A Geek Leader Podcast - inspiring technical and creative leaders around the world

About Justin

For over 20 years, Justin has been architecting software, leading teams and sharing his knowledge.  Justin is the founder of Let Your Nerd Be Heard, creator of the Ultimate Presentation Formula for Nerds, an Award Winning Entrepreneur,  an Amazon #1 Best Selling Author, and a Microsoft MVP.  He is hired by nerds to take their public speaking skills from zero to hero so they can speak to more than 1s and 0s and are seen as the go to expert.  He makes the seemingly scary world of public speaking, simple and easy to understand.

 

You can find Justin at letyournerdbeheard.com  for public speaking courses and mentoring and digitaldrummerj.me for his tech blog.

We Talked About

Justin's technology origin story

Becoming a Microsoft MVP

Why work for yourself?

Speaking importance

Choosing your topic

Finding a conference

Writing your bio

How to put together a good talk

How to practice for your talk

Links Mentioned

Five Steps to Nailing Your Next Talk

Also check out Episode 14 -  7 Tips for Public Speaking

Connect with Justin

Twitter

YouTube

Github

Website

Blog

LinkedIn

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Tricia has more than twenty years of experience in software development and is passionately focused on facilitating high-performance software development environments. Her leadership at all levels of an organization helped lay the groundwork to shift teams from one-year product cycles to feasible, daily delivery of quality software and services. Tricia openly shares stories from her firsthand experience to inspire people to reach new heights through continuous reflection and growth. As a principle in the Agile For All team, she is dedicated to making a difference in the workplace. She is an exceptional leader, coach, mentor, facilitator, trainer, and popular speaker at national conferences.

We Talked About

main frame programming

extreme programming

project management

How to lead others

How to teach others

Be kind to yourself

Mental Health in leaders

Missing Work-life Balance (burnout)

Take care of your self - leadership can be hard

6-1 positive to criticism.

speaking and teaching helps positive feedback

Agile project management

coaching for leaders

Leading Amazing Teams Course

Connect with Tricia

Twitter

Linkedin

Website

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2018 has been a great year.  I rebooted the podcast with both solo shows and more interviews than ever before.  The number of listeners and total downloads have blown my mind.  The number of platforms where you can get A Geek Leader has grown remarkably as well. I learned a lot of valuable information that I can apply to my day job and my life outside of work.  I met and talked to some of the coolest people on the planet.  I suspect 2019 will be even better.  All good retrospectives usually answer 4 questions:

What went well?

What didn’t go so well?

What have I learned?

What still puzzles me?

So let me tackle those now.

What went well?

The Guests and Interviews.  Interviewing people went way better than expected.  Several guest have not only heard of the show, but were regular listeners of the show, which was humbling and mind blowing to me.  My time management and scheduling got better since I started using Calendly to schedule my interviews.

The Platforms.  This year we expanded past iTunes and Google Play Music on to I Heart Radio, Stitcher, YouTube, and Spotify.  The growth on new platforms made a big impact to the number of subscribers and downloads.

The audio.  The audio got better after switching to Zencastr for recording.

The downloads.  It may not seem like a lot for some podcast, but passing the 50,000 download mark and having nearly 500,000 youtube views were both big accomplishments in 2018.

What didn’t go so well?

So I missed an interview due to timezone issues on my end.  Totally my fault, but I still feel bad about it.  I didn't release episodes on a consistent basis.  Sometimes I rolled 3 a week, and other times I skipped a week. I need to be more consistent on getting out episodes. Sometimes I didn't feel as prepared as I should have been for some interviews.  There were a few times when I scheduled 3+ interviews in 1 week and had to bust my butt to get the work done for prep.  Sometimes I the material would run together and I didn't feel fully prepared at times. I'll do better on spacing out the interviews in 2019.

What have I learned?

The number 1 thing that I've learned (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that my listeners prefer the interview format over solo shows.  I feel as though I still need to do solo shows, but the stats don't lie. Another thing I learned is that people love to be interviewed on podcast.  Dozens of people I had never met before were willing to spend an hour talking to a total stranger about their life and leadership adventures.  People (at least my guests) are good and enjoy helping those around them, even at zero financial gain.

What still puzzles me?

How great will 2019 be?  Who are all of you listeners and downloaders of the show?  I did a survey a while back, but we have way more listeners and subscribers than we got responses back on the survey.  Who all are you guys and why do you listen to my show?  What do you love about it and what do you hate about it?  I can't change and make it better without feedback from you.  email me your feedback.

