FUEL Podcast

Brief Summary:Our podcast guest for this episode is William A. Adams, Technical Advisor to CTO at Microsoft. William shared a story of the impact of being the only black person at Microsoft for at least 15 years, and the moment he realized there was something specific he was called to do and how that vision took conviction and perseverance to see it through.Key insights from this episode: (04:07) William tells us who he is and what he cares about(06:13) William explains how he began to t...

Brief Summary:Our podcast guest for this episode is Dr. AnnMaria De Mars. She's currently president of 7 Generation Games, making educational games and the tools to make them. Also she's a seventh degree black belt in Judo and the first American to win the world championship, giving her more right than anyone else on earth to call herself a ‘coding ninja’. In our conversation today, Dr. De Mars and I discuss being a minority in tech; the little known benefits of working with family membe...

Brief Summary:Our podcast guest for this episode is Scott Levine, Founder of AEGIS Law, a non-traditional corporate M&A and ventured law firm based in St. Louis, Missouri. Scott shares the story about realizing his legal business model needed to change beyond the traditional one and how his personal evolution spurred on a decision that would translate into the 10x growth of AEGIS Law. A strikingly unique story in an industry, not known for innovation. Key insights from this episode: ...

Brief Summary:Our podcast guest for this episode is Dr. Bonnie Wilson, President & Founder of Xceeding the Mark Executive Coaching and Consulting. Bonnie shared how a seizure got her attention and how every professional can learn to align their daily choices with their own values. Listen in to our conversation. Key insights from this episode: (at 2:27) Bonnie shares her professional background and how she started as ER nurse to owning her own executive coaching company. (a...

Brief Summary:Our podcast guest for this episode is Tanya Vucetic, CEO of Blockforms. Listen in as Tanya shares her startup journey, and how her company began from zero traction to now gaining national traction in the midst of global pandemic.Key insights from this episode: (at 2:57) Tanya shares her love for travel and why she decided to move to Hong Kong.(at 6:52) Tanya tells the story of how her company Blockforms started and how the pandemic had changed their narrative.(at 12:5...

Brief Summary: Our podcast guest for this episode is Amy Huang who serves as Director of Onsite Technical Support at Marsh McLennan. Listen in as Amy, who is a champion for diversity and inclusion, discussed on this episode how someone can be supportive and lean into creating an inclusive environment at work, specifically around the LGBTQ community.Key insights from this episode: (at 3:28) Amy shares her fuel(at 7:28) Amy talks about how intersectionality plays out in her lif...

Brief summary:On this episode, I get to speak with the COO of Truss. Jen leech, a software engineer with experience at nearly every level of the stack. During this interview, Jen gives us a behind the scenes look at how burnout showed up for her a few years ago, and what she's discovered that allows her to be strategic about managing it since then.Key insights from this episode: (at 09:10) Jen notices the first signs of burnout(at 13:11) Jen and Leila discuss the challenges of iden...

Brief summary:On today's podcast, I have the privilege of speaking with Jennifer Chang, the CEO of Playform, a Khosla-backed tech startup that is applying no code AI solutions to make it possible for all creative people to create original artworks and join the NFT art movement. Jennifer also talks about her view of failure, and why she finds fear of regret so much more powerful than fear of failure. In fact, she explains the how and why of how she rewards herself for failures.Key insights fro...

Brief summary:In this episode, I'll be talking with James Brinkley II, an intellectual property attorney out of Washington, DC in the United States and the Founder and CEO of IPGen. James and I discuss making the patent process easily accessible for all, how he chooses to focus on small wins and his startup journey so far.Key insights from this episode: (at 02:06) James shares how the idea of IP Gen came about. (at 06:07) James and Leila talk about ways of celebrat...

Brief summary:In this episode of FUELPodcast, I have Scott Shute joining us. He is the Former Head of Mindfulness and Compassion Programs at LinkedIn and also the author of the new book The Full Body Yes. Listen in as he shares a big struggle he faced in his career path and how he turned the situation around.Key insights from this episode: (at 2:55) Scott talks about working at Linkedin and how we became the Head of Mindfulness and Compassion Programs of the biggest professional networki...