Breakthrough Innovation

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, we talk with Téa Phillips — founder of ATS Innovations and inventor of the Metaflex Glove — a breakthrough wearable that helps people with arthritis improve hand function, reduce pain, and regain strength.

Inspired by her grandmother’s struggle, Téa shares how she turned an idea from a college pitch competition into an FDA-registered medical product.

🧠 How customer empathy drove innovation that no market research could

🩺 What it really takes to navigate the FDA (hint: she did it without a consultant)

💸 Why she cashed out her savings and 401K to fund the mission

🚀 How building without a playbook made her smarter, faster, and more resilient

🌍 Why healthcare innovation has to start outside the system

This episode is a must-watch for product builders, healthcare innovators, and anyone who believes necessity — and heart — can fuel the greatest breakthroughs.

Thanks for tuning in to Breakthrough Innovation! Want to subscribe to the podcast? Have feedback to share? Connect with us on Spotify or iTunes and leave us a review—we’d love to hear from you!

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, we speak with Sarena Diamond — transformational change expert and founder of Diamond Solutions Group — who shares decades of wisdom from roles at IBM, Accenture, and PepsiCo on what really makes transformation succeed.

🔥 Why three emails and a PowerPoint deck will never create real change

🧠 How Sarena's “Power of And” mindset helps leaders move from stuck to scalable

📣 Why belief, behavior, and reinforcement are the only three things you need to remember

⚠️ The communication myths that sabotage change before it even starts

👥 What new leaders often miss about building psychological safety and credibility

If you're in transformation, change leadership, or senior management — this is a must-watch masterclass in clarity, simplicity, and human-centered execution.

Thanks for tuning in to Breakthrough Innovation! Want to subscribe to the podcast? Have feedback to share? Connect with us on Spotify or iTunes and leave us a review—we’d love to hear from you!

In this milestone 100th episode of Breakthrough Innovation, we sit down with David Prosper — clarity architect, author of Finding Clarity, and founder of Clarity Catalyst Solutions — to explore what it really means to live by design, not default.

From boardrooms to personal breakthroughs, Prosper helps high achievers build purpose-driven systems for clarity, courage, and connection.

🚗 Why high performers feel stuck — even when everything looks successful on the outside

🧠 How the Clarity Cycle (Wanderer → Seeker → Architect → Flow Master) drives transformation

❓ Why asking better questions is more powerful than finding better answers

📉 The hidden cost of living someone else’s story

📈 How to use the C5 model (Capacity, Competence, Courage, Connection, Curiosity) to design real success

This one is deep, actionable, and unforgettable — just like episode 100 should be.

Thanks for tuning in to Breakthrough Innovation! Want to subscribe to the podcast? Have feedback to share? Connect with us on Spotify or iTunes and leave us a review—we’d love to hear from you!

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, we talk with Kate Viana, founder of Viana Communications — a powerful multi-brand organization created to help nonprofits fix the dysfunction no one else will touch: broken communication, toxic culture, and missing systems.

With deep nonprofit experience across consulting, staffing, and board roles, Kate reveals what really holds back mission-driven orgs — and how to transform from reactive to resilient.

🚨 Why most nonprofits don’t know they’re dysfunctional — until it’s too late

🧠 How mission centrism can blind leaders to internal breakdowns

💬 What good culture really looks like — and how to build it from day one

🛠️ The four-tier model behind Non-Toxic Nonprofits, OpsScale, and more

👥 How to fix leadership misalignment before it crushes morale

This episode is a must for nonprofit leaders, consultants, and anyone who’s ever thought, “This could be better — but how?”

Thanks for tuning in to Breakthrough Innovation! Want to subscribe to the podcast? Have feedback to share? Connect with us on Spotify or iTunes and leave us a review—we’d love to hear from you!

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, we talk with Jayanth Kumar, tech leader and co-founder at Turl Street Group. After building at Amazon, a unicorn startup, and a YC-backed company, he’s now tackling democracy with GatherGov — a platform that uses AI to surface insights from local government meetings.

🎯 Why local politics is where real power lies — and how AI can democratize it

🛠️ How Jayanth's book on system design filled a 10-year industry knowledge gap

💬 What it means to "speak from scars, not slides" in your leadership journey

🌍 Lessons from scaling systems across three continents and every growth stage

🔥 Why building with clarity and shared vision keeps teams motivated and focused

A must-watch for tech leaders, civic entrepreneurs, and engineers aiming to lead real change.

Thanks for tuning in to Breakthrough Innovation! Want to subscribe to the podcast? Have feedback to share? Connect with us on Spotify or iTunes and leave us a review—we’d love to hear from you!

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, we talk with Alex Blinov, Chief Product Officer at ZenDrop, who walked into a 200-person company with 30+ developers, zero product managers, and zero designers — and turned it into a fast-moving, metric-driven machine.

From implementing agile that actually works to building trust with leadership, Alex shares how he helped ZenDrop double its delivery velocity, build business alignment, and make teams love the process.

💥 Why ZenDrop’s early product org was a “wild party of overpromising” — and how they fixed it

🧠 How splitting teams and assigning clear North Star metrics drove business impact

🛠️ What happens when you treat your exec team as your primary persona

📊 Why trust, not process, is the real unlock for innovation velocity

🔥 How ZenDrop went from “months to ship” to biweekly product impact

If you're building teams, launching product orgs, or trying to turn chaos into scale — this episode is essential.

