Mitch Weisburgh is an educator, author, and founder of MindShifting, a framework built on three capacities he believes the world urgently needs more of: resourcefulness, resilience, and collaboration. After nearly four decades at the intersection of education and technology, a 2017 email from a university in Niger sent him on a new path: pulling together insights from neuroscience, cognitive science, military strategy, systems theory, and psychology into a single practical framework. He's the author of MindShifting: Stop Your Brain from Sabotaging Your Happiness and Success, and the follow-up Conflict and Collaboration.

In this conversation, Mitch walks us through why the human brain is wired against us in modern life, the five limbic responses that hijack our decisions, OODA loops and the Cynefin framework for handling different kinds of problems, why you should never put experts in charge of complex situations, and the one warning sign that tells you your survival brain is running the show.

Find Mitch: https://www.mindshiftingwithmitch.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mweisburgh/

Book: MindShifting: Stop Your Brain from Sabotaging Your Happiness and Success

Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search.

0:00 Intro

0:50 The mission: 5 million more resourceful, resilient, collaborative people

2:24 The 2017 email from a university in Niger that changed everything

5:30 Reading 11 books across disciplines to build the framework

8:30 Teaching in Niger and the standing ovation

9:47 Optionality, ghosting, and why we've stopped growing

11:04 How the human brain actually works

12:34 Survival brain vs prefrontal cortex — 2 hundredths of a second vs 2 seconds

13:56 The 5 limbic responses: fight, flight, freeze, habits, mimicking

16:20 Why your prefrontal cortex just justifies what you've already decided

17:50 Confirmation bias is universal, not partisan

19:58 Can the brain actually change? Four techniques

25:04 Staying resourceful when the odds are stacked against us

26:59 OODA loops — the slow loop and the fast loop

30:58 Resourcefulness vs resilience — why they're not the same thing

31:44 The Cynefin framework: clear, complicated, complex, and urgent problems

39:00 Why you shouldn't put experts in charge of complex situations (the COVID example)

40:35 Making change feel possible when it seems impossible

45:44 The warning sign: when you're absolutely positive, you're probably limbic

48:21 Why your brain treats a bear and public speaking the same

49:00 Instant vs delayed gratification — evolution working against us

50:02 Discomfort as the fuel for growth

51:47 Mitch's mission and where to find him

Most companies are letting AI make decisions it shouldn't and missing the simple moves that would actually save them time and money. Peter Swimm has spent 30 years in tech, from Chicago libraries to Microsoft, and he's built a smarter way to think about conversational AI, autonomous agents, and what it really means to own your company's brain.

Find Peter: peterswimm.com

Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search.

00:00 Weather and Location: A Warm Welcome

00:51 Career Path: From Tech Origins to Product Management

06:39 COVID-19: A Catalyst for Change in Work Culture

12:43 Communication Tools: Shaping Company Culture

19:32 Navigating Remote Work Challenges

24:58 Balancing AI Innovation with Practical Needs

30:50 Cultivating Curiosity in Teams

39:56 Recalibrating Business Aspirations

45:54 Surprising Uses of Conversational AI

Zarina Bahadur is the founder and CEO of 123 Baby Box, a subscription box company she launched as a student at UC Irvine after spotting an exhausted mom struggling in a Target baby aisle. She's since grown the business 245% in a single year, closed an oversubscribed $1.2M pre-seed, and been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, and NASDAQ. She's also a Harvard Startup Partners, MasterCard, XRC, and Draper alum.

In this conversation, Zarina walks us through the grocery-store moment that sparked the company, how she found product-market fit by surveying moms in Target aisles, why her mentor pushed her to raise twice what she planned, what it was like fundraising as a young woman who wasn't yet a mom, and how the business is now pivoting into early language and literacy with 123 Book Box.

Find Zarina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zarinabahadur

Shop the box: https://123babybox.com

Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search.

