At just 20 years old, Marcus Whitney was a young father with another child on the way. He had dropped out of college, was working as a waiter and living in an efficiency hotel. But as Marcus, a now successful Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist explains, what you do when your back is against the wall makes all the difference.

Listen as we discuss:

• Overcoming poverty, depression and past trauma to become a thriving individual and successful entrepreneur.
• How success can camouflage unaddressed trauma, showing up as Marcus teaches, in the form of some dysfunctional behavior that you probably don't love about yourself.
• Marcus' book, Create and Orchestrate, an elegant and fresh business framework applicable across industries.
• Honestly evaluating the "ROI" of your educational dollars.

Marcus Whitney is a self-taught software developer, was the head of technology at Emma Email Marketing, is the co-founder and co-owner of Jumpstart Foundry, one of the most active healthcare venture capital firms in the United States; is the CEO of Health: Further, a healthcare strategic advisory firm; and is co-founder and a part-owner of the Nashville Soccer Club, Nashville, Tennessee's Major League Soccer Team.

This week, our guests are Syd and Shea McGee of Studio McGee. This power couple run and are the sole owners, no outside capital, of one of the most successful and fastest growing interior design businesses in the country.

Shea graduated from college with a degree in public relations but quickly realized that her passion was to create… she wanted to be an interior designer. Syd started his career building a startup for digital marketing but found himself unfulfilled in the mechanics of the business.

Then, the light bulb went off and Studio McGee was born.

Now, with more than 1.4 million followers on Instagram, a popular YouTube channel, a newly launched brand with Target, a new book titled Make Life Beautiful, and a Netflix show Dream Home Makeover – Syd and Shea are climbing the S curve of their dreams.

Join us as Syd and Shea share the beautiful and messy stories of building a thriving business with your significant other.

For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit:

http://www.whitneyjohnson.com/syd-shea-mcgee/

My guest this episode Kara Goldin, is the CEO and founder of Hint, Inc., a healthy lifestyle brand based in the United States, in San Francisco, California.

Kara is a textbook disruptor.

Although she never intended to be an entrepreneur, she has become just that. On a quest to improve her own health, Kara was struck with the realization that her go-to beverage, was holding her back. This realization triggered an avalanche of ideas. Kara had identified how to improve her health and she charted a mission to do the same for others. Today Hint water is the number one flavored water in the U.S., generating more than $150 million in revenue / year.

Kara started her career in sales at Time Magazine and CNN. She moved to AOL, where she served as the VP for E-Commerce and Shopping. In 2005, she founded Hint, Inc. At the time unsweetened flavored water wasn't a thing. But that's what disruption looks like–––you play where no one else is playing – and Kara does this so well.

Kara has been widely recognized as a leading entrepreneur, being named one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business; Fortune Magazine's Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, was selected as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California. And she has a new book titled Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters.

Join us as Kara shares fascinating stories about her path to becoming an unexpected entrepreneur.

For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit:

http://www.whitneyjohnson.com/kara-goldin-undaunted/

The ability to pivot well during a time of crisis is crucial. When the pandemic hit last spring spurring a global crisis, chef, entrepreneur and philanthropist Ben Shewry did this and more. At a time when many, if not most restaurants are struggling to stay in business, Ben and his team have thrived through disruption.

Since taking over Attica in Melbourne, Australia in 2005, chef Ben Shewry had earned reputation for excellence. The restaurant has made the World's 50 Best list multiple years. But Ben's mission is much deeper than cooking great food. He is a deeply compassionate and caring leader, and a trail blazer in his industry.

In this episode we discuss Ben's journey, how he came realize his dream of owning his own restaurant, the high and lows along the way and his unique approach to leadership and hiring. Join us as we learn how this creative entrepreneur is feeding disruption.

For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit:

http://www.whitneyjohnson.com/ben-shewry/

Some people wait for life to happen and then there are those who make it happen. Our guest this episode, Shelly Archambeau, is definitely the latter. Blazing trails seemingly her entire life, Shellye is one of the first African American women to be named CEO of a Silicon Valley company.

Through a combination of sheer will and the strong, guiding influence of her parents, Shellye learned to persevere through whatever life sends her way. Her parents didn't coddle her in the face of adversity, instead they asked "What are you going to do about it? Shellye answered full throttle with "I will succeed."

Shellye currently sits on several boards, including Nordstrom and Verizon. She's formerly a chief marketing officer at two public companies, began her career at IBM and has a new book out titled "Unapologetically Ambitious: Take Risks, Break Barriers and Create Success on Your Own Terms".

In today's episode, Shellye shares about her life and career – the successes, disappointments, love, family and how she became unapologetically ambitious.

For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit

http://www.whitneyjohnson.com/shellye-archambeau/

Disruption helps us grow, stretching and developing us in ways that comfort cannot. Our guest this episode, Zaza Pachulia, is a great example of this truth. He is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and former professional basketball player. Born in Georgia, when it was still part of the U.S.S.R., Zaza moved to Turkey to play basketball when he was just 14. A year later, he made the Turkish national team and became one of the youngest players ever in the Euro League. And at 19, he was drafted into the NBA.

