not Build Character

18:59 Lesson 5: Decide Who You Are Before the Phone Rings

23:03 Lesson 6: Give People a Job

27:45 Lesson 7: Train for the Day, Not for the Drill

31:24 Lesson 8: Relationships Are the Only Currency That Compounds

34:20 Lesson 9: Read the Room Before You Read the Brief

36:17 Lesson 10: Authority Is Not the Same as Judgment

About Elena Colmenero

Elena Colmenero is a People & Culture executive, organizational transformation leader and executive mentor with more than 25 years of international experience helping leaders, teams and organizations navigate growth, reinvention and change.

As leaders move into bigger roles with larger budgets and responsibilities, they can become increasingly disconnected from what’s really happening on the front line and across the organization. The speaker explains how executives often receive filtered or biased perspectives from a shrinking circle of trust, losing a true pulse on both business and organizational realities. They argue it’s strategically valuable to stay connected at all levels—listening directly to people and hearing what they have to say—because many insights gained from lengthy HR surveys could be learned quickly through simple conversations. Maintaining open ears, an open mind, and relationships throughout the organization provides practical insight, new ideas, and meaningful perspective that goes beyond merely addressing internal “noise.”

Episode Notes

00:00 Intro

07:57 Lesson 1: The People Are the Work

11:48 Lesson 2: Stop Talking, Start Hearing

14:33 Lesson 3: Loyalty Is Not Obedience

19:08 Lesson 4: Talent Needs Witnesses

22:17 Lesson 5: Authentic Doesn't Mean Unfiltered

27:17 Lesson 6: Power Does Not Change People, It Reveals Them

31:46 Lesson 7: The Climb Doesn't End When You Reach the Top

36:23 Lesson 8: Not Every Promotion Is Progress

38:54 Lesson 9: History Is Borrowed Experience

42:49 Lesson 10: Impact Is Not What You Control

About Our Hosts

Diana White has over 30 years in sales and retail experience, leading stores with revenues of over 10 million and a staff of 200. Consumer psychology, marketing, operations, and leadership are just a few of her skillsets. Seeing a need for startup and operations assistance within the local business community, Diana established D.E.W. Business Solutions, LLC, to provide consulting to small businesses. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in Small Business Administration from Northern Arizona University, holds a green belt in Lean Six Sigma, and is a certified Agile Scrum Master. She is committed to helping businesses and non-profits as well as the community at large.

Siebe Van Der Zee is President of Vanderzee & Associates, Executive Search & Coaching. He has served as an international management consultant for over 25 years. For 28 years, Siebe has served as Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Arizona. He holds a Master's Degree in International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management and he is a current member of the International Leadership Council at GPEC (Greater Phoenix Economic Council).

Robert Hossary has been involved in the not for profit/charity sector for the past 12 years. Robert also has an excellent knowledge in international business. Since 2011 - 2018, Robert was the General Manager for the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia (AmCham) and helped advise many Australian and US companies about their international expansion requirements. Prior to that, Robert was Regional Vice President for the Americas for a technology manufacturer. He has also worked in Taiwan with responsibility for Asia Pacific and the Middle East. With a background in Technology, Transport, Fashion and Healthcare, Robert has a wealth of experience to share.

Episode notes:

00:00 Special - International Lessons

00:21 Introduction

02:33 Guests' International Backgrounds

08:04 Biggest Challenges Working Abroad

16:14 What Is Culture?

17:45 Accepting an International Position

21:29 Family Considerations

26:56 Being a Citizen of the World

30:04 Empathy Through Cross-Cultural Experience

36:22 How to Acclimate to a Dominant Culture

42:48 Final Advice & Takeaways

About Codie Comeau

Codie works in Sales at EF Education First as a Tour Consultant. He is a first-generation college graduated where he thrived, earning a Bachelor’s in Communication, Media & Design with a minor in Psychology. The journey did not stop there as he would later earn an Master’s in Business Administration with a focus on Innovation and New Venture Management.   

Although young, Codie has plenty of experience over many different industries including Engineering & Manufacturing, Entertainment, Education and start-ups. He takes on many passion projects, his most notable was the Tennis program at Clarkson University. Under his leadership, the organization thrived growing in members and budget as well as gaining USTA membership.   