0:00 Intro

0:36 The Target aisle moment that started 123 Baby Box

1:25 Why subscription was the obvious model

2:09 Heart-led, not business-led — finding the market

4:40 245% growth and the truth about product-market fit

6:03 Harvard, MasterCard, XRC, and Draper accelerators

7:41 Closing a $1.2M oversubscribed pre-seed (planned for $500K)

9:32 Fundraising as a woman — and not yet a mom

12:16 Persistence, the common thread in investor no's

15:40 "Winners are just losers who never gave up"

17:09 Pivoting from diapers & wipes to developmental toys

18:23 Retention, the 0–5 age window, and launching 123 Book Box

21:39 The Forbes feature that changed everything

22:52 The hardest founder decision — letting people go

23:34 Equity vs salary and having the real conversation upfront

25:44 Supply chain lessons (including tariffs)

27:06 The 5-year vision for the company

28:18 Will AI personalization reshape subscription?

29:39 Why the unboxing experience still wins

31:52 What she'd do differently if starting today

33:26 Where to find Zarina

Jen Ostrich is an executive coach, Enneagram expert, and founder of Grow Collective. After a career in advertising and brand leadership, she trained at the Hudson Institute and has spent the last decade and a half helping leaders understand the "why" behind how they think, feel, and act. She's certified in Integrative Nine (IEQ9), co-created the Shift Positive 360 feedback process, and hosts The Work of You podcast.

In this conversation, Jen walks us through why 95% of the time we're the ones in our own way, how the Enneagram opens the door to your belief system (not just your behavior), and why real leadership change happens at the belief level — not the behavioral one. We also cover transactional vs transformational coaching, the Grow Effect model, and one small practice for leaders who keep repeating the same pattern.

Find Jen: https://growcollective.us

The Work of You podcast: https://theworkofyou.com

Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search.

0:00 Intro

0:40 From advertising leadership to executive coaching

2:35 Hudson Institute: leading from behind and self-as-coach

5:38 The hardest person you'll ever lead is you

7:14 The leadership gap no one's talking about (EQ vs IQ)

8:19 Introducing the Enneagram to skeptical executives

9:30 The iceberg: behavior, personality, and the core fear underneath

13:16 Removing the "teapot lid" — when personal meets professional

18:03 What makes Integrative Nine (IEQ9) different

20:54 The Enneagram as a map for growth, not just a typing tool

22:31 The biggest misunderstanding: behavior vs motivation

24:38 How the Enneagram shapes Jen's coaching style

26:17 Sequencing the Enneagram with Shift Positive 360

27:39 Spiraling up — are we ever done growing?

32:25 Gabor Maté and the courage of public vulnerability

33:14 Why traditional 360 feedback often does more harm than good

34:39 Evaluate vs evolve: the case for strengths-based coaching

39:17 The Grow Effect model — strengths, Enneagram, then 360

43:03 What's changed in executive coaching post-COVID

45:52 Transactional vs transformational coaching (and where AI fits)

49:22 One small practice for leaders stuck in a pattern

51:24 The Hoffman Process

51:57 Where to find Jen

Fifteen years ago David Price was battling addiction, sleeping on couches, and had no car. Today he runs a thriving insurance agency and mentors hundreds of agents across the country. His path from rock bottom to building a business that grows without him is a masterclass in grit, long-term thinking, and knowing when to stop believing the lies.

Find David: youtube.com/@DavidPriceOfficial

Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search.

0:00 Intro

0:57 What drew David to insurance in his mid-30s

3:10 The three prerequisites

5:33 Resilience, grit, and a rough childhood as a business advantage

8:18 Sports as the first turning point — wrestling and building confidence

12:10 Being always the new kid and how it built social skills

15:38 Why sales was always survival for David

17:23 Introvert who leads hundreds of agents

19:57 The teacher that changed everything — Miss Krats

22:01 Ethical insurance — principles before production

24:47 Why David sells final expense life insurance

26:40 Long term decisions over short term cash grabs — lessons from recovery

31:43 Three traits that separate six figure agents from those who never break through