Zaza played for Orlando Magic, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Atlanta Hawks, the Dallas Mavericks, the Golden State Warriors, and the Detroit Pistons. He was with the Warriors in 2017, 2018, when they won back to back NBA championships.

In addition to his experience as a professional athlete, he owns two hotels in his hometown of Tbilisi, Georgia, the nation's capital. He's a partner and brand ambassador for Crosti, an athletic shoe company, he's the partner of a real estate development firm, and runs the Zaza Pachulia Basketball Academy in Tbilisi for nearly a 1,000 young people from the ages of 5 to 20.

In 2019, Zaza retired from playing basketball and is now exploring the business side of the Warriors organization, searching for his next learning curve leap.

For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit

http://www.whitneyjohnson.com/zaza-pachulia

Experiencing pain and fear can shape us in good, and bad ways. We can recoil, avoiding that which inflicted the pain, or we can let it drive us to positive change. Our guest this week is a prime example of the latter. Mikaila Ulmer, through the thoughtful guidance of her parents, transformed a painful childhood experience of being stung by bees into a thriving and growing business with a purpose. And now, her product, Me & the Bees Lemonade, is sold in stores nationwide.

Mikaila appeared on Shark Tank and got buy in from Damon John, she also received an eight hundred-thousand-dollar investment from a consortium of football players. She started a nonprofit and now, has written a delightful book titled Bee Fearless.

Although Mikaila is only 15 years young, she and her family spent the last 10 years growing the business and the brand. Their efforts have brought awareness to a bee population in peril and have highlighted the importance purpose plays in organizational growth.

We are grateful to have Mikaila as our guest and we are sure you will find her as engaging as we do.

For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit

http://www.whitneyjohnson.com/mikaila-ulmer/

In business, we often talk about the value of learning from our own and other organization's mistakes, but what about learning from what is going well? What might we gain if we open ourselves up to a new way of working? If we did, could work actually be fun?

Our guest today is Pim de Morree, Co-founder of Corporate Rebels, an organization dedicated to making work more fun. In January of 2016, he and his business partner, Joost Minnaar, gave up promising careers to explore companies and organizations that were making work fun. They spent the last few years on a learning mission, gathering research by interviewing amazing companies around the world. Fortunately for us, the two have documented their discoveries in their new book, Corporate Rebels: Make work more fun.

Today, Pim shares the mission of Corporate Rebels and reveals the innovative organizations they discovered that are doing work differently.

For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit

http://www.whitneyjohnson.com/pim-demorree/

In Episode 80 of our podcast, we started a series, on our seven-point framework of personal disruption. In Episode 100, we took a deep dive into accelerant #1, take the right risks. We moved to play to your distinctive strengths in Episode 120 and then on to embrace your constraints in Episode 140. In Episode 160 we confronted battling our entitlement––the S Curve Killer. Which brings us to today, Episode 180. We are focusing in on accelerant number five, step back to grow.

This is an especially challenging point in the framework. So many of us think in linear terms. This is to be expected as it seems our entire lives are arranged sequentially. We measure time in linear terms, days, weeks, months, years – it is the undergirding framework for most of what we encounter on a day to day basis. Maybe this is why so many of us struggle to see the value in stepping back to grow. The cognitive leap it requires seems so out of step with the structure of our lives – and we ask, "How can taking a step back help move me forward?"

But studies show the power of this accelerant. At some point along your S Curve of Learning™, your growth will stall, it is inevitable, at which point the only way forward may be back. The only way up, maybe down. Join us as we unpack this powerful zig-zag approach to growth.

For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit

http://www.whitneyjohnson.com/step-back-to-grow

Most of us desire to be more intentional in our personal and professional lives. We want to steer life rather than have it steer us – but where do we start? Our guest this episode believes we start by defining our core values.

"One of the things about core values I've come to understand is I think they've been there since you were little. You just don't get the instruction manual, you know, when you're born saying, hey… here's, here's how you work." – Robert Glazer

Robert Glazer's intentional yet curious approach to life has yielded success. He is the founder and CEO of global partner marketing agency, Acceleration Partners and is the co-founder and Chairman of BrandCycle. A serial entrepreneur, Robert has a passion for helping individuals and organizations build their capacity to elevate.

A regular columnist for Forbes, Inc. and Entrepreneur, Robert's writing reaches over five million people around the globe each year who resonate with his topics, which range from performance marketing and entrepreneurship to company culture, capacity building, hiring and leadership. His leadership focused newsletter, Friday Forward, reaches over 100,000 people and fifty countries. And now, Robert has published a new book showcasing 52 of his most brilliant and impactful stories. His book, appropriately titled Friday Forward, continues to deliver on what has set his newsletter apart – insightful and compelling stories that help lead you to lasting and positive change.

For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit

http://www.whitneyjohnson.com/robert-glazer/