Codie has a goal to be a global citizen and explore what the world has to offer. He believes that every new place he visits or new culture he experiences helps him to grow as a person and share new perspectives. Codie loves developing new skills and keeping a student mentality. He is excited to begin this new chapter in life and experience what lies ahead. If he’s not busy at work you can find him on the tennis court or golf course, where he still has plenty to learn.  

Codie Comeau has joined the 10 lessons learned team as the episode producer 

Episode Notes 

About Lukas Hefti

Lukas Hefti is the founder of www.speachers.com , where he has helped 100+ events across the globe find a great keynote speaker, connects great personalities with podcasts and the news, and supports speakers in their journey to improve.

Currently, he manages the former Deputy Administrator of NASA, the Chief of Science at NASA, an astronaut, the former Head of HR for Elon Musk, a Nobel Prize Laureate, a YouTuber with 20+ million followers and more.

After failing at computer science, he studied English and Geography at the University of Zurich, failed to become a musical actor, joined an IT company as a communicator and then built his own company to 2+ million USD in revenue over 3 years at age 27.

In his free time, Lukas sings, dances, and performs close-up magic. Recently, he won the DanceCup Switzerland.

Episode Notes

00:00 Intro

08:07 Lesson 1: Be Visible in Public

10:21 Lesson 3: Make It Easy to Book You

12:11 Lesson 2: Be Memorable and Easy to Share with Others

15:45 Lesson 4: Stay After Your Talks to Mingle

20:05 Lesson 5: Tell Stories Even When Your Topic Is Technical

23:10 Lesson 6: Pause and Summarize

27:42 Lesson 7: Use Language Your Audience Understands

30:29 Lesson 8: How You Say Things Is More Important Than the Exact Words You Use

34:30 Lesson 9: Don't Make Your Audience Waste Their Attention on Why They Should Listen to You

40:13 Lesson 10: Specificity Breeds Trust and Interest

43:41 Lesson 11: Not Everything You Say Has to Be on Your Slides

About CJ Cornell

Host Diana White welcomes returning guest CJ Cornell —entrepreneur, engineer, former Arizona State University professor who helped start its entrepreneurship program, mentor/advisor, and author of The Age of Entrepreneurship and new children’s books—to share 10 life lessons: finish what you start because completion creates results; knowing who you are and what you want outweighs being smart or ambitious; understanding the problem beats delivering a solution; hands-on expertise can become a curse if it prevents delegation; self-awareness and being present are rare superpowers; persistence isn’t always heroic and endurance can mask futility, so learn when to pivot; patience isn’t inaction and timing matters (illustrated by waiting for better AI tools to complete children’s books); listen for what isn’t said, including body language; most people aren’t thinking about you; and most fears aren’t real, illustrated by the “Scars Experiment.”

Cornell shares current projects: two children’s series (entrepreneurship books and the Bailey Bear life-lesson books) plus an upcoming mentorship book, The Startup Brain Trust.

CJ Cornell is the author of the bestselling book The Age of Metapreneurship – A Journey into the Future of Entrepreneurship, and The Startup Brain Trust – A Guidebook for Startups, Entrepreneurs, and the Experts that Help them Become Great, and coauthor of the textbook Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

CJ Cornell holds undergraduate degrees in engineering, a master’s in management and a Ph.D. in marketing and strategy. Outside of business, CJ has practiced martial arts for 21 years and has been an instructor for eight years. He holds advanced black belts in Karate, Jujitsu, Aikido and in other disciplines. The Smithsonian recognized CJ as one of the influential teachers and mentors of 1999.

ranked in the top 50 most influential websites for entrepreneurship and startups.