35:28 Scaling from solo producer to running an organization

38:14 Leads drove everything — the math equation behind agency growth

45:47 Lead flow strategy — quality over quantity and the custom lead portal

52:08 From owning a job to owning a business

55:39 Time is the real currency

57:19 What is next for the Price Group — AI powered CRM and lead innovation

59:52 Final message — find the right mentor, have the right attitude, take the right action

1:00:41 Where to find David Price

Liz Weber is a certified management consultant, executive advisor, and author ranked among the top 30 global gurus on leadership. After building a career helping founder-led and family-owned businesses navigate succession, strategy, and leadership development, she's become the person owners call when the hard decisions can't wait. In this conversation, Liz walks us through the number one mistake family businesses make with succession planning, how to hold even family members accountable to company values, and what it actually takes to transition from best producer to best leader.

Find Liz: https://youtu.be/EzDkMUmbP58

Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search.

0:00 Intro

0:49 Putting family before the role

1:10 Family business working hard for thin margins

3:18 The 7am emergency call

4:16 When company values get tested by your own son

5:53 Why accountability needs an outside voice

7:22 Top 30 global leadership guru

8:53 Imposter syndrome vs self belief

11:26 The mindset shift new leaders miss

13:00 Becoming the calm in the storm

15:15 Balancing mindset skill and strategy

17:47 The number one mistake when promoting from within

19:18 From best producer to best leverager of talent

20:18 Why cousin Rich should not get the sales role

23:59 The first lever Liz pulls when entering a company

26:51 Strategic plan as the anchor for leadership

27:44 Don't Let Them Treat You Like a Girl

32:11 Leadership outlook for 2025

37:27 One practice to lead more strategically today

38:53 Where to find Liz Weber

Veronica Deraleau is an opera singer, Army Reserve veteran, financial coach, and author of Making Money is Simple. After graduating with an MBA and staring down six figures of student debt, she applied commercial real estate underwriting techniques to her personal finances and paid it all off in three years on a starter salary.

In this conversation, Veronica walks us through her ARIA money model, the psychology of debt and shame, why outcomes-based budgeting beats cashflow management, and what opera performance training teaches about high performance under pressure.

Find Veronica: makingmoneyissimple.com

Builders & Doers is produced by Horizon Search.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

0:48 Graduating with six figures of debt

4:12 The guilt and shame cycle with money

5:12 Why personal finance feels harder than it should

7:45 Learning from high net worth real estate clients

8:49 Outcomes-based budgeting vs. cashflow management

9:40 The Money Simple method (SIMPLE framework)

11:29 Setting a 5-year target and beating it in 3

11:37 Military meets opera: singing in the Army Reserve

14:07 Stage fright, breath compression, and performance psychology

16:50 Why your average matters more than your best day

19:01 Losing and finding ourselves: unlearning bad patterns

21:05 Going down the wrong road is part of the process

25:00 Talent plus reps plus strategic application

27:57 The ARIA money model: Awaken, Reframe, Intention, Action

29:16 How coaching created clarity

32:01 The mental block of dual identities in business and art

34:15 Pattern recognition and AI disruption

38:55 Advice for entrepreneurs with low financial structure

40:45 Why data points keep you sane as a founder

42:48 Best purchase under $50

43:12 The most expensive mistake that doesn't look expensive

43:39 Renting vs. buying

44:46 Best scary financial decision

46:04 Favorite opera

46:08 Where to find Veronica

Karen Alexander, founder of XR Women and co-founder of the Academy of Immersive Arts and Sciences, joins David and Becky to explore why extended reality is approaching a tipping point in adoption. From her unconventional journey out of academia and literature into immersive technology, Karen shares where XR is being quietly adopted across enterprise, education, and healthcare, the real risks companies face, and why the limits of XR are not technological but imaginative. She also discusses the gender gap in XR entrepreneurship, the power of body swapping for empathy training, and her vision for social, creative virtual worlds.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/karenfalexander

Website: xrconnected.com

XR Women: xrwomen.com

Academy of Immersive Arts and Sciences: academyimmersive.org

0:00 - Highlights

1:03 - Karen's journey from literature to XR

3:07 - What is reality?

