From Embers To Excellence™

Dr. Kolenda works with leaders who want to apply insights from history and military operations to transform their businesses. A West Point graduate, recognized combat leader, and retired Army colonel, he defied conventional wisdom in Afghanistan by motivating a large insurgent group to switch sides, the only example of such success in the 20-year history of the war. As a trusted adviser to three four-star generals and two undersecretaries of defense, he became the first American to have both fought the Taliban as a commander in combat and negotiated with them in peace talks. He holds a Ph.D. in war studies from King’s College, London, and is the author of Zero-Sum Victory: What We're Getting Wrong About War (University Press of Kentucky; October 26, 2021) and Leadership: The Warrior’s Art (Stackpole Books; Second Edition, September 20, 2021), a trusted anthology that’s been in print for over 20 years and helped tens of thousands of leaders succeed in combat and business. His unique warrior-diplomacy has been featured in New York Times bestselling books and media outlets including CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Learn more at https://strategicleadersacademy.com/

Visit https://strategicleadersacademy.com/saber-six-foundation/ to learn more about Dr. Kolenda’s non-profit organization

Carol Sanford is a consistently recognized thought leader working side by side with Fortune 500 and new economy executive teams, designing and leading systemic business change and design. She is Senior Fellow of Social Innovation, Babson College; Founder, The Regenerative Business Development Community, Change Agent Development community. Her best-selling books have 15 awards, are required reading at leading business and management schools including Harvard, Stanford, Haas Berkeley and MIT. Carol also partners with producing Executive Education through Babson College, Kaospilot in Denmark, University of Washington and The Lewis Institute at Babson. Her books are filled with case stories, from around the worldwide diversity represented.

To that end, Carol has been leading regenerative education efforts in both Fortune 500 and new economy businesses for more than 40 years. Her client list includes long-term relationships with Colgate Europe and Africa and DuPont Canada, US, Asia, and Europe. She also works with new-economy companies like Intel, Agilent, and leaders of corporate responsibility such as Seventh Generation, Numi Tea, and Guayaki. Google uses her work as a framework in the Food Innovation Lab. Carol is CEO of Carol Sanford Institute, an education company on building Regenerative Businesses that become non-displaceable in their markets, enduringly. The Carol Sanford Institute is based in the Seattle region of the Puget Sound.

She combines her economic development experience with her extensive business education and background using urban systems, psychology and learning practices. Carol has published dozens of works in 10 languages, including a series of articles in Executive Excellence, Stephen Covey’s newsletter and At Work, a Berrett-Koehler Journal. She is the author of five books with three publishers. Central to Carol’s philosophy and approach is a fresh look at what makes an organization truly regenerative. “It’s important to discover your singularity, what enables you to differentiate your business from the crowd,” she says, “and then thinking about how to do business so that communities, societies, and ecology as a whole are improved. These are not separate but interwoven pursuits. It’s completely doable, and a conversation worth having.”

She holds undergraduate degrees from UC Berkeley in Economics and Public Law and graduate degrees from California State University, San Jose in Urban Planning.

To learn more, visit: https://carolsanford.com/

Additionally, you can join Carol in making the world a better place: https://seed-communities.com/

Lindsey Pollak is a New York Times bestselling author and one of the world’s leading career and workplace experts. She was named to the 2020 Thinkers50 Radar List, which honors the top global management thinkers whose work is shaping the future of how organizations are managed and led. Lindsey’s latest book is a response to the Covid crisis: Recalculating: Navigate Your Career Through the Changing World of Work was be published by HarperCollins on March 23, 2021. Her other books include The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace, Becoming the Boss: New Rules for the Next Generation of Leaders and Getting from College to Career: Your Essential Guide to Succeeding in the Real World. Lindsey’s speaking audiences and consulting clients have included more than 250 corporations, law firms, conferences and universities. Her advice and opinions have appeared in such media outlets as The TODAY Show, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and NPR.

Visit https://lindseypollak.com/ to learn more

Victoria self-published “The Guided Heart: Moving Through Grief and Finding Spiritual Solace”. She is an Advanced Cert. Grief Recovery Specialist®, Creator & Podcast Host of Grieving Voices, Reiki Master, Cert. YouMap® Coach and End-of-Life Doula. She aims to use her strengths and skills through various offerings to help those whose lives have been upended by grief and loss go from surviving to thriving.

Whenever I interview a fellow podcaster, the conversation tends to be pretty awesome. This conversation is a great example of that. Victoria and I talk about traumas and healing in a very sincere and candid way. I share stories of loss as does Victoria. She talks about traumas she endured at different points in her life. One part of this reveals her service as a combat medic deployed to Iraq. I talk about trauma I experienced in my early life, adult life, and professional life. This conversation has the potential to resonate with so many people around the world. Please listen and share with anyone you feel would benefit.