Thanks for tuning in to Breakthrough Innovation! Want to subscribe to the podcast? Have feedback to share? Connect with us on Spotify or iTunes and leave us a review—we’d love to hear from you!

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, we talk with Jim Palermo, former Global CIO of Red Hat, where he helped lead massive transformation efforts across hybrid cloud, FinOps, and enterprise AI — all while staying rooted in Red Hat’s open-source DNA.

Jim shares a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how one of the world’s most influential tech companies scaled innovation — and what it really takes to build experiments into enterprise culture.

🧠 How Red Hat created an AI Center of Excellence without slowing teams down

🛡️ Why a lightweight governance model beat traditional command-and-control

💬 The power of open decision frameworks and inclusive experimentation

⚙️ Why IT must become business translators, not just tech service providers

💡 How “quarterly experiments” helped Red Hat fail faster — and smarter

This is a masterclass for CIOs, transformation leaders, and enterprise teams wrestling with scale, complexity, and the human side of innovation.

Thanks for tuning in to Breakthrough Innovation! Want to subscribe to the podcast? Have feedback to share? Connect with us on Spotify or iTunes and leave us a review—we’d love to hear from you!

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, we talk with Lara Bowen, Chief Innovation and Transformation Officer at Univet Optical Technologies, whose career spans art, storytelling, metaverse tech, AI, and global operations.

Lara pulls back the curtain on what real innovation takes in complex, hierarchical cultures — and why you don’t need an “innovation team” to drive breakthrough change.

🎨 Why creativity is everyone's job — not just the “creatives”

🧠 How Lara blends art, science, and business strategy to fuel transformation

🚫 Why top-down leadership kills innovation (and what to do instead)

📈 How Univet built a five-year strategy with culture at its core

🔑 Why strategic clarity + empowered teams = momentum and results

If you're in innovation, transformation, or executive leadership, this episode will rewire how you think about progress.

Thanks for tuning in to Breakthrough Innovation! Want to subscribe to the podcast? Have feedback to share? Connect with us on Spotify or iTunes and leave us a review—we’d love to hear from you!

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, we talk with Jen Horton, founder of Dull Made Daring, who uses game-based design, psychotherapy, and lightsabers to help professionals reconnect with purpose, reduce burnout, and craft intentional growth — both in work and life.

Jen brings powerful insights from the science of job crafting and leisure crafting, blending play, neuroscience, and agency to build systems that energize rather than deplete.

🎮 What job crafting & leisure crafting really are — and how they drive performance

🧠 Why intentional play rewires your brain for confidence, resilience & creativity

🗡️ How holding a lightsaber can instantly change your neural state (yes, really)

👥 The role of group dynamics & peer support in sustainable growth

📊 How gaming builds problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills

If you're leading teams, coaching professionals, or trying to fight burnout with real, evidence-based tools — this episode is for you.

Thanks for tuning in to Breakthrough Innovation! Want to subscribe to the podcast? Have feedback to share? Connect with us on Spotify or iTunes and leave us a review—we’d love to hear from you!

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, we’re joined by Jeff Danley, Director of Innovation at Burns & McDonnell—one of the nation’s leading engineering and construction firms. Jeff’s story spans startups and global enterprises, and includes a patent for the mobile hotspot, pioneering mobile video with Sprint TV, and even an Emmy award. But his current mission? Reinventing innovation at scale inside a 15,000-person engineering giant.

Now leading an initiative called Innovation by Design, Jeff shares how he’s applying human-centered design, systems thinking, and strategic frameworks to drive real-world value—without falling into the trap of “innovation theater.”

Key Lessons Covered in This Episode:

Innovation with Intent: Learn how Jeff’s framework aligns bold ideas with business goals using OKRs, industry trends, and emerging tech—turning scattered innovation into focused impact.

Human-Centered, Not Just Customer-Centered: Discover how innovation isn’t just about the end user—it’s about empowering the internal teams who bring the vision to life.

Beyond the Buzzwords: Hear how Jeff moves innovation from theory to practice by balancing team optimization, psychological safety, and real organizational outcomes.

No to Robot Dogs, Yes to Robotic Welders: Find out why flashy tech isn’t always the answer—and how solving the construction labor shortage with robotics actually is.

Avoiding Innovation Theater: Jeff breaks down how companies waste time and money chasing shiny objects, and how to replace gimmicks with grounded, strategic programs that deliver.

Diverse Perspectives Drive Value: Explore why pulling in voices from marketing, finance, field operations, and more is key to solving enterprise-scale challenges.

Building Programs that Last: Jeff shares how to architect an innovation program that works whether you're a 50-person startup or a multinational engineering powerhouse.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Innovation succeeds when it's rooted in real human problems and tied to strategic objectives.

✅ Diverse, cross-functional teams create more resilient and relevant solutions.

✅ Innovation theater drains resources—build frameworks that scale value.

✅ Tech is a tool, not the outcome. Focus on people, not gadgets.

Links And Resources:

• Connect with Jeff Danley on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeffdanley

Thanks for tuning in to Breakthrough Innovation! Want to subscribe to the podcast? Have feedback to share? Connect with us on Spotify or iTunes and leave us a review—we’d love to hear from you!