5:19 - Where XR is headed and the tipping point

8:55 - Risks of XR adoption

11:40 - Benefits of immersive training

15:02 - Haptics, smell, and the senses in VR

16:55 - What kids understand about XR that adults miss

18:10 - Body swapping and diversity training

21:22 - Public speaking training in VR

23:40 - Will we live in virtual worlds?

30:18 - XR Women and the gender gap

33:48 - XR in healthcare

42:24 - Dream XR experience with unlimited budget

44:10 - Where to find Karen

At 50, John Mitchell was making $200–300K a year and felt stuck. Three months later, he discovered what he calls the full secret of Think and Grow Rich, developed a 12-minute daily technique around it, and within four years had 25x'd his income.

John now teaches the Science of Success at the University of Texas (rated a top-5 business school by U.S. News), licenses his methodology to coaches, and wrote the book on it. In this conversation, we unpack the science of the conscious vs. subconscious mind, why 95% of daily actions are unconscious, and how reprogramming your autopilot changes everything from your career to your health to your relationships.

This is not a get-rich-quick pitch. It's a framework backed by neuroscience and vetted at the university level. Whether you're a coach, a founder, or someone who feels like there's more in the tank, this one's worth 44 minutes of your time.

Learn more: themissingsecret.org

0:00 – John's epiphany at 50

1:00 – Two life goals: money and love

2:00 – Discovering Think and Grow Rich

3:15 – The book only gives you half the secret

4:00 – Income starts doubling

5:00 – Teaching at the University of Texas

6:00 – How do you create success in your life?

8:00 – The two fundamental human problems

9:00 – Feeding your desired life to yourself daily

10:30 – Why effort doesn't match results

13:00 – The snowy night in Dallas that changed everything

15:00 – "I don't control the very thing that determines my success"

16:00 – The full secret revealed

17:00 – Control, confidence, and less stress

19:00 – Why willpower fails

21:30 – Conscious mind vs. subconscious mind

26:00 – Overriding the survival wiring

29:00 – Darren Hardy's advice: teach it to coaches

33:00 – The brownie story: aware vs. evaluate

36:00 – Reading vs. listening to your template

38:00 – The 2% vs. the 98%

42:00 – Holding his granddaughter and the meaning of it all

43:30 – Where to find John and a free 9-minute video

Glenn Gow has coached CEOs for decades and served as a venture-backed CEO for 25 years. In this conversation, we explore the hidden neural pathways that drive CEO behavior, why the habits that got you here won't get you there, and what it actually takes to scale yourself alongside your company.

Glenn shares how he helps leaders break through blind spots, reframe success, and build culture through storytelling. We also get into the investor-founder dynamic, AI's impact on coaching, and why the org chart of the future will have humans reporting to AI agents.

Glenn's website: glenngow.comThe Scaling CEO: youtube.com/@glenngow1015

0:00 – The blind spot every CEO has

1:10 – What are success patterns?

3:15 – Why 60% of venture-backed CEOs get fired

5:30 – Showing up with the wrong kit

6:00 – How Glenn unlocks self-awareness

7:00 – "It's always the CEO's fault"

8:30 – The Sheryl Sandberg "and that's on me" story

9:50 – Why personal change feels threatening

11:30 – 99% of what we do is hardwired

12:00 – Communication as the CEO's real job

14:10 – Reframing 97% as success, not failure

17:00 – Building culture through stories, not values posters

21:30 – Prioritization: the three things exercise

25:00 – Dopamine traps and the long arc

27:00 – AI as a threat to coaching

29:00 – Three areas every CEO should deploy AI

32:00 – Humans reporting to AI agents

35:00 – "ChatGPT is cheap. I'm expensive."

37:00 – Value vs. cost in executive coaching

39:30 – The investor-founder misalignment

42:00 – Glenn's non-negotiables for joining a board