Today on the show we've got Mike Sarraille, EF Overwatch Co-Founder, Managing Partner & CEO.  Mike is one tough guy.  Being a Marine wasn't tough enough for this guy, so he became a Navy Seal.  We talk about leadership and ownership in this interview.  Its a must listen!

About Mike

Mike Sarraille is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL officer, founder and board of director for the VETTED Foundation, a 501(c)3 Veteran executive education platform, a graduate of the University of Texas McCombs Business School, and a leadership instructor and strategic advisor for Echelon Front, a management consulting firm.

Mike served fifteen years as an officer in the SEAL Teams and five years in the U.S. Marine Corps as an enlisted Recon Marine and Scout-Sniper before receiving his commission in the Navy. Mike served in SEAL Team THREE, Task Unit Bruiser alongside Extreme Ownership authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin where he led major combat operations that played a pivotal role in the Battle of Ramadi in 2006. Mike again deployed with Task Unit Bruiser in 2008 and led historic combat operations in Sadr City during the Battle of Route Gold. Following his return, Mike assumed duties as the primary leadership instructor for all officers graduating from the SEAL training pipeline.

Mike was then selected for assignment to the Joint Special Operations Command where he completed multiple combat deployments in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Mike is a recipient of the Silver Star, six Bronze Stars, two Defense Meritorious Service Medals, and a Purple Heart. Mike continues to participate as a Veteran Transition subject matter expert on panels across the nation.

Connect with Mike

EF Overwatch

Echelon Front

Twitter

LinkedIn

Extreme Ownership Book

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About Carl

Over the past decade Carl Kinghorn has had the opportunity to grow as a leader within EFC Systems. He has championed changes to culture, processes, and development techniques that has enabled scaling the company's ability to deliver quality software to its clients in the agricultural space. During this time, he's seen the company triple in size; and in his role as VP of the software development group, he gets to be a leader and a teacher with a goal of enabling his teams to succeed.

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Carl is active in the Nashville development community as a technical speaker and is President of the non-profit Nashville .NET User Group (@NashDotNet). He brings an enthusiastic and welcoming presence to the group whose mission is to serve the community by organizing events that enable networking, education, and career guidance.​​

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Carl has a BBA in Information Systems from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU).

What we talked about

Relationship changes in growth

Transparency

Work for the team

Alignment / Autonomy Matrix

Collaboration

Culture Change

Purpose

Communication

User Groups

Speaking

Providing Value without Coding

Say "We" not "I"

Connect with Carl

Twitter

LinkedIn

Nashville .Net User Group

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About Mike

Mike Cohn is the author of three of best-selling books on agile (User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile). He is one of the world’s most sought-after and respected Certified Scrum Trainers, a keynote speaker, and an in-demand coach to companies throughout the United States and around the world.

As the founder of Mountain Goat Software, Mike specializes in helping companies adopt and improve their use of agile processes and techniques in order to build extremely high-performance development organizations. His weekly email tips on succeeding with agile are read by over 100,000 people.

With more than 20 years of experience, Mike has previously been a technology executive in companies of various sizes, from startup to Fortune 40. He is a co-founder of both the Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance, the home of the Agile Manifesto. He can be reached at [email protected]

Today We Talked About

Early years of Mike Cohn

Management

Communication of Agile Project Management

Rubber Duck Debugging

Asking Questions

Leading people to the solution instead telling them the solution

Implementing Scrum

Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions

Scrum Alliance and Agile Alliance

Do it by the book

Essential Scrum

Content Creation

Entrepreneurship

Be more open to experiments that may not work out

Trust

Trip-wires

Ask More Questions than you make Statements

Connect with Mike

Twitter

Blog

Website

LinkedIn

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Today on the show we've got Mike Burrows.  Mike is a leader in the lean, agile and project management community.  He's a well known speaker and consultant.

About Mike 

Agendashift founder Mike Burrows is the author of Kanban from the Inside (2014) and Agendashift: Outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation (2018); his third book Right to Left: the digital leader's guide to Lean and Agile is due in 2019. He is recognized for his pioneering work in Lean, Agile, and Kanban and his advocacy for participatory and outcome-oriented approaches to change, transformation, and strategy. Prior to his consulting career, Mike was global development manager and Executive Director at a top tier investment bank, and CTO for an energy risk management startup.