Episode Notes

00:00 Leadership - Intro

02:54 Lesson 1: Complete Things

04:07 Lesson 2: Knowing Who You Are

08:36 Lesson 3: Understanding the Problem

10:51 Lesson 4: Hands-On Skills

12:55 Lesson 5: Self-Awareness

15:13 Lesson 6: Persistence

19:16 Lesson 7: Patience

22:10 Lesson 8: Learn to Listen

26:07 Lesson 9: People Aren't Thinking About You

28:17 Lesson 10: Your Fears Aren't Real

Rebroadcast in Memory of Eddie Grobler

About Eddie Grobler

In July 2019, Eddie established Commerce 2040. The main objective is to use Commerce 2040 as a “platform” for engagement with different stakeholders in the payments value chain with the key focus on payment flows in a dynamic and changing environment. He is currently involved is a number of explorative engagements with stakeholders – mainly start-up organisations and entities who are interested in entering the Australasian market.

Eddie Grobler was the Executive Vice President: Australasia Division from 2008 and in August 2016, he was appointed as Executive Vice President: Realtime Payments. Based in London, he was responsible for the development and execution of Mastercard’s real time payments strategy. Part of this strategy was to acquire a UK real time payments company. Eddie was part of the due diligence team. After the successful acquisition of Vocalink he took responsibility for the integration of the company into Mastercard. This project was successfully completed in November 2018 after which he returned back to Australia. Eddie retired, after 20 years, from Mastercard on 31 December 2018.

Prior to 2008 Eddie was Based in Johannesburg, as the Senior Vice President: Sub-Sahara Division Eddie was responsible for all the Mastercard Africa business operations, in particular, the development of the Mastercard franchise in Africa, sub-Sahara. He was instrumental in the opening of the Mastercard offices in Nigeria, Kenya and Morocco.

Eddie holds two Master's Degrees: one in Business Leadership the other in Psychology.

Episode Notes

00:00 Intro

About Chelle Johnson

Chelle is a first-generation college graduate who grew up with limiting beliefs, fear, and dysfunction. Through faith, resilience, grit, and determination, she achieved executive leadership roles in Talent Acquisition and Human Resources at Fortune 50 companies including Comcast, Lockheed Martin, Quest Diagnostics and Honeywell. She has lived and worked in Asia and Latin America, acquired her MBA, and speaks Spanish and English. Through her agency Best You Talent Advisors, she now helps high achievers and diversity allies discover and amplify their strengths and purpose and realize abundance in their careers and lives.

Chelle is a career ally, change maker, and positive mental fitness authority who helps people be their best. She loves guiding people to get crystal clear on who they are and what they want and building the courage and confidence to achieve those personal and professional goals. She is known for coaching and advising people to listen to their inner wisdom, take risks, build their bravery and have the courage to seek their best lives.

Episode Notes

00:00 Intro

11:25 Lesson 1: Learn the Business Deeply

16:17 Lesson 2: Relationships Matter

22:00 Lesson 3: Stay Curious and Keep Learning

30:44 Lesson 4: The Most Important Person to Impress is Yourself

38:04 Lesson 5: Admit and Learn from Failures

About Samir Domah

Samir spent over 15 years climbing the ladder in FMCG and data, helping brands win space on Tesco shelves and leading multi-million-pound insight and media portfolios for retailers like Booker, John Lewis and global CPGs. On paper, he had the classic "good job" story: senior roles, a growing team, and industry recognition including a Top 30 Under 40 Loyalty Royalty award. But after bad job role landed him hospital, he sought to make a change and within 12 months had become an Amazon #1 Best-Selling Author, Speaker on Men's Mental Health and taken his musings to stage with Stand Comedy. He now coaches others to make their life count.

Episode Notes

00:00 Intro

03:13 Lesson 1: Make It Count

07:05 Lesson 2: Your Value Isn't Define by The Position You Are In Now

12:36 Lesson 3: Even Your Toughest Foe, Is Soft Somewhere Else

17:13 Lesson 4: Clarity Beats Complexity

20:25 Lesson 5: It's Easy To Overcomplicate Your Customer

25:25 Lesson 6: Do Pre-Mortems, Not Post-Mortems

29:56 Lesson 7: You Can Learn As Much From The Little Guys As The Big Guys

32:56 Lesson 8: Data is King, Humans Are Still The Queen

35:34 Lesson 9: Treat Your Sales Cycles like A Love Marriage

39:18 Lesson 10: The Best DEI Programs Have An Exit Plan