Visit Victoria’s website to learn more her: http://www.theunleashedheart.com/

Former Special Forces and Warriors Heart Co-Founder Tom Spooner’s service to our nation in the U.S. Army spanned nearly 21 years (1990-2011). His military career included time in the 82nd Airborne, as a Green Beret in the US Army’s 7th Special Forces Group and, ultimately, in the US Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta as an Operator. Since retiring from the military in 2011, Spooner has successfully enabled thousands of warriors to acknowledge their struggles, seek treatment, and understand that they are not alone. Spooner joined forces with successful treatment providers Josh and Lisa Lannon to open Warriors Heart in 2016. Warriors Heart is the first and ONLY private and accredited residential treatment program in the U.S. that is exclusively for warriors (active-duty military, veterans, first responders and EMTs/paramedics) that helps American Warriors struggling with drug and alcohol addiction and other co-occurring issues (PTSD, mild TBI, trauma, depression and co-occurring issues). Tom speaks from the heart about personally struggling with chemical dependencies, PTSD, mild TBI and more to help others. Visit https://www.warriorsheart.com to learn more.

Sybil is a Philanthropy professional with over two decades of experience working with donors to establish best funding practices that will help them to avoid costly mistakes and instead make a true and impactful difference in the world. She has a J.D. from Lewis and Clark Law School, a Master’s Degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and a B.S. from Scripps College.

She has helped donors give away over $45 million in large and small donations throughout the course of her career. Sybil has worked with almost every type of charitable funder from smaller family foundations and public charities to individual donors.

Sybil has served on numerous boards, task forces and stakeholder groups. She also knows what it’s like to be a grantee. She worked for over ten years at environmental nonprofits prior to her work as a foundation advisor.

She shares her personal story and history that brought her to care so much about charitable giving with me. She tells her step-by-step process for helping people be effective as donors and philanthropists. Sybil talks briefly about some of the mistakes she made in the past that she is able to use to help others make better decisions. Sybil and I discuss why it feels so great to give money to worthy charities, and how to help people really feel good about their giving strategy.

What is a giving strategy? Sybil tells me all about it. To learn more about Sybil and what she does, visit her website: https://www.doyourgood.com/

Tim began his career as an Airman in the United States Air Force. He realized that he wasn’t on the path he wanted to continue on. In 2011 with no formal education and only $6,241.56, he launched his first software project. He has been a leader in the tech industry ever since.

Tim has launched hundreds of apps, developed hundreds of platforms, and directly supported other multi-million-dollar projects. He has scaled to millions of users and millions of dollars across his companies.

Tim is extremely generous with the information he shared with me and has a great sense of humor. We discuss his successes and failures. He tells me what drives him and our conversation goes deep into what success means for us both. This episode is a great one for everyone who is trying to reconfigure their mindset.

To learn more about TrueFanz, visit: https://www.truefanz.com/

To connect with Tim directly you can find him at: https://timbranyan.com/

Andrea Johnson is a certified John Maxwell Leadership Coach and a certified DISC Behavioral Analysis Consultant. Andrea helps high performing, mission minded women grow, lead and succeed, using the six tenets of Intentional Optimism. She operates a collaborative group coaching program called “Launch from The Beach.”

In Feb. 2017, Andrea’s mother finished her 15-year fight with breast cancer, and the reflective nature of grief allowed her to purposefully walk through the pain and anxiety, and emerge, as if from a crucible, holding the gem of Intentional Optimism - her personal growth plan - a comprehensive approach to Personal Growth and Leadership Training viewed through the lens of hope.

Andrea and I discuss Intentional Optimism and it’s six tenets. We talk about how women are uniquely qualified to be leaders and how Andrea defines Unconventional Leadership. This is a great conversation for both men and women to listen to. To learn more about Andrea, please visit: http://www.theintentionaloptimist.com/

Frank Forencich is an internationally recognized leader in health and performance education. He earned his BA at Stanford University in human biology and neuroscience and has over thirty years of teaching experience in martial art and health education.

Frank holds black belt rankings in karate and aikido and has traveled to Africa on several occasions to study human origins and the ancestral environment. He’s presented at numerous venues, including the Ancestral Health Symposium, Google, the Dr. Robert D. Conn Heart Conference, and the Institute of Design at Stanford University. A former columnist for Paleo Magazine, Frank is the author of numerous books about health and the human predicament. He’s a member of the Council of Elders at the MindBodyEcology Collective and a Diplomate member at The American Institute of Stress.

To connect with Frank, learn more about him, and/or purchase his books, please visit his website: https://www.exuberantanimal.com/

Maureen Ross Gemme, MS Ed., CEO of Emerge Leadership Academy, began training leaders across New England in 2015 after a 30-year corporate career. A motorcycle riding grandmother and personal growth advocate, Maureen trains and coaches leaders who want to make an impact. She is passionate about helping her clients step into their full potential and develop others on their team. As a personality expert, Maureen helps her audiences own their own gifts and embrace the differences in the diversity of others to build better relationships. After living through her teenage years as a drug addict and alcoholic, Maureen stepped into recovery and created an awesome life. She has a deep compassion for helping others to emerge, evolve and lead their best lives. This led to the creation of Maureen’s Recovery@Work program to help those who are ready. Additionally, Maureen is the host of an amazing podcast called: Emerge. Evolve. Lead.

To learn more about Maureen and to connect with her, please visit her website:

https://emergeleadershipacademy.com/