Today We Talked About

Lean

Engagement

Agile

Leadership

Identify the authentic situation of need

Understand the What/When/Where of the project

AgendaShift - Engagement Model

Avoid Micromanagement

Self-organization

Understanding pain-points of users and a vision of what people would like to see

Change doesn't have to be tiny small changes, it can be big picture change

Focusing on outcomes, not solutions

Get a mentor, read/listen to books.

Connect with Mike

Website

Twitter

LinkedIn

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About Thom:

(Ret.) Navy SEAL Thom Shea is the founder and CEO of Adamantine Alliance, a Leadership training organization. Thom works directly with executives and high performance individuals who want to master the Five Pyramids of Human Performance® to achieve the next level results.

Thom is a renowned Keynote speaker, presenting dynamic topics of Leading in Chaos, Forging Leaders, and the Culture of Leading People.

Thom interviews high performance leaders on The Unbreakable Podcast.

He is the author of the best selling book “UNBREAKABLE: A Navy SEAL’s Way of Life.” Little and Brown publishing.

Before creating Adamantine Alliance, Thom served 23 years with distinguished Valor as a Navy SEAL. During his military career he served in three wars, ultimately leading a team of Navy SEALs into Afghanistan in 2009 where he earned a Silver Star, Bronze Star with Valor, Army Commendation with Valor and his second Combat Action medal. He was hand-selected to serve as Officer In Charge of the famed SEAL Sniper course from 2010 – 2012. During his two year tenure, he transformed the sniper curriculum while successfully increasing both graduation numbers and shooting performance test scores.

In his downtime, Thom runs Ultra marathons. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Ball State University and a Master Training Specialist certification from the Naval Special Warfare Center. He now resides in Greenville, South Carolina with his wife and three children.

Today We Talked About:

Unbreakable: A Navy SEAL's Way of Life by Thom Shea

BUDS Training

Being A Seal

5 Pyramids of Success

Physical

Wealth

Spiritual

Relationships

Intellectual

Adventure Racing

Practice Leadership

Team Dynamics

Accountability

Modeling Behavior

Strong Women are necessary for Men to Succeed

13 Life Lessons in Unbreakable

Internal Dialog

Hope is the absence of action

Belief is the absence of knowledge

Three Keys to Leading

Hunger

Skill

Humble

Being Comfortable being Uncomfortable

Don't compromise yourself

Disruption

Connect with Thom

Website

Unbreakable Book

Twitter

Facebook

Podcast

13 Unbreakable Lessons

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Just another #1 world ranked video game player turned philosopher turned Navy SEAL turned non-profit startup CEO.

John Allen is the CEO of Elite Meet, a Non-Profit organization he co-founded along with Jordan Selleck that connects high performing, transitioning veterans, like Navy SEALs and Fighter Pilots, with companies who are looking to hire. He started out at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, after which he served in the Navy as a Navy SEAL for seven years.

Now the former Navy SEAL, turned non-profit start up CEO helps Navy SEALs, fighter pilots and other elite veterans find meaningful employment after they leave active duty.

Today We Talked About:

Video Games?  Skate - #1 ranked in the World!

War Stories

Leadership After the Navy

Aggressively use LinkedIn, but don't look or sound like everyone else.

Be Shameless

The Best Leaders are good at making quick decisions and are confident in their choices

 

Connect with John Allen:

Elite Meet

LinkedIn

Instagram

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About Jeff

Jeff Haden is speaker, ghostwriter, Inc. Magazine contributing editor, and author of the bestselling The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to WIn. Before changing careers he spent 20 years in manufacturing, starting as an entry-level shop-floor employee, climbing the ladder through a variety of customer service, human resources, production control, and multi-plant improvement team positions, to finally direct all manufacturing operations for a Fortune 500 company. Along the way he "made every leadership mistake it was possible to make."

But he learned a lot from those mistake. And he also wants you to know that Richard Branson once gave him half his sandwich. So there is that.

Today We Talked About:

The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win

100,000 push-ups and 50,000 sit-ups in a year

One on Ones

On Boarding

Great Job... Rewards

Engagement

Why people matter

Serial Achievement

Think Process over Goals

Copy the framework (process)

Your job is to serve those that report to you

The time when Richard Branson gave Jeff half his sandwich

Treat an employee like a person

Motivation as an Excuse

You need a pro, not a coach

Contact Jeff

The Motivation Myth - Book

LinkedIn

Twitter

Inc.

Website

Business Insider

I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to iTunes and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!